Weekly TV Discussion - 10/21/2012 to 10/27/2012

Hello fellow TV Addicts!  So, if you've frequented this site enough, you probably have realized that we like to talk about a lot of shows in our weekly recaps of specific shows.  I figured we'd try something new.  Let's have a dedicated spot to discuss all non-recapped shows each week.  So this section is to discuss any and all TV besides Fringe, The Walking Dead and Revolution since they have dedicated recaps (see Labels below for examples).  This will be for the week of 10/21-10/27, but since Grimm airs on Fridays, I'm guessing we'd talk about last week's Grimm here too. 

Let's see how this works.  Let's start the discussion!

Revolution: Season 1 Episode 5 - Soul Train

Welcome Revolutioneers!  We are five episodes in and I have to say that this show seems to be improving with each episode in.  That's always a nice thing to see.   I'll get into the recap in a second, but wanted to share this link with you from Showrunner Eric Kripke.  He talks about how quickly he'll reveal answers to the big mysteries and replace them with bigger mysteries along the way.  There's also a couple tidbits that I may cover in the "interesting tidbits" section below.  But, for now, let's recap!

The Walking Dead: Season 3 Episode 1 - Seed

Welcome back dead heads!  It feels like forever since our last full dose of The Walking Dead, but the extended previews and summer marathons have had me psyched since the end of last year!  Anyone who complained about the slow pacing of season 2 (which, if you recall, I didn't mind) should have their fears settled after that opening episode this season.  There was more action and walkers in this season premiere than probably the entire season 2.  But, they still didn't sacrifice story for the kill count.    There's definitely a lot of promise for the new season and I'm looking forward to diving in briefly every week to kick-off the discussion.   So, let's get into the episode!

Fringe: Season 5 Episode 3 - The Recordist

Hello Fringe fanatics and history buffs!  We're here to discuss episode 3 of our final Fringe season.  I have to say, I'm not getting very excited to recap this episode.  It was quite a bizarre episode and with the exception of some great Walter quotes, it felt very un-"Fringe"-like to me.  I'm willing to give them a mulligan though.  They've told some pretty consistent quality stories for 3 straight seasons and change.  I'm definitely feeling a change of pace to this season with going for straight mythology episodes for the entire season.  And, I'm sure what they achieved by the end of the episode will no doubt be important but it was a tad painful getting there.  We'll, see what I can come up with in the recap below!

Revolution: Season 1 Episode 4 - The Plague Dogs

Hello friends and welcome back to the Revolution recap!  We had a pretty good outing for the show last night and they really amped up the emotional side of the show.  I would say it would have been much more effective if NBC didn't hype up a big "death" coming in the episode.  Given everyone's importance to the future plots of the show, it wasn't too hard to figure out who was going to be losing their life by the end of the episode.  Of course, they did have me second guessing my pick in the middle.  Still, NBC's spoiling aside, the show is doing pretty well so far in keeping everyone entertained.  And they're doing one really important thing that its "high concept" predecessors did not do so well.  They're keeping the "deep mythology talk" to a minimum in these opening episodes.  They're focusing on character relationships and lots of high stakes action.  That could be what the show ends up being anyway, but we know there will be a huge conspiracy with the whole power outage (What caused it, who is in control of it, how do we get it back, do we want it back, are only some people going to get it back, etc...), that eventually they're going to have to dive down a layer.  But for now, they want to keep their audience entertained and slowly delve into that next level of detail.

Granted, this is just my theory on what retains an audience!  Anyway, let's get into the recap/discussion!

Fringe: Season 5 Episode 2 - In Absentia

Hello fellow Fringe Loyalists!  Welcome back to our ongoing coverage of the final season of the awesome show.  I've been enjoying our time in 2036 and even though we're a bit more serialized it still feels very FRINGE-esque.   Though, this episode got more into our usual formula.  There was a bit of a  "Case of the Week" feel to it while tying into the overall themes that our characters are currently going through.  And Walter got to mess with SCIENCE so that's always a +1 for a Fringe episode!  The episode was, and I'm sure most of this season will be for me, a WOW worthy endeavor so I'll get that out of the way.  Let's move onto the recap so we can get into the discussion!

Revolution: Season 1 Episode 3 - No Quarter

Hello fellow TV aficionados and welcome to the Revolution!  Okay, so my last recap may have come off very sarcastic and given off the impression that I wasn't enjoying the show.  This is far from the truth!  There were definitely cheesy moments last week, and there really aren't many discussion points yet, so when this happens I normally result to humorous (well, humorous in my mind) recapping!  We're going to try and go much shorter this week, so maybe we won't run into any confusion.  I thought episode 3 was a decent outing as well.  We are sort of starting to see what this show wants to be.   A weekly adventure with a little bit of an advancement with the whole "power" thing.  And of course, some short flashback segments to fill in some blanks about the post-blackout and our characters' pasts.  It's a tried and true method.  We'll see if they can keep upping the ante and getting more interesting along the way!   Let's dive into the recap.