Season 4, Episode 9 – Agents of SHIELD plays with killer robots, mad science, and corrupt politicians in its action-packed return from hiatus. It plays every sci-fi trope just straight enough to pull the rug out from under you in the precise style this show has slowly cultivated through the seasons.
Dana Leigh Brand
Season 2, Episodes 8-9 – Crazy Ex-Girlfriend returns from winter hiatus with a double dose of character growth and obstacles to Rebecca’s dream life as Rebecca takes a disastrous turn babysitting Paula’s son and then she has to save her friends’ jobs in two delightful episodes.
Season 2, Episode 7 – Crazy Ex-Girlfriend stops taking field trips and brings its winter finale back home in “Who’s the Cool Girl Josh Is Dating?” Taking on both Rebecca’s falling out with Paula and her obsession with Josh, the episode returns the focus to the original pillars of the story.
Season 1, Episode 10 – “Don’t Say It” was a decent attempt to make the sports part of this sports show relevant again but it didn’t entirely succeed.
Season 4, Episode 8 – Agents of SHIELD explains all those persnickety world-building questions about the science of magic in “The Laws of Inferno Dynamics.” The episode resolves the most pressing plot points while nurturing others for the future, as any good winter finale should.
Season 2, Episode 6 – This week on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Rebecca puts all of her obsessive relationship energies into making the perfect friend group out of all of her dissimilar friends. Maya and Darryl have to work together towards a common goal, and Rebecca’s weird fake ex provides all the awkward romantic intention you could want.
Season 1, Episode 9 – Pitch rectifies a few of its earlier melodramatic mistakes with “Scratch,” but still fails to live up to its feminist potential. Dealing with trade clauses, romantic possibilities, and miscommunication, the episode recaptures a sliver of its original “uplifting sports story” style.
Season 4, Episode 7 – Agents of SHIELD figures out exactly how to come back from a cliffhanger hiatus in “Deals With Our Devils.” Drawing together every storyline of the season, the episode hits the perfect formula for the series with a mixture of action, plot, suspense, and emotion. Just like every great SHIELD episode should.
Season 2, Episode 5 – Crazy Ex-Girlfriend delivers quality laughs and deconstructs narrative tropes as ever this week in “Why is Josh’s Ex-Girlfriend Eating Carbs?” Rebecca and Valencia try to get over Josh, Darryl and White Josh have a fight, and Paula makes a friend at law school.
Season 1, Episode 8 – Pitch makes as much melodrama as possible in “Unstoppable Forces & Immovable Objects,” with sketchy relatives asking for money, pressuring people towards trades, and leanings towards a romance that does not need to be there.
Season 2, Episode 4 – Crazy Ex-Girlfriend has always been many things but it may have just become the show about female friendship that it needs to be. Ushering Rebecca’s romantic fever dreams out the door, she now has to contend with reality and figure out who she actually is.
Season 1, Episode 7 – Pitch drops the ball on telling its first feminist story in weeks, but resolves the minimal conflict without controversy. In other news: baseball players get old and petty about the youngsters coming up behind them to replace them.
Season 2, Episode 3 – Crazy Ex-Girlfriend continues to smash awful narrative tropes, overturn expectations, and sing hilarious songs to help it along in the process. “All Signs Point to Josh… or Is It Josh’s Friend?” is full of signs of all kinds and big moments that turn Rebecca’s fairy tale on its head.
Season 1, Episode 6 – Pitch gets psychological this week in “Wear It” when Ginny folds under the pressure of living up to her public persona. Juxtaposing a public party with a night on the town with normal girls, this episode is a step in the right direction for the series.
Season 4, Episode 6 – So Agents of SHIELD is basically now on mini hiatus for a month and made “The Good Samaritan” essentially a quarter-season finale and it was amazing. It had a great plot, good backstory, fun character dynamics, and all the crazy you’d expect from a normal pre-hiatus episode—but this is episode six.
Season 2, Episode 2 – Yay, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend! This week, Rebecca wonders “When Will Josh See How Cool I Am?”, Greg tells his friends about his alcoholism, and Rebecca manages to have a fantasy about ping pong making her seem sexy and empowered. Oh, Rebecca.
Season 1, Episode 5 – Pitch uses the MLB trade deadline as an opportunity to give baseball players some human empathy and instead makes a big sloppy mess. Ginny comes away seeming spoiled and unsympathetic and the show in general mishandles its baseball details.
Season 4, Episode 5 – Agents of SHIELD‘s “Lockup” offers a lot of action with only a sparse amount of story as the narrative spins its wheels on filler. Action is fun but it could use some more forward momentum.
Season 2, Episode 1 – Crazy Ex-Girlfriend returns with its usual mix of pop culture, stylized genre songs, and romantic deconstruction. Rebecca manipulates her friends and loved ones in her usual effort to keep Josh close and fulfill her own exaggerated fantasies.
Season 4, Episode 4 – Agents of SHIELD does well with characterization but falls a bit flat on plot in “Let Me Stand Next to Your Fire.” While the elements of the episode are good, the structure never lets the episode find that SHIELD oomph.
Season 1, Episode 4 – Pitch hits the baseball season’s halfway point and forces Ginny to prove she’s earned her spot on the All-Star team. Overall a bit disjointed, “The Break” feels more like filler than a triumph and provides little substance.
Season 1, Episode 13 – Luke Cage plays with narrative structure in its finale “You Know My Steez” to complete the season’s unconventional narrative about superpowers and the nature of heroism in a fittingly unconventional way.
Season 4, Episode 3 – Agents of SHIELD plays to its strengths with a science-filled plot to foil a terrorist attack. Pulling both from its own past and the Marvel Universe at large, “Uprising” provides plenty of thrills along with its moments of character development.
Season 1, Episode 12 – In “Soliloquy of Chaos,” Luke Cage gives all of its plots plenty of room for exposition before resolving them all in anticipation of the season finale. Luke is on the run, Misty gains new insight in her investigation, and Diamondback makes a play for all of Harlem while the show takes its most political stand.
Season 1, Episode 11 – Luke Cage brings all of its plots to a head in “Now You’re Mine” with two episodes left to go in the series. In typical fashion, the show lets its hero have quiet moments of heroism while providing a platform for all of the characters to test their mettle.
Season 1, Episode 10 – Luke Cage delves into his past and discovers some things he rather would have kept buried. Meanwhile, Mariah makes a political play for Harlem that will benefit her and her partners.
Season 1, Episode 9 – Luke Cage mixes science, politics, and psychiatry in its best episode so far, furthering the series’ story while firmly situating itself in the Marvel Cinematic Universe at large at the same time.
Season 1, Episode 8 – “Blowing Up the Spot” switches gears by introducing a new foe for Luke Cage even as it mops up the mess made by the old one. Intrigue, action, and personal crises ensue for all of the characters in a well-balanced episode.
Season 1, Episode 7 – There are just certain things that, if a story gives them to me, I will eat up like a bear slurps honey. I’m discovering that traumatic childhood backstories—especially for villains—are one of those things. That’s what Luke Cage just did for Mariah and Cottonmouth in “Manifest” and I hadn’t realized I’d been waiting for it the entire time.
Season 1, Episode 3 – Pitch‘s “Beanball” mixes an unnecessarily compromising romance plot with a baseball feud, resulting in a patchy episode that teeters too close to sexist narrative tropes for comfort. Ultimately, the bones of the show are still good but the side plot feels like a judgmental detour.
