Arrow 3x22 "This Is Your Sword" (Lessons Hard Taught)

"This Is Your Sword"

Original Airdate: May 6, 2015

I've never been trained to fight, professionally, which -- I'm sure -- probably surprises you all greatly. I've taken dance lessons before. I've played every sport imaginable (tennis, basketball, softball, cheerleading, soccer). I've learned archery and horseback riding. But I've never learned how to use a sword. I'm not sure, quite honestly, that I would even be able to effectively wield one on my own because I've heard that they're heavier and more cumbersome than you would anticipate.

Here's what I do know about swords, though: I know that they are offensive weapons. And I know that a shield is a defensive weapon. That much I do know. Swords and shields are used a lot, symbolically, in literature. In Harry Potter, the Sword of Gryffindor was a goblin-made sword used to destroy Horcruxes. In The Chronicles of Narnia, Peter is gifted a sword and shield by Father Christmas which he uses in a battle against the White Witch. Out of all the weapons in history, the sword and the shield are probably the most common to be paired together. One is used to fight; the other is used to defend and protect. On Arrow, the writers choose to name the penultimate episode of each season after a Bruce Springsteen song ("Darkness on the Edge of Town," "Streets of Fire") and this year, our penultimate episode is titled "This Is Your Sword."

A lot happens in this episode and a lot has happened in the past few episodes. Do you have emotional whiplash yet? I feel like I might. And by "might" I mean "definitely do." Before we dive into the content of the episode, let's briefly discuss why "This Is Your Sword" was chosen as the title for this particular episode, shall we? In Bruce Springsteen's song, here are some of the lyrics:

This sword of our fathers with lessons hard taught,

This shield strong and sturdy from battles well fought

This is your sword, this is your shield

This is the power of love revealed

Carry them with you wherever you go

And give all the love that you have in your soul

Okay, so being the major word nerd that I am, we have to realize that the repeated "this" can technically fall into one of four different parts of speech -- an adjective, an adverb, a definite article, and a pronoun. In the case of the song lyric used for Arrow's episode title, we're examining the word "this" as a pronoun. It is used to replace a particular thing or things as indicated in the first two lines of the stanza above. If you're confused, let's make this a little easier and re-word the song's stanza above to make a bit more sense, replacing the the word "this" with the things that the pronoun is identifying:

Lessons hard taught are your sword, battles well fought are your shield

These are the power of love revealed

Carry lessons and battles with you wherever you go

And give all the love that you have in your soul

Lessons, battles, and love are the focus of that stanza. They're what are meant to be carried with you wherever we go -- those things we learned and the things we fought. That is how the power of love is revealed, really. In "This Is Your Sword," (the episode, not the song) we focus a lot on the battles, but the deeper focus of this episode -- and this season -- is on the sword: the lessons hard taught.

Or, as this episode indicates, the ones still not learned.

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New Girl 4x22 "Clean Break" (The Essentials and the Non-Essentials)

"Clean Break"

Original Airdate: May 5, 2015

In a month, I will be moving for the third time in three years. That's what happens when you live in apartments, usually: you bounce from complex to complex year to year because of your lease. You know what I've realized about moving and moving frequently? I've become a lot less sentimental because of it. When I moved away to college -- the first time I had ever been away from home -- I took every photograph, every poster, every little thing from my room that made it feel like home. When I moved out of my parents' house and into an apartment, I didn't take as much stuff (mostly because I didn't have room for enough stuff.) When my roommate and I moved from our old apartment to the one we're currently in, I shed a lot more of my stuff along the way. And as I'm preparing to pack up and move again, I'm finding that I'm more willing to throw things into the "discard" box than the "keep" one.

When you're someone like Coach -- an Army brat whose life has basically been a series of cardboard boxes and duffel bags -- it is always easier to throw things, and people, into the "discard" box in your life. As he repeatedly tells everyone in the aptly titled "Clean Break," what you need to do in order to move forward is shed all of the emotional baggage, all of the memories, all of the "non-essentials" in your life. Whenever you move, you need to make a clean break or else you'll never really move on. And while part of that is sometimes true (sometimes you really do need to get rid of all you have, all the baggage, and start fresh), for Coach, the idea of a "clean break" has always been a defense mechanism. Since he moved so much as a kid, Coach just found it easier to accept the inevitable -- to harden himself to emotional attachments and pretend he didn't care about people -- because he knew he would eventually have to leave. And what's the point in forming bonds with others that are meaningful when they'll just be ripped away from you as quickly as you formed them?

The truth is, of course, that people are important and relationships are important and that making a "clean break" isn't always the solution. It doesn't stop you from being emotional. It doesn't, also, stop those relationships from being meaningful to you. In "Clean Break," the fantastic season finale to a rather exceptional season of New Girl, we say goodbye to Coach but we also watch our other characters struggle to cleanly break with their pasts and relationships. And, in typical New Girl fashion, we realize that our characters are a lot more emotionally attached to one another than they let on.

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6x09 "Grifting 101" (Treading Water) [Contributor: Deborah MacArthur]

"Grifting 101"

Original Airdate: May 5, 2015

The theme for this week's episode is "treading water." No, wait -- it's "grifting." Grifting is the theme. The theme for this review, however, is "treading water," because that’s what Community has been doing a lot this season.

Last week they gave us a season 6 version of the perfect Community episode ("season 6 version" because a truly perfect Community episode would mean the return of Troy and Shirley, and maybe a visit from Pierce's ghost). “Intro to Recycled Cinema” checked off the two fundamental requirements for a good episode: high-concept surrealism grounded by honest humanness.

That's the stuff that makes up episodes like “Contemporary American Poultry” and “A Fistful of Paintballs/For A Few Paintballs More,” which were great because they mixed the weird and wonderful nature of this show with its core concern for the humanity of its characters. In “Contemporary American Poultry,” Abed wants to connect with people and Jeff wants to control people and those are both very human desires, but Community filters them through the lens of mafia movies with a side of chicken fingers. “A Fistful of Paintballs” and “For a Few Paintballs More” take Pierce's fear of being left behind and Annie's need to help the people she cares about and surrounds it with paintball chaos, Westerns, and Star Wars.

The key to really good Community episodes that are distinctly Community has always been the humanity in the eye of the weirdness tornado. Striking that balance between strange and sincere is difficult to do, but the series used to be pretty good at accomplishing it – unfortunately, “Grifting 101” fell a little short.

The Episode

Here’s the thing: it’s not that “Grifting 101” completely left out the character in favor of the concept. This episode wasn’t a cold, unfulfilling nothingness encased in pop culture references and I don’t think it exists purely because one of the writers watched The Sting on the night before the script was due. But “Grifting 101” fell back on some tired old character traits for the “human” part of the plot and those tired old character traits cannot fool us anymore, nor do they make us think actual progress is being made in character development or story arcs. This is where the aforementioned theme of treading water comes in. The show isn’t moving anywhere and I’m starting to suspect that it’s not even trying to move anywhere.

We know that Jeff gets unreasonably angry and bothered by people being better than him at something or belittling him in some way. We’ve seen that story play out multiple times over the course of this series (we’ve even seen it this season – four episodes ago!) and bringing it back up doesn’t add anything new to the character of Jeff Winger or to the story. Last week gave us something new when Jeff revealed his fear that his life was going nowhere and he could be stuck at Greendale forever while everyone around him moved forward. The difference between last week and this week is the difference between a sandwich and a mass of cotton candy: yes, they are both edible and delicious but one is an actual meal and the other is mostly air. I can’t live off of cotton candy, Community.

And having a character hang a lantern on the rehashing of old ideas does not excuse the rehashing of old ideas. Annie calls out Jeff for “getting jealous of something dumb” when he tells them not to take a class in grifting and yep, that’s what happens. Jeff gets jealous of something dumb. This dumb thing is a grifting professor who’s better at… lying? Is it lying, or is it just that Professor DeSalvo wasn’t impressed by Jeff’s years-long lawyer scam? Either way, it’s dumb and it makes Jeff angry.

Jeff’s dumb jealousy has him team up with the group so they can grift the grifting professor, and they’re really bad at it. He uses telegrams and bad actors to try and sell a grift – but it’s not a grift! At least, it’s not the real grift, which involves 1) Britta tempting DeSalvo into collaborating with her on a grift, 2) Britta punching DeSalvo and chasing him through the halls, 3) Professor DeSalvo faking a fall down the stairs, 4) getting a payout from the school for $50,000 in cash, 5) getting the briefcase full of money lost within the school, 6) causing DeSalvo to reveal his fake injuries for the fakes they are, 7) giving him an ultimatum: pretend the $50,000 payoff never happened and admit the group grifted him, or pay the school the money he lost.

DeSalvo says that he was grifted, the group celebrates together, and it all ends well for them. I will give the episode credit for the group being very unified and good to each other throughout the whole thing. Even when they were making fun of Jeff (and Jeff was making fun of them) it all felt very lighthearted and had a fondness to it that undercut the mockery. Not devolving into any in-group fighting or pettiness was probably the saving grace of “Grifting 101,” but just a taste of character development akin to what we saw with Jeff last week would have made it so much better.

Other things:

• Annie is adorable when she brings up the grifting class. She's still so excited by taking classes with her friends!
• "Who's gonna come with me and show this guy what's up? I'll pay you back!" "I'll get it from your parents!" "Tell them I spit on their wealth! And thank you." Cute, but also: Britta, what do you do with your money from bar tending? You have to have an hourly wage, and you're a good bartender so I'm willing to bet you're getting tips, so where is your money going?
• In this episode, grifting names are ridiculous. In the TV show Leverage, which is about a bunch of grifters and thieves, the grifting names are references to Doctor Who and Star Trek. I don’t know what I’m saying here except that I really like Leverage.
• Does Add/Drop Week not exist at Greendale? If it's the first class, they should just be able to drop it and get a refund if they don’t like it.
• "The African telegram! The Jim Belushi of grifts!"
• Because the Internet.
• How many pairs of the same style glasses in different colors does Elroy own?
• Jeff was Britta’s boyfriend? Really? Unless that was just a line to catch DeSalvo’s interest, I’m not buying it.
• "That movie was terrible!" "You slept the whole time." "Yeah, that's worse - the dialogue seeped into my dreams – my whole brain was long and quiet."
• Britta lived in New York!
• Dean Pelton was counting the stacks of money in the briefcase and somehow ended up with (at least) two layers of two rows of six stacks adding up to 21, which goes to show exactly why this school has no money and why Frankie is so desperately needed.
• Look, Community, I don't care how many times you call Britta the heart of the group. That is not her role. The heart of the group was Troy and you will never convince me otherwise. [Jenn's note: Amen, sister friend.]
• The audio on the cardboard boxes when Abed was switching out the briefcases was hilariously loud, which makes me think it was intentional. Was the obviousness of this switcheroo another reference to The Sting?
• Being on Yahoo means that Leonard was able to give the finger!
• I guess we were supposed to assume that the group not knowing how to grift/yelling at Jeff for not having a grift planned was for the benefit of Chang?
• And yes, Matt Berry (who I know from The IT Crowd) was very fun throughout the episode so, points for that?

Do you agree or disagree with Deb's assessment of this episode/season as a whole? (For the record: I agree.) Hit up the comments below with your thoughts about the episode, try not to grift each other, and come back next week for another episode and review of Community by Jenn. Until then, folks. :)

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Series: This Week's TV MVPs - Week 11

It's finally May, which means we are full-speed ahead in terms of television sweeps. It also means that, unfortunately, most primetime series are drawing to a close for the year, making way for all of the summer shows (or, in my case, Netflix binges) to move in. Since we're so close to season finales, the acting on our favorite television shows has never been better. And that makes it the perfect time of the week to celebrate some more TV MVPs! This week, my compadres are:

• Newest Just About Write contributor, Alice Walker!
• Lover of literature, compelling characters, and tweeting about television: Constance Gibbs

Let's celebrate some great television performances, shall we?

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Jenn's Pick: My Top 10 Tragically Cancelled TV Comedies

I watch a lot of television.

I do it because I run this blog but I also do it because I genuinely love television. When pilot season rolls around, I rush to the Internet as soon as I hear that a show has been previewed online. I anticipate falling in love with new shows and adding them to my must-list roster. Inevitably, though, what happens during a new season of television is this: I fall in love with a quirky comedy that doesn't have great ratings but has an endearing cast, quippy jokes, and meta humor. And, of course, that show ends up getting cancelled very shortly after it begins. I repeat the same cycle the following television season and the one after that and the one after that and --

Well, you get the idea.

There have been a lot of great television shows that have existed over the years. Friends was filled with ten years of laughter and growth and jokes that have permeated our culture so much that we still make them today. Parks and Recreation was a comedy full of optimism and love and friendship that, while sadly cancelled eventually, lasted a long time. The Office was a delight. Home Improvement was a staple of my childhood. How I Met Your Mother was great until the series' unfortunate final season. Television has had a lot of gems and a lot of successes. But it is also full of television comedies that have been cancelled way before their time. This post is devoted to them! Below, I've ranked ten of my favorite television series that were cancelled way too soon. In order to be considered "tragically cancelled," a television show needs to have ended either before there was proper closure or because there was an opportunity for more growth and development but the show never had the chance to explore those avenues.

Let's take a journey now through some of the most tragically cancelled TV comedies in recent years. Grab those tissues, you guys.

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Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 2x19 "The Dirty Half Dozen" [Contributor: Alice Walker]

"The Dirty Half Dozen"

Original Airdate: April 28, 2015

Hello and welcome to the first ever Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. review on Just About Write! We're closing in on the end of the season and the reviews here are just starting because the internet is funny like that. There's a lot to cover and many relationships to dive into this week, so let's get to it.

The OG Six

As we all know, last year the show got a dramatic makeover after the HYRDA reveal in The Winter Solider. The stakes were raised, the shadows came to life, Ward was lost to the dark side. While I think this has in many ways greatly improved the show, the one aspect that has suffered because of it is the relationships. This season has been crammed with: new agents all vying for our attention (it took me weeks to learn Mack's name and not just call him Agent Tank), new relationships (Bobbi and Hunter were introduced as the second coming of Mr. & Mrs. Smith), and new locations (the BUS, the base, the afterlife, etc.), all of which were nearly impossible to emotionally invest in because we never stayed in one place or with one person long enough. Try as they might to add others into the mix, the characters I care about, I root for, and squeal when they come on screen are the core six: Coulson, May, Fitz, Simmons, Skye, and Ward.

So this episode was something of a treat as the A-plot was unquestionably the reunion of our core-sixers, who have been more spread out than usual the last few weeks. Having Coulson and Fitz be split from May and Jemma while Skye is off getting to know both her parents and her powers has been awkward to watch and their reunion just proves that the show works best when this group stays in focus.

To the mission: Coulson convinces Gonzalez to let himself, May, and FitzSimmons launch and rescue mission to save the kidnapped Mike Peterson and Lincoln from HYRDA, and he's called in a ringer. After weeks of small appearances and B-plots, we finally get Agent Ward back in play. Damaged, conflicted Ward is more than ready to help out the team in exchange for... saving Agent 33? Not getting killed? The chance at redemption? The hope of seeing Skye again? I'm not sure, but as a pretty dedicated SkyeWard shipper I am really crossing my fingers it's the latter.  Just as the team takes off, in pops Skye and without much fuss, they get right to it.

The mission is a rescue op, but the main event was the stunning tracking shot on Skye as she delivered a series of headshots and blows, competently taking out enemies with deadly skill. It was a perfectly executed sign of not only how far Skye has come  with her powers (controlling them before going in to fight) but also as an agent. Remember when she couldn't  throw a punch?  It also shows how the show itself has developed, looking more like Daredevil as she shoots to kill anyone she comes across. As far as development goes, Skye has come the farthest and I love that SHIELD gives us countless examples of women who can fight better then anyone.

Speaking of character development, we saw a few different Wards in this episode. First, the romantic side as he get's all gooey with Agent 33, then the confident and brash agent when he get's back to  SHIELD and finally earnest and seeking the forgiveness of friends when he is alone with his original team. Through it all, I am still not sure where his heart is. His speeches about bygones don't quite ring genuine. It's a little too earnest, it's a little too calculated. We heard him talk from the heart in season one, and this doesn't quite match that. Is he a sociopath like everyone keeps insisting? I don't think so. I think this is just Ward 3.0, the wildcard, and major kudos are due to Brett Dalton for making every version of Grant Ward so distinct. He left on a pretty ambiguous note and I am crossing my fingers that they bring him back in full-time. The layers he brings (not to mention the hotness) to the series are very much needed these days.

In the end, they get Mike and Lincoln, but Jemma ultimately kills Bakshi (RIP, generic bad guy)  trying to fulfill her promise to kill Ward. Jemma's arc has been a problem for me this season. Her dark streak has felt sudden, almost forced. I find it a little hard to believe she was ready and willing to murder Ward, and I need something more significant than Tripp's death to trigger her dark side.  They've turned the once mirror image FitzSimmons into a study in contrast, as he find comfort in embracing change while she so clearly fears it.

SHIELD 2.0 

Edward James Olmos, I want so much more for you than what Gonzalez has been bringing. He has the gravitas and bearing but has thus far been relegated to stock clichés about trust and sacrifice for the greater good. I get that we need a non-HYDRA threat to Coulson, but let's give the man a little more to do! His secret in the cargo hold is a promising start; let's hope it's more interesting than classified files.

In one of the most anti-climactic reunions to date, Mack and Hunter quickly shake off their fight and make up. Either Hunter is lying in this scene, or they are doing some last minute character adjustments in light of the new Hunter/Bobbi spinoff in the works. The forgiveness came too quickly, after far too much buildup about betrayal. I'm trying to care about these people, I just need a little more consistent characterizations.

Meanwhile... in the afterlife

Jiaying is a leader, there is no doubt. She consistently makes the hard calls, trying to dump Cal, leaving Lincoln to be tortured. Soft and nice as she is, she has a steel core that is entirely dedicated to protecting the Inhumans. Her ruthless side is coming out, and I think we will see a lot more of it before the show is over for the year.

She is also starting to get clued in that Raina plus insane powers might equal bad news bears for her leadership with the Inhumans (Cal's description of Raina and their history was spot-on). They still haven't figured out exactly what she can do now, or why having the ability to see the future coincided with her thorny makeover, but they do know she is powerful.

More importantly, Raina now knows it. Before her transformation, Raina was the picture of control, working every angle she could, including her looks to gain the upper hand of any situation. She was beautiful and charming and being transformed so completely warped not only how she saw herself, it wiped away the dream she had been holding onto since she was a little girl. The transformation was her hope, her drive, and when she became more monster than angel, she lost everything.

She's been revived by attention from Gordon and now that her ability to see the future has come to light, she has found a new angle to work, a new power to wield.  She knows her powers are her chance for control and her manipulation is in full force this week. Jiaying should be cautious of her: power is not something she will willingly relinquish.

A note about The Avengers 

I don't love the Avengers tie-ins, especially when they aren't going to impact the show in any real way. It takes us out of the action we spend months building and reminds us to go pay attention to something else. I adore Agent Maria Hill but her appearance was flat and all but Skyped in. I guess we'll have to see next week what the movie/TV crossover will result in. I'm hoping it's both unobtrusive and fun - not shoehorned in for promotion.

Notable Quotables: 

• "Well.. it's good to see my BUS, but hey, you look well too." 
• "My names Mike. I think we got knocked out together." 
• "May's actually pretty friendly... once you get to know her." 
• "I went to him for counseling, he was the only therapist I could talk to about my alien writing impulses." 
• "He's like candyman."

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Supernatural 10x20 "Angel Heart" [Contributor: Deena Edwards]

"Angel Heart"

Original Airdate: April 29, 2015

“Truth is, you’re not her dad. In fact, you’re not anything to her except a constant reminder or someone that’s gone.”

For a lot of people, guilt can be a difficult thing to stomach. It’s often hard to live with oneself, knowing that someone’s life has been greatly worsened by your own actions. However well-intentioned they were, it still leaves one with a heavy conscience and a desire to make things right with said person. And usually, that’s something easier said than done.

For Castiel, he knows that fateful night he took Jimmy Novak as his vessel changed everything, setting off a domino effect that to this day still has affected the life of Jimmy’s daughter, Claire. Despite the fact that he really isn’t her father, he still feels a sense of responsibility for her, and believes it’s up to him to make sure she’s safe, because he’s the only one left in her life to do so. Because of him, her father was taken from her, and not long after that, her mother left. He can’t fix what’s already been done, but he can help her do one thing: track down her missing mother. And with the assistance of Sam and Dean, he decides to do just that.

I will admit, I didn’t care very much for all the Claire storylines at first. It wasn’t that I didn’t like her, but I just didn’t really see the point to them. Little did I know they would be helping wrap up the Jimmy storyline for good, giving him and his wife, Amelia, closure once and for all. And to me, that was probably my favorite thing about this episode, if not one of my favorite things about this entire season by far. I have ALL THE FEELINGS about it, so forgive me if this particular review is a little bit scatterbrained sounding (plus, completely focused on Castiel/Amelia/Jimmy/Claire. Sorry Sam and Dean!) and all over the place as opposed to my usual recap style. I’m still not over it.

With a lot of characters in this show, there isn't much closure. More often than not, their lives end bloody, and that’s it. With Jimmy, his life truly ended around six years ago when he said yes to Castiel, even though he didn’t really die for a while after that. This episode made it clear that not only was he really in Heaven, but once Amelia died, they were finally together again. He’d been waiting for her all that time, and if that scene didn’t make you shed a few tears for someone actually getting a happy ending for once, I don’t know what will. Oh, and don't forget about what Ash (oh gosh, major throwback -- I miss Ash so much, but that's beside the point) mentioned about Heavens. In most cases, the only time anyone actually shares their Heaven with someone else, it's because they're soulmates. Just in case you needed another reason to cry all the happy tears.

Okay, okay, I’ll try not to get too ahead of myself, here. I told you, I just have a lot of feelings.

Back to the actual plot of the episode: Claire still really doesn’t want anything to do with Castiel or either of the Winchesters, but she reluctantly agrees to allow them to help track down her mom, who has been missing for two years after being taken and fed off of by a type of angel called a Grigori, who goes by the name Tamiel. While Sam and Cas go investigate the house Amelia’s at, Dean is stuck on babysitting duty with Claire.

“Your dad’s sacrifice was not meaningless. Yeah, he gave up his body, his vessel. Because he did that, Cas -- Cas was able to save the world. The world. Your father’s a hero. He did not die in vain.”

It’s these words that I believe finally pushed Claire into being more sympathetic and forgiving towards Castiel. She’s blamed him all this time, but by the end of the episode, she knows how much he’s been through, as well.

Don’t even get me started on the scene between Amelia and Castiel. Actually, you know what? I’m going to anyway. I can’t begin to comprehend everything that Amelia has been through. From losing her husband, to being forced to abandon her young daughter to find him just so she could put her family back together. Being slowly tortured over the course of two years, only to wake up and find out Jimmy was gone, shortly before being killed herself.

If I’m being honest, I never really gave Amelia’s character a second thought after her brief appearance in season four, but watching this episode, this scene in particular, something about it tore my heart out. The moment Castiel expresses his guilt for failing her, she immediately assures him that as long as Claire’s alive, he hasn’t failed them. And then the very short-lived reunion between Amelia and Claire… yeah, I was pretty much a fountain of tears at this point, the previously mentioned Heaven scene included.

All in all, if someone were to tell me earlier this season that by the end of it Claire Novak would grow on me, that she would become a character I sympathized with almost the most out of all the other characters on the show, I wouldn’t have believed them. But she managed both of those in just this episode, and now I really hope we get to see her again, maybe an episode next season where it’s just her and Jody kicking monster butt together? We can only hope.

Memorable Moments/Quotes:

• “You were both troubled teens. You speak her language.”
• “Give me something to punch already. I’m kidding. I’m fine.”
• “Then why do you do it?” “To help people. To make a difference.” “That’s it?” “That’s not enough?”
• “I got it at the Hot Topical.” I laughed for ten straight minutes about this scene. As if Cas getting her a birthday present wasn’t adorable enough.
• Am I the only one who doesn’t think Dean’s behavior at the bar with Ronnie wasn’t as bad as it was made out to be? Sure, it was a step above Dean’s regular anger zone, but in all seriousness, he probably would have been rough with the guy regardless of the Mark or not, especially with the comment Ronnie made towards Claire.
• “Bill Murray? Caddyshack? It’s a classic!” “Never seen it. Not a fan.” “How DARE you?”
• “Did you--- did you see that? Did that go in the hole? I wasn’t watching. Did the ball go in the---” “Happy Gilmore. Well played.”
• “Someone just tell me she’s gonna be okay.” 

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