Dann Michalski

“Is all TV this wonderful?” –Mr. Burns. A near perfect season, Season 5 of The Simpsons is extraordinarily entertaining and outrageously funny. It’s also the season of Bart, as he takes over hosting duty of the Halloween Special (“Treehouse of Horror IV”), is targeted for revenge by a recently released Sideshow Bob (“Cape Feare”), becomes the “I Didn’t Do It Boy” on Krusty’s TV show (“Bart Gets Famous”), is chosen by Mr. Burns to be his heir (“Burns’ Heir”), becomes the model for enlightenment for self-help guru Brad Goodman (“Bart’s Inner Child”), and is the key witness in the trial of Mayor Quimby’s nephew (“The Boy Who Knew Too Much”). But there are also several classic non-Bart episodes, like “Homer Goes to College,” “Deep Space Homer,” and “$pringfield.” Things get a little more zany and fanciful than in previous seasons (Homer becoming an astronaut is particularly out there), but the satire and parodies are as hilarious as ever. Additionally, the writers have tailored a number guest appearance specifically for such celebrities as James Woods, James Brown, Kathleen Turner, Ernest Borgnine, Conan O’Brien, Buzz Aldrin, Michelle Pfeiffer, the Ramones, James Tyler, and Robert Goulet. The Simpsons’ fifth season is truly one of the best of the series and it still holds up.

Based on the popular book series, The Vampire Diaries delivers a strong and compelling first season. The story follows two feuding vampire brothers named Stefan and Damon Salvatore who return to their home town of Mystic Falls, and while Stefan has come to get to know a young girl named Elena Gilbert who resembles the vampire who sired them Damon has his own nefarious plans. The show gets off to a really rough start, trying to incorporate the diary theme with voice-over and playing up the teen angst and romance. But about a third of the way into the season the show changes course and the plot takes an interesting turn. Additionally, the writers do an impressive job at creating suspenseful cliffhangers and at keeping the season constantly moving with exciting plot twists and reveals. Leads Nina Dobrev, Paul Wesley, and Ian Somerhalder give incredibly strong performances and have tremendous on-screen chemistry. Also, several notable stars make guest and reoccurring appearances, including Jasmine Guy, David Anders, Gina Torres, and James Remar. Plus, the score and soundtrack are extraordinarily well-done and do a wonderful job at complimenting the scenes and sets the right tone for the show. Season 1 of The Vampire Diaries can be kind of a mess at time, but proves to be a captivating supernatural drama.

Season 7 of The Vampire Diaries delivers a new vision, post Elena, that’s a bit darker and more expansive. Picking up on the apocalyptic preview at the end of the Season 6 finale, Mystic Falls becomes a deserted town when the Salvatores are forced to make a truce with the resurrected Heretics, but secretly the Salvatores plot to kill the Heretic’s leader and reclaim their home. The tone is a lot darker than in seasons’ past, and made more so by flash-forwards to 3 years in the future; foreshadowing that things will not end well in the present day storyline. However, as much as the show tries to explore new characters and relationships, the absence of Elena is keenly felt; particularly in regard to the show’s signature love triangle, which the writers try to substitute with a lesbian romance. But this romance doesn’t work, and in fact none of the new romances have much traction. Also, there’s a real bad piece of miscasting with Leslie-Anne Huff as the season’s main villain, vampire hunter Rayna Cruz. Yet, the main cast continues to bring their A-game and the 3 year flash-forwards add a lot of mystery and intrigue to the show. Season 7 has its problems, but The Vampire Diaries remains an extremely compelling and exciting series that’s full of rich, interesting characters.

Season 3 of Battlestar Galactica explores new territory and takes some of the most daring risks of the series so far. Following the Cylon occupation of New Caprica, Saul Tigh leads an insurgency as Admiral Adama plans a rescue operation; and once back in space, Baltar takes refuge on a Cylon basestar and learns about their culture as the Colonial fleet struggles to come back together and deal with collaborators and the devastating losses that they’ve suffered. Lucy Lawless and Mark Shepard join the cast as recurring characters and deliver some extraordinary performances. And the writers do an impressive job at plotting out and developing the story arc of New Caprice and its consequences. Their attempt to explore the Cylons on the basestar however, is less successful, as are some of their attempts at character development with Starbuck and Admiral Adama, and drags those episodes down. Yet the season cliffhanger, revealing members of the Final Five Cylons, is shocking and suspenseful. Additionally, the special effects and set design work is first rate as always, as is Bear McCready’s music (particularly in the finally). It’s a little weaker than last season, but Season 3 of Battlestar Galactica is extraordinarily compelling and full of thrills.

Jeri Ryan joins the Leverage crew as they get into a second season of hijinks. After having gone their separate ways the Leverage team comes back together when Nate needs help on a job, but when Sophie is forced to fake her death and takes off on a personal journey to make peace with her past, she sends her friend and fellow grifter Tara to fill-in for her with the team. The Sophie “finding herself” plot to accommodate the real-life pregnancy of Gina Bellman is handled rather poorly as she never really leaves the show; popping up throughout the season in badly done blue-screen scenes. And her constantly video chatting with everyone takes away from the seriousness of her personal journey and the supposed absence her leaving caused in the team. However, Jeri Ryan proves to be a great addition to the cast and brings a new dynamic as the outsider. Additionally, some interesting guest stars are featured, including Will Wheaton, Luke Perry, and Paul Blackthorne, and the writers come up with some exciting new cons for the team to pull off. It’s not as strong as the first season, but Season 2 of Leverage is still a lot of fun and incredibly entertaining.

The Simpsons continues to decline in its twelfth season as the show moves further away from satire and relies more and more on cartoonish gags. This season Homer becomes an online investigative journalist under the name Mr. X (“The Computer Wore Menace Shoes”), Marge tries to reform a convict (“Pokey Mom”), Lisa gets involved with an environmental activist group and ties herself to a tree to save it (“Lisa the Tree Hugger”), and Bart joins a boyband (“New Kids of the Blecch”). Additionally, Flanders builds a Christian amusement park (“I’m Going to Praiseland”), Krusty the Clown discovers he has a long lost daughter (“Insane Clown Poppy”), and Springfield tears itself apart when it gets divided into two different telephone area codes (“A Tale of Two Springfields”). The list of guest stars includes The Who, Drew Barrymore, Jay Mohr, Patrick McGoohan, Edward Norton, Michael Keaton, and N’SYNC. Unfortunately though, the writers have all but given up on the show’s main characters; writing them however they want in order to fit the jokes (irregardless of continuity or past character development). Season 12 of The Simpsons has a lot of problems, but at the end of the day it’s still fairly entertaining and delivers some laughs.

The Simpsons continues to go off the rails and out of control in its eleventh season. Things get super crazy as Homer and Mel Gibson team-up to make a movie (“Beyond Blunderdome”), Bart becomes a faith healer (“Faith Off”), a biker gang abducts Marge (“Take Me Wife, Sleaze”), Lisa stumbles upon the nefarious plans of an evil toy company (“Grift of the Magi”), Mr. Burns has the Simpsons house sit for him (“The Mansion Family”), and Moe becomes a soap opera star after having plastic surgery (“Pygmoelian”). Additionally, the show make some major character changes (all of them bad) by killing off Maude Flanders (“Alone Again, Natura-Diddily”), having Barney go sober (“Days of Wine and D’oh’ses”), and giving Apo and Manjula quintuplets (“Eight Misbehavin’”). Unfortunately the writing is all over the place and is more concerned with setting up jokes than story and character. Although, the outrageousness borders on brilliance in the clever parody episode “Behind the Laughter.” And there are a lot of fun cameos from Mel Gibson, Ed Asner, Lucy Lawless, the B-52s, John Goodman Gary Coleman, Britney Spears and many many more. While on the whole The Simpsons is still pretty entertaining, Season 11 has some real dreck that drags it down.

Based on the Terry Gilliam film, SyFy’s 12 Monkeys television series is exciting and full of thrills. In Season 1 a time-traveler from 2043 named James Cole is sent back to 2015 to kill a genetics researcher believed to be behind the release of a virus that wipes out the majority of the human race, but he soon discovers that there’s more to the virus’ release than he had believed, and begins to work with a virologist named Cassandra Railly in order to track down who creates the virus and where and when it’s released. The plot gets quite complicated at times (with up to 2 to 3 time jumps an episode), but by the end of the season it all ties together and makes sense. Additionally, the show makes a number of homages and allusions to the film throughout the episodes. However, some of the casting is weak; particularly Amanda Schull, who doesn’t seem right for the role of Cassandra. Still, the over-arcing story is intriguing, and does a good job at building suspense and mystery. And the issues it presents about time travel and the moral qualms that arise about the value of life are quite interesting. The first season of 12 Monkeys is a bit of a rough start, but it shows potential.

Boldly going where no Star Trek series has gone before, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine delivers an exciting first season that presents a daring vision. After Bajor achieves independence from the Cardassian Empire they invite the Federation to help in their reconstruction by taking control of a former Cardassian space station and providing security in the region, but everything changes when a stable wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant is discovered. Creators Rick Berman and Michael Piller do a good job at honoring Gene Roddenberry’s vision while also expanding on it by looking at how an evolved humanity interacts with societies that are still struggling (i.e. the war torn Bajorans). And in true Roddenberry fashion the show addresses a host of sociopolitical issues; particularly terrorism and post-war reconciliation. Also, the sendoff from The Next Generation is done fairly well, with Colm Meaney (Chief O’Brien) joining the cast and appearances by several TNG characters; including Captain Picard, Q, Lwaxana Troi, and Lursa and B’Etor. Like any first season show Star Trek: Deep Space Nine has some problems finding its voice and figuring out what works and what doesn’t, but overall it’s an impressive series that explores the darker side of Star Trek.

“Member South Park?” “Yeah, I member.” Less of a television season than a 10-part miniseries, South Park’s 20th season takes on internet trolling and asks the pressing question, was Star Wars: The Force Awakens really that good? When Gerald trolls his son’s elementary school’s internet message board he stirs up trouble that pits the girls against the boys and leads a Denmark company to develop a troll trace program that could cause universal Armageddon when everyone’s online handle is exposed; meanwhile Mr. Garrison does everything he can to sabotage his presidential campaign. One of the funnier recurring jokes of the season are the Member Berries; little berries that say “Member” followed by some ‘80s pop-culture reference, and causes people to mellow out and feel nostalgic…and like the J.J. Abrams Star Wars reboot. But most of the humor is focused on internet trolling, which is kind of niche. And the episodes are over serialized, to the point that no one episode can stand alone. The crudeness and vulgarity is also problematic, and saturates every episode in the troll comments and the boy’s pride marches; which involves them exposing themselves in public. Season 20 has its moments, but overall it’s one of South Park’s weaker seasons.

Angel’s fifth season takes the show in a new direction with more episodic adventures...and got the series canceled. After taking over the Wolfram & Hart law firm Angel and his team attempt to purge it of its evil clientele and use it for good, but when Spike shows up the meaning of the Shanshu Prophecy (promising Angel humanity) comes into question and Angel starts to doubt himself. The addition of James Marsters to the main cast brings an interesting new dynamic to the show, though it comes at the loss of Charisma Carpenter. Mercedes McNab and Adam Baldwin also join the cast and several other actors from previous seasons make return appearances. However the season is really uneven and gets off to a pretty rocky start. Yet by midseason the show finds itself and develops an impressive arc that carries on through to the finale. The series hits the 100th episode milestone this season, and was then promptly cancelled; leading to a number of subplots being cut loose or rushed. Yet show co-creator Joss Whedon is able to come up with a very fitting and powerful series finale. Season 5’s attempt to revamp Angel ended up being the show’s downfall, but it still had its moments.

The Cylons were created by man. They evolved. They rebelled. There are many copies….err the Synths were created by man and they rebelled. Chasing Battlestar Galactica and Game of Thrones, Star Trek: Picard betrays Gene Roddenberry’s vision to deliver a generic sci-fi drama. When a Cylon, err organic android comes to Jean-Luc Picard, living in retirement on his vineyard, for help, he discovers that neurons from Commander Data are being used to create a new kind of android and puts together a crew to find the others like her; meanwhile a secret Romulan cabal abroad a captured Borg ship attempts to find the Synth homeworld. Alex Kurtzman’s Trek continues to force in needless profanity, sexual content, and gratuitous violence; betraying the family friendly tone of Roddenberry’s Trek and the evolved humanity and bright future that he envisioned. Several characters from previous Trek series are brought back to be pointlessly killed off, while others are used for pure fan service; usually to the detriment of their character. The writing is pretty bad, reworking the Trek universe to fit the demands of the plot, and padding episodes with subplots that go nowhere. Still, the actors all deliver solid performances and the special effects are especially well-done; making for some exciting action scenes and interesting character and set designs. While nearly unrecognizable as Star Trek, Season 1 of Star Trek: Picard is entertaining and explores some thought-provoking issues.

In its seventh and final season Star Trek: The Next Generation drops down to impulse, delivering a rather lackluster conclusion to this groundbreaking televiSurpassing the Original Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation warps into a fourth season. Starting with “The Best of Both Worlds Part II,” the season delivers some incredible episodes, including “Qpid,” “The Nth Degree,” “In Theory,” and “Redemption.” The writing is also especially good; from the character development of the main cast to the provocative social commentary. In Season 4, Star Trek: The Next Generation proves that it’s a powerhouse unto itself and not just a spin-off series.sion show. Distracted by the Voyager spin-off series in development and the impending Star Trek: Generations film, there’s a clear lack of focus this season that comes through in the performances and the writing. And as a result, the stories seem incredibly contrived and feel clunky. With an over-arching theme of family reconciliation, Geordi and Crusher deal with the loss of a family member, Trio, Data, and Picard discover lost relatives, and Data and Worf confront estranged siblings. The series finale however, is extraordinary and really captures the essence of the show. Season 7 of Star Trek: The Next Generation is a little uneven and shiftless, but it’s still entertaining and is full of adventure.

A crazy mess, Season 3 of My Name is Earl is all over the place and off the rails. After being send to prison Earl continues to work on making up for his bad deeds and finds a friend in the warden, who offers him time off his sentence in exchange for help solving some of the prison’s problems, and after he gets out Earl has a crisis of faith. The writers quickly realize that putting Earl in prison was a mistake, and try to get out of it with flashback episodes, furloughs from prison, and eventually an early release at midseason. And they have a tough time coming up with B and C-stories (which are often contrived and awkwardly forced in) to keep Joy, Darnell, and Catalina around. Still, some interesting guest stars make appearances, including Howie Mandel, Jane Lynch, Michael Pena, and Paris Hilton. Also, Craig T. Nelson, Michael Rapaport, and Alyssa Milano join the cast as recurring characters and bring a fresh new energy to the show. My Name is Earl goes to some strange and unusual places in its third season (not all of them good), but manages to deliver plenty of laughs along the way.

My Name is Earl loses its way in Season 2 and gets a little too preachy and cartoonish. Pretty criminal turned do-gooder Earl Hickey continues to make up for his past wrongs, but he soon gets pulled into his ex-wife’s scheme to sell a stolen truck and works to help her beat the wrap. Earl’s moral compass goes kind of wonky as he convinces a friend to become a stripper, helps Catalina and Randy pull off a fraudulent Green Card marriage, and services as a wingman for a French lothario who comes to Camden to sleep with a bunch of women. Yet the shows gets all sanctimonious about treating people with abnormalities as “freaks” or cleaning up the environment or gambling (feeling more like a “the more to know” PSA). Still, a lot of the humor works and delivers plenty of laughs; though the characters are becoming more buffoonish. Also, the show tries a few format changes to keep things fresh, like a Cops crossover episode and a Claymation episode. Plus, a ton of guest stars are featured, including Burt Reynolds, Roseanne Barr, Jenny McCarthy, Christian Slater, John Leguizamo, John Waters, Norm MacDonald, and even Dog the Bounty Hunter. Season 2 of My Name is Earl is real hit-and-miss, but there’s more good than bad.

With David Duchovny leaving the show, Chris Carter tries to wrap up The X-Files in Season 7. After recovering from contact with an alien object Mulder rejoins Scully and investigates the Millennium cult (with the help of Frank Black), the death of a magician following an impossible magic trick, a new interactive first person shooter video game that’s killing it’s players, and run into a genie who puts an ironic twist on wishes. Additionally, Mulder finally finds the answers to what happened to his sister, Scully goes on a secret mission with the Cigarette-Smoking Man, and the Cigarette-Smoking Man tries to reconstitute the Syndicate. The show even does a cross-over episode with the Fox hit reality series Cops (“X-Cops”). Gillian Anderson writes and directors her first episode (“All Things”) and Duchovny also writes and directs an episode (“Hollywood A.D.”). Unfortunately Season 7 doesn’t provide any good answers to the series mysteries; the alien craft stuff in “The Sixth Extinction” is all nonsensical gobbledygook, and “Closure” completely rewrites the Samantha Fox mythology. On the other hand, the show manages to feature a number of interesting guest stars, including Mark Pellegrino, Lance Henriksen, Constance Zimmer, Tobin Bell, Garry Shandling, and Tea Leoni. Season 7 brings an end to another chapter of The X-File, yet opens show up to new possibilities.

Luc Besson_s The Transporter is adapted for the small screen as a weekly action-adventure television series. Season 1 is presented as a continuation of the films, but is reworked to give courier Frank Martin a team in the form of a private mechanic to fix his cars and an agent to vet his jobs and handle the clients. However, this proves problematic and causes some unevenness, as the characters are always doing separate things and don’t really work as a team. And the plots are extremely formulaic, with the job often going wrong, forcing Frank to turn on the client in order to do what's right. There’s also an over-arcing plot throughout several episodes about a mysterious women who spies on Frank and tracks his movements. Chris Vance gets behind the wheel as Frank Martin, and while he’s fairly good with the action scenes, he doesn’t have much charisma and seems miscast. In fact most of the acting is poor, as is the directing. And for some strange reason gratuitous nudity shots are randomly worked into most of the episodes. Season 1 of Transporter: The Series is incredibly clichéd and mediocre, and fails to capture the fun and excitement of the films.

The Netflix original series Jessica Jones is an ugly and joyless noir drama that betrays the Marvel brand. Season 1 follows cold and callous private investigator Jessica Jones as she attempts to track down and expose a murderer named Kilgrave who has the power to compel people to do whatever he says. Krysten Ritter is horribly miscast as Jessica, either that or the character’s terribly written. Either way, Jessica comes off as a hostile and anti-social misanthrope. On the other hand David Tennant is magnetic, creating a remarkable compelling villain (making Ritter even more inept by comparison). And Carrie-Anne Moss is completely wasted in some pointless lesbian divorce story. There are virtually no ties to the Marvel Cinematic Universe other than one or two vague Avenger references and a minor Daredevil character crossover; which is a major failing given that the series was conceived of as part of a larger build up to a Defenders feature event. Also, the show is surprisingly sexually explicit, almost exploitively so; again reflecting poorly on Marvel and its treatment of its first female led superhero series. Lacking a compelling lead character, Jessica Jones has fundamental problems and delivers a poor first season without much hope for improvement.

Luc Besson's The Transporter is adapted for the small screen as a weekly action-adventure television series. Season 1 is presented as a continuation of the films, but is reworked to give courier Frank Martin a team in the form of a private mechanic to fix his cars and an agent to vet his jobs and handle the clients. However, this proves problematic and causes some unevenness, as the characters are always doing separate things and don't really work as a team. And the plots are extremely formulaic, with the job often going wrong, forcing Frank to turn on the client in order to do what's right. There's also an over-arcing plot throughout several episodes about a mysterious women who spies on Frank and tracks his movements. Chris Vance gets behind the wheel as Frank Martin, and while he's fairly good with the action scenes, he doesn't have much charisma and seems miscast. In fact most of the acting is poor, as is the directing. And for some strange reason gratuitous nudity shots are randomly worked into most of the episodes. Season 1 of Transporter: The Series is incredibly clichéd and mediocre, and fails to capture the fun and excitement of the films.