Your TV analysis for the week of April 5, 2015.

“SHE LIVES ON THE COUCH. SHE’S A COUCHER!”

Note: The following breakdowns go into detail about their episodes. SPOILER ALERT!

Welcome to the Breakdown, where we take the week’s TV highlights and break them down into party-size chunks. If you came looking for Game of Thrones, you’re a week early. If you came looking for The Walking Dead, you’re a week late. We do, in fact, have the premiere of Louie, a newbie in the form of iZombie and Dare(flippin’)devil‘s first episode.

Additional breakdowns by Michael Spring and Max Mielecki

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Community: “Law of Robotics and Party Rights”

by Max Mielecki

Community cranked up the absurdity again this week. Greendale played host to a group of convicts taking classes via iPads attached to segways, and the concept was mined for all it was worth. Jeff had another crisis when he faced the fact that even convicts can be just as smarmy as he is. The emotional beats didn’t quite land as well as they should have, but the absolute commitment to the premise and a solid B-story for Britta and Abed made this one of the better entries into Season 6. (Also: Abed needs to impersonate Jerry Seinfeld more.)

80/100 – Great

iZombie: “Liv and Let Clive”

by Montel Allen

Liv continues to be a very likeable character. “Liv and Let Clive” wasn’t the strongest in the way of plot, but character wise, it was a real treat. It’s great to see all of Liv’s friends and/or co-workers crossing over. By the end of this episode, Major and Ravi had a nice bromance going on, and as a gamer, I was glad to hear two guys on TV talking about video games in a non-cringeworthy manner. (There are definitely nerds in this writers’ room.) Liv took on the traits of a former Blue Cobra gang member. In past episodes, she has taken on the personalities of a sociopath and an artist, but this week’s personality was less colorful. She was pretty much herself with the addition of being more paranoid. Oh, and let’s not forget, she picked up kung fu skills, skills in which she used to take out the head of the gang. Liv and Ravi spent the better half of this episode concerned about where Clive’s ethics lie. He turned out to be clean, and watching the clues slowly reveal themselves was average. Finally, Blaine spent this episode being a master brain taste-tester. He hired some goons who tried to challenge his brain pushing business, but that ended quickly. We now know Jerome is about to be served on a platter, as this episode ends with Blaine sawing his head open. Consequences are sure to follow, especially with those shoes being so iconic.

72/100 – Good

New Girl: “Par 5”

by Montel Allen

New Girl wasn’t too exciting this week. “Par 5” mustered up the show’s usual laughs, but the situations felt like they were pulled from a hat. Winston goes on a date, Schmidt tries to become tanner and Jess goes golfing. These three plots were just funny enough at times. Jess’s awkwardness was nothing new, even when you put a golf club in her hand. Winston is basically the same kind of awkward as Jess, and like her plot, was good enough. Even the comedically gifted Max Greenfield felt like he turned it down a notch. The funniest scene, though, was Nick and Winston doing Eddie Murphy and Seinfeld impressions, with Coach unexpectedly jumping in. While “Par 5” was obviously just filler for the show, I know New Girl is capable of delivery cohesive, funnier episodes.

70/100 – Good

Justified: “Collateral”

by Michael Spring

Loretta found herself forced to side with Markham, so now he’s as powerful an opponent as ever. Raylan and Boon will definitely have to face off at some stage too, unless all of this build-up has been a red herring. I’d like to think that Raylan will get his targets and ride off into the sunset, but it surely can’t end that happily for him. He has signed over his house and cut all ties with Harlan, so now all that is keeping him there is Boyd Crowder. It’s fascinating to see how perfectly everything has been set up for the finale. Back at the midway point of the season, it would have been impossible to predict virtually any of this. The characters were moved into position throughout the course of the season, and then Ava shooting Boyd set everything into overdrive. Simply wonderful.

100/100 – STELLAR

Louie: “Potluck”

by Max Mielecki

Rejoice, everyone, for Louis C.K. has returned to the airwaves to pump more auteur comedy into our lives. What becomes a simple attempt to reach out to parents at a potluck at his daughter’s school, leads Louie through a crazy menagerie of welcoming and bitter people. This of course ends up with him in the bed of a pregnant woman. Louie has always walked a fine line between hope and despair, and “Potluck” constant shifts from happy to sad continue to both show Louie’s state of mind and deliver huge laughs. Five seasons in and “Potluck” is a reminder that no one creates television quite like Louis C.K.

90/100 – Superb

Daredevil: “Into the Ring”

by Montel Allen

“Into the Ring” did a great job of wiping the soiled vision of 2003’s Daredevil from our minds. What we have now is a wonderfully gritty adventure that was set up nicely in its first hour. The origin story was satisfyingly brief, as were subtle references to other MCU events. The standout moments were the two fight scenes. This is the first time we are seeing Marvel produce something this dark and mature for the screen, and boy did they pull it off. I loved the way the fights were choreographed, with a shaking camera due to a body slam against a wall adding more to the brutal dance. We were introduced to some major players here. There was our titular hero, Daredevil/Matt Murdock, who serves as a dark knight if you will. Foggy stands in as a lighter, more comical character that the show can count on. Karen, played by former True Blood actress Deborah Ann Woll, is a dark character that more than certainly has some dark secrets buried. On the villain side of things, we weren’t actually introduced to Kingpin quite yet. However, throughout the episode we hear of him and even hear his voice. Doing most of the villainous errands was Wesley, who seems to be the right hand man to Kingpin. Hell’s Kitchen is a neighborhood in desperate need of a hero like Daredevil. As the episode ends, we see this is a place where kidnappings, muggings, weapon trades and drug operations are all what make it hell.

76/100 – Good

Are you impressed by ‘Daredevil’? Was this ‘Justified”s best episode? What other shows should we break down? Tweet us @YouNerded.

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That’s it for this week. Be sure to return every Saturday for your weekly TV breakdown.