By John Keegan and Edmund Boys

When a show starts hitting its stride, you surrender yourself to the narrative, confident that wherever the writers choose to take you will be entertaining, compelling, and satisfying. At one time in television history, it was rare for a show to achieve this in its freshman season. But, in recent years, as producers have been given more freedom, especially on cable, the phenomenon of the show fully-formed at birth has sprung onto our screens. While I’ve always felt the auteur theory is an insult to the collaborative nature of filming stories, there is no doubt that the singular visions of Matthew Weiner or Vince Gilligan shape “Mad Men” and “Breaking Bad.”

By John Keegan

Savonarola takes the center stage as a major adversary to Rodrigo Borgia in this episode, and it is some of the most gripping material yet. Savonarola subscribes to a brand of religiosity that borders on the sadistic, as various followers are prompted to scourge themselves publicly, while others are pressed into religious vocation. Given the state of Italy at the time, of course, one might have indeed felt that the time of repentance was at hand.

By John Keegan

I've been very critical of "Touch", which I find to be a very poorly written show masking its lack of consistency behind its premise. Nothing I've seen so far has changed that opinion; however, I must admit that when the writers actually pay attention and make all the story elements intersect in logical ways, it makes for a less cloying episode.

By John Keegan and Henry Tran

I've been accused in the past of judging Betty Francis too harshly on a couple of episodes on this show. I take that criticism to heart and as such, I've tried to look at Betty's character objectively. She makes her return here after the events of "Tea Leaves" and I'm still unsure of her place in the whole narrative.

By John Keegan and Gregg Wright

"Body swapping episode". The mere thought of the concept sends shivers down my spine. And these are not shivers of excitement, but of dread. Often, I wonder if there's been some sort of edict set down by the gods of television, decreeing that all sci-fi shows must, at some point, do a body-swap episode. It's one of the most popularly-utilized tropes in sci-fi television, but not only am I sick and tired of it, I'm not convinced that it ever really worked. Maybe there are rare exceptions were uncannily good acting results in a truly convincing body-swap, but in almost every case, it's impossible to see the exercise as anything other than the actors mimicking each other, to the best of their abilities. Suspension of disbelief just isn't there.

By John Keegan

Many of my annoyances with "Grimm" have centered around the too-obvious construction of the season arc. Relatively early in the season, it was clear that the writers were going to toss up artificial barriers to ensure that Hank and Juliette didn't suspect the existence of the Wesen until the season finale. This has led, especially in Juliette's case, to some character assassination, as some have termed it.

By John Keegan and Gregg Wright

It's almost hard to believe, but there are only three episodes remaining in the season. By this point in the first season, King Robert had died, Joffrey had taken the throne, and Ned was betrayed and taken prisoner. It's not quite as clear, now, that we're hurtling toward climactic events, but one might suspect that this is all building up to a battle for King's Landing. I've just been surprised to find that this show has once again seemingly failed to conform to my expectations for how a serialized drama would be structured. Season 1 turned out to be more of a prologue. And season 2, which has been surprisingly low-key, could so far be described as an extension of the prologue.

By John Keegan

The hunt is on for the weapons needed to take down Dick Roman and the Leviathans, and the Brothers Winchester follow the fetch quest to one of the few remaining Alphas, once Crowley makes it clear that he's not getting involved until the Winchesters prove they can get the job done by collecting the rest of the pieces of the puzzle. Which, of course, is easier said than done.

By John Keegan

If there was ever any doubt that the producers and writers were preparing for possible cancellation, this season finale erases that doubt without a hint of hesitation. Not only does this episode wrap the vast majority of plot threads from the fourth season up with a bright, shiny bow, but elements going back to the first season are addressed or referenced along the way.

By John Keegan and Henry Tran

This show delves into dreams and the notion of reality. Dreams tend to be extensions of whatever a person's reality is at that time. There is a warped sense of time passing when dreams are involved. I write this now because it hadn't occurred to me that it's been only six months since the accident that changed everything in Detective Britten's life. He had gotten used to his situation, comfortable enough to expect a pattern to his new life, and this episode was the first since the pilot episode really to throw a wrench into all of it.