TV Watch: 15 Highlights from Nov. 20 to Nov. 25, 2009
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Seinfeld reunion on Curb Your Enthusiasm season finale: Did it work for you? Do you respect wood?
The Seinfeld reunion episode itself — most of it presented, in fractured form, last night — amounted to a solid episode of regular-Seinfeld, with George having lost a lot of money in the Bernie Madoff scandal. There was some fine, fresh Seinfeld observational humor conducted in ?Jerry??s apartment, as when Elaine started reading her BlackBerry messages. Jerry?s petulant indignance was impeccable: ?Oh, you?re gonna do the BlackBerry head-down thing on me now?!?—Ken Tucker
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Glee recap: Driven to Distraction
Will meets his sectionals competition (including Eve!), Quinn test drives a baby daddy, and Rachel makes her big play for Finn
Will theorized to Emma that Sue was sabotaging New Directions by leaking set lists and videos. Emma advised him not to let Sue serve as a distraction, and, using a convoluted Mohammed-and-the-mountain metaphor, instructed him to go find out the truth at rival Addams High School. And so he passed through tight security, got pickpocketed, and met the confident Ms. Hitchins, a.k.a. Eve, who bristled at Will's set-list-swiping allegations (''You think that because our students are thieves and arsonists that we're cheaters too?''). Next, she guilted him about their lack of resources, insisted she wouldn't risk the girls' one positive outlet by cheating, called his kids ''privileged misfits,'' and taunted, ''Especially from what I hear, we're probably going to take you anyway.'' I was hoping for some Bring It On bravado from Will here, but he said he didn't mean to offend her and politely invited her to a scrimmage at his auditorium. —Dan Snierson
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Modern Family: The ten best zingers from last night's episode, 'Fizbo'
I know we usually do a fairly extensive recap recounting the insane/relatable/always hilarious hijinks of the Pritchett clan, but seeing how it?s Thanksgiving eve, and how I have a three-hour road trip to visit my very own modern family in the ay-em, I?ll just say that I rewound tonight?s ''child?s birthday from hell'' episode no fewer than a dozen times because I was missing dialogue/plot development due to my husband and I howling with laughter. —Michael Slezak
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Jon & Kate Plus 8 series-finale recap: Why (some of us) (used to) love this show
Many of you have asked why I continued to write about this show week after week. First, let?s be honest: It?s partly because so many of you wanted to talk about it in the Comments section. Love ?em or hate ?em, the Gosselins inspired a lot of response.
But there?s another reason. I started watching the show during its first season. I was just a casual viewer; the series didn?t have a season pass on my DVR. But if I was home or in a hotel room and an episode came on, I?d find that I?d always end up watching the entire thing, because the series was (hard as this is to believe now) completely charming. I remember most of the episodes they showed this last night in a quick montage, whether it was family movie-night, or the clan?s once-annual walk to the local Fourth of July parade, the little ones waddling along behind Jon and Kate like ducklings. The kids were adorable and funny, and the interactions between Jon and Kate seemed unguarded, fresh, often amusing, and sometimes provocative. —Ken Tucker
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V recap: The Beginning of the End
The winter finale leaves a few cliffhangers, the biggest of which for Jeff Jensen is whether or not he'll be back
The episode's best stuff, as usual, involved Anna. Once again, we were left to ponder and debate her true motivations. She was hellbent on squashing the Fifth Column subterfuge and the unsettling re-emergence of its mythical leader, John May. She ordered Joshua to launch an investigation into the murder of sleeper agent Dale Maddox ? not knowing Joshua was the murderer himself. (Or did she?) She knew the culprit was one of the medical staff and was more than willing to go cruel and unusual to smoke out the traitor. ''The innocent will suffer,'' she warned. When Joshua's boy Friday — also Fifth Column — stepped forward to take the bullet, Anna seemed to take satisfaction in issuing the sentence. ''Skin him,'' she sneered. —Jeff Jensen
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I will catch up on Sons of Anarchy. —Michael Ausiello
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The Biggest Loser recap: One Step Closer
The final five contestants get a lesson in product placement before one goes home
Allen took Amanda aside for a chat. ''You just have to look at what's gonna be best for you in the end. Do you wanna compete against three people, or two people?'' A strange tactic: he was telling Amanda that the competition would be easier without him, banking on the fact that she would want things to be more competitive. Wrong Pink player, Allen. ''Just wanted to give you things to think about, put a little bug in your ear.'' —Darren Franich
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The Good Wife last night: Best episode yet, plus best use of Chelsea Handler on network TV
I can?t say that I was startled by the hour?s final scene, which had been promoted as a ''shocker.'' Alicia kissing her husband — out of relief for getting the mistress at least temporarily out of their lives; out of surrender to sheer emotional exhaustion and genuine affection — made sense, on the terms The Good Wife has set up. —Ken Tucker
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Heroes recap: Let's give thanks
Despite the season-long narrative idiocy that led up to last night, the Petrelli Thanksgiving was a tense, darkly comic little ride. Angela tried to convince Nathan that he was really Nathan; he had Nathan?s memories, and he had Nathan?s bodies. If everyone on earth tells you you?re Nathan, then you?re Nathan. Heavy stuff! (I felt like I was watching Battlestar Galactica. Except cheaper and bad.) —Darren Franich
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House recap: Are people still pulling for Huddy?
Once upon a time, I rooted for this relationship, but I?m getting to a point where I don?t know what it is I?d be pulling for — and I can?t tell if the show?s creative team knows, either. What?s here? What?s at the center of this relationship, and what is it that I?d even want to see the show explore if theses characters ever got together? —Margaret Lyons
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So You Think You Can Dance recap: Stepping it up
The top 12 got to show their stuff with two dances each
if this whole dance thing doesn't work out for Legacy, he should really become a salesman. Because this guy could sell me a poo-covered copy of Battlefield Earth. The duo's second dance — the dreaded Viennese Waltz — was hardly out of this world from a technical standpoint, but Legacy makes it really hard to care about the little mistakes. I can't think of any other dancer who has brought so much feeling to the SYTYCD stage, with a love of the art to boot. Prior to the top 20, I didn't feel the b-boy's emotions were genuine, but now we know he's just a big ol' softie. And when Legacy cries, I cry. Let's hope they make it to the top 10, yea? —Kate Ward
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Big Bang Theory recap: Wolowitz takes a bath with Katee Sackhoff
Katee Sackhoff?s appearance certainly delivered. As a figment of Howard?s bubble-bath masturbatory fantasies, she gave just the right spin to the line, ''I?m sorry, fiddling with yourself in the bathtub is a real class act,'' and she must?ve been a real trooper, sitting half-naked in that bathtub, perpetually keeping a glass of white wine aloft. Her advice to Howard to spend his sexy times with a flesh-and-blood woman also propelled him to man up and (gulp!) propose to Bernadette in front of all her Cheesecake Factory patrons. Which she, thankfully, declined, forcing Howard to take to the keyboard and microphone inexplicably set up in the restaurant chain?s main dining room. (Have I not been to enough Cheesecake Factories? Is this a standard feature in all of them?) —Adam B. Vary
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The gross manipulation of Find My Family
TV doesn?t get much more manipulative than Find My Family, which premiered last night after Dancing With The Stars. The first episode was a repulsive mixture of aggressive agenda-pushing and teary uplift. The show suggests that every adopted person should want to meet his or her biological parents, and every person who gave up a child for adoption is obliged to yearn to meet that child. —Ken Tucker
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Medium recap: A shade shady
?The Future?s So Bright? found the procedurals-are-better-with-psychics drama back at its creepy, inventive best. The episode followed Patricia Arquette?s Allison after she borrowed a pair of sunglasses from the department?s lost-and-found drawer to deal with a sudden sensitivity to light — and discovered every person she encountered had a number floating over his or her head that corresponded to the number of days that person had left to live. (If correct, looks like Devalos has just under 33 years left, while Scanlon?s got 42 years to complete his bucket list.) But talk about moral conundrums! How do you avoid slipping on the shades and checking the lifeline of your husband, your children, yourself? And should you? I loved the scene where Allison stood facing the bathroom mirror, grappling with turning Pandora?s predictor on herself. —Michael Slezak
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Dancing With the Stars recap: Master Performer
Donny goes all the way and takes the Mirrorball trophy
Are you ready, DANCMSTRs? It's the moment we've all been waiting for! The big news from the finale...is...that Miss Piggy wrestled Samantha Harris for the spotlight and took her down! Samantha's fall was swift; her legacy, epic. Her replacement is made of felt. Oh, also: Donny Osmond is the winner of season 9 of Dancing With the Stars! —Annie Barrett