Mid-Season Assessment 2011: Vol. 3

In my final Mid-Season collection , I take on ‘Once Upon a Time’, ‘90210’ and ‘Glee’ to see how each of them have been performing so far this season. I will also continue to point out the highlights and lowlights of the first half of the 2011 season.

Once Upon a Time Season 1

Episodes: 1.01-1.07

Starring: Ginnifer Goodwin, Jennifer Morrison, Lana Parilla, Josh Dallas, Jared S. Gilmore, Raphael Sbarge, Jamie Dornan, Robert Carlyle

‘Once Upon a Time’ is my favourite new show this year, and definitely the best one airing at the moment. Its stories are original and fascinating; the characters are charming and relatable; and its episodes structures are utilized in a way that would make ‘Lost’ drool, even in its prime season 1 days. I really love all of the mirroring stories, with each of the personalities defining what they’ve become in this alternate ‘real world’. It’s had only some minor flaws, like some rather strange interpretations of fairy-tales like ‘Cinderella’, but it has so far surpassed my expectations, and provided me with some truly amazing entertainment. My favourite parts of the series are without a doubt watching the Emma/Henry bond growing, and the Snow/Charming saga, which breaks my heart so much! If you haven’t seen this yet, then I suggest you spend the holidays playing catch-up because this is proving to be one hell of a ride.

Best Episode: 1.01 ‘Pilot’ – Still the best of the bunch, the opening episode was packed with action, mystery, humour and just plain greatness that easily place it ahead of a lot of my favourite series.

9.5/10

90210 Season 4

Episodes: 4.01-12

Starring: Shenae Grimes, Tristan Wilds, Annalynne McCord, Jessica Stroup, Michael Steger, Jessica Lowndes, Matt Lanter, Gillian Zinser

This is the kind of series that I’m only really watching for the hell of it. Mostly it’s just something I’d pop on to pass the time or, at least, that was why I started watching the second season, even though I had next to no appreciation for its first. In its sophomore year, the shake-up in production lead to its growth into a rather great teen soap that, sure, wasn’t worthy of any Emmys, but still went quite a distance in the way of entertainment. While its third season followed its second in a great, if slightly less great way, the fourth feels like a slight step down. The cringe factor has upped majorly, and a lot of the stories feel over-wrought and tedious but I always come back for more. You can tell that the writers are really struggling with finding something to do with some of its characters to justify their positions, but mostly Adrianna just seems to wander around giving Silver slightly strange facial expressions, and Dixon has spent his time being a complete waste of space. Though recent episodes have thrown them together, it still feels like they’re still around out of obligation more than anything else. One of the favourite plots this year is the Ivy, Raj drama which went from sad, to sweet to plain depressing all in the matter of a few episodes. Gillian Zinser was a wonderful addition and I’m glad she’s stuck around this long. I’m also overjoyed that box faced Trevor Donovan has finally left. That coming out story has to have been one of the most awkward and strange things to ever pop up in primetime television. While most of the season has been rather predictable and stale, recent episodes have given it a breath of fresh air, and given this a bit of a jolt in terms of excitement, so I hope to see that carry over into the New Year.

Best Episode: 4.11 ‘Project Runaway’ – This was the episode when I finally saw a bit more life left in the series. I hope that this level of quality becomes commonplace in the 2012 episodes.

6/10

Glee Season 3

Episodes: 3.01-09

Starring: Diana Agron, Chris Colfer, Darren Criss, Jane Lynch, Jayma Mays, Kevin McHale, Lea Michele, Cory Monteith, Heather Morris, Matthew Morrison, Amber Riley, Naya Rivera, Mark Salling, Harry Shum. Jr., Jenna Ushkowitz

There seems to have been some effort made to address some of the issues that made ‘Glee’s second season such a colossal disappointment. There are some aspects that feel far superior to the previous year’s efforts but sadly the wacky, adorable and over-the-top teen serial that we saw two years ago is long gone. One thing I really like about this season is the return of the story arcs, which were a lot less prominent last season. The baby drama between Quinn and Shelby feels a little like over-milking something that’s near dry, but there’s something about it all that I like. Pretty much all of the characters are still wholly unlikable, with people I once rooted for now making it difficult for me to even handle their screen-time, and some have actually matured into really relatable, and well drawn individual units. The majority of the series plots are still quite messy, and badly tied together, starting from the first 30 seconds of the season which attempted to ascertain who was still going to McKinley and who would be leaving at the end of the year. I still find it completely wacko that Sam was written out at the drop of a hat, brushed aside with a single line of dialogue; though his return did help make sense of this slightly. I find myself skipping over 90% of the musical performances which have already crossed the line from cheesily charming to just plain cringe worthy, and that’s not even taking Finn’s spasm-tastic singing face into account. I only just got back into watching this series again during the winter break when there’s next to nothing airing, but I will probably stick with it for a while, just out of plain curiosity.

Best Episode: 3.06 ‘Mash-Off’- I think the entire series was saved by that Adele mash-up. Though Santana’s turn to lesbian was a really bizarre turn of events, this episode was the first that dealt with it in a realistic and heart-breaking way.

4/10