Girls Want To Be Cinderella, Not Scientists

Big Bang Theory, S06E18

After deciding that if their committee wanted to encourage more women in the sciences, they should start at the middle school level, Leonard, Sheldon, and Howard visited Howard's old school to speak to a group of girls about their jobs and the allure of science.  Penny, Amy, and Bernadette got the idea to play hookie and go to Disneyworld while they were helping Raj decide what he should do for his first date with Lucy.  With little help from his girl friends, Raj planned a text date in the library for himself and Lucy.

From the moment that I heard what their committee was about, I didn't feel like the three of them would do a great job in acheiving their goal.  I'm sure that Leonard felt that it was a worthwhile cause, but Howard and Sheldon could have cared less.  As Leonard had suggested, it looked a whole lot like a typical forced group work: one person does all the work, while the others just slack off.  Also, I don't feel like these guys are the best people to get girls interested in science.  They should have had at least had one woman in their group to give the female perspective on the problem at hand.  It made me wonder why it took until nearly the end of the story before the scientist girlfriend and wife were consulted with their points of view.

It's hard to say which one of them bombed the biggest at the middle school.  I suppose it's a toss up between Leonard and Sheldon.  Leonard tried too hard to be cool, making himself look even lamer, and went off on a tangent about how his parents pushed him into science (and the cello) and how he wanted to be a police-friendly version of Snoop Dog.  Actually, without even bringing up Sheldon, I would say that Leonard was the one who discouraged the girls best from science with all of his whining.  Sheldon was a little graphic and certainly grim about the one female scientist he brought up as an example, but at least his incompetent presentation was short and sweet.  Plus, he redeemed himself when he put an end to Leonard's bitching and acknowledged that the girls present there were being done a disservice by them.  I loved when the girls clapped at him then.  Then Sheldon finally got Amy and Bernadette on the phone, so at least he did a little damage control.  Leonard just looked like science was the reason why he needs a lot of therapy (that and his overbearing parents).

One other part I enjoyed was when Sheldon thought he should Google how to get 12 year-old girls excited and Howard and Leonard ran over to stop him.  Wow, I don't know how that would have ended if they had simply let him do that.  Sheldon might have thrown his computer into a wall after seeing those results.

It was sort of cute that the girls all decided to play hookie together, especially since their destination was Disneyland.  I thought we might see them go on some rides or eat some crazy junk food, but instead it turned into a bit of a battle for the right to be dressed as Cinderella.  Not too surprising that Bernadette, who had suggested the Disney princess makeover in the first place, made it entirely clear that she was going to be Cinderella and the other girls would have to physically fight her if they didn't agree.  I like when Bernadette gets aggressive like that.  She has that look and sound of someone sweet and gentle, but get in her way and she'll come at you like a poisonous snake.

I thought that Amy's Snow White looked the best.  I would have never guessed.  I mean, Bernadette did make a wonderful Cinderella, but it was sort of like a no-brainer choice for her.  I don't think I could have seen her as any other princess.  Penny's Sleeping Beauty (I guess) looked a little rough.  I don't know if it was because Penny was so unhappy she couldn't be the princess she wanted or if they just did her makeover a little less special.  I don't know, but I didn't think she should have went home in that outfit.

I liked Howard's reaction to Bernadette coming home in the Cinderella getup.  It's amazing that he was already fantasizing about her being dolled up so before he even saw her.  He must have really been giving a lot of thought of her day at Disneyland because who would have guessed she'd come home looking like that?  Never underestimate Howard's dirty mind, I guess.  Leonard was about as  excited to see Penny as a princess, but Penny wasn't as into it as he was.  Sadly for Amy, who looked pretty good lying so still on the couch, Sheldon had no intention of fulfilling her fantasy of being awoken by her prince.  I would pay to see Sheldon (especially if he had to dress in a puffy prince costume) bend down and give Amy an overly romantic kiss like in that story.  Maybe if he was drunk that could be possible.

Raj did a great job on his first date with Lucy.  I didn't know how he was going to find something for them to do that wouldn't be too social nor involve too much talking.  A text date in the library was as cute as it was creative.  My favorite part of their texting was the auto-correcting.  Lucy had mistakenly written "porn" instead of "prom," but Raj was smart enough not to confess how often he visits porn sites. He dodged that well.  He was also lucky that when he was gushing about how proms were like fairytales come to life, Lucy let it slide as another auto-correct for him.  Nice save, Raj.

The kiss that almost happened between them was another good moment.  I was hopeful that Lucy would be able to go through with it, but it was more amusing to hear her yell about a panic attack and leave Raj hanging.  And while Raj didn't get a kiss on their first date, he still managed to be upbeat about it all.  I think for him and Lucy that was about as perfect of a first date as they could have.

I liked this episode.  Leonard and his "excited" committee did a poor job of encouraging young girls to pursue the same career, but it was a bit fun to see them interact with kids and do the opposite of what they intended to do.  I think it would have been much more successful if they had incorporated Amy and Bernadette from the beginning.  The girls' transformation into Disney princesses was pretty great, except Penny who looked like she had been kidnapped and forced to participate.  Although Amy's costume looked the best to me, she had the worst ending with her targeted prince.  There was a happy ending for Raj, however, who almost got a kiss after executing an excellent date for himself and Lucy.  Finally it looks like Raj is going to stop being the butt of every joke when it comes to romance.

Ya'll All Need Part-Time Jobs

Bob's Burgers, S03E14

Linda took a job at a grocery store to help the family with finances, but Bob failed to encourage her and show that Linda was crucial to the restaurant.  She started off part-time, but when Bob gave her a bad employee review, she took the full-time job as shift manager. Tina also met a mysterious boy in the dairy fridge and used his band-aid to find him when the two parted without exchanging information.

I can't believe that with the way that Linda has to bounce so many checks with their debtors that Bob thinks that they hadn't gotten to the point where they needed another income from another job.  Seriously?  They should have had Linda (hell, even the kids selling newspapers or something) working a long time ago.  I think that Bob was just too proud to admit that his restaurant simply doesn't do well enough to keep his family afloat.  After all, he has a wife and three children to support.  It's no time to be prideful.

Anyway, Bob could have had Linda back at the restaurant sooner if he only realized how much Linda does for his business.  One of the most interesting things she does is keep the restaurant at the perfect temperature.  I think that Teddy was overreacting when Bob was adjusting wrong, but he definitely doesn't have the thermostat finesse that his wife has.

Speaking of Teddy, the only part of this story that was really funny was when Bob had to close his restaurant down because of lack of meat and electricity and Teddy refused to leave.  Bob was treating him like a cat and shouting at him to go, and Teddy just wouldn't leave.  What the hell does Teddy even do?  He always seems to have time to lounge about Bob's restaurant all day with unwanted and dubious advice.

One other thing that was sort of funny was when Linda told the customers that she didn't like them.  One guy commented that of course he could hear her because she was on a microphone.  I liked that Louise sort of made that guy feel bad for making her mother look a little dumb:

[Louise] She told me that she hates you the most.
[Customer] Whaaat?

It was sort of sad that Linda thought she was showing Bob a lesson by leaving the restaurant to himself (which she was), but she ended up showing that she is not management material.  She usually manages her own kids, who have good reasons to listen to her orders, unlike employees who will use any old excuse to get out of work.  I can't believe that she actually gave everyone the day off and was left alone in the store.  It was strange to me that people didn't start rioting and leaving with free stuff sooner than they had.  I feel a little bad for the boss who had to come back and find his store in ruins, thanks to Linda.  Bob couldn't run his restaurant too well without Linda, but he didn't exactly destroy the business.  Linda probably put Fresh Feed out of business.

Tina's story was so weird.  Not surprising, but still.  That was completely gross that she kept that kid's band-aid and was using it like a glass slipper on some random kids that showed up to the restaurant.  And who the hell are these kids who were enticed by that flyer she put up?  I can't believe that she got that many people in the first place.  Must be nothing else going on in that town.

I guess her nasty efforts were fruitful, though.  She met the boy again, learned his name, and got a kiss.  I don't know if it will develop any further than the dairy aisle, but since it's Tina, who cares?  That's a victory for her no matter how she got there.

This episode wasn't too bad.  It was sort of nice to see Linda out of the restaurant for a change.  It showed that there is a worse place to work than Bob's restaurant.  This story also showed that Bob would be shut down in a second if he didn't have Linda handling the banks and such.  He really is thick-headed sometimes.  Tina's band-aid version of Cinderella was a little gross, but at least it had a cute ending.  Tina could use a boy in her life to concentrate all of her weird affections on.

Family Of Quitters

American Dad, S08E08

Francine convinced the family to try to stick to something to the end for once by giving up what they couldn't for their New Year's resolutions for Lent instead.  They were motivated to keep their commitments because Bullock had agreed to cut off one of their fingers if they broke their promises.  When it became too hard to keep it up, they tried to make each other fail so that they could end their Lent promises.  Roger also went on a quest to find a girl with impressive breasts that he had met at his Mardi Gras party by trying to match a nipple to a tassel he found.

I sort of liked that the family was acting collectively.  They never seem to have much in common, but as far as giving up their promises, the Smith family acts as one.  It's sort of sad the way that all of them are failures, especially since their so-called vices weren't that bad.  But I guess if you're so used to giving up so easily even staying away from popcorn for 40 days can seem like an impossible challenge.

It's also sad that the family was acting as a single unit only to set up Francine to fail.  In fact, they blamed her for having Bullock hunting after one of their fingers in the first place.  That was so messed up.  But the thing that I got me thinking the most was why the paramedics or coroners or whatever didn't notice that Stan and the others were just playing around.  I know that Stan sometimes uses his connections to get the authorities and such to fake deaths, but I wasn't convinced that was what had happened.  I dunno.  I feel like they should have made that fact obvious if that was what was going on.

Anyway, my favorite part of the whole story was when the family was having movie night and Stan was doing his best not to yell at Steve who was taking forever to find a movie on TV:

Steve, please, kindly, please find a movie and stop flipping channels before I wring the last breath out of your very, very, very annoying body.  Thank you very much--thanks.

I love seeing Stan try to stifle his rage with an overcompensation of politeness.  It just sounded so strained and unnatural that it was funny. Later, when he was able to yell, I liked that he did so retroactively:

Stop flipping channels yesterday!

People hardly yell at people for something in the past like that, so it was pretty funny.  Just wish there were more funny moments.

At the end, it was almost funny that Bullock seemed to vanish into thin air, save his cloak, but when they pushed it aside, they saw that Bullock had just ducked down into a trap door he had made in their floor.  It was sort of an awkward moment to end on, but it sort of worked for me.

In the side story about Roger, I did think his twist on Cinderella was original, but I knew that it wasn't going to end with some beautiful girl in his carriage.  I sort of thought maybe he mistakenly thought a man was a woman, but it was even more of a twist when it turned out to be a cow.  For Roger that's not too surprising.  It was certainly silly and good enough for a side story to distract the viewers from all that finger-cutting madness.  It also taught me what a "pastie" was.  Never heard that term before.

I guess this episode wasn't bad.  I did like that we got to see the family sort of bonding over their own shortcomings.  It reminds me of when they were all falling apart because they didn't have Dr. Penguin to hide all of their lies.  These sort of stories remind you that despite all of their differences, there is a strong bond between all of them, whether it's a tendency to lie or quit.  I wouldn't say they are the funniest or best stories, but they are interesting regardless.

A Mother Of A Season Finale

Suburgatory, S01E22

Mother's Day in Chatswin meant there was an excessive amount of fanfare for local mothers, including a very competitive 5k run for them.  Dallas thought she could get over Dalia spending Mother's Day with her father by putting her full effort into the run, but when she injured her leg, she realized what a big mistake it was to be separated from her daughter.  George and Eden had some disagreements about whether Tessa was honest about her feelings about her mother, and George couldn't bring himself to have sex with her yet.  After seeing the baby's room at the Warners' baby shower, Eden went into false labor.  Tessa didn't get her internship and started to think about her mother after seeing so many displays of motherly love around her.  Lisa refused to believe the results of her DNA test that proved she was born a Shay, but she found out that Ryan's blood type showed he couldn't be his parents' biological son.

I shouldn't have been surprised that residents of Chatswin go all out for Mother's Day, but even if I had anticipated that, I would have never thought of Shelia riding in a carriage dressed like she was Disney's Cinderella.  I think that someone should have started throwing rocks at her or something.  That's just way too much.  I'm sure that Shelia is a mother that does an incredible amount for her kids, but I'm also aware that she's so smothering that she shouldn't get award for all her excessive parenting.  However, I did think that Ryan was cute sitting next to her in a prince outfit.  It's amazing that he, just like other kids in the neighborhood, do not think that it's embarrassing to be treating their mothers like that.  As much as I love my mother, I don't think I could have put a full newspaper page in color with our picture on it (but that kind of stunt certainly suits Mr. Wolfe).  Only in Chatswin would no one blink an eye and would, rather, try to outdo that.

The only person who didn't seem to care much about the day (besides Tessa) was Dalia who didn't think twice about preserving the tradition of going to Israel for Mother's Day without her actual mother.  Usually Dalia's self-centered actions just make me love her, but the disappointment Dallas obviously had when she heard Dalia would be gone was a little heartbreaking.  For such a difficult child like Dalia, Dallas is a wonderful mother.  I would hope that Dalia would show at least the smallest speck of appreciation.  But no.  I really wanted to see what Dalia might have done that would have been sweet only for a spoiled brat like her.  That was one letdown.

Another letdown was seeing Dallas put up a really good race only to fall and hurt her leg.  She could have won and knocked down Shelia a peg.  But I liked that she was tempted to call George for her emergency contact when the paramedic confirmed that her hair looked great.  George definitely would have come if there wasn't the matter of Eden.  In fact, the way that George was standing in the middle of the hospital when he heard about Dallas and heard that Eden was calling for him, it seemed he was at a crossroads at just who was more important to him then.  I think that if there was a burning building (and Eden was no longer pregnant), he probably would pull Dallas out first if he had to choose between the two.  We'll have to wait until the next season to see if George and/or Dallas finally see the light.

I felt for Tessa when she finally saw the light about how it sucked to have a mother out there that apparently didn't make any effort to contact her practically.  I liked how it was seeing her substitute mother, Dallas, want the company of her real daughter over Tessa's that made her stop fooling herself about her feelings.  I can relate to that feeling, having grown up most of my life without a mother.  Tessa probably was so used to brushing off the subject of her mother (in order to not have anyone pity her and protect herself) that she forgot her real abandonment issues and longing for a mother in her life (even a largely imperfect one).  I didn't expect that her grandmother would be waiting for her when Tessa got home, but it made me hopeful that we would see Tessa's mother one day.  I really want to know what her life was like that George was able to get full custody of Tessa.  But the finale wasn't going to give us any clues about that just yet.

As far as Lisa's story, I was none too surprised that Lisa was a real Shay, but I was little shocked that Ryan wasn't.  It makes a little more sense that he's apparently treated better than Lisa--they probably had to fight hard to get him and treasure his existence.  I wonder how Ryan will take the news (I doubt Lisa will just keep it to herself).  He's an easy-going guy, but he's also sensitive and might get upset about being lied to.  I think that parents should tell their adopted children early on that they aren't theirs because one day it'll get out and they will feel betrayed (unless you're Lisa and you would be thrilled).  Another story for another season.

Have to say that I agreed with Eden about the baby room.  Noah and Jill are beyond disgusting.  I feel like that room should be evidence to get them arrested.  They have all that money and they want to spend it on helping endangered species have a greater chance of becoming extinct.  Eden is a little dramatic sometimes with her beliefs (like telling Tessa her doughnut would stay in her colon for decades), but I think her reaction to that room of death was appropriate.  I hope that she doesn't reconsider giving Noah and Jill a child.  They obviously aren't the nurturing type.  They are monsters, like she said, but Eden also doesn't have any rights to their baby, either.  Just call the child inside her "Monster Junior."

Lastly, I just gotta ask what the hell was Whoopi Goldberg doing voicing Yakult in Dallas's drug-induced (I'm assuming) vision?  That was so random to me, and also unnecessary.  I feel like Dallas could have come to conclusion that she needed Dalia without that.  Plus, it just creeped me out to see that dog talking all of sudden, even if it wasn't real.  Of all things to do in a finale.

I'm really glad that Suburgatory has been picked up for another season!  They left a lot of things unanswered (on purpose) that I'd like to get more information about.  I suppose the topic I'm most interested in knowing more about is Tessa's mother.  I hope that with her grandmother making another appearance, we'll get to learn a significant amount about the mystery woman.  And, of course, in doing so we'll learn more about Tessa.  Ryan's introduction into the Shay family is also a story I'm eagerly awaiting to see told on this show.  It might even make me like that busybody Shelia a bit more, and I'm sure it'll make me like Ryan even more.  This was really good first season, and I'm confident that they will be able to pull off another great one in 2013.  Since this new show is easily one of my favorites now, I'm counting down the days until I can watch another episode.

Cinderella's Revenge

Grimm, S01E20

Nick had to handle the murder of a woman named Mavis, who had been killed by a bat-like Wesen.  The suspects were the woman's family members, especially those who had asked her for money just before her death.  When one of Mavis' daughters turned up dead with her stepdaughter's godfather Spencer at the scene, Nick arrested him, despite there was no evidence to prove he had did it.  Nick finally learned that the real killer was Lucinda, the stepdaughter, from Spencer's confession at the police station.  Nick went to stop Lucinda from killing the second daughter with a Grimm weapon that Monroe brought him, but it was Spencer who finished her off.  However, Spencer took her life at the cost of his own.  Juliette also got Nick some more information about the car crash that killed his parents.  Instead of finding closure, he got the name of only still-living suspect who might be able to explain his parents' death.

The beginning of this episode was so long (aka revealing a Wesen-related murder) that I wasn't even sure I was really watching an episode of Grimm.  That actually was a good thing because I am unusually inattentive during the murder scenes.  I tend to ignore that part because it's typically short and slightly unimportant (because you know that Nick's going to be dragging his ass before he figures it out), but this time their spin on the Cinderella tale was interesting.  Especially because it was set after the couple had supposedly had their happy ending, but instead were experiencing financial trouble and had to beg the stepmother for money.  I was so invested in the strained relationship between Mavis and Lucinda's family (Arthur and Spencer) that I almost forgot about the existence of the Wesen and the Grimm world at all.  Thus, when a bat creature popped out from under Mavis' bed, I actually jumped in my seat.  I really forgot I was watching the kind of show that Grimm is. 

I, of course, thought that the Wesen that killed Mavis was Spencer for a second, but when I thought about how he was best friends with Lucinda's dad, I knew there was no way that her dad wasn't a bat too (I doubt anyone could go such a long time without knowing their best friend wasn't as human as they appeared to be).  I understand that Lucinda wanted to get her "rightful" inheiritence by getting rid of her step-family, but I don't know why it took her so long to do so.  Either Arthur must have been making such good money that she didn't feel a need to bother with them or either she just was so traumatized by her father's passing that it never crossed her mind to eliminate them until her supposedly wealthy husband looked like he was going to be penniless.  I dunno.  I just would think that after all the years of her step family's abuse, she might have used her eyeball-popping screech once or twice before Arthur came into her life.  And speaking of her husband, I feel really bad that she dropped him like a bad habit once she went on her money-grubbing murdering spree.  But I did like the idea of the Cinderella type being the villain, while the stepmother and stepsisters were the victims.  No matter what they did to Lucinda in the past, I'm sure it wasn't horrible enough to deserve a brain-splattering death.

Monroe didn't have many scenes this time, but I liked when he and Nick were in the Grimm trailer, looking for information about the bat Wesen.  It was cute how excited Monroe was to try out the device that would cancel out the bat attack.  I'm surprised that Nick was nice enough to let him do the honors of trying it out.  When it comes to using Monroe, Nick rarely gives his "servant" any perks to helping him.  I just thought that the weapon was a little cumbersome to use.  I mean, you had to put it on a stand and then crank it.  It's not something that's very mobile, that's for sure.  I couldn't see that being very useful if they had to chase Lucinda throughout the rest of the night.  Lucky for them that Spencer took care of her.

Concerning Spencer, I think he was a damn loyal friend and good godfather.  He might have been a bit of a busybody, but he kept his promise for a long time.  I mean, Arthur seemed to not know his left foot from his right without Spencer there to tell him what to do.  Maybe he was just like that since he invested his money in the wrong person, but from what was shown in the episode, he seemed like a pretty helpless guy most of the time.  Spencer was the rock that made sure Arthur gave Lucinda everything she wanted so she would fly off the handle.  He even went as so far to kill her to stop her from killing more innocent people.  It's not as if he could turn her and tell the police everything she had done--he tried to do that with Hank there and he thought he was insane.  That was a great scene, by the way.  I thought Nick would be exposed as a Grimm, but Hank didn't believe Spencer for a second.  I almost wished he had because I would love to see Nick have to explain that one.

I must admit, though, Nick was smart to submit the Grimm weapon as evidence of Lucinda's crimes.  There would be no other way in the world that he could have logically explained the way Mavis and Tiffany were killed.  Still, is it safe to leave that kind of powerful weapon at the police station?  I kind of worry about what Renard might do with that thing.  He's no stranger to the Wesen world, so he might have a use for it one day.  Hell, Nick might have a use for it one day (who knows when another bat might cross his path?).  How smart is it to get rid of the one thing that could handle those creatures?  Even though Nick just started using the tools Marie left him, it seems that they are his best bet to effectively take care of murderous Wesen.  Yet he's just throwing them away like he has enough know-how to survive without them.  If this show was slightly more realistic, Nick would have been dead from almost every episode so far.

My biggest complaint about Nick digging into his past again was why couldn't he do the digging himself?  Why is it that Juliette is better at getting information from the police than her own cop boyfriend?  This is like the second time or so this has happened and it still puzzles me.  Either Nick is a shittier investigator than I thought or Juliette must have some past with the police that I failed to remember.  What Nick found out also had me a little confused.  I don't know why only now he found out that his parents' accident had been reclassified as a murder, but he never knew.  Granted, it happened while he was a child, but you would think once he became part of the law force that he would check into that once or twice.  It's just dumb.  Unless it just was all too painful for him to think about it again.  I could buy that if I had seen Nick agonizing about it more.  We rarely get to see Nick's emotional side, so I don't buy his internal pain at the moment.  Besides that, I'm slightly interested in the last living suspect, Akira.  I don't know what he'll be able to tell Nick, but it's curious that there is still someone around who can shed a little light into Nick's past.

This was one of the better adaptations of the fairy tales that Grimm has come up with (not the best but still good).  I almost wish that I could have seen the story before it had gotten to the point where murder was involved.  There wasn't much development this time, as far as any of the overall mysteries, but at least Nick has gotten interested in his parents' death again.  With that being explored again there's a bit of hope we might glimpse into Nick's emotional depth.  It'd be nice to see him as something more than a bumbling, lucky fool with a pretty face.