Category Archives: review

2 Broke Girls, S3E12 “And the French Kiss”: A TV Review

stupidcbs

First of all, I’d like to personally thank CBS for not uploading any teaser pictures, which made creating the image above equal parts difficult and frustrating. This is the first time it’s ever happened, and for their mid-season finale, too. Which, pleas hold the applause for my effortless segue, are a fairly recent invention.

I more or less blame AMC’s The Walking Dead for hyping the last episode of the year as the “midseason finale”, a solid block of programming which would leave its audience with mouths agape, begging for more [I’m so sorry, I’m not sure where that came from] hyped for the show’s return. It makes perfect sense from a business standpoint, because every network wants viewers to remember to tune back in to the show after the three weeks of holiday specials. Mid-season finales have become big, which is probably why this week’s episode felt, well, small. Continue reading

People Who Disappear: A Book Review

peoplewhodisappearcover

“Sometimes romantic, sometimes elegiac, Alex Leslie’s coastal stories take place in ocean inlets and city streets. Haunted as much by technology as by their own ghosts, Leslie’s characters face the disappearance of sanity, love and landscape. An electric, poetic debut.”

So says the back cover to a book I picked up for $4 at a U of T book sale. An accurate blurb if there ever was one, Leslie is an author who has undoubtedly mastered setting, and you can practically taste and feel the salty, frigid air of Canada’s west coast. Her first book’s title is also one complete with a promise: between these covers live characters who fall between the cracks. Continue reading

2 Broke Girls, S3E11 “And the Life After Death”: A TV Review

lifeafterdeath
I had a lot of good will towards this show saved up from last week’s episode, but you would be surprised how quickly that started draining when I found out what this one was about. See, the most significant death in my life has been my grandmother’s, and while the deceased in this case was Caroline’s nanny just thinking about it made me pretty uncomfortable. 2 Broke Girls is not a show with a great deal of tact, and I was pretty apprehensive going into things-

But you know what? It was a pretty decent episode across the board, and one that actually felt short, which can be a mark of a show that’s moving along in an entertaining way. My fears about how they would tread death turned out to be unfounded, so touché, 2 Broke Girls writers’ room. Continue reading

Doctor Who, 50th Anniversary Special “The Day of the Doctor”: A TV Review

dayofthedoctor
I just couldn’t help myself. We (my husband and I) tried to watch the 50th Anniversary release in the theater, but apparently tickets were sold out within the first few hours of being online. Now that I have finally been able to watch it, however, I feel compelled to write a review. After all, how often do you watch a movie (or in this case, highly advertised TV show release) with incredibly high expectations and still walk away feeling completely satisfied? For me, not very often.

Before I go any further I should give some obvious Spoiler Warnings-

Continue reading

2 Broke Girls, S3E10 “And the First Day of School”: A TV Review

ITSMARKITSMARKWHAAAAAT

Mark from Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23Mark from Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23Mark from Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23Mark from Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23Mark from Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23

I could care less about anything else right now, but I suppose I have standards to maintain, so let me begin by stating that last week’s episode, “And the Pastry Porn”, could have easily been a mid-season finale. It ushered in a new era of 2 Broke Girls episodes that rounds out the cast, changes up the premise, and feels like an entirely different sitcom. Continue reading

2 Broke Girls, S3E9 “And the Pastry Porn”: A TV Review

pastryporn

You know how I’m always whining about how this show has no momentum as far as its story and how all I really want is for the characters to head in basically any direction? It’s like this entire episode was written to make me shut up already.

We start things out with this week’s zaaaaany character of the week, a one-armed maid named Paulina. I expressed some pretty heavy disdain with the fact that Max and Caroline would ever hire a cleaning lady, but the idea that Sophie cut them a good deal by assigning them an amputee was actually pretty funny. Continue reading