TV Report Card: Week of May 8, 2011

Here is this week's TV Report Card:

Monday
Chuck: "Chuck vs. The Last Details"

After a pretty entertaining "Chuck vs. Agent X", things took a step back with "Last Details". Some of the pop culture references were fun ("The Imperial March"), but there was too much Vivian Volkoff who has turned out to be a half-baked character who cannot add up to her father. I was intrigued by all of the connections between the two families, but this whole Vivian arc has fallen too short of my expectations.

GRADE: C+

How I Met Your Mother: "Landmarks"

For some reason I keep coming back to HIMYM even after it keeps disappointing me time after time. "Landmarks" was another one of those truly horrible episodes of a once great show as it finally ended the whole Zoey storyline which was just a giant waste of time. The fact that we did not get any developments about Barney and/or Marshall did not help either. I'm glad that Zoey is finally gone, but it may be too little too late because I'm so close to giving up on this show once and for all, and if it wasn't for NPH I would have walked away years ago.

GRADE: D-

Castle: "Pretty Dead"

After the detour to California, Beckett and Castle were back in New York, and back to another by the books episode. The whole dead beauty queen Case of the Week lacked anything interesting, but there was still enough good stuff (especially involving Alexis) to keep it from being a waste of time. Overall, it was an OK placeholder before we get back to more important Beckett's Mother arc at the end of the season.

GRADE: C+

Tuesday
Glee: "Prom Queen"

While there was too much relationship nonsense going on during "Prom Queen", which pushed aside the opportunity to flesh out some of background characters (like Sam and Mercedes), I still laughed more than I rolled my eyes, so that worked in the episode's favor. Plus, any episode that brings back Jesse St. James, even if he was misused, cannot be all that bad. Now can we get on to Nationals...pretty please?

GRADE: B

Wednesday
Modern Family: "Good Cop Bad Dog"

Modern Family was back to its traditional three-story structure, with very little carry over amongst the families. It was fun watching Phil and Claire reverse roles for a bit, and as always the Dunphys saved the show. Jay and Gloria's story about helping some guy with a bad business idea wasn't all that funny, and what made it was was Gloria's overacting. The Mitchell and Cam plot about the former being selfish didn't bring many laughs either.

GRADE: C-

Cougar Town: "Damaged by Love"

"Damaged By Love" wasn't as out there as most episodes of Cougar Town, but it did blend the zaniness and crassness with the right amount of heart. The highlights were the Cobb's trip to the strip club, and Grayson's odyssey home on rollerblades (Grayson with kids is always golden). It was one of the better episodes of the second half of the season, and I'd even go as far as saying it was one of the best to date.

GRADE: A-

Thursday
Community: "For a Few Paintballs More"

Maybe it's because "A Fistful of Paintballs" was so good and it exceeded my expectations, but "For a Few Paintballs More" just could not follow up the greatness of last week's episode. I did appreciate Troy's transition towards being taken seriously, and the payoff to Pierce's season long story felt right. Abed and Annie's big kiss kinda ruined the rest of the episode for me. Wanting it to be better than both "Fisftul" and "Warfare" probably wasn't fair to begin with, but it's only natural to want the show to trump itself. While "For a Few Paintballs More" wasn't able to out do the former, it was still a pretty great episode of Community.

GRADE: B-

Nikita: "Pandora"

Once Nikita stopped trying to force relationships on its lead characters and brought back some tension filled stroylines, the show returned to its previous glory. "Pandora" was a twisty-turny end to a good freshman season for The CW's spy drama, and I'm truly interested to see where things go now that Percy's no longer heading Division, Alex is aligned with Amanda, and Nikita and Michael are on the run. Good stuff is on the way...if we're lucky enough to get a second season.

GRADE: B