TakeFiveGal Is Back With Her Top Picks And Favorite Lines From Week 2
How was everyone’s week? This week I think I have to start making a decision about what shows get dropped from the TiVo and it’s just too difficult. I wish networks would start canceling series so I can leave the house! Here’s what I found to be the best of the best this week:
Pushing Daisies, “Pie-lette” – I’ve been waiting months to have the opportunity to say that this was the best episode of TV I watched all week! I found myself watching this show with a grin on my face the entire time. Sure, it’s a macabre subject matter (what, with the dying and re-dying and the unfortunate proximity deaths by allowing people to live again), but there is just something so warm and wonderful about everything. Tell me you don’t love Ned the Piemaker and his incredibly addicting smile, or Chuck and her optimism in the face of re-living, or Emerson and his frankness. How about Olive and her little interjections, or Vivian and her cheese that has a grassy flavor, or that amazing Lily-sported eye patch? I’ve now watched this episode a total of 10 times, starting back when I saw the Pie-lette in July! I’m sure this show will make TakeFiveGal’s list repeatedly over the course of the season, so get comfortable.
Favorite line this week: From Emerson (Chi McBride), when Ned (Lee Pace) tells him that the person who dies when someone else is given life for more than 1 minute is a random proximity to thing, after letting Chuck (Anna Friel) live on: “Bitch, I was in proximity!”
Friday Night Lights, “Last Days of Summer” – I joined the Friday Night Lights bandwagon immediately following the pilot last season and I have latched on, hoping more people would do the same. During this pretty solid hour of TV, I laughed a lot, I cried a lot, and I came away from the show remembering why I fell in love with it in the first place. Zach Gilford as Matt Saracen kills me with the high school angst with his inability to be sure what’s going on in his relationship with Julie. Connie Britton…oh Connie Britton. Please be my mother. Or my best friend, because I don’t think you’re old enough to be my mother. The scene where she realizes Coach Eric Taylor needs to leave earlier than expected? And she just breaks down? Gut wrenching. Amazing. Beautiful. I’m holding judgment on the Landry/Tyra accidental murder. Because I believe in the actors so much and I believe the writers know what’s best for them and for us. And I love that they’re going to be the Super Couple of the show!
Favorite line this week: This was a hard decision, but I have to go with Coach, when Tami brings up “The Swede” (Julie’s new, sigh, crush): “What happened to The Saracen?”
House, “The Right Stuff” – This has long been a favorite show of mine, but I feel with the new cast shakeup, it has gotten even better this season. It’s nice to see Hugh Laurie get to use his wit on a whole new batch of sufferers and I really like the idea of breaking up his original team, to get some new blood in there. New series regulars Olivia Wilde, Peter Jacobson, and Kal Penn really interact well with him. I think that once the old Fellows are brought back into the fold more consistently, we’re going to have a really nice show of, if nothing else, their ironic jealousy over the new folks dealing with House. Not enough Wilson/House interaction this week, but I’ll sacrifice that in order to see House drinking with a patient and a Fellow-prospect in order to get a diagnosis.
Favorite line this week: When Wilson says while trying to convince House he’s going crazy, because he’s seeing Foreman, Chase, and Cameron in the hospital, “It’s always interesting when repressed guilt starts unrepressing itself.”
Mad Men, “Indian Summer” – I came into this series late, and caught up with a super marathon of the first 8 episodes. Boy, am I glad I did! It’s so multi-layered, and addictive. Every character has some crazy facets to them, and I can’t pick out my favorite, because I kind of dislike and love them all at the same time. I can’t wait to see what happens now that Pete (the irascible Vincent Kartheiser, wasted as Connor on Angel, but extremely well-utilized on this show) has a box of Don Draper’s secrets!
Favorite line this week: Comes from Peggy, when trying to explain how to advertise the weight loss underpants type thing. She says, with embarrassment and interest in her voice, “It vibrates.”
Damages, “Sort of Life Family” – There are so many twists and turns to this show it feels like a roller coaster, at times, doesn’t it? So much more on the current case and the future murder was revealed, and I feel like my head is spinning trying to digest it all. I want to say, that I have absolutely no idea who attacked Ellen or who killed David. And Frobisher’s wife getting a divorce, after that touching golf club scene? So awesome. Glenn Close and Ted Danson are blowing me away. Rose Byrne, while I found her a bit boring or blasé in the first few episodes is really coming into her own. I find myself anxiously awaiting every new episode, and I really hope FX comes to its senses and renews this for Season 2.
Favorite line this week: Patty to Ellen after Ellen did some investigating into George Moore on her own: “Who told you to think? You don’t have license to think!”
