Curb Your Enthusiasm: Season One (2000)

Creator: Larry David

It was hard for me to figure exactly what this show was trying to do in its first season, but it was certainly funny and showed potential. Larry David plays himself, and he plays sort of a social observer role poking fun at social norms. His character is in the vein of Woody Allen, but without the personal stakes that Allen had in his films. David shows great talent in plotting episodic TV comedy, but I found his character mostly one-note, because unlike Allen's films, there wasn't much at stake. This is a show though that has gone on for many seasons, so I would not be surprised to learn quite a bit more when I see more episodes (and similarly I can't imagine a show like this going on for 5+ seasons without stakes).

The average episodes basically seem to unspool a yarn of unfortunate events that occur due to unforeseen events that unfold due to usually some innocent action that David did. It's the classic comedy of chain reaction. For example we might see one very subtle racist comment that David makes becomes so much more by the end of the night, affecting his wife's health. Even though the dialogue is improv, the plotting sure isn't, and the plotting is done very well and seems almost effortless which is remarkable considering the planning that has to go into writing these types of stories. What the show does well this season is establish a tone, and a feel for who David is. I hope the subsequent seasons do better in creating cohesive stories that actually affect David's life more substantially.

Grade: B-

Justified: Season Three (2012)

Showrunner: Graham Yost

The same thing is true of every season of Justified, the first 10-12 episodes are pretty good but not great, but then the last couple episodes are flat-out outstanding and make the rest of the season better in hindsight. In the case of the third season, it's really just the final episode (final scene if you want to get specific) that crosses the "great television" threshold. As great as that final episode is, it's not enough to retroactively make the whole season great, though I certainly have a better opinion of the other episodes now. The third season is not quite as good as the second, but maybe a bit better than the first. It's uneven, but it's wildly entertaining.

The main villain of the season, Quarles, was a bit too cartoonish sometimes for my taste, but he provided some great Tarantino-esque moments that made the show all the more easier and fun to watch.  It's really at the end of the season that we find some meaningful information about him that connects him to the overall theme of fatherhood and specifically the shadows a father casts over their son. The reason the show has been faltering a bit in my view has been the lack of focus on its main character, Raylan Givens. There are many supporting characters on the show now, and it has all now become about them, rather than Raylan. Like the great pilot episode in the first season, the final episode this season was about Raylan, and that is why the episode was great. If more of the show involved Raylan's issues with his family, his work, and his temperament and including them in the main plot, the show would be much better. As it stands, the show has never failed to be entertaining, and so I cannot deny its quality.

Grade: B-

Downton Abbey: Season Two (2012)

Creator: Julian Fellowes

 The first season of Downton Abbey was filled with strong characters and a pretty compelling narrative for almost each of them. While the second season features many of the same strong characters, the narratives were not as compelling and much more silly. The believability of the plot decreased heavily as Julian Fellowes seems to dig deeper and deeper into the box of generic soap opera stories. Many of the plots were just contrived drama that weren't all that compelling, though at the same time the characters to make them watchable.

One of the more contrived and silly stories was the deformed Titanic survivor whose storyline was so unbelievable and out-of-place I wondered why in the world Fellowes chose to include it. On the other end, the romance between Lady Sybil and Branson was of similar quality to the character arcs in the first season, much more compelling and emotional while also shining a light on the changing times of the setting. Then there's one of the best parts of the show, which is just watching all the characters work together and interact. The overall tapestry of the house and the town they live in expanded during this second season and it helped in making the world of Downton Abbey a place you want to be a part of, even despite the sometimes unbelievable story-lines.

Grade: B-

Justified: Season One (2010)

Creator: Graham Yost

 The initial concept of this show, beyond adapting an Elmore Leonard short story, seems to have been to create a western set in modern America. That concept has a lot of potential, but I am not so sure it reached that potential in the first season. The first episode is great in setting up our main character of Raylan Givens, a lawman who does not have as much respect for the law as you would think. But the next six or so episodes did not advance that character or the plot very much. They were mostly standalone episodes that did not give a strong desire to watch the next one, though I will say that even the worst of those standalone stories was entertaining.

The last few episodes though get into more serialized storytelling, and it pays off very well in the final episode. Those last few episodes solidified the show as more than just a few entertaining characters who frequently say clever lines. The juxtaposition of two son's who ended up in different places, Raylan and Boyd, was fascinating and it culminated in a great final episode that fully took on the daddy issues theme of the season. I'm not sure if the final couple episodes truly make up for the wandering in the rest of the season, but I cannot deny that the show is always fun to watch even when there's nothing particularly important going on. If the show continues the serialization then it can definitely turn into something great.

Grade: B-