Switched At Birth – Recap & Review – The Art Of Painting

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Switched At Birth
The Art Of Painting

Original Air Date: Feb 21, 2012

Karen Belgrad – Senior Editor
karenbelgrad@thetwocentscorp.com

Character development is tricky on newer series. We can often find the characters we’ve grown to care about pigeonholed into stereotypes of dramatic series, the villain, the hero/heroine, the do-gooder, etc… What’s refreshing about Switched At Birth is how the characters have actually broken out of the initial caricatures we assumed they would be.

Think back to last summer… Many viewers thought Bay was an insurmountable brat. Daphne was going to be the sweet victim. Kathryn was the pushover, while Regina had her fiery backbone. Toby wasn’t going to be seen much, and John ruled the family. And Emmett, well, he was the old friend with the heart of gold. But now that we’ve gotten to know our families and friends, we see how much more they really are.

House – Recap & Review – Man of the House

photo: fox

House
Man of the House

Original Air Date: Feb 20, 2012

Shannon – Associate Editor
shannon@thetwocentscorp.com

Joe Reese is a self help speaker and leads a marriage seminar and passes out right in the middle of it. He falls completely off the stage. Ouch. Apparently, his whole spiel is teaching men to be more like women.

Dominika, House’s wife, is back. The green card interview is in four days so she’s back to start rehearsing their story. She’s paying House $30,000 to play along. I’d marry her for that. Joe tells the team that he once couldn’t back down from an argument about football so he decided to demasculinize himself. House thinks that the guys that beat him up kicked him too hard in the nads and he has no testosterone. Of course, House is right and he gets better.

SMASH – Recap & Review – Enter Mr. DiMaggio

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SMASH
Enter Mr. DiMaggio

Original Air Date: Feb 20, 2012

Lauren A – Senior Reviewer
lauren@thetwocentscorp.com

During one moment of this episode, Ivy’s (somewhat generic) male stage buddy suggests that the SMASH characters aren’t in high school. To which we get the deeply insightful comment that “the theatre is high school!”

Too true, and this episode really serves to highlight the underlying drama and game-playing both plaguing and perking up the show-within-a-show.

Two and a Half Men – Recap & Review – Not In My Mouth

photo: cbs

Two and a Half Men
Not In My Mouth

Original Air Date: Feb 20, 2012

FK – Sr. Editor
farrah@thetwocentscorp.com

You know what happens when a show finally does something right? They usually have to go and do something wrong.

Tonight was Two and a Half Men‘s turn to do that. This episode is filled with a storyline that literally had me gagging to the point where I watched the show on mute and just assumed I knew what was going on. But, nonetheless, here is what went down…

Alcatraz – Recap & Review – Johnny McKee

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Alcatraz
Johnny McKee

Original Air Date: Feb 20, 2012

Tess – TwoCents Reviewer
tess@thetwocentscorp.com

Think twice before opening your mouth to pronounce the words that are on the tip of your tongue. Think them through. Are they good? Are they evil? Will they hurt? Will they help? While the pain caused by a slap lasts for a moment or two, the pain caused by words can last a lifetime. Now stop… stop and think. Then? Go ahead and speak. Oh, and good luck. Why? Because while some are forgiving, some seek instant revenge.

Meet Johnny McKee. He was just like you and me, a kid going through high school, a kid looking for something or someone to fall in love with. He found chemistry and it was love at first sight. But then a girl came along, Ginny, a girl that stole his first kiss, his clothes… and then the lights came on. Laughter, fingers being pointed at him, bad jokes…

And then death.

NBC Announces Return Date for “Community” and Premiere Dates For New Comedies

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NBC announced today that “Community” will return to the Thursday schedule starting March 15 at 8 PM EST. NBC also announced the premieres of the new comedies “Bent” (March 21) and “Best Friends Forever” (April 4), as well as the comedic hidden-camera series “Betty White’s Off Their Rockers” (April 4) to its spring lineup.

The announcements were made today by Robert Greenblatt, Chairman of NBC Entertainment. “We are happy to have an unprecedented amount of original content on NBC this spring,” said Greenblatt. “‘Bent,’ ‘Best Friends Forever’ and ‘Betty White’s Off Their Rockers’ are welcome additions to the Wednesday schedule, and we know that the loyal fans of ‘Community’ will be pleased with its return to its home on Thursdays at 8:00 p.m.”

Gossip Girl – Recap & Review – Cross Rhodes

photo: cw

Gossip Girl
Cross Rhodes

Original Air Date: Feb 21, 2012

Emily – TwoCents Reviewer
emily@thetwocentscorp.com

Wow! A lot happened tonight, right? After almost a year, a huge secret gets revealed! I got to say, it was about time! But it’s not all; I feel something else happened…hum…

Oh, yeah! Two characters that we love are finally moving forward in their relationship. Yes, there were two momentous kisses in this episode. (Not that I counted or anything…cough…) Let’s get to it!

Hart of Dixie – Recap & Review – Snowflakes & Soulmates

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Hart of Dixie
Snowflakes & Soulmates

Original Air Date: Feb 20, 2012

Alyssa Silva – Associate Staff Writer
alyssa@thetwocentscorp.com

Bluebell sure doesn’t like it when the weather changes. First there was the heat wave that made people act crazy, and now we have a snow day that triggers every superstitious bone in the local population. The residents believe that the snow brings bad luck and it certainly did. Mostly for Lavon Hayes though.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t Zoe supposed to be the lead character?

Castle – Recap & Review – Linchpin

photo: abc

Castle – Recap & Review – Linchpin

Castle
Linchpin

Original Air Date: Feb 20, 2012

Divina F – TwoCents Reviewer
divina@thetwocentscorp.com

Previously, on Tailor Tinker Soldier Spy – I mean, on Castle: Castle and Beckett have been recruited by the CIA to help them prevent a catastrophic event called Pandora. The man set to pull the linchpin is a former CIA agent and a wanted murderer in the eye of the 12th. There’s also a lot of Castle/Beckett tension because CIA operative Sophia Conrad (played beautifully by Jennifer Beals) is something like an ex-muse.

When we last saw our will they/won’t they? duo, they’d just witnessed the murder of Blakely, another former CIA agent who has the superpower to predict when a butterfly’s wing flaps will culminate into a tsunami. And then a huge black SUV slammed their car into the harbor.

How I Met Your Mother – Recap & Review – No Pressure

photo: cbs

How I Met Your Mother
No Pressure

Original Air Date: Feb 21, 2012

Caitlin –Staff Writer
caitlin@thetwocentscorp.com

We get another very brief glimpse of The Mother in this episode of HIMYM. Future Ted recalls the first time he told her he loved her. What brought up this memory? That’d be the events we first saw last week.

By “the events”, I obviously mean Ted telling Robin he loves her right after she and Kevin broke up, and even though we know they can’t wind up together. How do the writers handle that? Pretty well, actually.