Telefizzled w.30

I think this is the second week we’ve had with a hiatus on Lost in favor of some *special* and that really ruins the week for me. I look forward to Lost every week because it is smack dab in the middle and it is always there. Except when it’s not. That’s not to say I don’t understand why this happens. ABC wants the season to end on a specific week for ratings purposes and they need to keep their casual viewers up to speed. You know, those that don’t read The Ed Zone.

Semi-rant over. Back to regularly scheduled content.

No wait, I have another rant to get out of the way as it pertains to my first show of the week. That genius running WHDH makes another blunder — just in my book, but not as big as the Leno thing — by running over the start of a network show and then joining it in progress. Now, I don’t know if other stations did the same “Breaking News” coverage of the arrest of the alleged Craigslist idiot, but this channel did and it ran over the start of the show. (By all accounts this guy is an idiot too… leaving evidence all over the place. Does he not watch TV like me?) So, does a deviant preying on other deviants warrant this kind of coverage? They didn’t arrest a serial killer and this news isn’t at the national level, i.e. a break thru on the war on terror or something positive to do with the economy. Sure, the parameters of this story are deemed unique and interesting enough that people will tune into this crap, so they sensationalize it and run ads, etc. non-stop. I’d reason that this makes the Mooninite story more legitimate since they could tie it to possible terrorism, which is still ridiculous. I am so sick of sensationalist news stations like WHDH and FOX25. Enough!

Actual rant over. Really, back to it.

Chuck: The penultimate show of the season, and possibly the series, has Chuck and Sarah on the run and I missed the start thanks to the above. Thank you Hulu. It filled in where they were and how Casey found them so fast. So, basically by the end of the show we have Chuck and Sarah hooking up a little bit, Orion removing the Intersect from Chuck’s head, the CIA/NSA with new Intersect hardware in hand (as opposed to meatware Chuck) and mission over. That leaves a fairly tidy ending should it not be renewed and they have this week with Chevy Chase trying to ruin the Awesome and Ellie wedding as a cliffhanger setup should it be renewed. Well played, but I hope it is back next year.

The Hills: I actually watched the latest episode as it premiered, which I don’t really do. I had just caught up on the first three of the new season so I figured why not. Anyway, having now caught up on seasons one and two — more on that in my next Flixd post — after having already seen most of three and all of four, it is even more preposterous now that I know all the history. I love it and it is going to be too bad that this will be the last season. Really.

My Boys: Steph watches the guys for a Cosmo(?) article she is writing and finds that all men are boring bears when women aren’t watching. Well, duh! Man caves and all that, right? Bobby and PJ continue their march down to relationship bliss while we are subjected to the same old relationship stuff. We get it. This show isn’t about this. It is about the gang busting on each other and their situations. Let’s not devolve it into some rom-com. Please.

Scrubs: Check it out, Lawrence managed to knock out two welcome back guest stars in the same episode with Elizabeth Banks dating Scott Foley. For those keeping track, that’s JD’s ex dating Elliot’s ex; thanks apparently to Elliot. I don’t remember why JD and Sean don’t get along — did JD break he and Elliot up for round 2? — but it was funny in this instance. Oh yeah, and Turk beat down Cox to get the Chief of Surgery job.

Better Off Ted: I love any joke that blames “The System” instead of the/a user of it. Because I am an IT guy and most of you users are stupid. No offense. So, hilarity ensues with Ted accidentally being deleted by the system as he and his team trying to work around the system. Ultimately Veronica comes to the rescue. Portia de Rossi definitely makes this show, but everyone else is good too. The commercial this week wasn’t so good. Except the end tag line.

Smallville: Lois makes herself up as a hero to create a story she can publish. It was downhill from there. Except for the part where the Red-Blue Blur reaches out to her to say he’d give her his story when he was ready. That was sweet. Not. This episode was blah.

The Office: This one had me as soon as Jim did his butt smooching impression of Charles to David Wallace’s arrival in the office. That smug look gets it every time. Wallace’s confusion of Dwight being the right-hand guy to Charles was also awesome. We knew Halpert was the man. Oh, meanwhile they resolved The Michael Scott Paper Company story the only way they could I guess. No matter how many times Michael had his accountant crunch the numbers — I am going to code a macro for Excel to do that — they were doomed, but now back where they belong. Although, I thought for sure he’d still blow it and admit they were broke, especially after Wallace said as much. It was so small, but the lady getting in the van at the light and  Pam shutting the door was laugh out loud funny. Okay, there were other laughs out loud.

30 Rock: Again, kill the Jenna stuff and it is a solid episode. Jack rolling with Tracy to get over temptation was awesome. In fact, it is when those two are put together that each really excels. Lastly, this time we actually get a Brian Williams appearance to perpetuate his joke: “Really? I’ve not heard of that term before. Do you know how to get to Connecticut?” Best lines of the show were between Lemon and Elisa. With respect to Elisa’s secret:

Lemon: Are you a man?
Elisa: Really? That’s your guess? A man? Do you want to see me naked?
Lemon: Sort of

Elisa’s later line to Lemon about filling her slanket with her farts was actually the best one. Tracy, of course, also had some great lines.

Dollhouse: I thought this story about life-after-death as a doll was going to suck. I was kinda right. This was a classic monster of the week episode, just no monsters. Had horses though. Anyway, it turned out to not be that bad as fillers go, but next week we get some good stuff on the mythology.

Lastly, I watched Southland again and liked it again. I might keep watching this. I skipped Parks and Recreation and Reaper this week. They are recorded, but I doubt I will watch them.