Another quick one here, but I'll likely (maybe?) be back to full length pieces next week, assuming any of these damned shows feel like evolving at all.

First up, Bad Judge maintained its improvement from last week, but didn't add to it (though it was nice to see Ryan McPartlin again). The cast is excellent, the writing is just good enough, and it's an overall pleasant experience but by no means a masterpiece. Kate Walsh is so incredibly strong that it almost doesn't matter what she's being asked to do, from triangle chokes to forgetting a stenographers name, she spins it into gold. Big thumbs up for her, mild thumbs up for her show.

A to Z is starting to piss me off, though. At a certain point somebody needs to tell the show runner that real women have, like, dignity and willpower and all these other basic elements of humanity. This show is doubly tragic because all four women in the main cast are very, very talented and are doing this material much better than it deserves. This week, though, Zelda (again) broke her semi-established character with virtually no provocation in order to stalk her new beau, and again, responded to his psychopathic behavior (in this case, physically following her around and spying on her) by kissing him. This is treated as romantic instead of twisted, and therefore comes off as creepy instead of funny. Meanwhile, poor Lenora Crichlow's apparently been given a character description that amounts to the words "boy crazy and insecure" on a post-it note, and yet she's somehow making most of it work. Christina Kirk fares no better this week, being portrayed as chronically insecure and neurotic after spending the first two episodes as a ball-busting corporate super-villain.

I just looked up the writer for this episode in order to complain at him, but it turns out to be someone who's worked on a lot of my favorite shows (including Scrubs and Go On, both of which understood the complex high-concept premise that, get this, women are people) so instead I'm going to credit him with the occasional good joke from this episode and instead direct my scorn to show runner Ben Queen.

Dear Ben Queen: fuck you. You are credited on four episodes, which is four times as many as any other writer. We've only seen one of them so far (the extremely problematic pilot), but when faced with a choice of whether to blame you or a mostly-talented writing staff (which includes Rashida Jones, among others), I blame you. Go meet an actual fucking woman before you write a TV show about them. Here's a hint to get you started: turns out they don't find stalking quite as romantic as you do.

Note: It is worth noting in the interests of fairness that in this particular episode, Zelda stalks first. I've chosen not to dwell on this because it's A) out of character, and B) treated as inappropriate, as opposed to charming. Oh, and C) THIS IS THE SECOND OUT OF THREE EPISODES IN WHICH ANDREW STALKS HER AND IS REWARDED FOR IT.

In closing the post script, allow me to just once again say: Fuck you Ben Queen.