The Geek Seek: the week in geek TV ending 24 Oct 2010

Let’s do this quick! It’s already late, the next batch of episodes have already started airing and there’s no time to waste! And for good reason – it was somewhat of a slight hiatus for a few shows, but in the midst of that happening the remaining shows pulled up their socks, showed off their stripes, and kicked some good old TV viewer ass. On the flipside, some shows really want to continue to be below mediocre, but at this point, that seems like the best that they can do. Enough idle chitchat! ReviewGoggles ON!

Chuck
Another blast from the past – but instead of rehashing old guest stars, we get new ones from Casey’s past, a Chuck take on the A-Team – if they ever make this a TV show I’d watch it. This episode is notable for really allowing Morgan to rise to the forefront and go on his first big mission – and Joshua Gomez really grabs hold of this chance and runs with it, and Morgan gets to save the day. Alex, sadly, continues to morph from Jennifer Love Hewitt lookalike to… I have no idea what. They seem to be filming her from all the weirdest angles! But the true star of the show is Adam Baldwin – showing off all his acting chops by acting with his eyes alone as he spends most of the episode immobilized. The episode ends with a great cliffhanger that I totally did not expect, and all in all it was a super fun episode. While there wasn’t that much main plot forwarding (till the end), all considered this is Chuck doing what it does very, very well.
Geekception

The Event
For a moment I was excited that there was no episode this week. Turns out for some reason I’d mentally blocked it out. Long story short – stuff happens, people do stupid things, CLIFFHANGER. Maybe the episode deserves better than what I’m giving – but honestly even skipping through it again to refresh my memory, well, it’s perfectly forgettable.
Geekception

The Big Bang Theory
After the high of last week we’re pretty much brought back down to rehash world. Which people go to the comics store weekly and then proceed to leaf through all the back issues week after week? At this point the new releases shelf would be good enough, no? Sheldon continues to avoid being called AFF’s boyfriend (and vice versa), and Leonard gets desperate again.
Geekception

Community
An episode seemingly about internet memes takes a HUGE swerve towards religion, and I was intrigued as to how far they could take this. Community has always been rather even handed at how it dealt with issues and various groups, poking fun at them but still loving them all the same – would this episode be similar, or would it hit us with a sledgehammer? I guess much fears were unfounded – while some people MIGHT take offence, especially with the subtext you could definitely read into, in the end the way they interpreted and retold the story was quite a bit of genius. The Abed music, the constant mentions of Abed’s favourite movies – a delightful touch. Also, what a super fun coda.
Geekception

No Ordinary Family
Do curtains fly in the wind like that? (This is in reference to the title screen.) I was thinking only if there were flyers… At any rate, we once again split into 4 smaller stories as each member of the family finds out more about their powers and the limits, and gets into different bits of trouble (or success). It’s very very odd to simplify sports into pure angles and trajectories, after all, I’m not sure if Stephen Hawking (insert non-theoretical physicist for better point making) could have done quite as well in football. Still, the show continues to be great fun and progressing steadily. Daphne’s stories might not have much impact on the general conspiracy theory, Jim’s might have taken a swerve this week, focusing instead on the family (and a great mug shot!) but we still have Stephanie, and one wonders what that old research is going to dig up. And what a poetic ending – contrasting the rise of one family, the demise of another – and an undercurrent of sadness.
Geekception

No Fringe this week – but it’s not as if we’re lacking good TV!