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The Pajiba Power Rankings Sees a Three-Way Tie for the Best Episode of the Week

By Dustin Rowles | Posted Under TV Reviews | Comments (17)

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(Author’s Note: Because I was attending the Independent Film Festival of Boston, the Power Rankings for last week’s episodes are a day late. Apologies. )

10. Community: “Community” is on a tad of a slide. It still hits the sweet spots, but it’s not generating a lot of laughter. This week, with the return of Modern Warfare, I expect it to compete next week with the “Justified” season finale for the top spot.

9. Happy Endings: The show is growing on me more each week, and it was fun to see Damon Wayans, Sr. drag out the 90s’ cliches in an episode with his son. But, it’s Casey Wilson who is currently my favorite character. This show feels like a younger generation “Cougar Town,” deftly mixing alcohol and comedy.

8. Breaking In: The ratings are solid on this show (last week, among the 18-49 demo, it was 16th, ahead of “How I Met Your Mother” and “Parks and Recreation”) but it still feels like no one is really paying attention, and you should be: Cash is like “Community’s” Abed crossed with 7UP Guy. And he does a mean Wookie.

7. Cougar Town: I don’t know who stole the show the most this week, Bobby “Wrongballs” Cobb or one of the signers of the Constitution, Richard Stands. How many people started following @TheLarmy after this week’s episode? “Crap, just threw out my shoulder busting a “whut whut.”

6. The Office: It wasn’t an outstanding episode given the magnitude of it, but I appreciated the writers’ respect for Steve Carell’s low-key send-off wishes. Plus, the scene between Michael Scott and Jim Halpert near the end was really well done.

5. The Killing: This week’s episode was a marked improvement over last week’s. as it focused in a possible conspiracy, a potential cover-up, a twist in that the father once had mafia ties, and that suspect’s relationship with the political campaign. Everything was brought into focus again, and there’s the real possibility that, in the next episode, there could be another murder, this one much easier to solve.

4. Game of Thrones: See TK’s recap.

1. Parks and Recreation: I just couldn’t pick a top show among these top three this week. “Parks” was another near-perfect episode. The decision to marry Andy and April so quickly has worked — their relationship is even more cute as a married couple. And the painting this week gave nearly every character (well, except Ann, as usual) the opportunity to shine. As comedies go, nothing on television approaches “Parks and Recreation” right now.

1. Doctor Who: Brilliant second-part to the season opener, even if it felt like too many of the tricks of the plot settled themselves a little too easily by the end. But it has set up a clear arc for the mythology episodes this season. See C. Rob’s recap.

1. Justified: It looked like Dickie was a goner, leaving little to settle in this week’s final episode of “Justified.” But that twist in the end, plus the return of the evil version of Mags Bennett has set up what expects to be one hell of a finale. I just hope there’s time enough for Raylan and Art to settle their differences.










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Comments

I loved that scene with Raylan and Dickie, where Raylan's memories of his Aunt Helen make him remember that she didn't give him a second chance so that he could shoot an unarmed, bound man in the head, regardless of the circumstances. It was beautifully done.

Posted by: Drake at May 3, 2011 12:39 PM

Having Maggs turn back to drugs and remain there makes no sense to me but I assume she's gonna die quickly so we'll see. If they drag it out it makes no sense. She's literally burnt her bridges there.

Posted by: Logan at May 3, 2011 12:42 PM

The ending of the Dickie/Raylan scene with Raylan saying "God DAMN you, Dickie!" before pistol whipping him was pretty amazing. Raylan is usually either pissed or sarcastic/put upon or both. This entire scene really felt like Raylan had his armor down for once.

Who was the old woman at the end? Was that Dickie's partner's mother? I don't remember that guy's name at all.

Posted by: TylerDFC at May 3, 2011 12:47 PM

Though I love my Olyphantypants, I must say the Doctor won me over this week. The episode was so much fun, I wanted to immediately watch it again. Who knew that funny looking kid in the Stetson would win me over?

Posted by: Cindy at May 3, 2011 12:48 PM

The montage at the end of this episode of the Killing was particularly good, what with Neko Case's "Hold On" over the top of it.

Posted by: the_wakeful at May 3, 2011 12:53 PM

Looking back at thhis season of Justified, I'm amazed how well and how deliberatly they've managed to set up a major Raylan/Bennets showdown for the finale.

And I can't wait to see how Boyd's wildcard antics figure into it all.

Posted by: Markus at May 3, 2011 1:10 PM

I know she sort of has to, but I really don't want to see Mags die. She is a brilliant character and an even better nemesis for Boyd because she never lets her emotions get in the way of her end game.

Posted by: PaddyDog at May 3, 2011 1:31 PM

That should be "even better nemesis for Rayland than Boyd".

Dog knocked my arm while typing.

Posted by: PaddyDog at May 3, 2011 1:32 PM

This week's Justified was the best of the season. I loved almost all of it. Everything having to do with Raylan, Arlo and Helen was perfection- acting, writing, direction. The only scene that just really rubbed me the wrong way was when Boyd and Ava pulled guns on Raylan. I know the girl likes to pull a shotgun out, but she wouldn't do that to Raylan. It didn't make sense. The writers still have absolutely no idea what to do with Boyd, but I can't wait for the finale.

The Office was really great. I know a lot of people have fallen out of love with it, but I can take long breaks and come back to those characters and still laugh and cry as much as I did during the early seasons. Michael and Jim's scene was my favorite, but I loved it all. The silent "that's what she said" was perfection.

Posted by: Mel C. at May 3, 2011 2:06 PM

PaddyDog:
I don't think Mags is going to die. I think most of Boyd's crew is. I think it is going to end with a world of hurt coming but I'm not expecting a resolution. It has to be ongoing to keep Raylan in Kentucky. So far he didn't have a reason to stay beyond getting Helen's killer. But a full on war between the Bennetts/Givens/and Crowders would probably do the trick.

Anyone else thinking Wynona is going to end up adopting Loretta? I can't figure out why she's still in the picture unless they are doing something else with her.

Posted by: TylerDFC at May 3, 2011 2:20 PM

Well, I read an interview with one of the writers or somebody that said that Loretta wasn't meant to stick around, except they thought the actress was so exceptional that they didn't want to let her go.

I don't know if they have a Season 3 plan or not.

Posted by: The Wandering Parakeet at May 3, 2011 2:47 PM

Can't Winona die?

Posted by: elizabeth at May 3, 2011 2:49 PM

TylerDFC:

Why would you wish that on Loretta? She's a nice kid who has already lost two parents and a woman who cared for her (albeit a homocidal abusive megalomaniac woman who cared for her). Now you want her to be raised by Winona? That's harsh.

Posted by: PaddyDog at May 3, 2011 2:59 PM

Now you want her to be raised by Winona? That's harsh.

Heh heh.

As much as Winona bugs me, the fact that she has the potential to commit a criminal act says something about the women that Raylan chooses. Ava is obviously determined to be on the arm of a criminal. It adds the tiniest bit of extra backstory to his character.

Posted by: Paultera at May 3, 2011 6:29 PM

I'm so happy you posted Cougar Town and Happy Endings. I have loved Cougar TOwn since the Thanksgiving episode of season 1 and I find Happy Endings hilarious. Or, A-Maz-Ing.

Posted by: Ashley at May 3, 2011 7:29 PM

I watch Justified every week, but because my cable company is showing the new episodes about 3 weeks behind the ones you guys are seeing and commenting on here, I can't really read these columns for fear of spoilers. It's starting to piss me off.

Posted by: Uriah Creep at May 3, 2011 9:40 PM

I've watched the Parks and Rec episode five times already. That's how much I loved it.

I also love how the show is setting up some great plots--Ben moving in with April and Andy top among them. They can milk that for ages. Then, of course, Leslie and Ben's relationship--the build-up for which is so excruciating, but so, so good. And Chris staying on in Pawnee, the secrecy of the romance, etc. etc.

The best thing about the show, though? How much the characters genuinely like each other. It's so rare to see a comedy that's not cynical or ironic or cruel.

Posted by: Figgy at May 3, 2011 11:03 PM