Castle 4×16 — “Linchpin”: OMG, what was that? The twisted conspiracy theory made ZERO sense, and I HATED the fact that Sophia turned out to be the mole/double agent. And are we supposed to believe that’s the end of the threat? Only two people were taken down: Sophia and that other guy she was with at the UN building. Were they the be all and end all of the conspiracy???? Of course not, so the little Chinese girl is STILL IN DANGER. Ugh, what a mess.

And of course there wasn’t even any significant C/B interaction to make the ridiculousness worth sitting through. Seriously, if that relationship doesn’t take a MAJOR step forward by the end of this season, I am going to give up. It’s just not worth my time anymore.

NCIS 9×14– “Secrets”: I missed the opening credits, so I didn’t see Perry Reeves’ name come up as a guest star. I didn’t even recognize her when she first appeared on the screen, but as soon as she started bitching at Tony with that telltale shrill voice, I KNEW it was Mrs. Ari!! But while her anger is usually well-placed in Entourage, I thought she was way too harsh on Tony here. After 9 years of no contact, she didn’t have a right to berate him like that.

As soon as the superhero thing came up, I stopped paying attention to the main storyline. I just listened in when Tony and Wendy were around to see if any deep, dark “secrets” were revealed. But alas, I guess the title referred to the perps of the week, not to the regular cast.

Anyway, I don’t really care about Wendy or whether or not she comes back. Ziva/Tony appears to be the end game, so there’s no way Wendy’s going to have much of an impact. Besides, she already told Tony to express his real feelings to the woman he loves (or whatever). Gee, haven’t I heard that on Castle, How I Met Your Mother, and every other show that artificially contrives to keep star-crossed lovers apart???

Cougar Town 3×01 — “Ain’t Love Strange”: Wow, it’s been almost an ENTIRE YEAR since Cougar Town last aired! I really, REALLY missed the Cul-de-sac crew, and was so happy to see everyone back again. The episode contained several laugh-out-loud moments for me, and I admit to kind of tearing up when Grayson proposed to Jules at the end. It looks as though Tom will play a bit of a bigger role this year, as will Stan. I just hope the writers give Stan something to do other than smash up his amish baby furniture. I’m not really digging the “sinister toddler” angle so far.

And CT’s treatment of Jules and Grayson’s relationship should serve as a blueprint for other shows that think it’s better to keep a great couple apart via ridiculous obstacles than to put them together and let things develop (Castle and HIMYM, I’m looking at YOU). I hope this show gets renewed!

Criminal Minds 7×14 — “Closing Time”: Meh, there wasn’t really anything about this episode that I liked. The case was a bore, the unsub was uninteresting and introduced way too early again, his “high school” son looked like he was pushing 30, and there was just nothing much going on with the team.

From some fan reaction that I read, it seems that people really enjoyed JJ kicking the killer’s ass at the end of the ep and all the stuff about Hotch’s date. I didn’t really care about either of those things. JJ just isn’t believable as some hand-to-hand combat expert (despite getting lessons from Derek) and Hotch’s girlfriend is too vanilla at this point to make much of an impression. I’m glad he’s moving on and is getting something out of life beyond his job and Jack, but those few moments are not enough to sustain an episode.

Modern Family 3×15 — “Aunt Mommy”: This was a fun episode. I liked seeing Claire and Phil go out with Mitchell and Cam, and their drunken idea about how to have a Tucker/Pritchett baby was just epic!! I LOVED how squicked out Mitchell and Claire were the next day, as well as how neither one knew how to break it to the other. Then the scene where they huddled under the table while everything around them descended into chaos was a terrific way to bring that thread to a resolution. Oh, and Gloria’s comments about brothers and sisters wanting to make a baby were hilarious!!

Speaking of hilarious comments, Luke wasn’t in this one much, but he managed to get in two great digs on Lily: “Is it because Lily’s such a mess?” and “Can we agree that she is a disaster as a human being?” Wow, that boy can really hold a grudge against a 3-year-old, huh?

I’m kind of getting tired of the whole “Manny needs to play sports and do more age-appropriate activities” thing. They’ve been pushing that for 2.5 seasons now and it’s just … I don’t know, not worth pursuing, IMO.

Castle 4×15 — “Pandora”: Okay, despite the utter ridiculousness of Beckett and (especially) Castle being involved in a CIA terrorist plot, I actually enjoyed this episode quite a bit. Maybe it’s just because the case is so different from the usual local murders the team deals with on a weekly basis or maybe it’s the idea that they have a worthy opponent for once. Whatever the reason, I was willing to put aside my substantial disbelief and just go with the flow. The result? A rather enjoyable hour of television.

Sure, some things still grated, such as the way the DMV worker (second murder victim) put “Pandora” in her day planner. I mean, really? That’s the name of a CIA rogue agent’s plot to cause world chaos and she just reveals her involvement like it’s a regular lunch date? Right.

And I know some fans dislike the jealous Beckett routine (even I’ve voiced displeasure over it in the past), but I enjoyed the tension between her and the Jennifer Beales character last night. Beckett is definitely wrestling with her own feelings for Castle now and, unlike in the past, they’re both single. It stands to reason that her jealous would be a little more blatant — and natural — this time around.

Overall, a good ep and I’m looking forward to the conclusion!

NCIS 9×13– “Life Before His Eyes”: This one was just okay. I usually don’t like the “It’s a Wonderful Life” scenario in which a character is shown how much of a difference he has made in the world, but for Gibbs I guess I can make an exception. Too bad this one had Mike Franks as the afterworld escort, though> I can’t stand that guy and never want to see him again. Oh, and the thought of Tony and Kate being married and procreating…Ugh, no thanks. But I did catch the little “Tiva” shoutout from Tony while interrogating Ziva in the alt universe. A portent of things to come, perhaps?

It would have been nice to see at least one scenario where someone on the team left NCIS because of Gibbs — like during the thread where Gibbs became a drunken recluse. Maybe Tony couldn’t handle being an agent without his mentor and decided to move to L.A. and peddle the most affordable car title loans California has to offer. Or maybe Tim decided to take a private sector computing job and became a multimillionaire. Something like that would have been worth exploring!

Criminal Minds 7×13 — “Snake Eyes”: The only reason I was able to watch this episode through until the end was because of the gambling. I love seeing how crazy gamblers can act when they’re on a streak one way or the other, so even though I didn’t particularly care for the Dean Cain character, there were enough gambling scenes to keep me tuned in.

The best part, BY FAR, was the way Reid confronted Cain at the poker table. There was no pussyfooting around on Reid’s part. He just blatantly, openly stared right at Cain and pretty much dared him to make a move. How often does that happen in one of these shows?? It was a bit freaky … and completely AWESOME!!

The Derek/Penelope stuff was unnecessary. Did anyone for a minute really think that Derek took advantage of her when she was drunk? I think that was just an excuse to show off Morgan’s body — or maybe they had some baby oil product placement to get out of the way. Whatever the reason, no. Just … no.

Modern Family 3×13 — “Me? Jealous?”: I liked this storyline despite the fact that all of the plots were fairly transparent, with the punchlines telegraphed almost right from the beginning. I liked the interactions between Jay/Mitchell, Cam/Gloria, and Greg Kinnear/Claire, and even thought the girls and Luke were funny.

The best part for me had to be when Phil got pissed that Tad was making Claire laugh. He doesn’t care that Tad brings Claire wine, kisses her on the mouth, or takes his shirt off to help fix a table when Phil’s not around; those things are perfectly fine. But make Claire laugh?? That’s Phil’s domain only!!! Wow, as ridiculous as that is, I totally buy it from the character.

Castle 4×14 — “The Blue Butterfly”: Andrew Marlowe always goes out of his way to say that his show is not like Moonlighting and that he doesn’t want Castle to follow that path. And yet here he is with a “noir” episode in which the two leads play the two leads in that long ago story in which they fall in love, kiss, and live a long and happy life together.

Come on, didn’t Moonlighting do the exact same thing when the David/Maddie angst was at its peak? And didn’t Bones do it a couple of seasons ago too? This is just a cheap way to get the leads together without actually getting them together. What a cop-out!

I’m thinking of only including Castle in the Weekly TV Roundup from now on instead of giving it a post of its own. Honestly, this show just doesn’t interest me as much as it used to. This latter part of the season better be amazing, or I might simply stop watching — just as I did for Bones, Moonlighting, etc.