Alex’s TV On-the-Go: Week of April 16th

Glee - “Hell-O”

Welcome back “gleeks!” After a four-month hiatus our favorite high school singers finally came back in a big way with a spring premiere all about new beginnings. First on our plate we saw Finn (Corey Monteith) and Rachel’s (Lea Michele) sort-of relationship end abruptly after Finn declared he wanted to be a rock star and stay single. Rachel quickly moved on to Jesse St. James (Jonathan Groff), the male lead of their rival group Vocal Adrenalines. Michele and Groff, previous co-stars in the Broadway hit “Spring Awakening,” had some nice chemistry going on and it looks to be a promising start to their storyline. Mr. Schuster (Matthew Morrison) and Emma (Jayma Mays) quickly learned that their new relationship needs to cool off for a bit while Schuster “discovers himself” after becoming single again for the first time in over 20 years. While it was definitely the slowest part of the episode, introducing Idina Menzel as the rival coach for the Vocal Adrenalines was very entertaining. Last, but certainly not least, we had everybody’s favorite scheming cheerleader coach, Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch), return from suspension. She’s back and bad as ever, providing the night’s best scenes with Santana (Naya Rivera) and Brittany (Heather Morris). I’ll leave you with a taste of one of the night’s best lines, said by Brittany: Dolphins are just gay sharks. Enjoy!

Parenthood- “What’s Goin’ on Down There”

I’ll be as bold to say that this show has officially landed itself on my (hypothetical) DVR list and I plan on sticking with it for the long haul! This week we mostly focused on Adam (Peter Krause) feeling overwhelmed between work and family and Sarah (Lauren Graham) dating Amber’s (Mae Whitman) English teacher (Jason Ritter). Krause has always been an asset to the shows he’s been on, and “Parenthood” has done a great job of making him the realistic protagonist set against the family as a whole. He seems to be the one unifying link between all the siblings and even the kids, namely especially Sarah’s. While Adam was struggling to find time for himself, Sarah went on a few dates with Mark (Jason Ritter). Although she really liked him, she broke off the relationship for Amber’s sake. It’s fun to see Whitman going from playing the literally forgettable Anne on “Arrested Development,” to a feisty angst-filled teenager against Graham’s vulnerable yet loveable Sarah. Overall, the show has found a nice way to balance the storylines between the siblings – the only thing they haven’t figured out is what the heck to do with the grandparents (Craig T. Nelson and Bonnie Bedelia). There’s always next week!

How I Met Your Mother- “Zoo or False”

After Marshall (Jason Segel) tells the gang that he was mugged in Central Park, Lily (Alyson Hannigan) becomes paranoid and wants to get a gun for protection. Marshall tries to prevent this from happening by confessing that a monkey actually mugged him, which leaves Robin (Colbie Smulders) desperate to interview him for her struggling early morning talk show. At the prospect of being on TV, Marshall admits to the gang that he made up the story about being robbed by a monkey for Lily’s benefit. By the end of the episode, both Marshall’s friends and the viewer are left wondering which story is true. The episode had its moments, but was overall just one of those “ehh” kind of episodes. As great as it is to see Segel shine in this ridiculous storyline, it’s also concerning to think of the last time Ted (Josh Radnor) had a strong storyline. At this point we’ve come to accept the fact that we will have to wait until the eventual series finale to meet “the mother,” but does that mean we have to sacrifice any decent storylines concerning Ted until then? We’ll just have to wait this one out…

Why I Finally Caved into “True Blood”

As a person who watches way too much TV, I try to be a little selective before I fully commit to a show. When “True Blood” first aired in 2008, I watched one episode and deemed it as “glorified vampire porn” and walked away. From then on whenever discussions started up about “True Blood,” I simply looked the other way and tried to change the subject because I simply could not wrap my head around what people saw in it.

After I moved to Los Angeles for the fall semester, one of my roommates successfully persuaded me to give it a second chance and I was completely compelled with the show. The show is ridiculous, and the creators fully embrace that. The series follows Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), a young southern waitress who has the power to read peoples’ thoughts. She falls in love with the vampire Bill (Stephen Moyer) and the rest of the series takes a look at their relationship and the happenings around town with an eccentric cast of characters.

To put it simply, the show is gripping. There’s no other way to really describe it. As ridiculous as some of the storylines are, each character is so personally invested in something or someone that you can’t help but root for them. There’s always a cliffhanger at the end of each episode that makes you want to scream, since you know you have to wait another week to see what happens. That, in my opinion, is what makes for truly great TV.