House of Cards - The Second Season

Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright of House of Cards

It’s funny how a readjustment of expectations can drastically alter your enjoyment of a TV viewing experience. When House of Cards debuted its entire first season on Netflix in February 2013, the political series was being hailed as TV’s next great drama and a brand-definer; Netflix’s version of The Sopranos. The cast featured two-time Oscar winner Kevin Spacey, movie star Robin Wright, American Horror Story’s Kate Mara and a whole host of underrated character actors. Not only that, the talent extended beyond the cast to the directors and producers, with people like David Fincher and James Foley. As such, there were huge expectations going into House of Cards in season 1 that it was bound to be hailed as a disappointment if it were anything less than perfect. While much of the response was positive, there was still a huge group of TV critics who considered it nothing special, a show that might not even succeed if it were on television proper. I considered myself among this group of critics sorely disappointed by the show’s many flaws. Regardless, the show garnered a number of Emmy nominations, a win for Fincher’s directing, and a key level of buzz to help build anticipation for season 2. Knowing that the show was nothing special, I watched the second season with an entirely different framework — that of a ridiculous, campy, plot twisty political soap opera — and I surprisingly found myself enjoying House of Cards a lot more.

Breaking Bad - Episode 5.11 - "Confessions"

Walt (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse (Aaron Paul)                        Ursula Coyote/AMC

     Confessions can be incredibly difficult. So many of these characters have kept things from each other since the beginning of Breaking Bad, afraid of the consequences that might rain down on them if they were to tell the whole truth. The entire premise behind Breaking Bad is that a meek chemistry teacher turns to a life of crime to help pay his bills after being diagnosed with cancer. By its very nature, the central character of the show must keep his cards close to his vest. This is why "Confessions", the third of eight final episodes of the AMC drama, feels like such a relief after everything these characters have gone through. Jesse's confessing to Walt, Saul's confessing to Jesse, Todd's confessing to his uncle and Walt's creating a manipulative story that masquerades as a confession to the police. While some are bragging about their past actions (Todd), others are just trying to salvage what little good will they have left (Jesse, Saul). There is a cathartic moment for each of these characters in "Confessions", and it's fascinating to watch.

Breaking Bad - Episode 5.10 - "Buried"

Skyler (Anna Gunn) and Hank (Dean Norris)                                                    AMC

     Oh, Skyler. You've gotten so much unwarranted hate on the Internet over the past few years, of no fault of your own. All you've tried to do was protect your family against the person who's supposed to protect your family, and thus far you've succeeded. Unfortunately, you've decided it best to break bad like your sociopathic husband and his partner-in-crime. The Skyler we see in this episode is not entirely out of character, but her behavior is shockingly disappointing. Early in "Buried," the second of the final eight episodes in Breaking Bad's final season, Hank calls Skyler and informs her that they need to talk. Paralyzed with fear, she enters a diner and sits down with Hank to hear what he has to say. He tells her to speak into a microphone and reveal everything she knows about Walt's criminal life, starting from the very beginning. Many emotions flash across Skyler's face as she contemplates her next move. She chooses to remain silent before boastfully shouting, "Am I under arrest?!" over and over to provide a distraction as she exits the diner. From this action, Skyler has decided to protect Walt, but she has also chosen to protect herself above all else. With this, Skyler has joined Walt in breaking bad, feeling that there is no way of turning back.

Breaking Bad - Episode 5.09 - "Blood Money"

Walt (Bryan Cranston) in Breaking Bad                                      Ursula Coyote/AMC

     Few shows get the luxury of truly going out on top. Even the most classic shows get cancelled too soon (Arrested Development, Firefly, Twin Peaks) or they chug along way past their prime (The Office, Roseanne, The Simpsons). With the help of Netflix and the binge-watching phenomenon, Breaking Bad has become one of those few shows ending at the right time while also having its biggest audience ever. With the record-breaking 5.9 million viewers who watched the premiere of season 5B, Breaking Bad has broken through the culture in a major way. Vince Gilligan and company likely felt a lot of pressure to really deliver for the show's last eight episodes, but you wouldn't know it, given the quality of the premiere. Titled "Blood Money", the premiere episode of season 5B features many of those explosive moments that have turned the show into a mainstream hit while also featuring the understated character moments that made it more than just a modern-day pulp classic.

Mad Men - Episode 6.13 - "In Care Of"

Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss)                                                                                            Jamie Trueblood/AMC

     I don't know why I ever doubted this show.  Maybe it's because most of this season has felt either meandering or repetitive.  Maybe it's because I went into this finale assuming it wouldn't resolve anything and leave me unsatisfied, like season 4's "Tomorrowland" and season 5's "The Phantom".  I was pleasantly surprised that "In Care Of" hearkened back to the classic Mad Men finales of the first three seasons that genuinely felt like the climax and resolution of their respective seasons.  Suffice it to say, "In Care Of" really feels like a finale.  Pete finally finds some version of happiness, even if it wasn't what he expected or intended, Don strives to make a change for the better and Peggy finally ends up in the position we were all hoping for since the series began.  In many ways, this could've been a proper series finale, since almost every character gets a resolution, but fortunately we have one more season to watch these characters as they finally transition into the 1970s.  Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves here, though...

Mad Men - Episode 6.12 - "The Quality of Mercy"

Peggy (Elisabeth Moss) and Ted (Kevin Rahm)                                                              Jessica Brooks/AMC

     Mad Men seems to be fully embracing its inner soap opera this season and more often than not, it hasn't worked well for the show.  Soaps are infamous for their glacial pacing, coincidental encounters and over-the-top melodrama, and all three of those elements have been present in Mad Men's sixth season.  Characters like Don and Roger haven't changed at all, there was an all-too-convenient merger that placed Peggy back with her co-workers after barely a season apart and the overbearing, unsubtle death motif has weighed down on the show.  Sometimes, though, soap operas can feature some of the most compelling character moments in narrative storytelling, and that's how "The Quality of Mercy" felt.  The amount of tension in this episode through both dialogue and lack thereof made this one of the most compelling of the season.  What I liked is that the characters featured in this episode either went too far, said too much or tried to put a stop to either of those things.  Peggy and Ted's work flirtation finally reaches unbearable status to everyone around them, Don takes advantage of a dead man to help salvage an account and the continued mystery of Bob Benson causes Pete to invest himself too deep.

Mad Men - Episode 6.11 - "Favors"

Julie (Cameron Protzman) and Sally (Kiernan Shipka)                                            Jamie Trueblood/AMC

     Just when I thought I was out, they kinda, sorta pulled me back in.  That's how I felt by the end of Mad Men's 11th episode of the season, "Favors".  It's hard to imagine that this season is almost over when it feels like nothing has really happened, aside from Don's continued downward spiral and the merger of SCDP and CGC.  What I liked about this episode in particular, however, is that it felt like new things were happening in ways that will eventually lead to a satisfying finale.  Don has finally been caught cheating on Megan, and unfortunately the person who caught him was Sally, who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.  There is even more conflict at the office with Ted, Jim Cutler, Don and Roger with the men fighting for different accounts.  We even get to learn a little bit about Ted's life at home.  But perhaps most importantly of all, there is more character development on Bob Benson!  The development involves Pete in a way that some had already guessed based on earlier episodes' clues, but it was still interesting to see.  "Favors" represents people doing things for people under the guise of "just doing a favor" while really attempting to feed their own selfish desires.

Game of Thrones - Episode 3.10 - "Mhysa"

Stannis (Stephen Dillane) and Melisandre (Carice van Houton)                                                           HBO

     Much like cable dramas past and present, Game of Thrones presents its penultimate episode of each season as the main climax and its finale as a reprieve from the all the dramatic fireworks.  After the horrific events of last week's "The Rains of Castamere", the events featured in "Mhysa" felt like small potatoes in comparison.  Fans who were expecting a big, dramatic finale were probably disappointed by the lack of major events.  A lesser show would have tried to top the madness of last week's ending with dramatic confrontations and a teasing cliffhanger, but Game of Thrones is not a typical story.  There's a reason the show spends much of its time with characters talking to each other for long periods of time.  Through these dialogues, there is complex character development that is rare of big fantasy dramas of this nature.  "Mhysa" also continues the trend of previewing what's to come for the show.  It seems that the White Walkers will become a bigger threat than the deadly game of thrones the characters have been playing since the first season.  Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves, though.  There were still some intriguing developments, especially with the dysfunctional Lannisters and the Stannis/Melisandre/Davos relationship.

Mad Men - Episode 6.10 - "A Tale of Two Cities"

Joan (Christina Hendricks) awaits her fate                             Michael Yarish/AMC

     Through the duration of "A Tale of Two Cities", characters concern themselves with business, and the pleasure or pain that goes along with it.  It is an episode that features characters like Joan trying to jockey for more power within the company while characters like Roger continue to abuse their power through "business" trips.  Unfortunately, this is one of the only compelling parts of "A Tale of Two Cities", an episode that shows how Mad Men has begun to lean on the "look how crazy/different people were in the '60s!" crutch and expecting it to be enough of a story.  The episode begins with Don watching the Democratic National Convention on television, one of many scenes in "A Tale of Two Cities" (in addition to the entire sixth season) that involves a character watching TV with a blank expression on their face.  Don's blank expression matched exactly how I felt watching this particular episode of Mad Men.  There's only so much that can be gained from watching a show involving characters watching TV.  Additionally, the episode features an uncharacteristically stereotypical view of what the '60s were (hippies smoking pot! sexism! accusations of fascism!) that it almost feels like a modern-day high schooler's take on what they thought the '60s were, based solely on Jimi Hendrix records and a casual glance at a history book.

Game of Thrones - Episode 3.09 - "The Rains of Castamere"

Robb (Richard Madden) & Catelyn Stark (Michelle Fairley)                                                                      HBO

     "If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention."  Theon's torturer says this line in "The Climb" and it might as well have been said directly into the camera at the millions of viewers expecting good to ultimately conquer over evil.  Game of Thrones isn't that show.  It's brutal, it's merciless and it has no problem killing off its most beloved characters.  Sure, there are victorious moments, and honor and loyalty does win out sometimes, but not often.  Once in a while, the show goes to some of the darkest depths television has ever seen.  Such is the case for "The Rains of Castamere", the ninth episode in Game of Thrones third season.  Traditionally, Episode 9 serves as the climax of each season of Game of Thrones.  Going into "The Rains of Castamere", I assumed that such a climax would occur and actively prepared to be shocked and amazed as I read Twitter comments from book readers warning viewers about what was to come.  Luckily, I was one of the few who remained unspoiled about the episode's final moments.  Colloquially described as "The Red Wedding" by those who have read the books, the final scene is one of the most gruesome moments in television history, a bleak reminder of how ugly humanity can be to each other.

Mad Men - Episode 6.09 - "The Better Half"

Betty (January Jones)                   Michael Yarish/AMC

     Not gonna lie, this one felt like the good ole days.  Thus far into Mad Men's sixth season, many of the episodes have felt completely random and purposeless, namely last week's "The Crash" in addition to early episodes "Collaborators" and "To Have and to Hold".  Now I think we're finally back to the Mad Men we all know and love, one that simply features our favorite characters bouncing dialogue off each other while also surprising us at the same time.  "The Better Half" is an exercise in demonstrating what happens when we cling to the past for comfort and security above all else.  After all, these are rapidly changing times, especially for a group of characters that aren't used to seeing such upheaval.  In this episode, we see characters like Don, Betty, Pete and Peggy trying to find comfort in other people, to the extent that they start to take advantage of the people or things they once loved.  They largely do it to give themselves assurance that they're okay.  That version of safety may be through the reigniting of an old flame, a former co-worker promising better opportunity elsewhere or a simple friendship.  

Arrested Development - The Fourth Season

Cast of Arrested Development                                                                Netflix

     When it became clear in 2006 that Fox was going to burn off the last four episodes of Arrested Development's third season in direct opposition with the Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony on NBC, fans were understandably outraged.  The comedy was never a big hit with the mainstream audience, though with running gags that required the viewer to watch every episode to understand and an intricate, intelligent plotline running throughout, it could be argued that mainstream America was never going to catch on to the show.  The show developed a cult following of loyal viewers who would watch the show live even if it aired against the Super Bowl.  This rabid fanbase gradually grew bigger and stronger after the show's cancellation through DVD sales in addition to general word-of-mouth.  Most agreed that the show was canceled too soon.  The show's writers and directors especially agreed, as seen in the epilogue of the presumed final episode, with the show's narrator Ron Howard appearing onscreen for a bit of meta-commentary: "I don't see it as a series. Maybe a movie."  

Mad Men - Episode 6.08 - "The Crash"

Cutler (Harry Hamlin) and Stan (Jay R. Ferguson) race through the office           Jordin Althaus/AMC

     Every season of Mad Men, there is an episode that diverges from the show's usual traditional, slow-burn storytelling.  These episodes are usually experimental in ways that feel innovative, such as "The Suitcase" from season four, which only features Don and Peggy as they stay up all night to finish an ad copy, or they can feel slightly self-indulgent, such as season two's "The Jet Set", otherwise known as the disjointed "Don visits California" episode.  As soon as the first scene of "The Crash" was over, featuring Ken Cosgrove getting into a car accident, I knew this was going to be one of THOSE episodes. This unfortunately fell into the "self-indulgent" category of experimental episodes with director Michael Uppendahl and writers Matt Weiner and Jason Grote ultimately choosing style over substance. 

Game of Thrones - Episode 3.08 - "Second Sons"

Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) weds Sansa (Sophie Turner)                                                                         HBO

     One of the biggest problems facing Game of Thrones has been juggling the ever-expanding cast of characters.  I've noted in previous reviews that the show can sometimes feel very scattershot as it struggles to cover storylines in eight or nine different locations.  Once in a while, though, the show zeroes in on two or three storylines during the course of the hour.  This gives the actors more to do than their usual five minutes of screentime and allows for a complete story to be told within the episode.  Such is the case with "Second Sons", the eighth episode in Game of Thrones' up-and-down third season.  The episode limits its attention to only three locations (with bookends from two others), spending several scenes in King's Landing, at Dragonstone and across the Narrow Sea.

Mad Men - Episode 6.07 - "Man With a Plan"

Michael Yarish/AMC

     Ah, the big merger episode.  The aftermath of last episode's impromptu merge between SCDP and CGC has resulted in an episode that almost feels like the start of yet another new show.  At the same time, though, characters repeat their histories in such a way that shows how very few of them ever change.  Don desperately clings to his sexual prowess to cover up the emptiness inside him.  Joan bolsters some regained confidence upon greeting the CGC employees and giving them a tour, but she also tries to hide her weaknesses away where no one can see them.  These characters have relied on putting certain traits on display in order to get what they want, and they're aware of those traits.  What they don't realize, however, is that they're repeating history over and over and expecting to be happy from this process.  Much of this episode feels like familiar ground for the show, with many characters continuing to live their lives as they always have by walking and talking the same way, but it feels different now.  Don is a lot less clever, Joan is less put-together and Pete feels even more pathetic.  It's a testament to the show's willingness to risk alienating viewers that it's showing the gradual, subtle destruction of these highly flawed individuals.

Game of Thrones - Episode 3.07 - "The Bear and the Maiden Fair"

HBO

     "The Bear and the Maiden Fair" is another episode features such a high number of storylines that its focus is very scattershot.  Covering nine separate storylines, this episode serves as a transition point from where the characters were to where the characters need to be.  Despite a relative lack of action, many of the storylines are compelling enough to make this a strong precursor into the events to come.  Much of the quality can be attributed to George R. R. Martin, who wrote the novels for which this series was adapted from.  Martin traditionally writes one Thrones episode per season, and they usually tackle some of the most interesting parts of the novels.  "The Pointy End" in Season One covers the aftermath of Ned Stark being captured and accused of treason.  Season Two's "Blackwater" covers one of the biggest battle scenes in the novels.  "The Bear and the Maiden Fair" doesn't have any huge, memorable moments aside from Brienne and Jaime's fight with the bear, but that doesn't seem like an event that will change the course of the series like the previous two Martin-penned episodes.  It's a curious episode for Martin to write, but it's one that surely contributes to a solid third season.

Mad Men - Episode 6.06 - "For Immediate Release"

Michael Yarish/AMC

     Holy cow.  For those complaining about a lack of plot developments thus far in the season, this episode more than makes up for this season's slower-than-usual pace.  Matthew Weiner wrote this one alone, and it almost feels like a response to fan complaints, despite the episode being written before the airing of the season's first episode.  Characters yell at each other, they cheat, they come together, and in some cases they fall, both literally and figuratively.  There is also more of a focus on the agency itself than individual character moments but I don't think Weiner is quite as good at the workplace drama version of the show compared to the character study version seen so often in the show's best episodes.   That's not to say that this episode isn't expertly done.  In fact, this is one of the best "work" episodes in a very long time, especially in how it tackles the themes of acting on impulse and the ramifications of those actions.

Game of Thrones - Episode 3.06 - "The Climb"

HBO

     The title of this episode could very well be an alternate title for the show itself.  "The Climb" represents so many of the series' conflicts, with each character trying to climb their way to the Iron Throne, climb to prove that they can, climb to tear each other down, or simply climb to survive.  Near the end of the episode, Littlefinger sums up this desire to climb as the only thing that truly matters in their world.  It's easy to dismiss his comments as true of only a few power-hungry vultures, but ultimately it is the idea of the climb that gives people a reason to live.  After all, Robb and Catelyn hope to be victorious in war so they can take vengeance for the death of Ned.  Jon Snow hopes to gain acceptance from a group of people that values him, even if it means building favor from the ground up.  The various members of King's Landing hope to either ascend to the Iron Throne or keep the power they already have.  This episode expertly shows the price these characters have to pay for their respective climbs.

Mad Men - Episode 6.05 - "The Flood"

Michael Yarish/AMC

     Halfway through this episode, Michael Ginsberg's father tells his son the story of Noah's Ark in relation to weathering the overwhelming flood life can be sometimes.  It seems that he might have the most realistic, honest approaches to one of the most memorable events of the '60s: the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  The moments in which our characters learn of this are completely unexpected, both for them and for viewers.  The reactions afterwards of the white characters is a fascinating mix of white guilt and forced sympathy towards their black co-workers, rendering the situation even more uncomfortable.  One of the more interesting aspects of this episode is how different if felt from the JFK assassination episode "The Grown-Ups" in Season 3.  That episode featured many of the main characters glued to the television set, feeling that their lives were forever changed.  With "The Flood", the copywriters of SCDP, Peggy, Betty, Henry and even the kids are in their own worlds; they reside outside (or above) the riots going on in the streets, so it's hard for them to feel truly affected by the civil rights leader's assassination.

Game of Thrones - Episode 3.05 - "Kissed by Fire"

HBO

     After 24 intricately constructed episodes, "Kissed by Fire" may be Game of Thrones' best edited episode yet.  With significant advancements in plot from each storyline, this felt like a real turning point in the series, allowing it to move forward to the second half of the season.  Many things are revealed in this episode, including Stannis' wife and daughter, the real story of how Jaime Lannister became the Kingslayer and the true powers of the Lord of Light, and that's not even counting the amount of nakedness on display.  In fact, this episode had a curious fascination with putting its characters in very "revealing" situations, their physical openness matching their emotional openness to another person.  Another motif of this episode is fire and heat.  Not only is "fire" in the episode's title but the two demonstrate natural power over so many of these characters that it shows why George R. R. Martin named his book series A Song of Ice and Fire.  This episode may not have featured fire-breathing dragons or the slaughter of multiple men but the amount of great character moments provided for a compelling forward-moving motion that sustained throughout.