TV Power Rankings for the week of 6/27/2011 – 7/3/2011

This is a bit of a stranger Power Rankings in that it is very late because I was out of town for 5 days. I take a yearly trip to New York City to see a bunch of plays and get rejuvenated. I saw Jerusalem, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, The Normal Heart and Anything Goes. Each one was inspiring. Each one was moving. I urge everyone to go out and see some theatre. There really is nothing like it. 

That being said, I write about TV on this blog. I usually link to all the reviews on the site, but I didn’t get around to writing reviews for every show. I won’t have the time to go back and review them so I might have some extended thoughts on things like True Blood and Treme. Treme and The Voice will drop out after this week and we’ll really be dipping into summer TV…

1. Louie – “Bummer/Blueberries”: A fantastic episode of Louie. Last week I said that I didn’t always like when Louis CK was being Louie the father. I do love when we get a look into his personal and love life. These two encounters he had were both bizarre and interesting. I was honestly kind of enthralled with the conversations. I was hanging on every word. This was a perfect example of his use of dark comedy to sort of simulate his mind. Those two encounters with those women were bizarre and a little heartbreaking, but yet we sort of felt happy for Louie because he was connecting with these two women in some ways. Really strong.

2. Treme – “Do Whatcha Wanna”: Was it just me or did this seem like a season finale that thought it could be a series finale? If this is where Treme ended forever, I don’t think anyone would be upset. They did a pretty good of wrapping up all the story lines. And it’s not that all of the story lines are wrapped, but they all wrapped up with so much hope and happiness. Every character, with exception of maybe Davis and Terry Colson, ended up in a good place. Antoine is very satisfied teaching the kids. Ladonna is happy running the bar again after confronting her rapist. Sonny is a sober and successful seaman who gets the chance to be with cute Asian girl. Toni and Sofia B Real have seemed to rekindle their relationship despite the men in their lives letting them down. Jeanette and Delmond are back on their way to New Orleans, which is nice. Jeanette is falling for Jacques and I think that’s nice. Seeing her happy is always good. I’m curious where they go with a third season. There will have to be conflict. No way around that. I wonder if they will jump ahead to the BP oil spill. They already planted the seeds in this episode.   The big miss in this season was Nelson Hidalgo. No one ever cared about him buying and selling property and now he appears to be out of business. There wasn’t enough payoff on his character. Though I still feel like if you don’t like Treme at this point, you probably won’t ever enjoy the series, which is a shame, because I really enjoy the world it lives in.

3. Weeds – “Bags”: Weeds makes a really triumphant return to my life. I thoroughly enjoyed the season seven premiere. Yes, season seven. I’ve never not been entertained, but one really does have to question the shelf life at this point. Either way, we jumped ahead three years and Nancy is getting released to a halfway house in New York City. It wouldn’t be Weeds if she wasn’t busy selling something illegal, so naturally she’s switched to running guns. I’m interested in all the new people she’ll meet along the way, including Michelle Trachtenberg. 
4.  True Blood – “You Smell Like Dinner”: I hated the first episode, but really enjoyed this one. It focused the show a little bit and spent zero time in fairy land. The conflicts have been pretty well set up now. The witches who practice necromancy can control the vampires. That’s a pretty big deal. Lafayette and Jesus are a part of this coven and Tara is on the fringe. Tara being away did not last long enough. Her scenes with Sookie were absolutely brutal. However, I like anything and everything Jessica does, so it’s good to see her getting so much screen time early on. Any scene with her and Pam is golden. I still don’t care about Sam and his brother. But the notion of Jason turning into a Panther is intriguing. Though more than likely he’ll get saved in the eleventh hour by someone just before he turns.

5. Falling Skies – “Grace”: This was probably the best episode of Falling Skies that has aired. I know it got a little chessy at the end with the prayer, but seeing hope in these people is necessary. Narratively, it can mean that their fall could be greater, but it could simply mean that they have clear minds to start learning about the aliens rather than just killing them. The communication with the aliens was the most interesting part of the episode. Surely talking wouldn’t work, but the fact that they use radio frequencies to control the kids in the harnesses could prove to be interesting. The harnesses also have healing powers, but almost addict the kids to them. And if none of the alien stuff interests you, you can still watch it for the story about the dad searching for his kids and the sure to be romantic stories that come up.
6. So You Think You Can Dance – “Two of 16 Perform”: Another solid two episodes of the show. There have been some really wonderful dances and I feel like, pretty much the right people are getting eliminated and in the bottom three. I know my mantra is “Free Ashley Rich” but after the three solos, she definitely deserved to go home and not Miranda. But either way, neither of those two are going to make it much further. I think Chris and Ashley will be gone before the top ten, but the battle to not be the 9th and 10th eliminated will be more fierce. Let’s not forget, the Top Ten will dance with the All Stars.

 

7. Wilfred – “Trust”: Although I still enjoyed this episode of Wilfred, I have about reached the point where I need something else to happen. Hopefully we’ve kind of established the relationships and now we’ll get into some conflicts. Ryan has to win over Jenna somehow and he will inevitably have to deal with his next door neighbor. Jason Gann will always be entertaining as the dog, but I wouldn’t mind seeing a few levels from him. The Matt Damon jokes were nice, but it could have been a bit more clever.

8.  The Voice - “Finals”: When the wrong person wins American Idol, we get all up in arms and spit out lengthy diatribes on why the show is bad, but when The Voice totally nails the top 4, 2 and winner, it falls a little flat. Not that I would want Javier to not win, but what’s there to talk about. Dia and Javier were both deserved of their top two spot and Javier was probably just a little bit better. Sucks that it had to be Adam Levine that won because he was a bit of a douche, but at least he wasn’t as worthless as Christina Aguilera. Blake Shelton seems like a real great guy, but I don’t know how much coaching he really did. I doubt Javier of Dia will be much of a star, but they were good on the first season. 

Tagged bags, bummer/blueberries, do whatcha wanna, falling skies, grace, javier colon, Louie, so you think you can dance, the voice, treme, true blood, trust, weeds, wilfred, you smell like dinner