We've been a bit neglectful so far this fall season with our television coverage, particularly when it comes to analyses of episodes week to week. So we're going to do our darnedest to correct that oversight, starting right here, right now, with a look back at last week.

After careful consideration, we began to realize that detailed reviews of every episode of every major series, every week, was just too unwieldy—we haven't the manpower, and we doubt you have the patience to sift through long deliberations about the lives of your favorite characters on your favorite shows. We'll still do more detailed reviews every once in a while, but expect analyses of partial seasons more often than individual episodes.

So what's the alternative? Mini recaps/reviews. Think of them as BK Burger Shots for your pop culture soul.

OK, that's a wee bit disgusting. Think of them as "reviews you can use," a combination of a brief synopsis of the episode with a short analysis of why it worked...or didn't.

We're not covering every show, to be sure. Primarily the ones which have either a strong critical, or highly popular, following. There's lots of genre stuff in there, granted, since those shows seem to generate the most online chatter. And to that end, we invite you, our readers, to discuss or debate any of the episodes we've reviewed in the comments section below...


Mad Men
"Wee Small Hours" | Aired 2009.10.11
Secret encounters and late-night meetings drive the appropriately titled "Wee Small Hours." The line between appearance and identity grows perilously close for Sal (Bryan Batt), whose "Out of Town" liaison comes back to haunt him. Batt’s Sal is one of the series’ most interesting, engaging characters and fans should be glad to see him get his own sub-plot for a second time this season.

But like most episodes, "Wee Small Hours" belongs to the Drapers. Betty (January Jones) isn’t letting Don (Jon Hamm) have all the fun as she circles closer to an affair with Henry (Christopher Stanley), a distinguished gentleman who might not have held as much attraction before the death of her father. Don’s late-night rendezvous are more about business than pleasure as Connie Hilton (Chelcie Ross) reveals more eccentricities when he begins constantly calling Don in the middle of the night. Meanwhile, Sally’s teacher Suzanne (Abigail Spencer) is making Don hunt a bit harder than most of his prey has, but one wonders if she realizes she’s not dealing with Elmer Fudd here. "Wee Small Hours" brings viewers one episode closer to the ending of a season that has been an improvement on its predecessor in almost every way.

-- Kimber Myers

Castle
"Fool Me Once" | Aired 2009.10.12
Already a pretty clever show, this week’s episode might have been the most serpentine yet, with several good plot twists and an ending I didn’t see coming. But as always, what makes Castle fun isn’t necessarily figuring out the murderer, it’s getting there, as the relationship between both lead protagonists continues to be full of witty dialogue.

This week, the best banter ties in with "Heat Wave", the new mystery novel written by Nathan Fillion’s titular character (which really is available now). He had handed Detective Beckett (Stana Katic) a preview copy, and while the fallout may still be pending, at least we get her initial reaction.

Beckett: There’s a love scene? Between us?

Castle: ...Between Detective Heat and the charming reporter helping her on the case.

Beckett: Oh, so he’s nothing like you.

Like Grant and Russell in His Girl Friday, Castle and Beckett seem a more complementary pair on the job than they would be out on the town. But that’s fine, since the show’s other great moments involve Castle’s private life, where his relationship with his daughter Alexis (Molly Quinn) tends to dovetail, thematically, with whatever case he’s trying to solve. It‘s done cleverly, of course.

-- Phil Guie

Heroes
"Taste the Rainbow" | Aired 2009.10.12
Heroes is such a mixed bag. I admire the production values, the cinematography, the cast and often the sheer caliber of the dialogue. And yet all these things seem to operate independent of one another in a vacuum. It's like the old saying about the whole being greater than the sum of the parts, except with Heroes that axiom seems to be reversed It's almost as though the writers know this, and so they threw in a little girl-on-girl kiss this week in the episode "Taste the Rainbow"...just to get the audience's heart started...finally.

In the episode, Claire (Hayden Panettiere) began to suspect that her roommate Gretchen (Madeline Zima) possibly had a hidden agenda. Except that the agenda isn't necessarily anything nefarious, unless you're a staunch right-wing family values proponent, in which case your "official" position is that girls kissing girls is "nefarious."

Meanwhile, Peter's (Milo Ventimiglia) connection with Emma (Deanne Bray), who sees light patterns where the rest of us hear sounds, feels contrived, while Sylar (Zachary Quinto) once more emerges as he tries to remember who he used to be. Is Sylar just the mustache-twirling villain of the writers, or are they actually going to do anything truly bold to actually evolve the character? The only thing remotely interesting here is the carnival...and I'm hoping it will serve as the catalyst to take these characters to the next level (whatever that might be).

-- Robert Falconer

FlashForward
"Black Swan" | Aired 2009.10.15
After last week’s contemplative episode, "137 Sekunden", this week’s offering returns to the more action-driven formula of the series’ first two hours. However, even with the addition of a high-energy chase scene, the Michael Rymer-directed "Black Swan" doesn’t entirely exchange brain for brawn. The philosophical question of how people let their visions affect their current choices reigns supreme in this episode, guiding everyone including the doomed Demetri (John Cho), a hopeful hospital patient (guest star Keir O’Donnell), and now-happily married Olivia as she tries to avoid her fate.

What sets "Black Swan" apart is the nice use of humor to lighten the normally apocalyptic mood. Songs from Mos Def and Jeff Buckley have been used to good effect in previous outings, but Bjork’s gleeful "It’s Oh So Quiet" provides the background music for a blackout flashback where we see a bus careen into a pond. The startling juxtaposition draws giggles, at least from those of us with a love of dark comedy and alternative pop. A few sly references turn this into an experience that isn’t all doom and gloom. FlashForward isn’t nearly as entertaining as its predecessor Lost, but the addition of Dominic Monaghan can only help its cause.

-- Kimber Myers

Fringe
"Dream Logic" | Aired 2009.10.15
When Fringe packed up and moved from New York to Vancouver, a lot of people wondered if the tone and disposition of the show would change. It has. I'm not sure if it's the change in location, or if the writers have intentionally determined to give the series a different textural quality this year. It still looks great, has great production values and (mostly) interesting stories, but it definitely "feels" different this year.

Perhaps it should. After all, some big revelations came at the end of last season when we learned that there is a parallel universe to our own, and that people are transiting between our universe and "theirs." Things were bound to be a little different this season.

Moreover, the show has been quite happy to pay homage to its spiritual antecedent — that also shot in Vancouver — The X-Files, and in one episode, "Night of Desirable Objects", used not only an X-Files-ish story about a subterranean mutant who terrorizes rural Pennsylvania, but even used the farmhouse location that was featured in The X-Files to shoot the episode. And not just any episode of The X-Files, either, but one of the series best and creepiest, "Home".

This week's episode of Fringe, however, felt a bit...encumbered. In the story, a group of Seattle residents with sleeping disorders start having nightmares while awake that lead them to hallucinate nasty things like demons and dismembered "grilled" body parts (yes, I said grilled). Turns out that they all had a chip implanted in their heads to cure insomnia, but that the chip was actually designed to transmit their dreams to the doctor who created it...who is addicted to others' dreams like a crack whore...and who also has a Jekyll and Hyde personality. If it all sounds a bit complicated and contrived, it is. Moreover, it did little to advance the stories of the main characters, and the opportunity to draw the obvious parallel between the dreams of the Seattle test subjects and Peter's (Joshua Jackson) nightmares was left largely unexplored. Here's hoping for a better episode next week.

-- Robert Falconer

Supernatural
"Fallen Idols" | Aired 2009.10.15
Supernatural has never been shy about reinterpreting the Old Testament, New Testament...and every testament in-between. Which is a testament to the boldness of the writers. In this week's episode, "I Believe the Children Are Our Future", the Winchester brothers (Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki) — once again a united ass-kicking force against evil — find themselves up against the Antichrist. Except that this Antichrist isn't what we've usually come to expect.

Not the son of Satan himself, the Antichrist in Supernatural's mythology is an immaculate conception of demon and human, with powers that exceed either one. Satan wants to find him and use him as an ultimate weapon. Castiel (Misha Collins) wants him dead for the same reasons. There's just one problem—this Antichrist is a small boy named Jesse (Gattlin Griffith), who's only "evil" deeds seem to be an ability to make make old wives' tales come true.

As Sam and Dean wrestle with not only their own newfound partnership, but their inability to reconcile slaughtering an amiable enough child to prevent him from being used as a weapon by the Devil, we learn a little more about what it means to be a Winchester...and so do the Winchester's themselves. By the end of the episode, both Sam and Dean recognize that the truth is a burden; that no child should ever have to be forced to make choices between good and evil. And both acknowledge that maybe life would have been better if their own father had lied a little more to them when they were Jesse's age.

-- Robert Falconer
Smallville
"Echo" | Aired 2009.10.16
I've been tough on Smallville this year. After enjoying the show for several seasons, I now feel as though it lost its way after the departure of Miles Millar and Al Gough; mired by an ever more convoluted sequence of plot threads and secondary characters. This week's episode, "Echo", reintroduced Toyman (Chris Gauthier), out for revenge against Oliver Queen (Justin Hartley) who framed him for the "murder" of Lex Luthor. Of course, Clark (Tom Welling) steps in at the last moment to thwart Toyman's scheme, and then have a short bromance pep-talk with Oliver—which is almost as tiresome as the repetitious "talks" Clark always used to have in the Kent barn towards the end of an episode with Lana...but I digress. And don't get me started on Chloe's (Allison Mack) "just in the nick of time" tech skills.

The only thing more annoying is the editing team, who provide musical accompaniment to every scene of the show, and don't seem to know how to dial down the music and sound effects when dialogue is being spoken. I don't know about you, but I find it damn hard to hear what the characters are saying half the time (and before you say anything, yes, I have a good AV system).

By the end of the episode, the enigmatic I'm-not-really-sure-what-I-want-or-why-I'm-here Tess Mercer (Cassidy Freeman) manages to access the jail cell where Toyman is now being held (she bribes a cop or two—apparently all Metropolis cops are corrupt) and hand him Metallo's Kryptonite heart for study. Meanwhile, the other major story concerns Jor-El providing his son with the temporary ability to read people's thoughts, a power Clark quickly puts to use on Lois, which, of course, helps him to realize that she secretly likes him...a lot. It's a trite contrivance used in this story, and I found myself wishing that Clark could have kept the power a bit longer and used it to read the minds' of Smallville's dwindling audience. Ouch.

On the upside, the relationship between Clark and Lois is fun, and both Tom Welling and Erica Durance do a fine job telegraphing the palpable chemistry between them. Now if the show could just do something about the writing. And the sound editing.

-- Robert Falconer
Stargate Universe
"Darkness" | Aired 2009.10.16
Stargate Universe has a big challenge on its hands. As the third series in the 'Stargate' franchise, it's got a lot to prove, namely to separate itself from SG-1 and Atlantis whilst still retaining some of the elements that made those shows successful. It's darker, this 'Stargate'. Rest assured that some of the "Battlestar factor" didn't go unnoticed, and surfaces in Universe, too, although the addition of Eli (David Blu) adds some much needed levity to the group's grim situation...something Battlestar largely neglected.

The Battlestar grit is not a bad thing, mind you, particularly when you add such a wonderful cast of thesps, led by the wonderful Robert Carlyle. The first three hour-long parts of "Air" kicked off the show's premise, and despite solid production values — that established the premise and led the team to a desert planet (filmed in White Sands New Mexico) — it still felt a bit awkward at times, as though the characters really hadn't yet found their identities.

The fourth episode, "Darkness", starts to change that. When the Destiny suffers a potentially catastrophic power loss, the stranded crew are tested to the limit, particularly Dr. Rush (Robert Carlyle). Carlyle and Louis Ferreira, who plays Col. Young, show particularly strong acting chops in this episode, but more importantly, the fiber of who these characters are begins to emerge. Destiny is an obsession with Rush, almost regarded by him as a living entity in itself, perhaps another nod to 20,000 Leagues' Captain Nemo, for whom the vessel Nautilus held special meaning. Overall a strong episode in a series that continues to improve each week.

-- Robert Falconer