Opinion Five-Spot, WE 2/6/11 - Community, Fringe, Super Bowl, Glee, The Chicago Code

Here's my Opinion Five-Spot for the week ending February 6, 2011:

Community - It's been a few years since my last game of Dungeons & Dragons, but I've played it a handful of times. Enough to pick up many more references than in plenty of this show's other pop-culture eps, at least! I was almost frightened by how deeply villainous Pierce Hawthorne became, but after thinking about it a bit... I say bring it on. That character's always sort of been on the fringes of the show, and giving him a role this clearly defined hopefully makes the character more interesting than he's usually been so far.

Fringe - I may have liked this episode more for next week's preview than for anything that happened this week (well, except for Anna Torv in evening wear). Frankly, the Friday Fringe episodes haven't really lived up to the incredible amount of hype for me, with the angst-laden "Olivia resents Peter's relationship with the other Olivia" theme getting a little repetitive on top of fairly average standalones, but I'm still pretty intrigued by this whole "first people" thing, and I'm definitely ready to return to the red world next week!

Super Bowl - Game: Didn't really care who won, and the Packers pretty much just kept the Steelers at arm's length throughout, preventing it from being a classic in the vein of some recent Bowls. Ads: Will go cliche and say I loved Volkswagen Darth Vader. Also thought the classic TV NFL ad was kinda neat and thought the CarMax "kid in a candy store" loop was clever. Chrysler's two-minute ode to Detroit was definitely an evocative effort that needs to be mentioned. Halftime: I did not like it.

Glee - In a recent one of these, I marveled at the ability of many people to summon up such intense hatred for this show. I continue to watch it and not really have much of a reaction at all. I don't really regret having watched it, but I'm not certainly going "that was awesome" as I did at times early on. I also find that the less I like the song, the more I like (or at least am open to?) the Glee arrangement. Pretty much hated "Thriller," which I'd have called my fave going in. And really? Revisiting Finn/Quinn? Ugh. 'Ship has sailed.

The Chicago Code - I'm not really much of a "gritty cop show" person, and I don't know if I'm in long-term, but I thought on the whole this was a strong pilot. I was pretty iffy on the exposition-heavy voiceovers sprinkled throughout, but at least they (mostly) didn't tell us things we already knew or wax philosophical like some lesser shows' voiceovers. I've criticized the leads for not really "looking" the part in promos I've seen, but they were both pretty strong on the screen, particularly Jennifer Beals.


More Five-Spots in the Index.