What Is This Hold You Have On Me?

More reviews to come over the next couple of days.

Spoilers...

Modern Family – “After the Fire” (A-)

“After the Fire” was a great return for the series after a short week off. I always love it when the writers mess with the typical pairings and this was a great example of just how effective a deviation from the status quo can be.

First up, I thought Cam had a heck of an episode. How am I just learning about a debilitating disease like sleep clowning? Too funny... but again I think one big reason why Cam did so well in this episode was that he was paired with Haley and Alex. It may have been a little put on that Claire would send them with Cam, but it certainly paid off so I’ll give it a pass. I like it when the show explores Cam’s obscure talents (or at least perceived talents) and with the girls constantly condescending him it made for some truly funny lines:

CAM: That question, it was like a hate crime.

You’ve also gotta love it whenever Modern Family pulls out the Luke/Manny combo. The rapport between Rico Rodriguez and Nolan Gould is pretty awesome considering their age. My favourite part – how quickly the two of them turned on the poor kid who had his house burned down the second they found out he was getting the helicopter they wanted.

The star of the episode though had to be Gloria. She was really just popping in and out of scenes, but her one-liners were through the roof funny. Half of it is the accent, and I don’t think I’m giving away any secrets there, but I was also pretty impressed with how well Sofia Vergara handled the physical comedy in this episode. I laughed out loud at her tube man impression.

But probably the most enduring storyline of this episode will be Phil’s decision to quit his job and become a partner in his own real estate company. Depending on how the writers handle that it could be a pretty interesting development, especially considering last I checked Claire was running for City Council at the same time (she’s still doing that right?). Regardless, it really helped improve Jay and Phil’s scenes together this week. As much as I laughed at the fact that Phil still brings up how he fixed Jay’s printer on a regular basis, I was glad that we didn’t have to watch Phil overreact to Jay saying “I love you” to him. It gave us a great moment where Jay actually gave Phil some legitimate respect, not to mention some decent advice.

Alright, my favourite lines:

GLORIA: Okay, when your house burn down you get one of these... no don’t burn your house down.

MANNY: You’re a terrible influence.
LUKE: You need me.

JAY: I can’t take another farm story.

PHIL: You know, the Native Americans believe that burning sage kept bad energy away.
JAY: How’d that work out for them?

MITCHELL: Why are you making those cruel sounds with your mouth?

CLAIRE: What the hell is that?
PHIL: An alpaca. I got the last one!

HALEY: What just happened?
ALEX: You have your fans, I have mine. Someday your fans are going to work for my fans.

And line of the night:

GLORIA: In my country it’s considered very, very bad luck when your house burns down.

How I Met Your Mother – “Tick Tick Tick” (C)

So for the record I was right that one of Barney or Robin would freak out about their hook up and run back to their current relationship, just not about which one. That was a tough ending to watch, from the freeze frame moment in the bar to Ted discovering Barney cleaning up rose petals on Robin’s bed. You can definitely see why it’s going to take most of the season for these two to even be in the position to get back together again.

Unfortunately, a brief moment of brilliance at the end of the episode was far from enough to save it. “Tick Tick Tick...” was perhaps the worst episode of How I Met Your Mother I’ve seen in a few seasons. And the awful part is it should have been one of the good ones. The big character moments, moments like Robin abandoning Barney after he’d just left his girlfriend for her, those are the moments this show traditionally steps up for. They’re what keep me watching after all these years.

But the writing didn’t deliver. The cruise was just an unfunny way to delay the inevitable ending. Sure, it allowed the two of them to split off to deal with their respective breakups, but there was no reason why they couldn’t have done that earlier, like say... when they were discussing their relationship in bed with each other at the start of the episode. There just weren’t a whole lot of laughs in between their various freak outs over being stuck on a boat with the two people they had just cheated on.

Yet I can forgive the cruise storyline somewhat, because at least it had some real story development in it. Marshall and Ted’s marijuana induced journey through a crowded stadium was just a waste of time. Not only did most of the jokes fall flat on their face, but they were repeated seemingly over and over again. The ladies room/nacho line bit wasn’t funny the first time it was tried, it’s certainly not going to be funny the fourth time. And the “surprise” twist at the end, where it turned out their whole ordeal had taken place over a matter of minutes, well I didn’t find it all that surprising. Hands up if you too saw that coming.

Okay put your hand down, you look like a fool.

House – “Parents” (C+)

Oh man, House is in such a rut these days I’m having trouble even distinguishing one episode from another. Hugh Laurie is a funny guy, and a great actor, so every episode there’s the odd moment here or there that makes me laugh, but from a storytelling perspective this show is so stagnant even the actors look like they’re bored.

I could have sworn again this week that I’d seen this exact same patient story before. A kid with unexplainable symptoms eventually attributed to past sexual abuse – as bad as it sounds this stuff seems old hat for House. And with diseases and twists becoming this interchangeable, it makes it harder and harder to get invested in these patients every week.

I was also somewhat unimpressed with the random clinic patient House saw this week. Don’t get me wrong, I like watching House in the clinic – it’s always good for a laugh or two and this episode was no exception – but usually the writers find some of way of tying it in, either through the main patient story or with some sort of emotional conflict House is going through at the time. This one just seemed to sit there on its own, which left me somewhat unsatisfied when it was all over.

As for Taub and the rest of the team, they aren’t really helping matters. I’ve found Taub’s two baby storyline over the past couple of episodes more bizarre than entertaining. I’m glad he’s growing as a character, but I don’t think we needed his big rush to his ex-wife’s house to let us know that he loves his kids. The whole storyline seemed a little put on.

And Wilson, shame on you. If anyone should have caught onto what House was trying to do, it should have been you. It did seem like he had a lapse of uncharacteristic stupidity in this episode, which speaks more to poor writing than it does to the character. Why again couldn’t he go to that fight? Even if House is stuck in house arrest, it’s one night and something tells me he knows House isn’t that needy.