Quibbling Siblings: What we loved about November sweeps

by Debbie McDuffee

Every week brother and sister team Bob and Debbie take on a new topic. This week, it’s the best of November sweeps.

Debbie:

We’re in the midst of it: November sweeps. As Thanksgiving passes, it’s died down, but we’re left with a bunch of amazingly entertaining episodes to keep us smiling and squeeing as we fondly remember them while digesting our turkey and starting our holiday shopping.

Castle and Supernatural both shouted-out to the X-Files last week with entire episodes inspired by, and paying homage to, the great Mulder and Scully. I thought for sure it was some sort of anniversary or something, but no. Just good fortune.

Something about the Community episodes this month have been out of this world … even more so than extraterrestrials! The bottle episode was sheer brilliance, but it may have been topped by the blanket fort / conspiracy theory … good God, those writers are clever.

How I Met Your Mother has been really disappointing for me the past couple of seasons, with the exception of a stand-out episode here and there. But I have loved both the museum episode and the Thanksgiving episode this month.

I really feel like most shows are going all-out for November this year and it’s something I was thankful for on Thursday!

What say you on this topic of love and thanks and quality television?

Bob:

Well, that is what sweeps is all about, right? I agree that the Community episodes have been great (though I still think the Halloween episode was one of the best ever). I’m with you, I really enjoyed the Thanksgiving episode of How I Met Your Mother, and it seems like I don’t say that about many of the show’s episodes these days. How can you say no to a skateboarding dog, though?

To your list, I would add The Good Wife. They don’t really have bad episodes, but they have had a couple standout ones this sweeps period. In particular, I really enjoyed the episode featuring Michael J Fox. It wouldn’t be sweeps without stunt casting (and last week featured iCarly‘s Miranda Cosgrove), but Fox did a great job and the episode itself was a really good one.

For a lot of shows, I have to say, I don’t really notice when it’s sweeps month.

Debbie:

I just don’t remember sweeps knocking it out of the park like this year, though.

And there you go again, rubbing it in that I haven’t caught up on The Good Wife yet….