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8 Episodes from 2016…

My list of favorite episodes each year is usually a combination of things that made me think, and things that just made me really happy. I always like to preface my list with the recognition that these are simply *my* favorite episodes, and not necessarily the best episodes, because I know that there is way too much good TV to make that statement, and that other people have different tastes than me. So, here we go…

1. Game of Thrones “The Winds of Winter”
The previous episode “The Battle of the Bastards” was also fantastic, but this is my favorite because everything starts to come together in the season finale. Cersei refuses to stand trial, and instead blows up the High Sparrow, the Faith Militant, and most of the Tyrell family. Tommen then kills himself, and Cersei takes the Iron Throne. Aria exacts vengeance on House Frey for the Red Wedding. Bran has become the Three-Eyed Raven and learns that Jon Snow is the son of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen. Jon and Sansa have reclaimed Winterfell for the Starks, and Jon is named the King of the North by the rest of the Northern families, with a little help from Lyanna Mormont. Daenerys makes Tyrion the Hand of the Queen and begins sailing across the Summer Sea with her dragons and her army, aligned with Dorne, Highgarden, and House Greyjoy. Everything seems to have fallen into place, and it set-up what will hopefully be a eventful season seven. I cannot wait to see what happens next.

2. Black Sails “XXVIII”
I had not read a lot about the show before starting to watch, and have never read Treasure Island, so I actually did not know that the show is a prequel to the book until the end of the most recent season. I mostly just like pirates and decided to finally catch up on the whole series this year. In this season finale, there is an epic battle between Flint’s and Rackham’s crews, the Maroons and the British. After the British are handily defeated, with help from Blackbeard, the pirate captains sit down together and begin to figure out a plan to take back Nassau. Meanwhile, Billy Bones and a few select others have been instilling fear in the people of the island, and Silver is finally given the name ‘Long John Silver.’ Lines have been drawn in Nassau, and if you are not with the pirates, you are against them.

3. 12 Monkeys “Blood Washed Away”
For me, this is the best science fiction show on television right now. Every season I think they cannot possibly blow my mind any more, and then they do, over and over again throughout the season. Cole and Cassie are stuck together in 1958, with no way back to the future unless they stop the primary from causing another paradox. When they fail, they FINALLY admit to each other that they are both in love, and they face those feelings head on. Back in 2044, everyone else is searching for Titan so that they can kill The Witness. This is not the season finale, but it ends in such a way that you have no idea how they could possibly go on from here, and yet they do somehow, and it is excellent.

4. Lovesick “Frankie”
This show makes me laugh a lot. This episode in particular made me cry with laughter. The reason this episode has made my list is because of one specific scene where Angus has eaten hallucinogenic mushrooms and somehow manages to get into the freezer at a grocery store. He is enjoying the cold temperature, and tells Dylan that it’s like being in Narnia. When the grocery store employee tells him to get out, he tries to hide by putting a bag of frozen peas over his face. Later, after Dylan’s car gets a flat tire, Angus is afraid that they are being watched so he runs into the woods and climbs a tree. I chuckle just thinking about it.

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Quotes of the Week: July 10-23

These are my favorite quotes from the past two weeks, mostly from shows currently on the air, but also other random things I happen to be watching.

The Last Ship
Allison: What do you wanna give ’em?
President Michener: Nothing. Except maybe my middle finger.

12 Monkeys
Charlie: When it comes down to it, the only thing you’ll be wishing for is more time. Trust me.

Jennifer: So much for backgammon in Palm Springs!

UnReal
Chet: This has to stay in the family.

Graham: What do you think, Rach? Is that okay for an act break? Tension over who to choose?
Rachel: Yes, Graham, it’s fine, but don’t think, okay? It makes you look fat.

Happy Town
Handsome Dan Farmer: I’m a firm believer that all of a society’s ills could be quelled if everybody just had a little pudding.

Bones
Brennan: I don’t need to hear him tell me that I was right. It’s enough to know that *he* knows I was right.

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8 Returning Summer Shows…

I posted my list of new summer shows that I am excited about last week (and am already loving Preacher), so here are my favorite returning shows. What is everyone else watching this summer? Let me know in the comments!

1. Peaky Blinders, season 3 will be released May 31st on Netflix, stars Cillian Murphy, Helen McCrory, Paul Anderson, Joe Cole, Annabelle Wallis, Sophie Rundle, Harry Kirton, Finn Cole, Aimée Ffion-Edwards, Natasha O’Keeffe, Kate Phillips, Paddy Considine, Gaite Jansen, and Alexander Siddig. Season 3 picks up 18 months after the events of last season, on Tommy Shelby’s wedding day. It’s the start of the Roaring Twenties, and he and his aunt are trying to live right, while his brothers get mixed up in an international arms deal. I have really loved the first two seasons, and am reading that season 3 is even better, so I cannot wait. I am also excited for a little more of Tom Hardy’s Jewish gang leader, Alfie Solomons.



2. Kingdom, the second half of season 2 premieres June 1st on DirecTV’s Audience Network, stars Frank Grillo, Kiele Sanchez, Matt Lauria, Jonathan Tucker, Nick Jonas, Joanna Going, and Natalie Martinez. In these next ten episodes, Jay sets his sights on Ryan’s lightweight title belt, which will test Alvey’s loyalties and divide everyone at Navy St. This show just keeps getting better and better, and the entire cast continues to amaze me. If you are not watching this show, you are missing out on greatness.



3. UnREAL, season 2 premieres June 6th on Lifetime, stars Shiri Appleby, Constance Zimmer, Craig Bierko, Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman, Brennan Elliott, Josh Kelly, and B.J. Britt. I was not sure if I was going to like this show when I started the first season, and then it blew me away. It is a behind-the-scenes look at a Bachelor-esque show, and there were so many twists and turns in the first season that it kept me on the edge of my seat the whole way through. I cannot wait to see what kind of drama and insanity Quinn and Rachel bring to another season of Everlasting.



4. Casual, season 2 premieres June 7th on Hulu, stars Michaela Watkins, Tommy Dewey, Tara Lynne Barr, Julie Berman, and Nyasha Hatendi. This comedy about a bachelor brother and his newly divorced sister living together and raising her teenage daughter is hilarious and heartwarming. Season one focused on dating and sex, while this new season focuses more on the difficulty of making new friends as an adult. The characters and the stories are layered, and everytime Hulu releases a new episode, I wake up excited to watch it.

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Quotes of the Week: March 22-28

These are my favorite quotes from the past week, not just from shows currently on the air, but also other random things I happen to be watching.

The Musketeers
Vargas: You bring women to fight your battles?
Constance: Perhaps I bring men to fight mine.

Once Upon a Time
Poseidon: As long as you live in my ocean, you will live by my rules.

Hook: Maybe she was right. Maybe villains can’t get their happy endings.
Ariel: Maybe that’s because villains always go about getting them the wrong way.

Mary-Margaret: First thing you learn as a bandit: the back door’s usually unlocked.

Shameless
Frank: You’re my favorite dying person I’ve ever met.

Veronica: Why would anyone want to be with you?
Frank: Well, why wouldn’t they?
Kermit: Chlamydia and herpes for starters. Poor hygiene, alcoholism, lack of a moral compass…
Frank: Fine. But my good qualities vastly out weigh my bad ones.
Veronica: Name one.
Frank: How about, uh, a lust for adventure, a bottomless libido.
Kermit: Geez.
Frank: I show up with drugs, companionship, pro bono sex. What more could a dying woman want?

Looking
Kevin: You’re going on about honesty, maybe *you* should look in the mirror.
Patrick: I just did and I look fine. My hair is looking a little middle-aged-lesbian but, whatever.

Glee
Sue: You know, a great big fat person once stood on this stage and told a group of a dozen or so nerds in hideous disco outfits that “glee,” by its very definition, is about opening yourself up to joy. Now, it’s no secret that for a long time, I thought that was a load of hooey. As far as I can see, the Glee Club is nothing more than a place where a bunch of cowardly losers go to sing their troubles away, and delude themselves that they live in a world that cares one iota about their hopes and dreams, totally divorced from the harsh reality that out in the real world, there’s not much more to hope for than disappointment, heartbreak and failure. You know what? I was exactly right. That’s exactly what Glee Club is. But I was wrong about the cowardly part. What I finally realize, now that I’m well into my late thirties, it takes a lot of bravery to look around you and see the world, not as it is, but as it should be. A world where the quarterback becomes best friends with the gay kid, and the girl with the big nose ends up on Broadway. Glee is about imagining a world like that, and finding the courage to open up your heart and sing about it. That’s what Glee Club is. And, for the longest time, I thought that was silly. And now, I think it’s just about the bravest thing that anyone could do.

Community
Chang: Could you guys be bigger nerds?
Abed: No, most of us have achieved our maximum potential.
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Quotes of the Week: March 8-14

These are my favorite quotes from the past week, not just from shows currently on the air, but also other random things I happen to be watching.

Once Upon a Time
Regina: If you ensured her goodness, why can’t you tell her?
Mary-Margaret: The same reason you don’t want Henry to hear about all the terrible things you did in your past. You wanna protect him, so he doesn’t lose faith in the person you’ve become, the person he always believed you could be. That’s why Emma can never find out what I’m about to tell you. She’s finally starting to open up her heart. And if she learns the truth, if we let her down, she’ll lose faith in us, and it could send her tumbling down a dark path. Because when you betray the people you love, when you make them see the worst parts of you, what you’ve done changes everything. There’s no going back. You’ve shattered the bonds you worked so hard to forge. And the stronger those bonds once were, the more difficult they are the put back together, if they can be repaired at all.

Shameless
Frank: Prison is no place for a man with naturally tight glutes.

Frank: I’m the goddamn father-of-the-bride. Why didn’t I get an invitation?
Sammy: Because you’re an untrained dog, Pops, and no one wants you shitting on the floor.

House of Lies
Marty: Prison makes smarter criminals.

Looking
Kevin: You’re very cute when you’re wrong.

The Voice
Meghan: So, you gotta pick *one* of them? How do you sleep at night?
Blake: I don’t. I drink.

Jane the Virgin
Rogelio: Turns out I’m equally talented in outer space as I am here on Earth.

Justified
Raylan: Zachariah Randolph.
Tim: Let me guess. Local boy. How come no one down here is ever named Steve or Justin?

Ty: Bullshit. You shot me in the back.
Raylan: If you wanted to get hit in the front, you should have run *toward* me.

Raylan: You’re a good lawyer. All the good ones have ponytails.

Ava: Your neck is just as red as mine, you just don’t see it ’cause you’re always walkin’ forward.

The 100
Clarke: I tried…I tried to be the good guy.
Abbie: Maybe there are no good guys.

Clarke: I bear it so they don’t have to.

Empire
Lucious: You know how God made man in his image? I’m making Hakeem in *my* image. God didn’t need no help, and neither do I.

Hindsight
Lolly: What am I doing with my life? Is there a god? Does Jordan Catalano really love me? Etcetera.

Sebastian: I care about you in a way that’s totally appropriate and non-sexual.

The Vampire Diaries
Liam: Caroline Forbes. The girl from the swimming hole.
Caroline: Liam. The boy I totally forgot existed!

Caroline: You know how cute guys just naturally taste better?

Quotes of the Week: Mar. 1-7

These are my favorite quotes from the past week, not just from shows currently on the air, but also other random things I happen to be watching.

Once Upon a Time
Emma: So, our best defense against a magical beast follows the same rules as chicken pox?!

Emma: Belle…
Belle: I’ll see if I can find anything about this thing in the library
Emma: Thanks. And, Mary Margaret…
Mary Margaret: I’ll get everyone to safety. I’m on it.
Emma: Wow, you guys really have this down.
Hook: Well, this isn’t our first monster bash.

Shameless
Debbie: You should quit while you’re ahead.
Carl: He’ll out-Frank you every time.

Fiona: You have to let me go. You have to let me let you go. I need you to do that for me.

Frank: You shot me.
Sammy: Drastic times.
Frank: None of my kids have shot me.
Sammy: They don’t care about you as much as I do.
Frank: I have a bullet in my arm.
Sammy: No, you don’t. Just grazed ya. I loves you, daddy.
Frank: Ow!
Sammy: I love you, daddy.
Frank: Yeah, I…I love you too, Sammy. I love you too.

The Last Man on Earth
Phil: I got news for you, Tom Hanks, I will never, ever talk to a volleyball!

Looking
Doris: There’s nobody that I’d rather invest in more than you, ’cause you’re my family.

Battle Creek
Milt: In my experience, when you trust people, they trust you.
Russ: Have you actually met people?

Chasing Life
April: Maybe it’s not about finding the reason that all this is happening. Maybe it’s just about trusting that there is one.

House of Cards
Frank: Imagination is its own form of courage.

Frank: You are entitled to nothing.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Hunter: Is every Radio Shack a Hydra outpost? I always suspected.

Empire
Malcolm: Cookie.
Cookie: Yeah. That’s my name. Take a bite.

Hindsight
Lolly: If all goes right, he won’t be the only one sleepin’ on my floor tonight…That made more sense in my head.

Lolly: My Girl? Bleh!
Customer: We heard it was a sweet movie.
Lolly: I used to feel sad for Anna Chlumsky when Macaulay died, but she got off easy. Eventually, he would have told her she was like a sister. Then she’d wish she was the one stung to death by bees!
Customer: Did you seriously just ruin the movie for us?
Sebastian: No. Jamie Lee Curtis will ruin the movie for you.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Matt Lauer: I’m always amazed at what women will do because they’re afraid of being rude.

Kid: Stranger danger!
Kimmy: I’m not stranger danger! I’m a stranger danger ranger!

Titus: Oh no, you can not work there. Rich New Yorkers are the worst. They buy up buildings for themselves and ruin neighborhoods. They’re always inventing new types of dogs that the world doesn’t need. And what do they do with their money? They give it to charities to cure malaria in other countries. Well, call me crazy, but I say, cure malaria at home first!

Kimmy: I was trying to have fun and then I made everything weird. Cause I’m weird. And now you’re looking at me like I’m Jesus’s crazy step-brother, Terry…That’s not in the Bible, is it?

Hart of Dixie
Zoe: All’s fair in love and pastries!!

The Musketeers
Aramis: All for one?
Porthos: Yeah, I know.

8 Romantic Couples…

Valentine’s Day is on Saturday and, even though no one will be sending me flowers this weekend, I can still appreciate a good romance. It would have been impossible to create a list of my favorite couples of *all time* so, instead, I just chose couples from shows that are currently on TV.

1. Beverly and Murray – The Goldbergs
I love these two so much. They do not often express their love for each other with words, but you know that the love is always there.



2. Patrick and Kevin – Looking
Even though they seem to be split up for the moment, I am guessing that things are not over for good. I just think that they are really adorable together and Kevin needs to get his shit together, break-up with his boyfriend and just be with Patrick.



3. Octavia and Lincoln – The 100
Okay, so Lincoln may currently be addicted to some drug that the Mount Weather folks gave him but, they continue to fight for each other through everything and I believe that their love is strong.



4. Mickey and Ian – Shameless
I have loved this couple from the very beginning of the series. You can tell that they really care for each other. They are currently going through a bit of a rough patch, but they always seem to find their way back.

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8 Shows You Should Be Watching…

1. Enlisted – The cast is hilarious, the writing is amazing and the show has so much heart. It deals with real issues of PTSD, but is also basically just an office comedy at the center. All of the episodes are on Hulu and Fox.com and there are FOUR episodes left to air this season! You will laugh. You will cry. You will want to hang out with the cast and crew during their weekly live-tweets.

2. Masters of Sex  – I absolutely loved the first season of this Showtime show. The cast performances were fantastic and the fact that it is based on real people made it incredibly fascinating to me. Season Two premieres in July, so you have plenty of time to catch up!

3. Trophy Wife – The title of this show does not do it justice and was actually always meant to be ironic. Malin Ackerman plays Bradley Whitford’s very hot third wife, but she also tries extremely hard to be a good mom and is actually in love with her older husband, not just married for the money. This is another comedy where every member of the ensemble was so well cast and has great chemistry.

4. Orphan Black – Even though this show is getting rave reviews from critics, I feel like the general public has still not yet caught on to its amazingness. You will get hooked by the first episode and proudly proclaim yourself part of the Clone Club. Season Two premieres on April 19th and I am unabashedly excited.

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