yrogerg123

I absolutely loved this show. I thought it was beautifully shot and flawlessly executed. The acting was superb. The tension was always high, and you could always feel the stakes for the characters. If I had any gripe with the show, it's in the attention paid to the films themselves. Somehow these strange films overpower what could be an epic thriller in an engrossing alternate history of the post-WWII world. Instead you have believable, human characters responding to unbelievable, supernatural events. While it's still interesting to watch, the show probably could have been better had it stuck with what was believable within the type of universe that any of us would inhabit, given the post-war events that transpired. Even so, I thought the show was remarkably well done, easily one of the best I've seen this year, and much better than many more popular shows. It's well worth the watch, and comfortably earned a 10/10 from me.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

I haven't looked forward to the next episode of a television show this much since Breaking Bad ended, nor have I racked my brain so much for who I know that's actually watching it, just so I have somebody to talk about it with. Somehow, it's still in obscurity, which is probably the biggest disservice to a television show since Firefly or Deadwood got cancelled. All that is to say that few shows have ever, at any point, been as good as The Americans is right now. Episode 7 might have been the best episode of the entire season. Every single episode, events conspire and the stakes get higher. Every episode, characters are pushed to their breaking points. But none of it seems contrived. It seems like what it would be like to be undercover, but completely, utterly undercover. Not in the FBI or police sense, when you know you have to look forward to actual freedom at the end, but in the sense that for Philip and Elizabeth, this is just their life, and there's never an escape, not for even a night. The relationship between Philip and Elizabeth is the best I've ever seen depicted on television. I can't even imagine better. It's amazing the way they can disagree on everything, about topics that could tear a marriage apart, but that at the end of the day, the only person they could ever turn to is the other. Nobody in the world could possibly understand what their life is actually like. You can see when they're putting on a brave face for the other, and you can see when they just can't pretend anymore, that they need somewhere, and someone, to just be honest with, and for each of them, there is only one other person they can do that with. It wasn't always the case, but as things get crazier and the moral questions become more real, they just grow closer and closer, even though the issue of what to do with their daughter drives a wedge deeper and deeper between them. I feel like an evangelist or something, where late every week and into the weekend, I just want to find out from everybody I know whether they're watching this show yet. I would say that the first two seasons were very, very good, and probably in the 9 to 10 range out of 10. But now, the show is at another level. When I finish an episode, all I want to do is watch the next one, and I think about each episode for hours after I watch it. It's haunting in a way that no show has been since Breaking Bad. There are other entertaining shows on television, but in the medium's history, very few could stand alone as true works of art. I honestly think The Americans might be one of them. If you've never seen this show, please do yourself a favor and give it a try. I truly feel like this is the next Breaking Bad and nobody is talking about it, sacrilegious as that may sound.

Honestly, I would have given most seasons of Community a 10, and even the odd season with Harmon was still charming in its own way, considering how close the characters had grown and the obvious chemistry between the actors. But this feels different, somehow. Disjointed I think is the right word. It reminds me of the growing pains that a comedy goes through in the first season, without any of the energy. And this is coming from somebody who absolutely loves this show. I'm willing to put up with every ounce of craziness Community has to offer, but the lack of energy and confidence is concerning. I hope Community ends up as good as it was even last season, but losing Troy in particular really hurts. Troy and Abed could carry a whole season in the way that few television characters can. Without that dynamic, and with the show still searching for what it's really going to be now, it just makes for an awkward viewing experience. Usually the great thing about shows you love is that you don't have to see the growing pains anymore. I think of shows like New Girl or Workaholics, and it doesn't matter what the characters are doing or whether the plots are idiotic, you just like watching the characters be themselves. Community used to feel like that, but it doesn't anymore, and that's the difference. That said, I'm responding to the first two episodes of the season, and there's plenty of room for improvement. I'll definitely keep watching just to see how everything plays out. It takes more than a couple bad episodes to give up on a show like this.

Breaking Bad Season 4 gets a full 10 out of 10, but that doesn't really do it justice. This might be the best season of television ever. Not an exaggeration, it is just that good. The writers' patience and interest in pacing might be the most striking part of the whole series, and what really sets it apart. There is no need to rush from plot point to plot point, the focus instead is on the characters' reactions to even the most mundane moments in life as they respond to the jarring things that have happened to them. This is a dark show that deals with trauma in a very measured, realistic, and believable way. Unlike a show like 24 (not hating, just an example), a character shoots somebody and then spends half of a season slowly coming to grips with they have done. Breaking Bad brings television to whole new level, which is not something that many shows can actually say.

I gave this season a 3 out of 10, and I easily could have gone lower. I have watched every episode of Weeds, but half way through the 12th episode of this season I bowed out. During every episode of this season, I asked the same question: why am I still watching this? I never had an answer other than loyalty, but at some point that's not good enough. Where do I start with this? The last season (season 6) was quite good, but ended in an extremely precarious place, where you had to wonder where they were going with the show. As it turned out, they should have ended it right there. I don't want to spoil too much (though to be honest there's nothing to spoil, because nothing of consequence ever happens if you don't care about the characters), but I'll go through some things I find particularly abhorrent. Shane is now a psychopath. Sort of. Mostly, he just manipulates people and then smiles like an idiot afterwards. The show has started to focus on him way more, which is not a good thing because he is a terrible character played by a mediocre actor who cannot carry a scene. Unfortunately, that doesn't stop them from trying. I never really noticed before because of how much the show focused on everybody else. It should have stayed that way. Nancy is a full blown crazy person who has gone completely off the deep end. Before, it seemed like there was a method and purpose to her madness. Now she just walks around with a "this is not somebody who can function in society" grin on her face. There is no longer anything likable about Nancy, which I never would have believed if you told me that four seasons ago. And it's not like her character is harder or more serious. She's actually more loopy, which makes no sense considering she just spent three years in prison (not really a spoiler, what did you expect to happen after season 6 ended?). Andy is a good, likable character, but he has taken a back seat to everybody else and generally just whines about not getting any respect, which hasn't changed, only now he has no real redeeming qualities. Silas is really the only character in the show I find myself caring about, but not enough to make the whole mess worth watching. I realize that it was hard to come back from last season with a coherent story that made sense in the context of everything that happened previously. But that is no excuse for failure.I find it frankly baffling that this season and Wilfred have the same metascore and user score. There is no comparing the two. Wilfred is a smart show that doesn't pretend to be more than it is, but the acting is tight, the writing is solid, and the characters are likable. I would be lying to your face if I said the same thing about Weeds season 7. It was terrible.