Score Roundup

The Walking Dead: "TS-19 (Season Finale)"- Enjoyable, but felt like a weird way to end the season. Now we have to wait a year to find out what CDC guy whispered into Rick's ear (is somebody pregnant?), but other than that, it just felt like a normal episode. I rolled my eyes at the typical "Oh my god, we haven't taken a shower in so long, look how much we're enjoying it!" scene. And nobody even remembers the name of the girl they killed. 7.8/10

How I Met Your Mother: "The Mermaid Theory"- Had a great deal of potential. In concept, everything was good but in execution, it's hard to explain but it just felt messy. And it feels kind of cheap to pull a 'goat' on us again, especially when it's as hard to see why I would care so much as it was the first time. And didn't Marshall and Robin hang out in "Little Minnesota"? The writers seemed to just ignore that. 7.0/10

Raising Hope: "Toy Story"- Most enjoyable episode of the show yet. Plot lines tied together in an amusing fashion and the manager's creepy toy obsession was hard not to keep giggling at. 8.8/10

Modern Family: "Dance Dance Revelation"- Modern Family suffers too much from bringing out very obnoxious aspects of their characters. One character might be my favorite one week and then I despise them the next. In this episode, Claire's obnoxious characteristics were brought out so much to the point where I wanted Danny Trejo to turn into his character from Machete and finish her. 7.4/10

Cougar Town: "The Same Old You"- It started watching Cougar Town (took me so long because of its ridiculously horrible name that now gets mocked in every opening credits sequence of the show) and it's the very definition of "goofy fun". Even goofier than Scrubs. 8.6/10

Community: "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas"- Community is amazing. Every week, it's something almost entirely different and every week, it's awesome. This particular episode delved into the world of stop- motion Christmas specials. This episode further explores the character of Abed, a character that on almost any other show would not get this type of exploration and just be there as 'pop culture guy'. I really like the fact that the rest of the group were actually concerned about Abed's mental health when he announced he was seeing the world in stop- motions, sans Jeff's initial "I vote we just let it go." The animation was beautiful, my only complaint is that Jeff looked nothing like Jeff. The short musical numbers further fuel my desires for a musical episode (Shirley and Annie have some pipes!). And there were several great heartwarming moments throughout. Pierce on the train with Abed, Professor Duncan's (this episode was a great use of his character and a nice showcase for John Oliver) recollections, and at the very end, when the TV the group is watching turns off, you can see a reflection of all the live- action cast members. Little touches like that just make this show so enjoyable. That being said, the stop- motion did not allow the typical faces the cast makes that add to the humor, but I'm willing to overlook it because there wasn't really anything they could do about and everything else was so fantastic. It wasn't the funniest episode of Community, but it was definitely the most engaging. 9.8/10

30 Rock: "Christmas Attack Zone"- Not the best episode, but very, very funny. I enjoyed the return of Alan Alda. I always thought it was weird how the ended season 3 with an arc about him that didn't really end and then just never addressed it ever again. 8.3/10

Fringe: "Marionette"- I don't know why they didn't just end the season with last week's episode that closed that arc, but this episode kept us Fringe's now- 9 episode streak of awesomeness. This episode was particularly creepy but I liked the way the case tied into the main storyline. "I don't know what I brought back, but I know it wasn't her." 9.2/10

The Good Guys: "Partners (Season, probably series, Finale)"- Good way to end, I suppose. We meet Jack's old partner (how obvious was it he was involved in something from the second you saw him?), Dan's partner returns, and Dan finally goes to the CSI lab. For a gunfight. I particularly enjoyed the scene where Dan and Savage are sitting in the theater for the screening of 'Savage and Stark' and realizing that everybody thinks the movie is a comedy. It was also awesome when they reprised the scene from the movie later on to save Dan. The last scene was a great note for the show to go out on as well. 8.9/10