Welcome to The Groove Tube, a weekly recap of the highlights (and lowlights) of some of the scripted TV shows I'm watching (in order of preference).
TV Series of the Week: Once Upon a Time
"A Land Without Magic" (Episode 22/May 13, 2012)Best Return of the Week: Jamie Dornan as The Huntsman who helped Prince Charming escape from The Evil Queen.
Best Return of the Week Honorable Mention #1: Emilie de Ravin as Belle, whom Jefferson released from the underground asylum.
Best Fight of the Week: Prince Charming and Rumpelstiltskin had a sword fight in the forest.
Best Special Effects of the Week: Poor August completed his transformation back into a wooden puppet.
Best Fight and Special Effects of the Week Runner-Up: Emma's fight with Maleficent (in her dragon form) in order to get the true love potion that would end the curse.
Best Kiss of the Week Runner-Up: Prince Charming kissed Snow White, who woke up.
Saddest Scene of the Week Runner-Up: Henry - but Emma's kiss, fortunately, revived him and broke the curse.
Best Reunion of the Week: David and Mary Margaret (aka Prince Charming and Snow White).
Best Reunion of the Week Honorable Mention: Mr. Gold/Rumpelstiltskin and Belle.
Best Smile of the Week: Regina's smile as she watched the magical purple smoke.
Best Cliffhanger of the Week: Mr. Gold/Rumpelstiltskin used the love potion to bring back magic to everyone.
Grade: A+ (a perfect season finale that reunited a few couples and set up an interesting premise for Season 2)
Overall Season Grade: A (this series was good from the very first episode, but it got even better as its season progressed and we became better acquainted with all the characters. The show was especially wonderful whenever it focused on the love stories of David and Mary Margaret and Prince Charming and Snow White as well as the increasingly strained relationship between Emma and Regina. I never expected to fall in love with a fairy tale as an adult, but Once Upon a Time captured my heart)
Ratings: 9.66 million viewers, #2 in time period with 5.4 rating/9 share
2) Mad Men
"Dark Shadows" (Episode 61/May 13, 2012)Blasphemy of the Week: Megan called the daytime soap opera, Dark Shadows, "a piece of crap". However, to be fair to her, this episode was set in 1966 before Barnabas Collins appeared on the show.
Best Betty Moment: When she ate whipped cream directly from the can before spitting it out.
Best Return of the Week Runner-Up: The bitch was back when Betty tried to destroy her daughter Sally's friendship with Megan by revealing that Don had a first wife, Anna.
Most Handsome Guest Star: 32-year-old Mark Famiglietti as Roger's client Bernie Rosenberg who took a shine to Jane.
Best Line: "How Jewish are they? You know, Fiddler on the Roof, audience or cast?" - Roger
Best Line Runner-Up: “Am I the only one who can work and drink at the same time?” - Peggy
Grade: A (a good Betty episode - I hope actress January Jones returns full-time next season)
Ratings: 2.13 million viewers, 0.7 rating (adults 18-49)
3) Parks and Recreation
"Win, Lose, or Draw" (Episode 68/May 10, 2012)Best Moment: Leslie's emotional moment in the voting booth.
Best Win of the Week: Leslie won the election for city council.
Worst Decision of the Week: A drunk Ann agreed to move in with Tom (I'm still hoping that she and Chris will find their way back to each other next season).
Grade: A
Overall Season Grade: A- (Amy Poehler and her talented co-stars continued to make me laugh this season - and I am so glad the show will be returning for a fifth season of fun)
Ratings: 3.42 million viewers, #4 in time period with 2.1 rating/3 share
4) The Vampire Diaries
"The Departed" (Episode 66/May 10, 2012)Best Return of the Week Honorable Mention #2: The handsome Daniel Gillies as Elijah.
Best Kiss of the Week: Stefan gave Elena a big smooch.
Saddest Choice of the Week: Elena finally decided that she still loved Stefan and had to let Damon go.
Best Plot Twist of the Week: In order to save her friends and her mother, Bonnie created a spell to transfer Klaus into Tyler's body, meaning Klaus is still alive (so I guess this means that actor Michael Trevino will be playing Klaus next season instead of Joseph Morgan).
Best Flashback of the Week: Revenge's entire flashback episode was interesting, but I enjoyed seeing Elena meet Damon for the first time more.
Best Cliffhanger of the Week Runner-Up: So Alaric died when Elena drowned, but Meredith gave her vampire blood earlier when she suffered a cerebral hemorrhage - which then caused a dead Elena to transition into becoming a vampire. This radical change to the series should make its fourth season worth tuning in for.
Grade: A- (I enjoyed the season finale, but I will miss Morgan as Klaus and Matt Davis as Alaric - and I do hope that Claire Holt returns next season as Rebekah)
Overall Season Grade: A- (Klaus and Rebekah kept things interesting this season as did the ongoing love triangle between Elena, Stefan and Damon)
Ratings: 2.53 million viewers, #5 in time period with 1.6 rating/3 share
5) Smash
"Previews" (Episode 14/May 7, 2012)Best Cameo Appearance of the Week: Marc Kudisch (who appeared in the Broadway musical, 9 to 5, with Megan Hilty) as Darryl F. Zanuck in Bombshell - hopefully we will see more of him next season.
Best Musical Performance: "Smash!" (the office setting with Mr. Kudisch did remind me of 9 to 5).
Best Musical Performance Runner-Up: Eileen's "September Song" with Smash songwriter Marc Shaiman as the restaurant pianist who accompanied her.
Most Awkward Meeting of the Week: A clueless Karen introduced Ivy to Dev - after the two of them had a one-night stand.
Best Exit of the Week: Rebecca drank her green smoothie and ended up in the hospital due to an allergic reaction to peanuts. She was then too scared to continue with the show.
Best Cliffhanger of the Week Honorable Mention: Who is going to play Marilyn?
Grade: B+ (it was an entertaining episode)
Ratings: 5.72 million viewers, #3 in time period with 3.9 rating/6 share
6) Glee
"Prom-asaurus" (Episode 63/May 8, 2012)Worst Prom Theme: Brittany's dinosaur idea was kind of lame - I expected something more wildly creative from her.
Best Inner Voice of the Week: Actress Helen Mirren as Becky Jackson's groovy inner voice.
Best Bitch with a Bad Attitude: Becky Jackson, who got to play strip poker with Puck during Rachel's anti-prom party.
Best Scene: Puck crowned Becky the queen of the anti-prom party - he's so sweet.
Scariest Hair of the Week: Blaine's without any hair gel.
Nicest Gesture of the Week: Quinn arranged for Rachel to be declared the write-in winner for prom queen instead of her.
Best Musical Performance Runner-Up: Quinn and Santana's performance of the Academy Award-winning song, "Take My Breath Away", from the 1986 film, Top Gun.
Best Musical Performance: Rachel, Kurt and Blaine's performance of Fergie's "Big Girls Don't Cry".
Best Prom Miracle: Quinn stood up at the prom.
Grade: B+
Ratings: 6.67 million viewers, #2 in time period with 4.0 rating/6 share
7) Modern Family
"Disneyland" (Episode 70/May 9, 2012)Best Return of the Week Honorable Mention #3: Haley's ex-boyfriend Dylan returned, and they reconciled after he was fired from his job in the Dapper Dans, a barbershop quartet at Disneyland.
Grade: B+ (unlike the season opener in which the entire family implausibly vacationed at a dude ranch, I could easily believe that they would all go to an amusement park together)
Ratings: 10.58 million viewers, #3 in time period with 6.4 rating/10 share
8) Desperate Housewives
"Give Me the Blame" (Episode 179/May 13, 2012)"Finishing the Hat" (Episode 180/May 13, 2012)
Best Opening Scene of the Week: The housewives offered to take care of Karen McCluskey so that she could die at home.
Best Opening Scene of the Week Runner-Up: Christine Estabrook returned as Martha Huber, who welcomed Mary Alice to Wisteria Lane on the day that she moved in.
Best Neighbor of the Week: Karen who confessed to killing Gaby's stepfather.
Best Reunion of the Week Runner-Up: As much as Lynette irritated me over the years, I was happy to see her and Tom finally reconcile - they belong together.
Best Return of the Week Honorable Mention #4: Dana Delany as Katherine Mayfair, a now successful businesswoman who is no longer a lesbian.
Saddest Scene of the Week: Karen died while listening her record of Johnny Mathis' 1957 hit, "Wonderful! Wonderful!" (sadly actress Kathryn Joosten died of lung cancer on June 2).
What Ever Happened to Susan?: We learned what happened to Bree, Lynette and Gaby in the future, but there was no mention of Susan, who just moved away. I would be interested to know if she ever remarried.
Nice Ending: It won't rank up there with the best series finales of all-time, but I liked that many of the ghosts of Wisteria Lane - including Mike, Karen, Rex Van De Kamp, Nora Huntington, Beth Young, George Williams and Karl Mayer - all showed up to watch Susan drive away. However, the new neighbor with a secret who moved into Susan's house wasn't really necessary in my opinion.
Grade: B (it was a satisfying end to the series - except for Susan's future. I did find it interesting to learn that Carmen, the female gardener whom Carlos hired as a joke, was to be featured in Marc Cherry's new TV show, Devious Maids, which was not picked up by ABC)
Overall Season Grade: C+ (the season wasn't great - especially during its first half - but my two favorite housewives, Bree and Gaby, kept me tuning in to the very end)
Last Words: I already blogged about my 5 Best and Worst Episodes of the series (click here to read the post), so I will just say that Desperate Housewives was never better than its terrific first season. Although the acting was always entertaining, the series suffered from its hit-and-miss writing. But I will miss Marcia Cross and Eva Longoria as Bree and Gaby - they were both a delight to watch.
Ratings: 11.12 million viewers, #1 in time period with 6.9 rating/12 share
9) Revenge
"Legacy" (Episode 20/May 9, 2012)Best Return of the Week Honorable Mention #5: Since the episode was a flashback to 2002, we got to see the late Frank Stevens again (played by Max Martini).
Character Most In Need of a Haircut: Jack, who apparently wore his hair long in his younger days.
Grade: B (although it was interesting to see Victoria meet David Clarke for the first time in 1991 and Lydia and Conrad begin their affair in 2002, I'm not a huge fan of flashback episodes - I'm anxious to get back to all the drama in the present day)
Ratings: 7.01 million viewers, #2 in time period with 4.7 rating/8 share
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