Spartacus

I should have been watching a lot more TV than I did, last week. I’ve got the first episode of Canadian TV show The Bridge to watch, as well as the first eps of Sons of Tucson and BBC4 documentary Women. I’m also way behind on Archer and have the latest eps of Modern Family, CSI and Spartacus: Blood and Sand to watch, too.

The reason? Rome. I’ve been averaging an two to three episodes a day. It’s really very good. You should watch it if you haven’t already.

But here’s what else I did watch.

• Chuck: Ooh, Chuck gets its heart back and in a ‘game changing’ episode. However, it’s one of those eps where you think, “Hang on, if the bad guys can do that, why haven’t they already done it in every single episode before this?” I do hope it doesn’t mean the end for Ellie and Awesome in the show though.
• Community: Katherine Macphee was actually quite good and there were some good moments in the episode, but it didn’t have the zing of the previous week’s.
• Cougar Town: Stuff happened. You know. Actually, a few good character touches, particularly around Ellie, but they should be giving Dan Byrd a whole lot more to do, and they seem to have forgotten the show is supposed to be about the difficulties a 40-something female divorcee might face when dating.
• Lost: Good ending, and nice to see Ben get redemption in both realities, but felt like a filler ep again. Clearly, the Locke-Sawyer eps are going to the best ones this season.
• Life Unexpected: It’s just going all over the place, here. I have no idea what they’re up to, and I’m not sure they do, too. But it’s still enjoyable enough.
• Parenthood: A definite improvement over episode one, but something of a reboot, since now it’s trying to be funny. The Asperger’s element is actually very well handled, even if it has the US perspective of “this is a pathology” rather than something more adaptive and British. Erika Christensen’s “working” mom fight with the “stay at home” mom was entertaining and rang true. But the singular flaw to the show is the lack of female communication – the guys and their issues are the focus, and while the women have issues, they never get to talk about them with anyone, if at all, except with the guys. So you still have a male-centric view of the women’s issues, and the women’s issues then become issues for the men. We needs some BFFs here, please.
• Pineapple Dance Studio: Possibly the most bizarre thing on TV at the moment. It looks like a reality TV show set in the eponymous West End dance studio (from which the clothing line gets its name), but between the semi-scripted, Fame-like dance moments, the OTT stars and Michael Buerk’s sarcastic, dry commentary, it’s impossible not to think it’s all some Chris Morris spoof. You really can’t tell if it’s real or not. Your gut says fake, but your mind says real. It’s so very weird.
• 30 Rock: A good visual gag involving dubbing, but not really that funny this week.
• 24: Just a glimpse, a mere glimpse of old Jack was enough to elevate this show above previous weeks’, but this was just horrifically dim stuff. And can we please just end the useless Dana sub-plot? You’re in the middle of a terrifying nuclear security threat to the United States. You work for US counter-intelligence as a computer operator. You’ve just managed to convince your boss not to prosecute you/fire you for negligence. How stupid do you have to be to pick up a call at 2.30am from an unknown number on your personal cell phone? Switch the bloody thing off!
• Undercover Princesses: BBC3 has recruited real princesses from Uganda, Saxony and India, stuck them in a house in Chelmsford, given them jobs in offices, hairdressers and the like, and told them to find themselves a man within three weeks. In Chelmsford. I’m not exactly sure what the point of it is: surprisingly, some princesses are better than others at looking after themselves (even if they can’t work a broom or work out how to break an egg), but other than laughing at that, there’s not much to the show. The men aren’t appealing. No one has anything in common with anyone else. You might as well be watching a show in which a modern-day Belgian, fire-fighter and leopard tamer are sent back in time to 1625 and asked to find a goblet, some contemporary Lithuanian art and an original Shakespeare folio while holding down a job as silversmiths in Lincoln for all the use this serves.

But what did you watch?

As always, no spoilers unless you’re going to use the <spoiler> </spoiler> tags, please. If you’ve reviewed something on your blog, you can put a link to it here rather than repeat yourself (although too many links and you might ge