Shorter article this week as a lot of shows are having finales and thus deserve their own article that I have yet to write. I’ll put up my reviews of the Arrow and The Big Bang Theory finales and and a roundup of the season in general as soon as I can but for now here’s the non finale TV.

Family Guy – Season 12 Episode 20 – “He’s Bla-ack”

Following the cancellation of The Cleveland Show this is the episode that returns him to the Family Guy fold. I haven’t actually watched much of Cleveland’s spinoff but what I have seen of it hasn’t impressed me so I can’t say that I’ll miss it. Cleveland also brings his family with him to further extend the Family Guy character roster. No talking bear though which I’m fine with

Naturally we need a story here and the story here is that Cleveland’s new wife Donna spanks Chris for breaking a vase of hers which causes Lois to get irate and stop her family from interacting with Cleveland’s family. Since Peter and Cleveland are such good friends they don’t like this and start to see each other in secret, somewhat likening the situation to them having an affair.

There’s plenty of comedy in this episode, the jokes around the cancellation of The Cleveland Show and the continued success of Family Guy are fantastic and a great use of breaking the fourth wall. Some of the situations surrounding Peter and Cleveland seeing each other secretly are great as well. I also got a great laugh out of Stewie disobediently sitting on the roof.

It’s great to have Cleveland back which will hopefully bring back some of the classic banter that was associated with his presence when he was around. I really enjoyed this episode and look forward to seeing what the new characters will bring to the mix.

Friends With Better Lives – Season 1 Episode 6 – “Yummy Mummy”

Straight into it, the plot this week surrounds Kate going out with a guy who’s perfect in every way despite the fact that he’s a father. It turns out that his daughter is 23 and is interested in Will. This creates a situation where Will can laugh at Kate with some references to her potentially becoming his mother in law. A further complication arises from this situation that causes it to not make it to next week.

On the other side of the story, Jules and Lowell find an old sex tape made by Bobby and Andi on their honeymoon and the obvious double entendre filled dialogue commences. Also Lowell becomes addicted to an iPhone

I’ll say this for the show, it’s not getting any worse. It’s maintaining a level of somehow watchable badness that keeps me coming back. Van Der Beek as usual steals the show and his line delivery of some of the mother in law jokes was actually pretty funny. The rest of the characters are as boring as ever. I’m fairly sure I’ll have the same to say about these other characters every week but happy to be proven wrong.

Supernatural – Season 9 Episode 22 – “Stairway to Heaven”

Now that Abaddon’s out of the way we return to Metatron and the Angel Civil War storyline. It’s good to have this back and I really like how slimy and underhanded Metatron is, it makes a change from the bombastic proclamations we normally get from Supernatural villains.

The story this week is that Angels are conducting suicide bombings in Castiel’s name, something Cas claims to have absolutely no knowledge of. Sam and Dean track down Tessa the Reaper to get some answers and clear Cas’ name with his followers. Meanwhile Cas and Sam find the doorway to heaven and more of Metatron’s plan is revealed.

I like the fact that the Angels following Cas aren’t blindly devoted to him and question his decisions. It’s also interesting that they have no great love for the Winchesters and only pretend to like them because they’re told to. Another great aspect of it is how Metatron is manipulating everyone around him to great success, we know that Cas is playing expertly into his hands but Gadreel has also been fooled by Metatron’s subterfuge. Dean’s addiction to the Mark of Cain and the First Blade is getting worse, it kind of reminds me of Gollum with the ring and I’m wondering if Dean is going to become something of an antagonist at some point. It’s somewhat reminiscent of Sam’s addiction to his powers but this seems even more severe.

One thing that I disliked was Tessa’s willingness to sign up for a suicide bombing. When she was first introduced way back in season two she was a wise and enigmatic character who was tapped into forces that nobody could truly understand but subsequent appearances have somewhat robbed her of this. That being said it was good to see her and I am surprised she has managed to live this long.

Overall, this was a great episode with enough twists to keep the flow of the narrative interesting. It does seem a little underdeveloped to wrap up the Metatron story in a neat package next week but they may not do that and keep Metatron as the antagonist for the next season.

The 100 – Season 1 Episode 9 – “Unity Day”

On the surface and on The Ark people celebrate Unity Day – the day that all of the space stations came together to from The Ark. The teenagers are celebrating by getting wasted as you might expect and The Ark have an official looking ceremony that retells the story, a story that is mentioned as being exaggerated to make it seem better than it really was.

It also turns out that Octavia has been sleeping with Lincoln after freeing him last week which might seem a little sudden but it sort of makes sense for her character. She’s bound to be impulsive after spending much of her life hiding in the floor and staying out of the way with only her mother and brother for company. She’s also naive and very trusting which is partly why she’s so drawn to Lincoln. Finn is also pretty trusting and suggests a meeting between them and The Grounders to sort out some kind of cease fire so that they can all coexist peacefully. It’s a nice sentiment if a little misguided.

Clarke and Bellamy aren’t quite as trusting so take precautions when going on this meeting. The meeting itself was really good, the setting being an old bridge which looked fantastic. The Grounder culture seems to be mysterious and exotic and I really liked that Clarke was excited to see horses, never forgetting the wonder of being on Earth after spending her life in space. As you might expect the meeting does not go well at all and it makes relations between them worse so we’ve still got lots of conflict to look forward to. There’s an interesting revelation regarding the flares that were launched to let The Ark know they were alive, apparently they burned down a Grounder village which is obviously seen as an act of war. Clearly the teens have yet to learn what consequences their actions can have to others.

The Grounders seem to be great villains with a sympathetic plight that we can somewhat relate to. I like that they are only reacting to the attack -however accidental- and only really want to preserve their people. It makes sense that they wouldn’t trust the teens because they have absolutely no reason to at this point.

On The Ark the situation isn’t much better, their Unity Day celebration ends with the death of six people after a bombing with the purpose of killing Jaha which gives us payoff to the growing mutiny that has been established since the first episode. It’s also revealed that Kane was just a man in a difficult situation rather than being the ringleader that the show has set him up to be. I like that this show keeps me guessing about some of the characters. I really liked how the mutiny kicked in full force in this episode and was driven by somewhat sympathetic means, many of those involved lost people when the sacrifice was made for extra oxygen. I’m also puzzled as to why anyone trusted Diana in the first place, her motivations always seemed clear to me. The launching of the dropship and the cliffhanger ending surrounding that will make the next episode very interesting.

Overall a strong entry for this show which furthered plots on both the surface and The Ark as well as expanding on The Grounder conflict which has suddenly gotten very interesting with this episode. This show is continuing the lack of fear to be very dark and uncompromising and I love it.