You know what’s great? The fact that we live in the future. In the past when the weather would start to get nice like this, we’d be forced to choose between watching TV and frolicking in the warmth (because obviously not watching TV is not an option). But now we have the freedom to watch whenever we want, however we want! Even on tiny futuristic screens we can touch!

Ok, maybe some of the egregious product placement this week is infecting me. Whatever. I’m too busy having my spring cake and eating it while watching old DVDs outside to care. I hope you are too. Tell us about it in the comments.

Robert

V: “Welcome to the War”
For the past month or two, ABC has been doing heavy promotion for V’s return (thanks for the countdown timer during LOST, ABC) and it seemed that things might be looking up. After the months-long wait since the first four episodes ran in late 2009, I was hoping the show would come back a bit more polished, but after last week’s “Welcome to the War,” my hopes are a bit dashed. I thought the show was moving a little too fast before, but now V is ramping things up even more, throwing developments at us one after the other—Jack and Chad each have their run-ins Visitor healing technology, Erica and friends track down a new member for their resistance, Tyler’s assimilation continues and Anna gets her freak on—to the point where none of them seem to have any distinct weight. The show feels like it’s trying to make up for lost time and losing any sense of pacing or nuance in the process. If ABC wants this show to take the reigns from LOST as their next big sci-fi series, they’ve got their work cut out for them.

FlashForward: “Better Angels”
Speaking of beleaguered ABC sci-fi series, I also had hopes that FlashForward would return and make good on any promise it left us with last year, but it’s been a rough 2010 so far. At least this week we get to revisit a thread from the beginning of the season as some of the team head to Somalia for answers about the remaining NLAP tower. While there, they come under fire from a local warlord named Abdi—the boy who witnessed the 1991 “test” blackout—and challenge his interpretation of his flash forward in which he’s actually a peacemaker for Somalia. Unfortunately, the team discovers the bodies from Abdi’s village, sending him into a rage that ends in a fatal showdown with Vogel. So here again, FlashForward tells us that the future doesn’t have to happen the way everyone saw in their flash. I liked it better when the characters in this show had to find a way of defeating their destiny, but now it’s like all bets are off. That’s great and all but where’s the drama in that?

LOST: “The Package”
We also caught up with the Kwons in last week’s Getting LOST, and well, it gave us just enough to hang on to while also discovering what the “package” is. Plus, that Sun knows how to unbutton a button or two, doesn’t she?

Zoe

Bones: “The Bones on a Blue Line”
I got a little giddy about this show’s return from the now-standard and somewhat strange Late Winter Hiatus. It’s not that Bones is the best show on TV, but dagnabit, it’s my story. I just like watching it (unless it really annoys me). And this return heralds…almost nothing. I mean, the episode was OK enough: fun, but nothing that blows you away, with a huge dollop of predictability. Add my annoyance with TV’s insistence that it is possible to get calls/text messages while riding the subway, and I come out kind of eh.

That said, it was nice to see them remember that Brennan is an author and nicer of them to recognize that she might need some help with stuff (although I do feel that lately they’ve ramped up the idea that she doesn’t get people, which seems…inconsistent and also unlikely, given how much growth she’s made as a person). Regardless, I am still pretty dang excitement for the birthday present the show is giving me, in the form of a flashback. Fingers crossed no one tried to make a call in a mine shaft.

Modern Family: “Game Changer”
Just below me Dennis is going to say a bunch of stuff I agree with, I just wanted to air my dislike here. It’s not that the product placement wasn’t in character, per se, but also that it was dull. I like Modern Family, but it has yet to really win me over, and episodes like this make me make a really sour face and consider ditching it next season in favor of more detective dramas.

Dennis

Modern Family: “Game Changer”
This is the sort of episode that a few minutes in I realized what the writers clearly didn’t, this was not a good idea. The A-plot of this episode was: “It’s Phil’s birthday and he iPad iPad, and iPad iPad iPad.” Seriously, drink every time iPad was mentioned in this episode and watch alcohol poisoning set in. I  knew there’d be swift charges of blatant product placement (there were) and then the people behind the show would probably come out saying they’re was no money exchanged (they did). But who cares? The episode just wasn’t that good. Between Desperate Housewives forgetting Penny’s special day, andThe Middle forgetting Sue’s, if I see one more ”family screws up someone’s birthday” plot on ABC, or anywhere on TV, this season, or ever, it’ll be too damn soon.

Ugly Betty: “London Calling”
Yay Gio’s back! And Christina! And…ugh, Henry. I guess I’m in the minority of watchers of this show but I never understood the appeal of Betty’s nerd boyfriend. Once they gave him a baby with Charlie, and all the lame trappings therein, I just always thought Betty was too good for him. Gio, on the other hand, was maybe too good for Gio, but I wanted those two together. And Freddy Rodriguez’s return as the sandwichmaker, just reminded me that he really needs a new show post-Six Feet Under/Betty. (Luckily he’s at least got a pilot). Gio had a line that he always knew there was only one guy for Betty. Is it wrong to hope he was referring to not Henry, but someone else we haven’t met? Still, I’m happy Betty’s writing has gotten fresh and oh-so-watchable again, after two mediocre seasons. It’s just a shame it got good just in time to get cancelled (I call this The OC Syndrome). And I’m glad its parading out old character favorites. I know Jayma Mays and Kevin Alejandro (he could’ve come back as Santos’ ghost?) are on Glee and Southland now, but is it too much to ask for a Rebecca Romijn return at least?