Best TV Episodes, March 2013

10. Community, Season 4 Episode 6 – "Advanced Documentary Filmmaking"

While neither me or anyone else (certainly not anyone else, since according to most of the rest of the TV blogosphere we're now supposed to hate Community unreservedly) would argue Community's fourth documentary episode measures up to "Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking," "Documentary Filmmaking: Redux," or "Pillows and Blankets," it was a fun, energetic little episode with Donald Glover delivering comedic gold once again via Troy's quest to disagree with Annie on everything. I especially loved the show bringing back Chang's wife, last seen in "Environmental Science" two and a half years and 67 episodes ago. They may lack Harmon, but someone on Community's writing staff clearly knows their Greendale history.

9. Game of Thrones, Season 3 Episode 1 – "Valar Dohaeris"

No one will mistake Game of Thrones' setup-centric third season premiere as being among the show's finest hours, but I just love this world and these characters and, frankly, having a fantasy series on television operating at this level so much that I richly enjoyed it all the same. The final reveal of Barristan Selmy just oozed cool.

8. Spartacus, Season 3 Episode 7 – "Mors Indecepta"

Spartacus: War of the Damned's second-weakest episode (after episode 3, "Men of Honor," the season's only hour I would describe as merely good instead of explosively fantastic) was still a huge, action-packed spectacle with an ending that had me literally cheering out loud on my couch like a fucking crazy person. That War of the Damned's relative low points make almost all of the rest of TV look so fucking boring in comparison speaks to the searing power of what this season is in the midst of accomplishing.

7. Bob's Burgers, Season 3 Episode 17 – "Two for Tina"

I've reiterated multiple times that (despite H. Jon Benjamin's vocal greatness) Bob's Burgers' title character and his wife Linda are but supplementary to the show's true comedic superstars: Tina, Gene and Louise Belcher. And even amongst that trio – currently, if anyone's keeping track, the greatest sitcom characters on television – Tina stands alone, with "Bad Tina" and "Tina-Rannosaurus Wrecks" being two of my favorite sitcom episodes last year, and now "Two for Tina," which contains a dance contest that may just put Silver Linings Playbook to shame. I also love that this episode continued Tina's character arc from last month's also-hysterical "Lindapendent Woman," again establishing Bob's Burgers as having a continuity leg up on almost all other animated sitcoms.

6. Justified, Season 4 Episode 11 – "Decoy"

Justified is so much sheer goddamned fun that I'm honestly kind of shocked that it's accepted as a "great" show by the "serious TV drama must be grim and bleak and relentlessly unpleasant"-pushing voices of the TV blogosphere. But it's somehow slipped through the cracks, and a show capable of putting out an episode this insanely high-energy, complete with shootouts, standoffs, torture, a blood-pumping fight where I really wasn't sure who was gonna live, a psychotic evil henchman named "YOLO" and a literal goddamned exploding car can not only exist but also be critically lauded. Justified is just cool as hell, baby.

5. Spartacus, Season 3 Episode 5 – "Blood Brothers"

A mere three episodes after launching his plan to sack and take over a Roman city (itself an epic set piece 99% of other TV dramas would have saved for their season finale, which Spartacus casually tossed out as episode 2 like it weren't no thang), Spartacus' dominion of Sinuessa en Valle goes up in literal, spectacular flames in yet another insane midseason hour that, again, virtually any other show would have considered season finale material. Have I mentioned lately how Spartacus makes basically every other action show ever made look like dogshit?

4. Bob's Burgers, Season 3 Episode 16 – "Topsy"

ELECTRIC LOOoooOOooOVE!!!

3. Switched at Birth, Season 2 Episode 9 – "Uprising"

I mostly just think of ABC Family's Switched at Birth as a teen drama – a well above-average one, but just a teen drama regardless – so it was a pleasant shock to see them produce this formally and emotionally ambitious hour. The students of Carlton School for the Deaf rise up in an occupation protest when the city moves to shut their school down, which is, except for a few spoken lines at the episode's beginning and one more at its end, depicted entirely in silence with nothing but subtitled sign language to better reflect the viewpoint of the deaf characters. It was unique and ballsy, but more importantly than having a great gimmick, it had a great gimmick rooted entirely in character, thematically relevant and tied to a strong emotional throughline.

2. Spartacus, Season 3 Episode 8 – "Separate Paths"

Though I doubt anyone would describe Spartacus: War of the Damned episodes 4 through 7 as slow-paced, they nevertheless kicked it up another notch with this sweeping, tragic and epic antepenultimate episode, whose show-shattering climactic events made it clear that we're now locked firmly into endgame mode. It wasn't even technically a "final battle" (which will presumably be coming in the actual series finale airing April 12th), but it nonetheless delivered a massive and spectacular final battle set piece that effortlessly kicks the ass of most other TV battles I've seen. It was certainly, without hyperbole, hundreds of times bigger and more exciting than The Walking Dead's finale. And though I know I sound a broken record at this point, it was yet another midseason episode any other drama on television would have saved for season finale time.

1. Spartacus, Season 3 Episode 6 – "Spoils of War"

I've already done a full review for Spartacus: War of the Damned's endlessly clever, simultaneously thoughtful and thunderously exciting sixth episode, so I won't go too in depth here. But it's my favorite episode of what is my favorite TV season of the year so far, which may just make it my favorite TV episode of 2013 (give or take a Fringe series finale, perhaps). It was smaller in scope and more intimate than other episodes, but, as a hardcore Spartacus fan going way back, I found its self-reflective nature thrilling and even moving. A fun tour back through four years of an amazing series.

Top Thirty TV Shows of Q1 2013

As a means to publicly organize my thoughts, here are, ranked mostly without commentary, my thirty favorite shows of the year so far based solely on episodes aired between January 1st and March 31st, 2013. I don't even like the first few shows on the list that much, so if anything didn't make the cut you can safely assume that either, one, I haven't seen it (Enlightened falls in this category), two, it hasn't premiered yet (Breaking Bad, etc.), or three, I don't like it. I've seen at least a little of pretty much everything, so most missing shows fall into category three (fuck you, The Following!).

30. The Americans (new)
29. Glee
28. The Office
27. Revolution
26. Archer
25. The Walking Dead
24. Nashville
23. Vikings (new)
22. Gravity Falls
21. Revenge
20. Hart of Dixie
19. Parks and Recreation
18. Happy Endings
17. Arrow
16. American Dad!
15. Game of Thrones *
14. Scandal
13. Switched at Birth
12. 30 Rock
11. Supernatural
10. The Vampire Diaries
9. New Girl
8. Community
7. Banshee (new)
6. Justified
5. Fringe
4. Parenthood
3. Bunheads
2. Bob's Burgers
1. Spartacus: War of the Damned

* I love Game of Thrones and give it a 99% chance of being higher than this on my eventual best of 2013 list. But its ranking here is predicated on a single episode consisting mostly of setup, which, considering, I think actually makes being at #15 pretty impressive.

The Walking Dead wimps out spectacularly in its wet fart of a finale

Season 3 Episode 16 - "Welcome to the Tombs"

At one point, very early on before they got their second season's budget hiked by HBO, the producers of Game of Thrones discussed having the Battle of the Blackwater take place offscreen, seen briefly through Sansa's viewpoint out a window far away. But budget issues were sorted, money was allocated, and we got the outstanding episode "Blackwater," replete with wildfire explosion, ships on fire, clashing armies, a battering ram and fighting on the battlements. And good thing, too – can you imagine how frustrating it would be to have an epic battle foreshadowed, discussed, planned, built up to and generally hyped all season long only to see but a few seconds of actual battling?

Well imagine no more, my friend. Just watch The Walking Dead season 3.

TV Obituaries, Vol. 3: March 2013

March was a fucking TV character bloodbath!

Spoilers follow for Banshee, The Following, Justified, New Girl, Revenge, Revolution, Scandal, Spartacus, Supernatural, Vikings and The Walking Dead.

Tim's TV Talk Podcast, Episode 1: Talkin' Spartacus

Hey all. As everyone who writes about stuff on the internet is required by law to do at some point, I've decided to take a stab at podcasting. That's right, Tim's TV Talk can now be enjoyed with your ears. Give them eyeballs a rest, baby!

This is my first real attempt at this, so please pardon, one, the relatively low sound quality (the podcast was recorded right into the mic on my laptop), two, my habits of "uh," "well," "you know," and other idiotic stammering, and, three, the fact that it's not up on iTunes' podcast directory or anything yet. You can right click the link below to download and bring it into your iTunes/iPhone if you'd like, of course. If I decide to do more of these in the future, I'll try to get a real mic, get it on iTunes' podcast page, and learn how to speak. So without further ado:

Tim's TV Talk Podcast, Episode 1: Talkin' Spartacus (spoilers from the beginning of Spartacus through season 3 episode 8, "Separate Paths")

Spartacus Power Rankings, Vol. 8

Spartacus: War of the Damned, Episode 8 - "Separate Paths"

Spartacus Power Rankings, Vol. 7

Spartacus: War of the Damned, Episode 7 - "Mors Indecepta"

Spartacus goes meta

Spartacus: War of the Damned, Episode 6 - "Spoils of War"

I've reached a point where I feel comfortable calling Spartacus one of my favorite series of all time. But while I've repeatedly explained the many facets of the show's greatness – its pacing, its structure, its depth, its character development, its sheer visceral awesomeness – one thing I've never really called it is clever. Smart, yes, even verging on brilliant in the way it's throwing out all the rules governing TV pacing with a devilish grin on its face. But not clever in the way of a brilliant Harmon-era Community or golden-era Simpsons episode, or some of the more ambitious hours of Buffy or Fringe. Spartacus is for the most part content to be straightforward meat-and-potatoes action-adventure TV storytelling honed to perfection.

But in "Spoils of War," the sixth episode of War of the Damned and fifth-to-last of the series, Spartacus has finally put out a fiendishly clever episode worthy of Steven DeKnight's Buffy roots. Though it never comes right out and announces its meta-ness (there's no Jeff Winger declaring "We're doing a bottle episode!"), make no mistake, this is Spartacus's meta episode, in the way it takes us on a whirlwind backwards tour through the entire series, right back to the beginning.

Spartacus Power Rankings, Vol. 6

Spartacus: War of the Damned, Episode 6 - "Spoils of War"

Best TV Episodes, February 2013

10. Community, Season 4 Episode 3 – "Conventions of Space and Time"

As I've discussed, my feelings on Community (which, mind you, was for a time my favorite show on television) have been both complicated and simplified by the ousting of Dan Harmon. Complicated in that I'm always watching going "Is something off? Would Harmon have done it like this?", simplified in that I spend a lot less time rewatching and analyzing episodes, content to just go "That was fun. Ok, moving on with my life." None of season 4's efforts so far have been anywhere near the upper tier of Community classics, but they've all been enjoyable enough removed from outside context. I could've gone with any of them for this #10 slot, and landed on "Conventions of Space and Time" because, hey, why not.

9. Revenge, Season 2 Episode 14 – "Sacrifice"

I honestly didn't expect to ever be putting Revenge on one of these lists again, as the show has stalled and lost focus in its second season, but they pulled one hell of a tragic, surprising, climactic hour out of their hat in February, with secrets coming out and battle lines being drawn and not one but two prominent character deaths. "Sacrifice" is the kind of TV episode that makes you nod with appreciation and say, yeah, that's soap done right.

8. Justified, Season 4 Episode 8 – "Outlaw"

I'll level with you guys: I'm not sure how I feel about Justified season 4's serialized season arc. The idea of the team cracking a decades-old cold case is potentially intriguing, but in practice has amounted to the characters doing a whole lot of running around Harlan asking people if they've seen Drew Thompson. But Justified can still have a lot of good pulpy crime fiction fun on an episode-by-episode basis and even deliver just a hint of emotion, as this episode does via the relationship between lawman Raylan Givens and his criminal father Arlo. (But don't worry, people get shot too. This ain't no touchy feely show!)

7. Bob's Burgers, Season 3 Episode 13 – "My Fuzzy Valentine"

One of the main things separating Bob's Burgers from most other animated sitcoms at the moment is how unreservedly charming and sweet and mild-mannered it's content to be for long stretches at a time without feeling the need to undercut it and tell you, pfft, you shouldn't actually care about any of this. No, Bob's Burgers can be a truly nice show, one that is just pleasant to watch, and that carries over into its first Valentine's Day episode as Bob goes on a townwide journey to find a piece of memorabilia from he and Linda's first date as the perfect Valentine's present.

6. Bunheads, Season 1 Episode 18 – "Next!"

Bunheads' first season finale was a really wonderful episode of television in every way except one: It did not feel – narratively, thematically, or in terms of the show's character arcs – in any way like a season finale. It didn't conclude, wrap up, or put a bow on anything. In fact, it ended on a pretty grim note for this generally fun series, and, not knowing whether there will even be a second season, that makes me nervous. But outside of that it was great. Protagonist Michelle's journey to Hollywood to audition for a musical was an exhilarating fifteen-minute sequence that had more energy and excitement and genuine filmmaking verve to it than, well, most feature films, and the episode also did very well by the show's younger cast. If only it was episode 18 of a 20-to-22-episode season, I'd probably consider it one of the five best TV episodes of the year so far.

5. Spartacus, Season 3 Episode 2 – "Wolves at the Gate"

As Spartacus (the character) makes good on his plan to attack and take over a Roman city the very episode after hatching it, Spartacus (the show) continues to deliver monumental, climactic episodes every other drama on television would save for their season finales week after week like it's the most natural thing in the world for a TV show to be operating at this level. An awesome episode and another successful chapter in the exhilarating highwire act that is War of the Damned.

4. Bunheads, Season 1 Episode 16 – "There's Nothing Worse Than a Pantsuit"

I thoroughly enjoyed 2012's ten-episode run of Bunheads, but the one big complaint I had was that two of the show's supposed main teen characters, Ginny and Melanie, felt continually underserved, always shoved in the background to let Boo and Sasha shine. The show's 2013 run has fixed that completely. "There's Nothing Worse Than a Pantsuit" dedicated much of itself to developing blonde bunhead Ginny's theatrical ambitions, and didn't just do right by the character but arguably made her the singular highlight of Bunheads' teen cast. It's the show's best episode this year.

3. Bob's Burgers, Season 3 Episode 14 – "Lindapendent Woman"

Linda leaves the burger restaurant and takes a job at a grocery store, and hilarity ensues. (Literally, I mean, not in the snarky way.) I love this show so much that I sometimes wonder if this might be how animation fans felt watching The Simpsons' golden years back in the early and mid 90s. It's just great. It's so fucking funny and just so much fun to watch, week in and week out. There's no other comedy on the air right now that's even close.

2. The Vampire Diaries, Season 4 Episode 15 – "Stand By Me"

I know, right?! What the hell is The Vampire Diaries doing this high?? I'm the one putting it here, and I myself am looking at it going, "Huh?" But "Stand By Me" was a hugely affecting hour of television any way you cut it, following up on the death of a very major character at the end of the previous episode in a way that even had me thinking just a little of Buffy's "The Body." Of course it's not nearly as good as "The Body" – literally a handful of episodes of television ever made are – but the fact that it even had me drawing mental comparisons speaks highly of it. It also kept the season's greater arcs moving along, even busting out a couple pretty big twists, but what makes this one of The Vampire Diaries' finest hours lies primarily in its exploration of loss and grief.

1. Spartacus, Season 3 Episode 4 – "Decimation"

Beyond its insane pacing and beyond-the-pale awesomeness, one of the big things separating Spartacus from most other cable dramas – especially those involving life-or-death stakes – is that it's not and never has been centered around a morally ambiguous antihero. Spartacus is a hero and he's noble and we like him and root for him and want him to succeed, and that's pretty much that.

But, in "Decimation," Spartacus came around to cable antiheroism through an interesting roundabout method: Spartacus himself may be a hero, but his army of thousands contains every shade of morality across the spectrum. Some, as Spartacus, fight for the freedom of all slaves, willing to give their lives to shake the foundations of Rome. Many simply follow Spartacus' orders to the letter. Others seek vengeance. And a few are, unbeknownst to Spartacus, in it for plunder and murder and rape.

Thus was the subject of one of Spartacus' darkest episodes to date, as Spartacus' occupation of the Roman city Sinuessa en Valle began to go really, really bad for the Roman prisoners under Spartacus' protection, spurred along by Julius Caesar – posing as a rebel slave and acting as Marcus Crassus' man on the inside – and a particularly nasty soldier in Spartacus' army by the name of Nemetes.

"Decimation" was some dark, ugly, crazy, thrilling, heart-pounding, next-level television. And it was yet another example of how thoroughly Spartacus is schooling everything else on TV right now in everything from pacing to excitement to narrative complexity to moral difficulty to even the baser pleasures like crazy twists and action scenes. It packs more into every hour than certain other shows (*cough* Walking Dead *cough*) do into entire seasons, and does so with style to spare. TV don't get much better than this.

Spartacus Power Rankings, Vol. 5

Spartacus: War of the Damned, Episode 5 - "Blood Brothers"

TV Obituaries, Vol. 2: February 2013

Spoilers follow for Justified, Nashville, Revenge, Scandal, Spartacus, The Vampire Diaries and The Walking Dead.

Spartacus Power Rankings, Vol. 4

Spartacus: War of the Damned, Episode 4 - "Decimation"

Parks and Recreation forces sugar and Jamm down our throats, demands we like it

Season 5 Episode 14 - "Leslie and Ben"

If the show realizing it didn't need to write Leslie Knope as a female Michael Scott was the thing that salvaged Parks and Recreation in season 2 then propelled it to greatness in season 3, its writers falling completely, desperately, pathetically in love with her and making her into a flawless living saint is the thing that caused things to get a little stale in season 4 and now actively rotten throughout much of season 5. It's the difference between loving someone and building a shrine to them. One's nice. One's weird.

But it's done, and a show that was once about likable bureaucratic underdogs scraping by in life has somehow become the chronicle of Leslie Knope fighting evil and saving the goddamn world. And in that spirit, "Leslie and Ben" felt like the logical climax to a show that has completely bought into its own hype, which is no more apparent than in what this episode does with perpetually awful villain Councilman Jamm.

Now, Jamm ain't Parks' first antagonist. Leslie has tangled with the likes of Joan Callamezzo and Bobby Newport before, but the show always made it clear these people had lives and careers and goals that existed entirely separate from her and the Parks department. (In fact, with Kathryn Hahn's great season 4 antagonist Jennifer Barkley, Parks gave the impression she didn't think about Leslie much at all, which may have ultimately cost her the election.) Even perpetually nasty right-wing social advocate Marcia Langman was at least theoretically driven by her interpretation of Christian values.

But now we have Councilman Jamm, a character who exists entirely to try and thwart Leslie Knope's unfathomable, heaven-sent goodness. Trying to stop her every benevolent act and bring evil to Pawnee seems to be his only meaning, only goal, only purpose in life (and of course we know everything he supports is evil on account of it not matching the perfect Leslie's agenda). It feels like Parks and Rec has manifested a critic of itself and put him in Pawnee to be defeated every couple weeks, sorta like what M. Night Shyamalan did in Lady in the Water.

And never was this clearer than at Leslie and Ben's wedding when Jamm – who, by the way, entered the episode declaring through a megaphone that "PARKS ARE STUPID!" – ruined the wedding bellowing at Leslie that he would've gotten away with his evil plan to make lots of money if it weren't for her meddling, then literally started throwing stink bombs until Ron Swanson punched him out.

I was stunned. I couldn't believe it. Honestly, they took it this far – they really should have just taken the last couple steps and had Jamm actually shout "PARKS AND RECREATION SUCKS!", then had the wedding crowd burst into spontaneous applause upon Ron decking him. You're 90% of the way there, Parks, just take it home.

But it's fine: Evil is defeated, Leslie and Ben make it back to the Parks office and recite their very generically "TV emotional" vows to each other (set to a cheesy montage of black and white flashbacks of their relationship that had me cringing), and now they're married. I wasn't just blown away by Monica and Chandler's wedding in Friends season 7, but I definitely think it was a more accomplished episode of television than this.

What's weird is that this isn't the first surprise wedding Parks and Rec has done. In fact, the show's all-time best episode, season 3's brilliant "Andy and April's Fancy Party," was centered around more or less the same damn premise. But "Leslie and Ben" is very much the Spider-Man 3 to that episode's Spider-Man 2; not as funny, more cloying than sweet and smugly convinced of its own greatness where "Fancy Party" was warm and inviting. Mandatory and smelling of television where that episode felt surprising and vital.

It's worth capping this off by noting that the next episode, "Correspondents' Lunch," which immediately followed, got back to the business of being funny and actually did a pretty good job at it. But as NBC clearly regarded the wedding as the piece de resistance of Thursday evening, it's the one that goes under the microscope. Let's just hope Parks got the treacle out of its system and the show is more "Correspondents' Lunch" and less "Leslie and Ben" going forward.

Community settles into its new groove in a mostly enjoyable half hour

Season 4 Episode 3 - "Conventions of Space and Time"

Three episodes in and I feel I've essentially locked into nuCommunity's wavelength. And no, it's not a wavelength that grabs me nearly the same way the first three seasons did – but Dan Harmon's Community was, save Arrested Development, Friday Night Lights and the early seasons of Lost (shudder), probably the most fanatically, religiously obsessed I've ever been with a TV show, so holding it to that standard was a lost cause from the beginning.
Dan Harmon's Community thrummed with greatness and felt electric and alive and exciting like few other shows in history, expanding the canvas of TV comedy and walking a dangerous experimental tightrope with a cocky smile plastered across its face. David Guarascio and Moses Port's Community is a solid little sitcom. It's not the same. But it's not bad.
First things first, literally, with "Conventions of Space and Time": Loved the cold open. I don't have any profound investment in Troy and Britta as a couple, but everything about Britta's acrobatic escape from Troy's bedroom and looping back around to the apartment with ceiling-stashed donuts felt lively and fun in a way few sitcoms often do.
And everything after that with Abed and Troy and Britta and villain-of-the-week Toby was pretty amusing (though I understand how it could've been a nightmare for those sick of Inspector Spacetime). I especially enjoyed Abed's Winger speech impression, as Danny Pudi has always done hilarious imitations of his fellow cast members ("I like football, but also, I don't?"). And Britta's loving-yet-firm "I don't care about Inspector Spacetime" to Troy was a pretty good way for Community to wink at the show-within-the-show's obvious inanity while continuing to use it as its go-to geek franchise.
Now, as I mentioned when discussing "History 101" a couple weeks back, the replacement of Dan Harmon makes it very, very hard for me to emotionally invest in these characters the way I used to. (Which, mind you, is not the same thing as being unable to narratively or comedically invest in them.) Some might argue that's me letting behind-the-scenes drama color my perception of what's actually on the screen in front of me, and, hell, they may not be entirely wrong. But it is what it is, and what's this blog for if not being upfront about how I feel?
And this may be why Annie and Jeff's story, which seemed reverse-engineered around getting them together on the couch having a warm heart-to-heart at episode's end, was largely a miss for me, and may be the weakest non-Hunger Deans plot of the season thus far. It had a couple funny gags, but ultimately relied on touching a place in my heart that blackened and died the moment Dan Harmon was fired.

On the other hand, Pierce and Shirley's story, which I initially felt uncertain of, ended up proving worthwhile setup for the tag punchline with Abed's reaction to the American Inspector and his blonde, racket-wielding Constable. (And by the way, Community, if you ever do a "Save Our Bluths"-type episode satirizing the show's sagging ratings and don't have Quendra appear carrying a tennis racket, you done fucked up.)

So what we're left with is a sitcom that is no longer my favorite on television – that would now be Bob's Burgers – but still makes the top two or three and I wouldn't call any worse than, say, new Futurama, or Parks and Rec season 4, or some of the middle seasons of 30 Rock. It's no longer a work of auteur-driven brilliance. But it's got a great cast and a fun tone and a lot of color and still maybe my favorite sitcom musical score of all time from Ludwig Goransson. And that's that, so, barring anything else I just have to talk about right then, this will probably be the last time I check in on Community for a couple months. E Pluribus Anus.

The Walking Dead Indulges Its Worst (And a Few of Its Best) Instincts

Season 3 Episode 10 - "Home"


The Walking Dead might be the most maddeningly inconsistent show in television history.

I've gone over the bizarre up-and-down relationship I've had with this show in the past, but just to recap: The pilot was really quite excellent, arguably the best TV pilot of 2010 (give or take a Boardwalk Empire). The rest of the first season ranged from ok to good until an unimpressive and anticlimactic season finale. The second season was, outside of its premiere and final two episodes, largely a dreadful bore that made me feel like a sucker for having ever said or thought anything good about the show. The episode where they pull the fat zombie from the well is a very real contender for a list of the worst hours of television I sat through in 2011. Like, after it was over, I was holding my head, going "This is flat-out fucking terrible. How could I have ever deemed this show good?"

Then season three somewhat shockingly reclaimed a level of no-qualifications-needed watchability, most notably in its exciting premiere and especially its blood-pumping, blood-gushing, tragic and awesome fourth hour, "Killer Within," an episode I went so far as designating one of my favorite of 2012.

And now, just six episodes later, I'm once again finding the bulk of the hour occupied by rolling my eyes, sighing, and checking my phone... until those final ten minutes, that is.

Spartacus Power Rankings, Vol. 3

Spartacus: War of the Damned, Episode 3 - "Men of Honor"

Community Is Community, But Also, It's Not?

Season 4 Episode 1 - "History 101"

I need help reacting to something.

I find myself dizzyingly mixed on Community's fourth season premiere, "History 101." It's not that I didn't laugh a number of times. It's not that I didn't find the episode's final act clever, especially the "Aha!" moment where it becomes clear that we're watching an Inception parody. It's not that I didn't find it far more memorable than the blandly pleasant oatmeal Parks and Recreation has decomposed into. Hell, if any other live-action sitcom mixed styles and mediums and genres like "History 101" in a single episode, I'd be damn impressed.

But without Dan Harmon, I'm still not sure it's Community.

Let me back up: Community was the best sitcom and one of the overall best shows of the last half-decade for two key reasons. The first, sexiest, most discussed reason was Harmon's willingness to experiment, commit to weirdness for whole episodes at a time, play with presentation and format and dive head-first into full-bore parodies of genres or of specific films or TV shows. And this yielded brilliance. If you know Community, you know the episodes. Action movies, Westerns, claymation, Glee, Goodfellas, Law & Order, My Dinner With Andre, classic video games, documentaries, Ken Burns, heists, zombies, multiple timelines, and bottle episodes were all subject to the Greendale treatment. Community had big brass balls and never played it safe.

But the second, less sexy, less discussed but equally important reason was its heart. I don't mean that in any cheesy, manufactured way – no one ever sang "Seasons of Love" in a nauseating attempt to make the audience cry (hear that, The Office?) – but it had rock-solid fundamentals in terms of characterization, relationships amidst the cast, and character development. Jeff, Britta, Troy, Abed, Annie, Shirley and Pierce were all funny, but they were never reduced to joke machines. (Chang sometimes was, admittedly.) Dan Harmon really, truly cared about the study group, and thus so did I. Jeff, Britta, and Abed in particular were largely sliced from his own personality.

(And the third reason, or what I'll call the second-and-a-half reason, is that oftentimes these two elements were mixed, with many of the biggest character developments occurring in the flashiest, most parodic episodes – Jeff and Britta consummating their relationship in "Modern Warfare," Troy becoming a man in "Epidemiology," Pierce's reckoning in "A Fistful of Paintballs," etc, though that's not immediately relevant to the rest of my point here.)

Community, at its best, managed to combine the ambition of Arrested Development and the committed weirdness of 30 Rock with the character development of The Office's prime years and the bighearted warmth of Parks and Recreation, all drenched in an extra coating of pop culture and seen through the eyes of a cocky prick protagonist with a heart of gold. Put simply, Community had great jokes, but it wasn't a show about jokes, or about references. It was about people.

And I'm not quite sure that's the case in "History 101."

Now, don't get me wrong, it's not like the episode just launches into Family Guy-style "Hey, you know this pop culture thing?" Its parodies of multi-camera sitcoms, Muppet Babies, and Inception are all rooted in Abed's fear of graduation and capped off with a Winger speech. But something does feel undeniably off without Dan Harmon's voice guiding it. The character Danny Pudi is playing looks like Abed, sounds like Abed, and walks and talks roughly like Abed, but I'm not quite sure it's Abed, just as I wasn't sure Lorelai was still Lorelai after Amy Sherman-Palladino left Gilmore Girls. Abed was so singularly driven by Harmon's own quirks and weirdnesses and obsessions that what's left is inevitably mimicry; cover artists doing their best to imitate the original.

But that isn't to say the journey through Abed's mind wasn't fairly clever and admirably weird. If anything I think that I would have liked to see this overstuffed episode – which in addition to Jeff and Abed's main stories also contained Troy and Britta's fountain date and Annie and Shirley's pranks, plus final scenes of the Dean moving next door to Jeff, a Chang cliffhanger and a tag – shed a couple minutes from its subplots and maybe insert another layer in between Abed's Happy Community College Show and Greendale Babies, to further reflect the many layers of Inception.

But on Jeff's side of things, there's no getting around the fact that every single Hunger Games reference made me cringe. Unlike Abed's stuff, those really were just references for the sake of references, the show gesticulating in the direction of the hot new thing going "This is what the kids like, right?!"

Now, if you ignore all that, Jeff's quest for seven red balls was mostly enjoyable, even if Jeff had the same disquieting not-quite-Jeffness about him as Abed's not-quite-Abedness. We got most of the show's recurring players in that half of the story, including some great Leonard gags and the welcome return of Annie Kim, who wants ice cream. But I would've vastly, vastly preferred the athletic competition sans Hunger Games references. (Granted, that's at least partially because I thought The Hunger Games was a pretty shitty movie and I'd rather not think about it when I don't have to, but still, I think less pop culture on Jeff's side of the narrative would have caused the pop culture-drenched Abed plot to pop more colorfully.)

I'm relieved that Community is still willing to be weird and do things that no other sitcom would even consider. Dan Harmon expanded the canvass, and the new showrunners have no plans to shrink it back down. "History 101" announced that assertively, and, as someone who likes my comedy clever and risky and doesn't watch most sitcoms because I find them bland as white rice, this pleases me.

But in the end, I really fucking wanted to see Harmon's vision for how these people's journeys turn out, and to hear them (especially Jeff and Abed, coincidentally this episode's two focal characters) speak Harmon's words. I suspect I'll still enjoy Community a lot on an episode-by-episode basis, but there's no getting around the fact that my ability to emotionally invest has been irreparably damaged by Harmon's dismissal, and even if Community runs six seasons and a movie, I don't think I'll ever get it back.

And so what we're left with is perhaps half the delicious vanilla-fudge swirl that was Community's mix of formal ambition and Dan Harmon's character work. And I am of course more than happy to eat that vanilla ice cream left behind (especially when 90-95% of other sitcoms on the air don't even reach the level of vanilla, most tasting a bit more of refuse and sewage), but after three seasons and 71 episodes of eating that vanilla-fudge, I do find something inescapably lacking.

I'm still looking forward to watching the study group's senior year. With 30 Rock ended, Louie off the air for 2013 and Parks and Rec not as good as it used to be, Community is still alpha dog of the sitcom pack, give or take a Bob's Burgers (and New Girl's last few episodes have been awfully good, though I'm still not sure I'd call them Community good.) But Community was my absolute #1 favorite show of 2012, and, were it not for Friday Night Lights, probably would've earned that distinction in 2011 and 2010 as well. And I don't think it can rise up to those heights again sans Harmon. That makes me quite sad.

Or, as Troy put it: "MY EMOTIONS! MY EMOTIONS!"

Spartacus Power Rankings, Vol. 2

Spartacus: War of the Damned, Episode 2 - "Wolves at the Gate"

Best TV Episodes, January 2013

10. Banshee, Season 1 Episode 3 – "Meet the New Boss"

Here's the first of three early 2013 TV surprises: Cinemax's new show, Banshee, a small-town sheriff drama with a little extra-violent zest, is pretty good! I call this surprising because Cinemax's first two attempts at real, non-porn series, Strike Back and Hunted, sucked (I know some TV critics are bafflingly trying to pretend Strike Back is some kind of awesome guilty pleasure, but no, it's just a crappy action procedural with boobs), but Banshee is both smarter and way more fun than either. I could have picked any of its three January episodes for this slot, but ultimately went with "Meet the New Boss" on account of one of the most kick-ass onscreen fights I've seen in some time.

9. Supernatural, Season 8 Episode 11 – "LARP and the Real Girl"

2013 TV surprise #2: While I've previously found Supernatural's cases of the week to be mere appetizers to the main course of its arc episodes, in season 8, that's been soundly reversed, with my favorite hours of the season so far – "Bitten," "Hunteri Heroici," and now "LARP and the Real Girl" – all being standalones. (Filler, even.) This episode brought back Felicia Day's Charlie Bradbury, maybe Supernatural's best still-living recurring character save Castiel, and found a spin on live-action fantasy roleplaying that was funny and silly without ever being mean or hurtful about it. Just a damn entertaining episode. Forty-two minutes of top-to-bottom enjoyment.

8. Switched at Birth, Season 2 Episode 4 – "Dressing for the Charade"

And finally, 2013 TV surprise #3: I'm pretty sure Switched at Birth has supplanted Bunheads as my favorite ABC Family show. I put Bunheads way higher on my best of 2012 list, and Switched at Birth's fall arc kind of sucked, so I didn't think that would ever happen. But here we are: Bunheads has settled into a fun but disposable groove, while Switched is continually bettering itself and deepening its exploration of clashing cultures and the odd, compelling family at its center. But don't let me make it sound too serious – this episode, involving a series of escalating farcical mishaps at an ill-advised dinner party, is some of the most purely fun TV of the year so far.

7. Bob's Burgers, Season 3 Episode 11 – "Nude Beach"

One of the million things that makes Bob's Burgers the best animated sitcom on TV right now (and, at least for my money, in years) is its unusually long memory for that genre. It isn't "serialized," per se, but a number seemingly one-off characters have popped up again, weeks or even months later, picking up their stories where they left off. And in that spirit, "Nude Beach" acted as a de facto part two to the very first episode of the entire series, "Human Flesh," with health inspector Hugo Habercore coming into conflict with Bob once again, only this time in the nude. It was both a hysterically funny half-hour and also surprisingly made Hugo, previously a fairly one-dimensional villain, into a rounded, sympathetic character. When it comes to having heart without ever getting treacly or misplacing the funny, Bob's Burgers reigns supreme.

6. Parenthood, Season 4 Episode 15 – "Because You're My Sister"

Many critics commented that Parenthood's fourth season finale almost stumbled over itself in a rush to wrap up every single loose plot thread into an excessively happy ending, just on the off chance this ends up being the series finale (though the ratings are high enough that probably won't happen, thank god). And they aren't wrong. But god damn if I didn't have the biggest, dopiest grin of pure joy on my face during the episode/season-ending montage all the same. This show. It makes me feel, man! It makes me feel!

5. 30 Rock, Season 7 Episodes 12 & 13 – "Hogcock!" & "Last Lunch"

I won't go too in-depth on 30 Rock's series finale, not because I don't have stuff to say but because approximately two million other online essays have already covered every facet imaginable. But I will say that from my live viewing of its October 11th, 2006 series premiere to Thursday's two-part series finale – which, by the way, makes this by some margin the longest-running series that I've followed in real time from its very beginning to its very end (shamefully, I think the runner-up on that account may be the four-season run of Heroes) – 30 Rock has never stopped being an immensely enjoyable sitcom, and this finale wrapped it up very nicely. But it's actually not my favorite 30 Rock episode(s) of the month!

4. Spartacus, Season 3 Episode 1 – "Enemies of Rome"

Already discussed this in sufficient depth. Spartacus is this high because it kicks unbelievable amounts of ass. End of story.

3. 30 Rock, Season 7 Episode 9 – "Game Over"

"Game Over" isn't just my favorite 30 Rock of the month, but my favorite of season 7 and a very real contender for my top ten of the series. In uniting Jack Donaghy's long-term nemeses Devon Banks and Kaylie Hooper in one final effort to have his job, this episode brought satisfying closure to stories that 30 Rock has been slow-cooking for nearly its entire run. The series of climactic reveals detailing how Jack actually played and outsmarted Devon and Kaylie all along was both hilarious and damn impressive plotting. Beyond all that, that's a series wrap on Leo Spaceman, suckers! Lenny Wosniak returns and embraces his true identity as Jan Foster! Megan Mullally cameo! An explosively great 22 minutes of comedy.

2. Parenthood, Season 4 Episode 13 – "Small Victories"

I wrote about this in some detail as well, but "Small Victories" was a fantastic, achingly emotional hour of Parenthood that took on the abortion issue by refusing to "take it on" at all, instead depicting something overly politicized as the deeply personal choice it is. And the heaviness of that story was balanced by a comedic B-plot about body odor and pubic hair that had me laughing embarrassingly loud. This show is great. Season 5, NBC? Please?

1. Fringe, Season 5 Episodes 12 & 13 – "Liberty" & "An Enemy of Fate"

The two-hour finale of one of the best sci-fi series ever, while tense, twisty and exciting, didn't miraculously leverage its modest budget into something resembling a summer blockbuster spectacular. The final, climactic action scene of the entire series ultimately boiled down to a shootout in a parking lot (with numerous sci-fi twists on its edges, of course, including but not limited to teleportation, telekinesis, and time travel).

But there are three important ways that the two-parter of "Liberty" and "An Enemy of Fate" nailed the landing. One, timing. This finale went down at exactly the right moment, after five fast-paced seasons of continually shifting status quos, character dynamics, parallel universes and alternate timelines. Fringe didn't die so fast as to be tragic ala Firefly, but it also never grew stale and didn't outstay its welcome for a second. Granted, this is more a comment on the entire series than these specific episodes, but still, it's going to be a big part of why I recommend Fringe in years to come.

Two, mythology. I don't want to go too into this right now, but needless to say Fringe is not Lost. Every plot thread was wrapped up coherently and satisfyingly, there aren't any egregious unanswered questions, and absolutely nothing was brushed aside as being magic. (I mean, obviously time travel is magic, but they explain it as science fiction with science fiction terminology. It's a subtle but really, really important distinction.)

And three and most importantly, emotion. The action in this episode may have been relatively TV modest, but on the emotional level it was an explosive, devastating, intensely moving two hours. The true climactic moment of Fringe was not an action beat but a single, four-word line of dialogue from Peter Bishop that completed a five-year character arc with stunning beauty that sent goosebumps up my arm.

And, as an added bonus, we now have a great series finale to point to when Lost fanboys still defending that show's abortion of an ending cough up the ludicrous argument that there was no satisfying way to wrap up a long-running genre serial with a complex mythology. (Angel and Avatar: The Last Airbender already soundly disproved this, but one more example is always welcome).