TV Recaps Reviews

The camera shows a French style home with classical music playing. Tony narrates, saying “inside it looks like France, but outside its Vietnam”. Tony describes the Vietnam Central Highlands as “a place of peaks and valleys and mist”. Tony tells the viewers when the French left the Central Highlands after WW II they kept their French influence. The Vietnam Central Highlands are located up in the mountains where it is cooler at altitudes of 4,500 to 5,000 feet.

Tony is back in his favorite place on earth, Vietnam. Tony drinks beer with Linh, his old friend and guide from his previous visits to Vietnam at Duck Restaurant, a street-side food stall known for duck preparations. Tony and Linh drink beer as they receive crispy rice cake, spicy coleslaw with star fruit and boiled duck pieces. They enjoy some spicy sweet and sour duck dish next, then meaty duck soup and finally a savory porridge with duck.

Tony and Linh visit the emperor’s palace, decked out in French decor with beautiful grounds surrounding the palace. Tony and Linh visit Linh Phong Monastery Pagoda, known for their vegetarian meals made with fresh local ingredients. Thirty Buddhist nuns live at the monestary and cook the vegetarian meals they will enjoy. The Buddhist nuns work hard to make the food. Vegetarian meals are often spicy since there is no meat. Tony says he can go five days without meat but he craves it. Tony and Linh enjoy a meal of rice, spicy mushrooms and vegetables, and spicy soup.

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As Ned Flanders runs his bible study, Homer screams out “hey, my bathing suit came off” as he goes down the sidewalk on a slip and slide, disrupting Flanders program. The entire bible study group watches Homer through the window as he slides and Ned becomes more upset. Reverend Lovejoy convinces Ned Homer can still be saved. Ned looks at WWJD bracelet and his “Jesus time for a good deed clock” on the wall and agrees.

Ned invites Homer and his family as his guests to the bible study’s trip to Israel the holy land the next month. Homer ponders out loud sarcastically about “taking my family to a war zone, on a bus with religious lame-os, in a country with no pork in a desert with no casinos” to Flanders. Marge hears the exchange and accepts Ned’s offer as long as the Simpsons pay their own way, an idea Homer’s wails indicate he is not happy with.

The plane arrives in Israel and Homer is bound and tied by airport security. Marge tells Homer he should apologize for his remarks to which Homer says “but latkes aren’t as good as American pancakes”. Homer suggests the latkes are pretty good with applesauce and he is released. Krusty is on the trip and Lisa asks him why he traveled to Israel, he says as a Jew he must travel there once in his life to avoid hell. When Lisa tells Krusty Jews don’t believe in hell, Krusty runs into the nearest strip joint.

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Walt White is driving down the highway singing along to the radio. Walt is pulled over by a policeman who tells him he needs to fix his windshield. Walt goes into a tirade about the crack in the windshield coming from debris dropped by the Wayfarer 515 airplane crash on his house and can’t understand the officer’s reluctance to see his side of the story. Walt does not follow the officers instructions and becomes beligerent, resulting in being pepper-sprayed, then taken into custody.

Hank and the DEA team find the burned out remains of the truck and its occupants in the dessert. Hank thinks this is high-end cartel work and wants to investigate further into the crime. Jesse sees a for sale sign at his aunt’s home. Jesse stops by and tries to talk to his dad, who seems reluctant to talk to him about the sale. When Jesse suggests he come by to see his mom and dad for dinner his dad says maybe sometime. Jesse realizes his parents want little to do with him after the discovery of his meth lab while staying at his aunt’s house.

Walt sits at the police station with red eyes from the pepper-spray and is embarrassed by his behavior. After apologizing to the officer, Walt’s brother-in-law Hank bails Walt out of jail. As Hank drives Walt home, Walt confides to Hank that Skyler is divorcing him.

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Liz decides she needs more positive energy to help in her dating life. Liz receives a call from her ex-boyfriend Floyd, who is in town and wants to meet with her. After she arranges for them to have dinner the next night, Liz is excited about seeing Floyd again.

Frank, Toofer, and Lutz are tired of Danny, the popular new cast member. Frank, Toofer, and Lutz decide to play a prank on Danny, who falls for it. Danny complains to Jack, who knows just what to do to get back at the writers. Jack and Danny set up an elaborate ruse to get Danny’s revenge against them.

Liz turns on the TV and finds out that Floyd is in New York competing for a dream wedding on “The Today Show” with his fiancée Caitlin. Liz can hear Floyd talking during the Today Show taping right below her office. Apparently Floyd is engaged and planning on getting married right out in front of 30 Rock where Liz can hear and see the ceremony. Liz is crushed by the news and wishes she could get out of dinner tomorrow night. Jack suggests Liz seek revenge by encouraging Floyd to order fish at the restaurant they are going to, since Liz has gotten sick on fish twice there already.

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Michael is showing off his push-ups in the office and the office staff is not impressed. Michael dares the rest of the office to do twenty five push-ups. When no one seems interested Michael ups the ante so anyone who does twenty five push-ups gets to go home early. Stanley gets down on the floor and does twenty five push-ups, much to the chagrin of Michael.

Oscar wants to talk with Matt, his office crush, but can’t seem to find time to talk with him since the Christmas party. Oscar asks Darryl about having a Happy Hour meet up for the office as an excuse to be around Matt, Darryl tells Oscar its ok to like Matt. The Happy Hour plan for after work is in place and Jim tries to beg off by using the baby as an excuse. When Michael insists Jim call Pam, she screams with excitement through the phone about getting out of the house, foiling Jim’s plan. Pam decides to invite her friend Julie to pair up with Michael since Julie laughs at everyone’s jokes. As Jim, Pam, Michael and Julie play pool, Michael and Julie seem to be hitting it off. Oscar feels disappointed as he keeps waiting for Matt to show up. Darryl tells Oscar Matt is kind of dumb and not a great catch.

Dwight is sitting with Angela at Happy Hour when Pam’s cousin Isabel arrives. Having hooked up with Isabel at Jim and Pam’s wedding, Dwight leaves Angela to go talk to Isabel, leaving Angela steaming. Angela follows Dwight and Isabel around as they play whack-a-mole and the other fun games at the bar. Angela takes a moment to remind Dwight of their baby contract. After sizing up the pros and cons of Angela vs Isabel, Dwight happily releases Angela from their baby contract.

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As April Fools Day approaches, Dean Pelton addresses the students, telling them to curb pranks on campus. Dean Pelton suggests the students pick up a College Pranks pamphlet if they have any questions about how far a prank should go. At study group, Annie reads in the pamphlet that Dean Pelton is looking for volunteer security guards during the holiday, so she and Shirley decide to volunteer as a cop team. Annie and Shirley argue who is the “baddest” of the two cops. Pierce tells the study group his Buddhist church is making him a Level 6 Laser Lotus.

Jeff decides this is an opportunity to prank Pierce by telling him a delivery person was looking for him with a package delivery from his church. While Pierce searches for the delivery person with the package, Jeff has Abed run to the theater department to find an outfit for Pierce. Abed returns with a package holding a wizard outfit with hat and robe which Pierce promptly puts on as the group laughs under their breath.

When the gang decides Britta is a buzz kill, Britta tells Jeff she is planning a prank on Senor Chang. Apparently Senor Chang is afraid of frogs so Britta plans to break into the lab room and borrow a frog to place on Senor Chang’s desk before class. She thinks a frog with a tiny sombrero that says Senor Chang is funny while Jeff thinks the prank is lame at best. Jeff finds Pierce and Troy in the cafeteria and hands Pierce another package from the delivery guy. The package contains a wizard’s wand with a cookie at the end of the wand. Jeff tells Pierce the wand will help him focus his powers and Pierce is thrilled to receive it.

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Tony opens the episode talking about the beauty of Provence. He says Provence is “where great painters painted and great chefs cooked”. Tony waxes on to the viewers how he talked his producers into letting him and the crew stay for a week at a villa with a beautiful garden and pool while filming the episode. Tony tells the viewers he made the mistake of inviting friends and locals over so he could cook dinner at the end of the week and realizing what he has done, he panics. Shots of Tony fumbling with the French stove and unable to find cooking utensils in the villa’s kitchen tells you he has good reason to be nervous.

The next shot has Tony narrating about the Romans and the history of Provence. Tony tells the viewers “don’t let the terrain like Martha Stewart’s head fool you, this is a poor country”. Anne Daguin, sister of Tony’s friend in New York, visits with Tony as Jeanne Bayol’s mother makes aioli for Tony and the crew. The aioli is made in a mortar and pestle, rising up into a frothy mound of garlic and olive oil as it is prepared. The meal is simple yet delicous: carrots, potatoes, green beans, fennel, cod with the aioli and wine. Tony states its time for a nap and crashes in a covered cart in the garden.

The next morning is Sunday and Tony meets Cedric, a relative of Anne’s, for a traditional morning gathering at Bar du Marche of local men to eat cheese, sausages, bread and drink wine. Tony and Cedric stopped beforehand to pick up meat and cheese for the meal, but it is obvious they need much more than they brought to feed this hungry crowd. The men enjoy eating and drinking together but the one rule is, no women allowed. After a few of the men’s wives drive by signaling them to come home, the group breaks up after singing, toasting and drinking one more time, leaving Tony to sit drinking and snacking at Bar’s sidewalk cafe while watching the world of St. Remy go by.

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In the opening scene an old Mexican man is crawling in the dirt face down, as the shot pulls wider we see a large number of Mexicans crawling in the dirt. As they crawl two well-dressed Mexican men in suits and boots with skulls on the tips of the boots drive up to the crawling people, get out of their car and start crawling with them. The men and crowd of people crawl to a small shed where there is an altar for the dead with candles and flowers. The well-dressed men light a candle, then pin up a drawing of Walt with his alias name Heisenberg under the picture. “The Cousins” are hired assassins paid to hunt down Walt in retribution for his part in the murder of drug dealer Tuco.

When we last saw Walt White he was stunned as his wife Skyler told him to leave the house. Walt stood in his driveway as debris from a plane crash rained on him and his home. A few days later Walt stands around the pool in his bathrobe, gathers all his drug cash and proceeds to burn it on the barbecue grill. Walt comes to his senses and throws the cash into the pool to save it. Jesse is at a rehab center trying to come clean and figure his life out. Jesse, who feels guilty he may have caused his girlfriend Jane’s drug overdose, asks the counselor if he harmed anyone because he was a drug addict. The counselor’s story and his plea to the addicts to come to terms with who they are deeply affects Jesse.

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Bart’s teacher is out of town, forcing Principal Skinner to combine the two fourth grade classes. As Bart’s class joins the other fourth grade class, he ends up sitting next to Nikki (guest voice Sarah Silverman) who is unimpressed with Bart. When Bart finds out Nikki skateboards he develops a crush on her. Grandpa convinces Bart to steal a kiss from Nikki the next time they are together. Bart takes his Grandpa’s advice and plants an innocent kiss on Nikki. Her parents are in an uproar over the kiss and sue the school for Bart’s inappropriate behavior.

Lisa finds out she received an F on a paper and is crushed. Suddenly the other students think Lisa is cool because they think she’s not a gifted kid anymore. When Lisa’s teacher Ms. Hoover tells her the F was a mistake and she got an A+++, the rest of the class goes back to hating her. Lisa complains on her organic blog about being gifted and gets a supportive email back from FLOTUS1. Lisa and the other school children are shocked when a military helicopter lands on the school grounds and First Lady Michelle Obama (guest voice Angela Basset) walks out. Mrs. Obama reveals she is FLOTUS1 (First Lady Of The United States) and reads Lisa’s blog, telling her she is an organic gardener and also an avid reader. The first lady encourages Lisa to keep achieving and tells the rest of the children it’s ok to be smart.

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Justified revolves around the life of Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant, Deadwood), a throwback to the old West days, a man who is fearless when it comes to facing down bad guys who break the law.

Givens is transferred from the Miami office to his home state of Kentucky after he shoots and kills a suspect he has a history with. Chief Deputy Art Mullen shows Givens the ropes in his department and Givens is thrust into action shortly after when a shooting takes place. Ava Crowder (Joelle Carter) decides to kill her abusive boyfriend, who happens to be the brother of Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins, The Shield), the resident bad guy in town. After hearing about the killing, Givens looks up his childhood friend Boyd Crowder, who has become a white supremacist and robs banks for a living. Givens seems to fit right in with the crossing the line attitude of the town.

FX tackles difficult and often taboo subjects in their series, and Justified is no different, starting off in the premiere episode taking a hard look at race and white supremacy. FX has created some of the most impressive TV series ever put on television. The Shield, Rescue Me, Sons Of Anarchy and Damages are a sample of their quality programming. This is a strong start to what should be a very good series. The acting, writing and direction of Justified are top notch. The premise of wild west laws in the south in modern times is an interesting one.

Watch Justified Tuesdays at 10:00 p.m. on FX ET/PT. Check your local TV schedule for upcoming episodes of the series.

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