Weekly Round Up

American Idol - Season 12 Top 3: My feelings for several of the contestants changed dramatically throughout this season. I love Lazaro at his audition, and Angie after her original song performance, and Amber after My Funny Valentine the first time around. But that love continued to diminish as time went on. In my opinion, Lazaro and Amber weren't good enough to get to the spot they got to (especially Lazaro - the people who kept voting for him were just cruel to keep subjecting him to that kind of humiliation). And Angie's personality began to grate on me real quick.

On the other hand, I started out hating Kree. I thought she had a good voice, but was such a wet blanket. Her early songs didn't make me empathize, they made me roll my eyes. It was actually an exchange between her and Nicki Minaj (when Ms. Nicki first refered to Kree as her wife) that I finally saw a spark of life in Kree and it began to translate into her music for me. Her stage presence could still use some work; she kind of wanders aimlessly around the stage a lot, but her voice is flawless.

Candice is clearly the most talented in the bunch, but she doesn't excite very much in me. Put her up against favorites from seasons past and she would lose every time. My top two would have been Kree and Burnell (his tone was gorgeous), but since that was obviously never going to happen, I'm good with how things turned out.

New Girl 02x24 - Winston's Birthday: New Girl is one of those shows that when I'm not watching it I forget how much I love it, but then as soon as it's on I fall in love again.

Am I the only one who isn't wild about Jess and Nick together? Like, I feel their chemistry and I feel that putting them together was inevitable, but I'm actually much more excited about their potential as exes than as lovers. I think their more of an important stepping stone for each other.

Schmidt continues to be my favorite character on the show. I'm really torn by the introduction of his college girlfriend. I'm quickly falling for her, but I truly believe that Schmist and Cece are meant to be.

Psych 07x09-07x11 - Juliet Wears the Pantsuit-Office Space: I am a big fan of shows that can cleverly break the fourth wall and shout out to their fans. Glee, for example, has had some good ones, but is just as likely to try to say something clever but instead comes out a cringe-worthy (lesbian fan bloggers, anyone?). Psych on the other hand is almost always on point. Sean and Gus' hatred and mockery of both The Mentalist and Entertainment Weekly? Pretty funny. It's not too blatant, just a quick inside joke for those in the know. Santa Barbarian Candidate was no exception. I  started watching Psych partly because of my love of Charlie Young from The West Wing, so watching Sean tease Gus into saying "yes, Mr. President" and really that whole scene? Perfection.

I'm enjoying the way they're handling Juliette finding out about Sean's not-so-psychic ability. Sure, there's some angst and strain in their relationship. I mean, they broke up, can you have much more strain than that? But even with them wading through this untrusting, not dating but still in love territory, the show can keep it riotously funny. And keep the characters true to themselves. They're going to get back together eventually, but in the meantime I'm okay with this break.

Community - Season 4: Yeah, I watched basically the whole season this week. I think there might have been a few episodes I had watched before, but pretty much the whole thing this week.

Community is consistently one of my favorite shows. It's smart. It celebrates television. It's unconventional in it's use of convention. And each year builds into something new.

It's a sitcom with good continuity, something I really appreciate. It doesn't change the characters to fit a particular story it wants to tell. All the characters are well formed with well thought out flaws and foibles, and they're believable in their un-believability. If that makes sense.

I am curious to see how the show will re-invent itself for Season 5. Throught the four seasons, there has been growth in what aspects of the characters' outside lives we've been privy to, to the point where we can witness full episodes outside the school walls. The growth will have to come to a full fruition in Season 5 now that Jeff has graduated.

Glee 04x22 - All or Nothing: Glee has a lot of problems, but I still can't help it being one of my favorite shows. It has so much to offer, and is a show I can't help but view as more than television. Maybe because I'm more invested in the fandom of Glee than anything else, I seem to see the show and everything it brings with it, as more of a social commentary, a contemporary look at today's history.

I'm not going to say too much else, as I'm in the process of putting together a Season Four reaction post. Suffice it say, I didn't feel like this episode was a season finale. None of the season story arcs got resolved, and I think a big part of that was because the season ends in the middle of the school year. The season isn't finished.

Pretty Little Liars 02x04-02x07 - Blind Dates-Surface Tension: Love me some trashy TV and this is taking the cake right now. I know the show is about to start Season Four this summer, so I hope I can catch up in time.

I am slightly worried that nothing will ever get resolved. Are they going to hold onto the identity of Alison's killer until the very end? Because that could get pretty old pretty quick. I mean, there's a lot of potential for A's exploitation even after they know for sure who the killer is. So don't count that out.