It’s nearly spring! The time when a young TV network’s fancy turns to sweeps and Valentine’s Day and the Olympics (STAR BEAR!) Some things are shaking up, some things are taking some time off so we can all cheer for our favorite curling team. But in the meantime, here’s what we thought about our shows this week.

Let us know what you thought in the comments.

Dennis

Lost: “What Kate Does” and Modern Family: “My Funky Valentine”
I debated whether to start off with the good TV, or the bad TV, and decided that much like with bad news vs. good news, it’s best to start with the bad (or in these two shows’ cases, underwhelming) episodes. A lot has been set about this week’s Lost already on this site, but far be it for me to skip a chance to gripe over a Kate-centric episode. I’m just fascinated that the Lost writers actually think anyone really gives a crap about this perpetual damsel-in-distress anymore. And I don’t think tying both universe’s Kate storylines to Claire, a character I have to say I didn’t really miss in the season she was MIA, was the way to go either. Still, nice appearances by It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s Rob McElhenney as Aldo and Tom Cruise cousin William Mapother as Ethan. Many thought Aldo had died since we hadn’t seen him in some three years, and the sick Lost writers proved them wrong by bringing him back… only to apparently kill him off for definite now, no speculation necessary. If only someone would do the same to Kate, in both of this show’s dueling realities.

Meanwhile, with Modern Family I’ve gone from calling it the most consistently funny show on television, to staring in disbelief at this Valentine’s episode with nary a laugh in sight. Worst of all? Julie Bowen’s character got caught in an awkward situation, and everyone she has ever known happened to show up at that exact moment. Um, I liked this better when it happened to Selma Blair in The Sweetest Thing in 2002, thank you very much.

Greek: “Take Me Out”
Luckily, I had Greek to warm my TV-loving heart this week. The blossoming relationship between rich kid screwups (and one-time hookups) Evan and Rebecca is surprisingly sweet, especially when Evan asked ex-girlfriend Casey in the midst of a baseball game if they were once in love, while a giggly, love-cynical Rebecca looked on. Sure, the show might’ve had Grant go from closeted frat boy, to gay rights crusader from the previous episode to this one, but at least they had Calvin point out that his boyfriend was “educating straight people since… last week?” And this show has been delighting me since… 2007, and better be for a long while (you hear that, ABC Family!?)

Damages: “Flight’s at 11:08”
The writers of Damages seem to be keeping their show on track, as well. I’ve already mentioned how dissatisfied I was with the drop-off in quality that its sophomore season experienced, but at least that season 2 mess eventually helped bring Ellen and Patty to some sort of understanding. At episode’s end, the mother-daughter-esque phone conversation between the two, while Ellen’s messed-up family sat numb in front of the TV in the other room, was a nice touch. Speaking of the Parsons family, hooray for bringing back Swingtown/Hedwig and the Angry Inch’s underrated Miriam Schor (not glimpsed since her character’s wedding in the show’s pilot) as Ellen’s troubled sister.  She’s one of Damages 50000 guest stars I can get behind.

Zoe

How I Met Your Mother: “Rabbit or Duck”
A friend and I were talking this week about whether we laugh at our own jokes too much. An annoying habit, to be sure, but they made a point I liked–one of the nice things about HIMYM is that the characters both laugh at themselves and each other. Or, as the friend put it, “No one ever laughed at Chandler! You’d think at some point he’d find friends who found him funny.”

This week brings another realistic moment with the duck v. rabbit debate. While I have never had this one in particular, as someone who has gotten into endless theories and debates about what unicorns used their horns for, this too, rings wonderfully true. This episode was great, but it’s solid touches like those that make this show worth coming back to.

And obviously rabbit is the thing you love. I mean, Come on.

Friday Night Lights: “Thanksgiving”
This should be a general assumption for this feature, but SPOILERS ahead. SPOILERS.

Holy crap, can a FNL finale bring the tears or what? Last week I talked about how this season was one of despair and how I wasn’t sure if they were going to be able to make it happy for the finale. They managed to make some of the plot lines happy (the football win was cliched, but so right, though I do hope it makes coach more hated in town, not less), and some bittersweet, but they absolutely killed your heart with Tim’s plot. I knew going in that he would offer himself up, rather than let Billy appear to be a bad father. But it was still heartbreaking to see. Next season is the last one and while it’d be nice to get a sense of where some characters are, the nice thing about FNL is that people leave and never return. While that works well for some characters (I’m happy leaving Street where he is) and less well for others (not seeing Tyra even once was disappointing), I will now publicly declare that it’s my secret hope that we get to see Tim walk out of jail next season. He’s earned it.

For all of it’s flaws, mostly due to time constraints, this was a great season. It gives me a lot of hope for the next one, even as we say goodbye to basically everyone from the show. As long as they have Coach and Mrs. Coach, they have something I’ll watch.

Robert

Friday Night Lights: First Season
To everyone that ever mentioned how great this show is, to everyone that ever suggested/recommended/demanded that I watch it, even to NBC for never convincing me that this show was one of the best shows on television: I’M SORRY.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve never been interested in playing football or even watching it on TV, but the fact remains that I understand the mechanics, the strategy and the emotion behind it. I can only guess that this unintentional familiarity is because I’ve grown up and worked in small Texas towns that, much like the fictional Dillon, TX in Friday Night Lights (based on the real Odessa, TX from the 2004 feature film), celebrate football as something more than a mere sport. High school football is big business in Texas and no other show gets the surrounding fervor right more than this one–not just the football but the personal drama that goes along with it. What also surprises me is the approach the show takes to filming, relying heavily on semi-improvised dialogue and spontaneous-feeling camerawork that never feels untrue to the moment. Add that all up and you’ve got some great television.

LOST
This week’s episode of LOST seemed to be an all-around disappointment, but I think there’s more that can be taken away from it than meets the eye. Find out what we thought in our latest Getting LOST installment discussing “What Kate Does”.