Picks of the Week: October 4-8

I'm going to jump straight into it this week, since I've got a lot to say about some of these episodes. As usual, my picks for the week, from total nonsense to incredible.

Bones

Unfortunately, Bones is more and more grabbing the bottom spot. This episode was trying to grab the whole “Jersey Shore” mythos and drop it into the world of Booth and Bones. Sadly, they failed, rather miserably. There were two running jokes the entire episode, one of which worked, and one of which fell flat on its face. The episode had some high-points, but ultimately, is far and away the worst thing on the list this week.

I don't know what made the writers think that having Bones try to use Jersey Shore lingo would be funny. It's pathetic and awkward. The completely over-the-top Jersey shore makes the whole thing seem like there's a joke here I'm completely missing, but in the end, I just don't care enough to try to get it. A few more episodes like this, and Bones might start getting a pass in favor of something else.

As a disclaimer going forward, however, all of the remaining four shows did a great job. It was very difficult for me to put them in any order whatsoever – suffice to say that they're all worth the view.

Castle:

This episode could have been very terrible. As is, it was a little predictable, given that we got a 'special guest who's linked in with Beckett's past'. I don't know about anyone else, but there needed to be some reason he was going to bail by the end of the episode, and being a traitorous douchebag pretty much takes the cake on that one.

A bunch of obvious plays on Castle's insecurity over someone else taking 'his' girl out, a fun Alexis plot back at home regarding nostalgia, and a treasure map make this a fun episode for Castle, on a whole, but I'm going to give the performance of the episode to Beckett, hands down. She did phenomenally in displaying a wide range of emotions through the lens of her character. I could tell all those emotions – the pain, the strength, and all of that – but it was all done with a strong flavor of Beckett. Even when acting outside her normal range, she felt very in-character.

Glee:

Glee was a much heavier episode than we're used to, though also a little more heavy-handed than usual. The major event in the episode comes almost completely out of nowhere – in a good way, offhandedly hinted at until it actually happens. It's the character's reactions to it that are pretty surprising. Of all the characters in the show, there are really only two that I expected to have any kind of religion – Quinn and Mercades. Having it come out of the woodwork for the rest of the characters seemed odd – though Kurt's anti-religion stance bothers me almost as much. You'd think that someone who had been persecuted would be a little more reserved about throwing stones back.

Overall, though, the music for the whole episode was good, and in the end, I generally enjoyed watching the episode, though I wish these characters could be a little more consistent.

Caprica:

Caprica's back, and with a solid episode that could very well be a second pilot. It's not a true pilot – because really, the information that we got wasn't expository as much as it could have been, but the writers were clearly aware that they were coming off a long break, and that we needed a gentle easing back into the Caprica universe. I have a feeling that this episode would feel a little awkward during a marathon of the season, but as a standalone weekly, it does a good job of hooking me back into the show.

Explaining this show would take a whole bunch of time, but I will say this: if you didn't like Battlestar, you should give this a look. I couldn't stand the mini-series of BSG, and this show has me genuinely hooked, even not really knowing how the story comes to an end. I'm glad this show got it's chance to keep going, and I'll be watching it weekly now.

House:

I know that House is up here a lot, but it's really cleaning up this season. Today's episode focused on curing a patient of a disease, and also figuring out why she wanted to commit suicide. House-Cuddy relationship developments abound, and Wilson gets at least a minor role in the episode, which is welcome, since we haven't seen him or his ex-wife in a few episodes. The fact that House enjoyed the patient's ook series was interesting – given that he doesn't emotionally connect to much at all, but at the same time, it fits him somehow – to like a book about a boy detective.

Overall, this week in television impressed me across the board, with the exception of Bones, which I'm beginning to dread. Here's hoping that Bones picks it up this coming week, with everyone else continuing to hit high-notes.