The Normal Heart, Redux

This past weekend, I went to see The Normal Heart after seeing it last month in previews. From the looks of it, they didn't make any big changes now that the show is out of previews, but I did notice that some scenes felt a bit more visceral. Now whether or not that is because the actors are performing it differently or me just having a better understanding of the whole play, I really don't know, but what I do know is that the play didn't lose any of the heart and passion that bowled me over the first time I saw it. One of the great things though was to see Larry Kramer himself outside the theater after the play ended.

The Normal Heart has been getting rave reviews upon rave reviews since it came out. Ben Brantley over at the New York Times notes that "by the play's end even people who think they have no patience for polemical theater may find their resistance has melted into tears." Hollywood Reporter writer David Rooney remarks how "its trenchancy and impassioned urgency reach out and grab you by the throat with the force of an explosive new work." Marilyn Stasio of Variety says the play works "because it has the power to move and disturb us." And finally, Robert Berg calls the new revival "the most important production Broadway has seen in years." (Click here for a few more reviews)

The play was recently nominated for 5 Tony Awards--Best Revival of a Play, Best Direction of a Play, and acting nominations for Joe Mantello, John Benjamin Hickey, and Ellen Barkin. It also picked up 3 Drama League Awards nominations and 2 Outer Critics Circle nominations, winning Best Play Revival for both. The ensemble was also given a special award during the Drama Desk Awards. Check out the video below to see its opening night:


If you're in New York City, definitely check out this great play which has a limited run through July 10. Buy tickets now.

TV Report: 5/16-5/20

Finales galore! This past week so many of my shows ended, I don't even know how many I have to talk about next week. For the most part though, there were some great finales with a few meh-okay ones in their midst. So without further a due...

HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER - It wasn't one of the show's stronger finales, but it was solid. I think I would've been more impressed if I hadn't predicted Lily was getting sick due to being pregnant. Lots of Barney/Robin in the episode which is probably setting up the big arc for next season especially since Nora is reintroduced and we find out that Barney is the groom. I thought the Arcadia/Zoey stuff ended last episode, but I guess not. Let's us never speak of them. Overall, a good season, mostly due to the father storylines of Marshall and Barney.

CASTLE - Was that a harrowing season finale or what? With people not being who they say they were and then dying, I felt I was watching a Joss Whedon-penned episode. Stana Katic was fantastic shouldering most of the emotions and action in the episode. Her blowup with Castle in her apartment and then breakdown outside the hangar are two of my favorite scenes. With all that said, RIP Captain Roy Montgomery. That was brutal. Oh and I have mixed feelings about shooting Beckett in the end. She's going to be alive obviously, but now what? Will she develop amnesia and forget Castle told her he loves her? Will she be on leave for an extended time? Just felt we really didn't need that ending.

GLEE - I knew a female castmember was going to die and I had predicted it was going to be Sue's sister Jean since a Sue-centric episode was due and with next week's NYC finale, I'm guessing Sue isn't going to be much of a factor there. With that said, how very sad. I definitely teared up at the funeral, both with the words Sue wrote and with the performance the kids gave. Now Sue seems to have (yet again) buried the hatchet with the Glee Club, so I hope this time it sticks especially since her humanizing influence of Jean is now gone. An even more cartoonish Sue for next year is NOT what we need even if she is running for political office. The rest of the episode was American Idol redux or dealing with the love triangle that I never gave a damn about. So there it is.

THE GOOD WIFE - When a show leaves me breathless before the first commercial break, I know it's going to be good and this episode wasn't any different. I tend to love the "fighting the clock" cases since it promotes teamwork and that is exactly what Kalinda and Alicia needed to at least learn how to work with one another because together they are AWESOME. Throughout the episode we get bits and pieces of some of the things we can look forward to next year such as the Cary/Peter alliance, Eli working within Lockart & Gardner, Jackie bonding with Owen, and of course whatever the fallout is to Will and Alicia giving in to "one hour" of good timing. Now I'm not a big Will/Alicia fan, but that whole end sequence with the elevator was beautifully done. I miss this show already.

MODERN FAMILY - Hilarious and heartfelt, which is pretty much the show's motto right? While the whole Botox thing and the Pritchetts laughing at other people's expense were good, it was Phil and Claire who stole the show as Phil tried Claire to breakdown and then in the process breaking both of them down. Seeing them both roll down the hill hurt my sides. Have also been loving the Alex/Haley interactions throughout the season and Haley giving Alex advise on her harsh valedictorian speech was a nice touch. It felt like a season finale, but we still have one more episode to go!

COUGAR TOWN - This episode pretty much had everything I loved about the show. We got lots of Penny Can with special guest star Lou Diamond Phillips hawking the game. We got Ellie and Grayson being their weird self duking it out with some Children of the Corn-esque "chalk children." And of course we got the complicated and totally unhealthy relationship between Jules and Travis. Jules trying tough love gave the expected result of Travis coming out on top. But really I just can't get the image of Grayson giving his best Travis impression and Jules getting so turned on and making out with him our of my head. ACK! WEIRD! FUNNY!

HAPPY ENDINGS - Clearly these episodes are shown out of order as they probably were to be slated as the second and third episodes of the series. With that said, I'm okay with this decision since the episode they showed right after the pilot hooked me and I'm not 100% sure either of these episode would've. I mean they were still funny, but are they funny because I'm now attached to these characters? I wish I knew the answer to that. Still looking forward to seeing how a full season of this show looks like when it comes back next year.

BIG BANG THEORY - Not sure if putting Penny and Raj together is genius, desperate, or both, but I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what this means for the group next season. Apart from that I'm just hoping that Bernadette and Amy are back again, because their addition to the cast has been my favorite thing this season. So I liked this finale, but I could've done without Howard's manxiety at having a more successful girlfriend. It just makes me feel like I'm watching a Chuck Lorre show or something. Oh wait...

PARKS & RECREATION - This is probably the show I'm going to miss most of all during summer hiatus as it has been on fire all season giving us not one single weak episode from the bunch. These last two saw Ben/Leslie trying to keep their relationship a secret from her mom and from everyone else they work with. It all came to a head at Lil Sebastian's memorial service (RIP buddy) when Ron got his facial hair singe by the fire. HILARIOUS. Of course Leslie getting approached for a possible run for mayor is just yet another wrinkle to this ridiculously sweet relationship and I'm going to be dying every day until this show is back in my life. Now to listen to "5,000 Candles in the Wind" by Mouse Rat for the 100th time.

THE OFFICE - The episode was a mixed bag to me. It was nice seeing all of these big stars try and audition for the void left by Steve Carrell, but overall it just felt lacking. I guess that was the point since we're supposed to go into the fall not knowing who will take over, but instead of this rush of anticipation, I'm just left feeling largely ambivalent about the whole thing. With that said, it was awesome seeing Catherine Tate on American TV and I wouldn't mind seeing her again. Hint hint.

SUPERNATURAL - A mostly disappointing season for me comes to a close with a somewhat lackluster two-hour finale. First what was Dean thinking with the whole Ben and Lisa thing? So Dean wipes their memory of him? HOW WILL THAT HELP THEM? Demons and angels can STILL use them as leverage against Dean and they're now in even more trouble since THEY DON'T KNOW WHAT'S COMING FOR THEM. Typical "act first think later" Winchester trait. And even though we actually got some nice Castiel scenes especially with Raphael and Crowley, the whole Sam walkabout parts of the episode felt like a cheap out. I mean how did Sam withstand the memories of hell? He seemed hunky dory by the end of the episode. Really Castiel saved the finale for me. God!Castiel is probably my second favorite to Drunk!Castiel. Now, I've heard the rumors for next season. Don't mess with him, show. I mean it.

French Open Preview

So the world didn't end this weekend, which is not only fantastic news for, well everyone, but also for us tennis fans because Sunday marks the beginning of the French Open, the second tennis Grand Slam tournament of the year. Since I don't have time to do my usual draw analysis, here are my scattered thoughts for both the men and women instead.


The main story for the men this whole season has been the absolute dominance of 2nd seed Novak Djokovic. Undefeated this year, he has won 7 titles and shows no sign of slowing down. Defending champion and 1st seed Rafael Nadal is still the favorite, but the fact that Djokovic beat Nadal four straight times this year including twice on Nadal's beloved clay makes the whole thing just a bit more interesting. And even though 3rd seed Roger Federer is a former champion, his form and his chances here at least compared to Nadal and Djokovic aren't so good. Then again he IS the last person to defeat Djokovic (at last year's year-end championships). Then there's 4th seed Andy Murray who is slowly coming out of his post-Australian Open funk fighting Djokovic on clay this year closer than anyone else has.

Fifth seed Robin Soderling has reached the French Open finals two times in a row beating the defending champion en route each time. We doubt he'll do it a third time, but weirder things have happened. Other names to watch out for include David Ferrer (always a threat to test our your endurance), Richard Gasquet (beat Federer recently on clay), Milos Roanic (newcomer of the year, no?), and Juan Martin Del Potro (comeback of the year, no?).

Quarterfinals
Rafael Nadal d. Robin Soderling
Nicolas Almagro d. Andy Murray
Roger Federer d. David Ferrer
Novak Djokovic d. Mikhail Youzhny

Semifinals
Rafael Nadael d. Nicolas Almagro
Novak Djokovic d. Roger Federer

Finals
Rafael Nadal d. Novak Djokovic


With Justine Henin retired and the Williams sisters injured, the big story here is that anyone, I repeat, ANYONE can win this thing. The one who seems to be a few people's favorite is 2-time French Open finalist and 2nd seed Kim Clijsters even though she's injured and hasn't played competitively in two months. Top seed Caroline Wozniacki should see this as yet another golden opportunity to win that maiden slam especially since she has probably been the most consistent player on the tour this year. Defending champion and 5th seed Francesca Schiavone should not be counted out (remember her implausible dream run last year?), but she really hasn't been the same player since. Then there's 7th seed Maria Sharopova who is one of the very few multi-Grand Slam champions on the list and with her recent successes in clay, you never know. She could win the career Grand Slam.

Third and fourth seeds Vera Zvonareva and Victoria Azarenka can most definitely claim the championship, but they're their worst enemies. Then again this pretty much goes for a whole slew of players such as Li Na (have struggled recently, but always a threat in slams) and Sam Stosur (she was last year's finalist!) as well former champions Svetlana Kuznetsova and Ana Ivanovic who both possess the talent obviously, but recently not the self-belief to win. All I really have to say is, Elena Dementieva surely retired from the game one year too early didn't she?

Quarterfinals
Caroline Wozniacki d. Samantha Stosur
Vera Zvonareva d. Francescha Schiavone
Victoria Azarenka d. Petra Kvitova
Kim Clijsters d. Maria Sharapova

Semifinals
Vera Zvonareva d. Caroline Wozniacki
Kim Clisjters d. Victoria Azarenka

Finals
Kim Clijsters d. Vera Zvonareva

FINAL WORLD: Somehow I find myself predicting the top four women seeds to reach the semifinals as improbable as that outcome may be, but that's what happens when I don't pay attention to the recent results. For the men, I predicted the top three plus Almagro since I just don't trust Murray to reach that far. In the end though Nadal will most likely repeat while there will be a first-time French Open champion for the women.

Birthday Girl: Tina Fey

Couldn't let today go by without wishing multi-Emmy winner Tina Fey a happy birthday.

Life is good for Fey. Her TV show, 30 Rock, will be back next year for its 6th season and in the meantime, she's expecting her second child. Earlier this year, she released her first autobiographical book Bossypants to much fanfare.

She also became the youngest recipient of the prestigious Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. Here's a snippet of her wonderful speech:

I never dreamed I would receive the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, mostly because my style is so typically Austrian. I never thought I would even qualify for the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. I mean, Maybe the Nathanial Hawthorne prize for judgmental nature. Or the Judy Blume award for awkward puberty. Or the Harper Lee prize for small bodies of work - but never this. And yet I hope that like Mark Twain, a hundred years from now, people will see my work and think, "Wow, that is actually pretty racist".

Happy Birthday Tina Fey!

Looking Forward To...

Midnight in Paris
Release: May 20, 2011
Distributor: Sony Classics
Director: Woody Allen
Starring: Marion Cotillard, Michael Sheen, Rachel McAdams, Adrien Brody, Kathy Bates, Tom Hiddleston, Alison Pill, Léa Seydoux, Carla Bruni, Mimi Kennedy, Corey Stoll, Kurt Fuller, and Owen Wilson

TV Report: 5/9-5/13

Here are my thoughts from this past week's TV. So many shows are having their finales or penultimate episodes! Exciting times for a TV viewer.

HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER - The penultimate episode of the season effectively ended the Arcadian/Zoey arc and even though I didn't actively hate this arc like many people did, I'm still relieved it's over. Zoey just never really clicked with the rest of the characters or the arc itself felt tonally dissonant from the more effective storylines of Barney reconnecting with his dad or Marshall dealing with his father's death. So that's two below average episodes in a row. Hopefully tomorrow's season finale will give the show it's high note to end on.

CASTLE - The case of the week was nothing special (a pageant contestant is murdered) but it was great seeing Michael McKean and Sasha Roiz guest star as potential suspects. Loving the slight forward movement on Castle/Beckett via Alexis/Ashley dealing with the future of their relationship. Tomorrow's finally looks ALL KINDS of intense.

GLEE - Like most episodes of this show, there are plenty to praise and plenty to complain about. Part of the latter stuff includes the shoddy development and inadequate build up of Mercedes' and even Dave's situations making their albeit heartfelt scenes feel a tad unearned. And as much as I love Jonathan Groff, I didn't really miss Jesse. With all of this said, I do want to give props to the queer characters--Kurt's reaction to being named prom queen, Dave's sincere apology to Kurt, Santana and Brittany yet again hashing out their feelings for one another, Blaine being Blaine, etc.

THE GOOD WIFE - Kalinda/Alicia is probably the closest thing to an OTP on this show, so this episode hurt like a mofo. The scene in Alicia's office where Alicia pretty much throws Kalinda out was heartbreaking as was Kalinda's breakdown in the elevator. And as much as it pains me, it makes some DAMN good drama as well as changing these two characters by forcing both to essentially become a hardened versions of themselves. We see that in Alicia's aggression in court and with Jackie (their scenes together were fantastic as well) and in Kalinda becoming more resolve to be as shut off as ever.

MODERN FAMILY - Phil and Claire switch their traditionally good cop/bad cop roles and so much hilarity ensues. Of course both of them take it too far to the detriment of the children, but how hilarious the results were! Mitchell trying to decide whether or not to go to a Lady Gaga concert even though Cam is sick also had its moments esp. the ending with he is caught. The Jay/Gloria dog plot line fell flat to me even with the presence of guest star Lin Manuel Miranda.

COUGAR TOWN - A bit of a disjointed episode, but it still managed to work in the end. Travis is depressed and so OF COURSE he ends up in a strip club not only with both of his parents, but his grandfather as well. The laughs were there, but I really liked the heart these four brought to this storyline. Ellie dealing with Andy's sister-in-law's flirting with Andy by being mean to Laurie also gave them some bonding moments and real life couple Nia Vardalos and Ian Gomez were a hoot. Best scene though has to be Laurie acting as a "live note" and then proceeding to uncannily imitating Bobby.

HAPPY ENDINGS - Two episodes again which makes it difficult to review in my usual short snippet kind of way. My favorite character Max had to deal with his overly picky way of dating guys in the first episode and him actually having feelings for a new guy in the second. Too bad the latter relationship wasn't meant to be as the end tag made it seem like they broke it off. The other MVP this week to me was Brad as he hilariously partnered up with Penny in the first episode accidentally getting a waiter fired (and dumped and made homeless) and then competing with super competitive Jane in an interview-off; both ultimately using their sexuality to no success. Yay for this show's renewal!

BIG BANG THEORY - Not a bad episode, but until we found out that Howard's mom was only suffering from food poisoning, the seriousness of her possibly heart attack didn't mesh well with the comedy the cast was involved in. I didn't expect them to go all-out somber, but it all still felt a bit off. I also didn't find Sheldon's germophobia and subsequent containment funny. The Priya-Penny tete-a-tete was a long time coming though.

COMMUNITY - The season finale closes out the paintball storyline that began last week as we find out that this whole thing was a ruse by rival City College to get the students of Greendale to destroy their own school. Thematically speaking, last week's Western motif worked better than this week's Star Wars homage, but the action was still quite epic. The centerpiece of it all really was Pierce and his relationship with the school/his study group. Soon after he is shunned by the group, he saves the school and is welcomed back only for him to leave them on his own volition. It was a nice capper to the season-long storyline and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next season with Pierce and the rest of them.

PARKS & RECREATION - Perfect show is perfect. The first episode where everyone got drunk from Tom's latest venture, Snakejuice, was pure hilarity even though it gave us Leslie and Ann's first fight. They made up in the end, but not before Ann lets it slip to Ben that Leslie likes him. Segue to the next episode where Ben and Leslie have to endure spending time together even though they know they can't act on their feelings. Of course, this doesn't work and what proceeds is about 15-20 minutes of awesome flirting and confessing and everything. Chris acting as the ultimate cockblocker for most of the episode also worked since it made the payoff of Leslie and Ben having their first kiss all the sweeter. This episode also had April serenade Andy and Ron bonding with a little girl. Again, perfect show is perfect. Baba booey!

SMALLVILLE - And just a quick note on this show's series finale even though I stopped watching regularly years ago. Lots of the emotional stuff that involved Clark and his parents and his past worked for me, because that's when I was still watching the show. Everything else... from Lutessa to Darkseid to Green Arrow to Dark Omega to even his marriage to Lois... felt at best exposition-heavy and at worst deux ex machina-like. Even the big Lex-Clark reunion felt off. The seven-year jump in order for the story line to sort of match up with DC canon is a little suspect, but using that Superman score at the end was perfect. Overall, I still can't believe this show lasted 10 seasons, but congrats to all involve.

Pre-Upfronts Cancellations and Renewals

This past week saw a flurry of renewal, cancellation, and pickup news from many networks which makes sense since this coming week, they will all present their new schedules at the annual upfronts. FOX started off the barrage of news this past Tuesday by canceling all of the yet-to-be-renewed bubble shows they had on their lineup. Since they renewed Fringe a few weeks back though, I was pretty nonplussed by the massacre.

In the days that followed, NBC and ABC chimed in with their decisions. Thankfully, most of the shows I regularly watch and enjoy have already been renewed, but there were still some recent cancellations and renewals that I want to comment on:

Chuck - Renewed. Despite having stopped watching the show in midseason, I'm very happy this show gets to live on just a little bit more. And now that everyone involved is sure that the next 13 episodes will be the show's last, I'm confident that they'll be able to weave a satisfying final arc for this little show that could.

V - Canceled. With the miracle renewals of Fringe and Chuck, I expected this show to also get renewed, but alas it wasn't meant to be. I'm not exactly mourning its end even though I made it no lie how impressed I was by its three leading ladies (Elizabeth Mitchell, Morena Baccarin, and Laura Vandervoort). May they all find another project worthy of them. Plus I actually really liked how the series ended with the aliens on top.

Brothers & Sisters - Canceled. I was a bit shocked by this, but again not really mourning it. Just thought it would be the type of show where the network would bend over backward to at least give them an actual end date to conclude the series. With that said, the writers did a good job these last few episodes to make sure all of the Walkers are in a good place. So other than missing Holly/Rebecca, the final episode works just fine as a series finale.

Happy Endings - Renewed. I'm so very delighted about this news. It really is the only new show this whole TV season that has impressed me, which also says a lot about the state of the new shows that premiered this season. But hey, that's not this show's fault. Can't wait to see more from this cast and crew.

Mr Sunshine, No Ordinary Family, and The Event - Canceled. Every single one. So speaking of disappointing new shows... I saw at least a handful of episodes of these three and with The Event, I actually saw all of its episodes before it went on a midseason break, but ultimately they all just failed to live up to expectations.

As I said before, they were other shows canceled or renewed, but I either don't watch them or don't really have any comments on their fates. CBS and The CW haven't made similar announcements, but with Supernatural already set to come back, I really am only waiting for the fate of The Good Wife. I'll go deeper into my thoughts on each network's new schedules as they present them in the next few days.

Looking Forward To... SUMMER

Summer movie season kicked off last week with Thor expectantly topping the box office charts, but unexpectedly doing so as a favorite among critics as well. I'm hoping this bodes well for Joss Whedon's Avengers, because damn him for getting involve since now I actually have to care about these stupid superhero movies! BTW Thor is Natalie Portman's fourth movie this year.

The rest of May actually doesn't look too bad as well. My most anticipated film from the lot is probably Terence Malick's long-awaited film The Tree of Life starring Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, and dinosaurs! Apart from the super gorgeous and super pretentious trailer, I have no idea what the film is about. Another auteur, Woody Allen, also has a film this month, Midnight in Paris, starring Rachel McAdams and Owen Wilson. Advance word from Cannes seem to be good, so I'm excited for it. In the comedy front, there's the sequel to The Hangover which I'll probably check out when it comes out on DVD. What's more intriguing is Bridesmaid which seems to be a female version of the other film. It has Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, and Jon Hamm. I'm also interested in Hesher, an indie film starring Joseph-Gordon Levitt as a rock star and with her fifth film of the year, Natalie Portman. Finally, Johnny Depp teams up with Geoffrey Rush and Penelope Cruz for a totally unnecessary Pirates of the Caribbean film, subtitled On Stranger Tides.

June starts out strong, then sort of limps to a finish. The first weekend is chock full of films I need to see now. There's X-Men: First Class with James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender, which I'm ridiculously excited for probably because I'm such a huge X-Men nerd. There's also a great looking Focus Features' film Beginners starring Ewan McGregor and Christopher Plummer where Plummer plays McGregor's gay dad. Finally, there's Beautiful Boy with Michael Sheen and Maria Bello, a harrowing film about two parents dealing with the loss of their son who is responsible for a school shooting. The following week, J.J. Abrams' super mysterious film Super 8 premieres and that one just looks like a great old-fashioned summer film. The rest of the month contains films that I may or may not check out depending on my mood from Ryan Reynold's Green Lantern to Pixar's Cars 2 (wait I probably should see the first one first) to Bad Teacher starring Justin Timberlake, Cameron Diaz, and... wait I think I can skip this one. I mean really now.

July has a little bit of something for everyone. Of course there's your big budget summer action films like Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Captain America: The First Avenger, and Cowboys & Aliens. All of them have impressed via trailers, but I'm only really looking forward to the latter. Why? Read the title again and that should tell you EVERYTHING. Speaking of big budget films, Harry Potter ends this month as part 2 of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows premieres. In the other end of the spectrum are the comedies with really awesome ensembles. There's Larry Crowne which stars Tom Hanks who also directed and co-wrote the film. Julia Roberts, Taraji Henson, Bryan Cranston, and George Takei are also in the cast. The team that brought us last year's delightful Easy A is back with Friends with Benefits starring Mila Kunis, Emma Stone, Woody Harrelson, Justin Timberlake, and many more. Finally, there's Crazy, Stupid, Love with Steve Carrell, Ryan Gosling, Marisa Tomei, Julianne Moore and Emma Stone. I, along with everyone else loved the trailer. Finally, Dominic Cooper stars in The Devil's Double doing double duty as one of Saddam Hussein's son and his double.

August is, well, a bit random. Don't know much about Rise of the Planet of the Apes but it stars James Franco, Tom Felton, John Lithgow, and Andy Serkis. There's also The Help, based on a book, starring Emma Stone (is she trying to be in more movies than Natalie Portman this year?) and Viola Davis. There's a few horror/thrillers such as Final Destination 5, Fright Night (with David Tennant and Colin Farrell), and Weinstein's Apollo 18. Comedy-wise there's 30 Minutes or Less with Jesse Eisenberg and Aziz Ansari and Our Idiot Brother with Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Hugh Dancy, and Zooey Deschanel. But my most anticipated film this month is probably One Day, a love story through the years starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess. And I almost forgot The Debt, starring Helen Mirren and Sam Worthington, which comes out on the last day of the month.

So as per usual, that's a lot of films. I wish I had the money and the time to see them all, but at the very least I'll see them all eventually thanks to Netflix. Gotta love technology.

TV Report: 5/2-5/6

I saw all of these within the last 48 hours or so which, even by my standards, is just a lot of TV in such a short time. So my write-ups below will feel a bit scattered and disorganized, but without further a due...

HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER - Wasn't one of this show's stronger episode, but it had its moments mostly revolving Robin and Lily using alcoholic drinks to manipulate Barney and Marshall into sharing their feelings. But even that whole thing lasted just a wee bit too long. The whole Zoey/Ted thing is played out, so that's it.

CASTLE - This LA-centric episode was wonderful and not just because the case was good and personal (for Beckett, it was her mentor's murder after all), but it subtlety showed us the evolution of the Beckett/Castle relationship. For example, in the beginning when Castle tried to stop Beckett from seeing the dead body, Beckett countered him by asking him what he would've done if it was her instead lying there dead. This shows that Beckett recognizes how Castle feels about her. Then for the episode to end with her mentor pretty much pushing her towards Castle in his letter from the grave... well it's about time.

GLEE - I'll deny this in the future, but I actually found Matt Morrison quite affecting in this episode especially with his scene with Jayma Mays talking about his dreams of Broadway. Also found the Sam storyline a bit tearjerky so all in all, it was a far deeper emotional episode than I thought. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens with Santana (and Karofksy) by the end of the season. Nice to see Chenoweth back again, of course.

THE GOOD WIFE - Very good episode even though all of the guest stars were a bit distracting. Martha Plimpton makes her fantastic reappearance as Patti Nyholm, but we also got Aaron Stanton (Mad Men), Christopher Shyer (V), and John Glover. The big developments in this episode was Alicia breaking it off with Peter and the beginning of the Peter/Cary alliance. Next episode (i.e. tomorrow) Alicia and Kalinda finally face off. I'm SO scared.

MODERN FAMILY - Good solid Mother's Day-themed episode. For some reason seeing Phil and then Jay wearing the onion goggles made me laugh way too hard and of course seeing Gloria deal with Manny contrasted with how Claire deals with her three children was great. Not sure how I feel about the Cam/Mitchell storyline with Cam not wanting to be the "mother" though.

COUGAR TOWN - The council was a fun running gag throughout the episode, but I like the main storyline of Travis wanting to propose to Kristen and how Jules and Grayson act in response. The moment on the beach when Jules sees Travis get rejected was a wonderful one and totally in character. Looking forward to seeing where they take this.

HAPPY ENDINGS - This show continues to provide much enjoyment. While Max is probably my favorite character (seriously he's just SO different from any other gay character on TV), I go back and forth a lot on who my second favorite character is and that speaks well for the ensemble. Though if I was being more honest, it'd probably be a tie between "Gay Husband" Penny and "Super Competitive" Jane. I know I didn't really talk about the episodes, but I thought they were both funny and the second episode that skewered hipsters and likened them to zombie? PERFECTION.

BIG BANG THEORY - Great, great episode. The girls (minus Priya) have totally been the MVP of this season and it was wonderful to get a cold open with just the girls. In fact we don't get all of the guys in one scene until the end tag, which was shocking. Bernadette and Amy provided the bulk of the story and the comedy of the episodes and I hope to God they're both back next season.

COMMUNITY - Wonderful start to the 3-part paintball season finale. Love the reveal on the origin of their card names coming from the cards they used to vote on whether or not to invite Pierce back into their group next year (red for yes and black for no). It also enabled them to air out the Pierce Problem that has plagued the entire season. There's one more hour left to this season, so let's see how exactly they resolve this. But even if they don't OMG PAINTBALL. And yes, Josh Holloway... woot!

PARKS & RECREATION - The casting of Parkey Posey as Leslie's former best friend and now rival was pitch perfect and I would so totally watch a spin-off with her. The whole Eagleton-Pawnee thing was fun to see if only to see Leslie reaffirm that her one true love is that city. Ron freaking out about Leslie's birthday plans for him provided a hilarious B-plot.

FRINGE - When I can I'll probably try to do a separate post to talk about my feelings of probably the best show of the season. Its finale was J.J. Abrams' show kind of a finale which meant it was one part epic, one part timey-wimey, and one part OMG WTF JUST HAPPENED? There were so much information thrown at the audience that I admit I felt a bit overwhelmed and a bit detached emotionally (with the exception of one or two scenes) for most of the episode. Despite that, I thought it was another strong outing for most of the actors and definitely a worthy ending to such a wonderful season.

SUPERNATURAL - It's been an uneven season to be sure, but this episode is definitely one of the best the show has offered in its history. Was it perfect? Not at all. The voiceover narration was a bit overused and the end of The Mother arc was a bit anti-climactic at least in terms of The Mother being such a meh villain. Everything else though from this being such a Castiel-heavy episode to the welcome return of Crowley to major Dean-Castiel angst was perfect. It seemed to tie the season, and even the show as a whole, together. Wished we had gotten what we learned in this episode a bit earlier or maybe throughout the season, but I'll take it. Now I'm just fearful what the repercussions will be. They can't kill Castiel off, could they?

Just A Quick Drive-By Post

I'm back! After a week off, enjoying a much-needed vacation, regular posting will resume tomorrow with a TV Report of the shows I managed to catch up on this weekend. Then a special "Looking Forward" post where I look at which movies I'm excited about this upcoming summer. Also this coming week, if I can, maybe I'll do a quick entry on the Tony nominations or at the very least another post on the exquisite play The Normal Heart.

For now, with only about 15 minutes or so left on the day, just wanted to wish mothers, mothers-to-be, and maternal folks everywhere a Happy Mother's Day!

Last year, I picked the mothers in Big Love to highlight, but this year I can't pick just one. I mean there's Best Actress winner and mom-to-be Natalie Portman as well as Jane Krakowski who just delivered her first child last month. Then there are the TV moms like Alicia from The Good Wife, Gloria and Claire from Modern Family, Jules from Cougar Town, Shirley from Community, Tara from United States of Tara, and of course the aforementioned moms from Big Love. There's a bunch I'm missing I'm sure, but the sentiment remains the same.