To Whom It May Concern Dear Chris,

I was watching the movie Old School on TV as I wrote this post. You should all go out and rewatch that. Before you do though, please enjoy our thoughts on Thursday and Friday night’s television.

Spoilers...

The Big Bang Theory – “The Benefactor Factor” (A-)

When a show starts off asking “You know what I don’t get about Zombies?”  I know it’s going to be a great episode.  And when it then goes on to ask how vampires are able to shave since they have no reflection in a mirror, I know it is a show that is meant to be reviewed by me.  With that in mind, I am proud to announce that I will be Stuck on the Big Bang Channel for the rest of the year.  In case that wasn’t clear enough, I will be writing these reviews from now on.

This is 3 solid episodes in a row for Big Bang.  Well done nerds.  Well done.  We other nerds of the world support you and your valiant efforts to bring nerdom to mainstream culture.  I have just written a piece for my Television Love Affair blog giving a long and involved sports analogy to the Big Bang.  I compare athletes to nerds and the cast to a basketball line up. Check it out if you like the show.

But now on to the task at hand.  Great episode.  Leonard has sex with a senior citizen, bringing new meaning to @PattonOswalt’s recent twitter trend #seniorporntitles.

It’s amazing to me how many sex jokes The Big Bang has been making lately.  I noticed it a few weeks ago with a Raj masturbation joke and now this week we get an episode based around Leonard sleeping with an old lady.  I have no idea what is happening on that set but it’s a direction I don’t remember the show taking in the past.  Maybe I’m just noticing it more now.  Either way it’s really well done.

So Leonard is propositioned by an old woman who happens to be very rich and is offering to give funding support to the university physics department.  Turns out she has decided to give the money to the university anyway.  So Leonard bangs her for fun. Good kill Leonard.  Good episode.

Community – “Early 21^st Century Romanticism” (B)

This week’s episode of Community was a little uneven compared to the past few weeks’ spectacular offerings. The episode started fine, with Annie suggesting they give Pierce an intervention, only to have the group devolve into a hilarious argument with Jeff (more about the Barenaked Ladies than Pierce). It was after that though that the episode got a little trickier.

I had mixed feelings about Jeff’s storyline this week. After he has his falling out with the group over his opinion of the Barenaked Ladies, he spends the night away from them, only to discover that he needs them as much as they need him. It’s a character arc that’s been a brought up a few times over the past season, and in general I’ve liked that they’ve acknowledged his change in attitude. With that said, I still found it a little weird that he’s apparently letting Chang stay with him. He may have accepted our regular study group members into his life, but I don’t think the same goes for Chang, especially since earlier in the episode Chang was being so weird.

I also didn’t really get what they were going for with his ending. Like I said, I love that he’s accepting his place in the group, but I’m not sure how much more we need to drive this point home. The ending narration seemed like something out of an 80s movie, and I feel like maybe I’m missing a reference or something (if I am please tell me in the comments), but if not the sequence felt a little overdone to me.

I felt the same mixed feelings towards Brita’s storyline this week as well. It’s an absolutely perfect storyline for her character, and it had its fair share of laughs (particularly her early scene with Annie where she tells her it’s homophobic to ask questions). The problem is the whole thing seemed to escalate a little too much, with Brita and her supposed lesbian friend making out for seemingly no reason at all. It was like they had this funny scene in mind, but couldn’t think of a compelling enough reason to get to it.

I had no such qualms with Abed and Troy’s storyline this week however. This was another one of those sweet storylines this show has been coming up with as of late, and Danny Pudi and Donald Glover played it to perfection. I loved their extremely businesslike courting of the librarian, and when they finished her line was spectacular.

LIBRARIAN: We need to get something straight first. This is the cutest thing that’s ever happened to me.

And when she eventually chooses Troy and bashes Abed, Troy’s defence of his friend was quite touching... and hilarious

LIBRARIAN: He did talk about the Saw movies for 2 hours.
TROY: Yeah but, there are 8 of them. And they’re two hours a piece. And the first one did redefine the genre.

Further proof that this is one of the truly great bromances on television today.

The Office – “PDA” (C+)

When I first made the decision to start reviewing The Office I really thought I would be cutting into it. The show had started to lose its way, with its stories becoming increasingly unrealistic and its characters cribs note versions of their former selves. Then, to my surprise, the show had somewhat of a creative resurgence. Chalk it up to Michael leaving, or simply hand it to the writers and actors for upping their game. Either way, The Office was starting to feel like The Office of old, or at least some version close to it. Well unfortunately this week’s episode took us a step backwards again, delivering an offering devoid of laughs, or even the basic notions of common sense.

Michael and Holly’s story this week was just downright ridiculous. Not for a second do I believe that Holly, an HR rep, would be so blissfully unaware that what she was doing was inappropriate. Even for Michael it was a bit of stretch. And then half way through the episode, when the rest of the office points it out to them, they act as if it’s a total shock. Seriously? Even their later decision to move in with each other couldn’t save this storyline.

Jim and Pam’s story this week wasn’t much better. After having a Valentine’s Day lunch they return to work slightly intoxicated, and eventually go looking for a place to have sex in the office. It wasn’t a terrible story idea, and both actors did a fine enough job of playing drunk, but in the end it was a rather one note joke, with little else there to keep me interested.

Luckily Erin remains a shining beacon of light for this show, once again carrying this episode on her back (she’s the reason why there’s a plus beside that C). I think my favourite thing about Erin is how she misunderstands just about everything anyone says to her. Poor Gabe sets up a lovely treasure hunt for Valentine’s Day and ends up sending her on a date with Andy. I love that Andy only agreed to help her because Stanley was furious at him for accidently doing his Sudoku. Leslie David Baker’s facial expression here was priceless. And I also really liked the scene in Darryl’s office, where they whispered to each other about whether Darryl could hear them or not. It was just so appropriately Erin.

I sincerely hope, with Steve Carell’s departure just on the horizon, that The Office can give us some more inspired episodes than “PDA”. It would be a damn shame for such an iconic character to go out on such a whimper.

Parks and Recreation – “Ron & Tammy: Part Two” (B+)

This show is really the master of the call back. The writers have a created a wonderfully quirky town full of strong supporting characters and institutions, which serves as a hilarious backdrop for all of our main characters. Well this week’s call back came in the form of Ron’s ex-wife Tammy, and the rest of those diabolical library employees.

From the start of the Tammy storyline the writers kept everything consistent with our previous experience with the library department. I loved how afraid of the situation Leslie was at the start of the episode.

LESLIE: I pre-dialed 911 so all you have to do is press send.

And then of course we get Ron’s famous last words, “everything will be fine”, and jump cut to Ron and Tammy all over each other in jail. I really liked the little intervention they gave Ron, but more specifically, past Ron’s video to himself. I thought it was absolutely hilarious that he found it pertinent to tape a message to himself in the event of this worst case scenario.

I also loved all the great Ben burns in this episode. It’s really funny how his character can do no right in the eyes of Leslie and the rest of the Parks department. I loved all reactions to his suggestions:

LESLIE: (after Ben suggests ordering salads) These guys are cops, not ballerinas.

BEN: You know what I like... calzones.
POLICE CHIEF: What the hell’s wrong with this guy?

I’m impressed at how well the new cast members are fitting in with the rest of the cast. I wouldn’t have expected all these new characters to work out so well. Ben’s character especially does a great job of highlighting how hilariously good Leslie is at her job.

And speaking of how well the new characters are working out, pairing Chris and April together was an act of sheer brilliance. I’d never really thought about what polar opposites these two characters really are, but the potential between these two is seemingly endless. I love how after Chris gave her the “good job” post it note April’s response was just an expression of pain.

But it wasn’t just their differences that were entertaining here. Chris was actually really good with April, and when he invited her to come with him to Indianapolis it showed a new side to his character that I really liked. They’ve portrayed him up to this point as almost naively positive, but this episode did a great job of showing that he still gets it underneath all that optimism.

Oh and while we’re on the subject of Indianapolis, I’m very interested in seeing how the writers keep these two around after they’re called back to the state budget office. I don’t really see a natural story progression that allows them to stay at the moment, but I trust that the writers have some plan on keeping them in Pawnee considering they’ve used Indianapolis as somewhat of a looming countdown.

I’ll leave you with a few other random quotes I found funny:

LESLIE: I don’t know what it is about big outdoor gatherings that makes everyone want to urinate all over everything... but it does... and they do.

RON: Wendy and I are over. She’s moving back to Canada. It’s too bad, I just taught her how to whittle. She made me this tiny sharpened stick.

CHRIS: April could you come in here a second... (she comes in) April way to come in, great initiative.

ANDY: Sounds like it was Macklin’s call.

30 Rock – “Double-Edged Sword” (A-)

This was a much better outing for 30 Rock this week. Surprisingly enough, out of all the comedies on NBC on Thursday they won the night for me. Part of what made this episode so good started with the writers setting up a theme – that dating someone similar to yourself is a double-edged sword (hey that’s the name of the episode), because both of you will share the same flaws.

Liz and Carol’s storyline this week was the perfect demonstration of this theme, with their unwillingness to compromise leading to their eventual break up. The setting of their story lent itself to some great plane humour, which made watching their arguments all the more entertaining (“good luck pressing take off, then autopilot, then land”). I also loved how quickly the back of the plane turned into a wasteland. It’s too bad Liz and Carol broke up though. I liked Matt Damon, and I was hoping he would be around a little bit longer.

The best storyline this week though was Jack and Avery’s trip to Toronto, again demonstrating the theme of the double-edged sword. Being Canadian, I absolutely loved all of the Canada jokes coming from Jack and Avery, especially Avery’s reaction to Jack telling the bell hop that all American meth comes from Canada.

AVERY: Are we not even making our own Meth? What is happening to American Manufacturing?

So when they ended up in a mobile Canadian meth lab the story got all the better from there. There were so many great gags it’s hard for me to narrow it down. From Avery’s contractions sounding sitcomy, to Jack telling Lorne, the Canadian meth dealer, he wants his baby to be born in America so she can one day be president and declare war on Germany like “back when we were awesome”, there was seldom a joke from this storyline that didn’t land. My favourite line came from Jack’s conversation with Lorne though.

LORNE: Oh my god, where are my manners. Do you want to try meth?

And then there was Tracey finally EGOTing. I was a little surprised he obtained the EGOT so suddenly at the start of the episode. They’d been setting it up for so long I expected a little more build up to him finally getting it. The story itself was fine though, as it gave the writers a chance to showcase Tracey’s trademark craziness. My favourite moments:

-          Tracey having someone accept the award on his behalf because his mouth was full of Pop Tarts.

-          His response to doing the Cornell commencement address: “Sorry but Tracey Jordan doesn’t do safety schools.”

-          This line: “I’ll need a whale saddle.”

Great stuff. I hope the addition of Jack’s Canadian/American baby means we get some more Canadian jokes in the future. In the meantime though, kudos to the writers for an exceptional episode of 30 Rock.

Fringe – “Immortality” (A)

We are back in the “Red” Universe for this week’s episode.  We find a Fringe team with Fauxlivia and Co. struggling in a Broyles-less world.  The case of the week that the episode revolves around is about a scientist who seeks to be remembered for curing the avian flu.  The only problem is that the cure comes from an enzyme found in the skelter beetle.  These beetles apparently only live in sheep and sheep in the red universe are extinct.

As far as I can tell, this is a made up beetle.  In fact the Fringe forum suggests that it is a reference to the Beatles song ‘Helter Skelter’ which Paul McCartney just won a Grammy for.  ‘Crocodilian’ posts on the forum and provides a freeze frame of the book used in the episode with information on the beetle.  Its genus and species name is Mansonhium Boogliosus, a reference to Charles Manson who the song is based on and Vincent Bugliosi who prosecuted Manson. Thanks Corcodilian!  HOWEVER, I would like to note that proper scientific names have a lower case on the species, so it should read “Mansonhium boogliosus” instead.  Science fail.

Anyway… this scientist is desperately trying to finish his research so that everyone will know his name as the one who cured the disease.  He’s using human hosts to mature the beetles and that obviously leads to a few murders and Fringe Team involvement.  The team is able to stop him in the end but as usual the important plot points occur outside the episodic narrative.

First, we see that Walternate refuses to continue with his cortexiphan trials because it requires the use of children, a moral line that he is unwilling to cross.  Does this mean there is some good in him?

Also in this episode, Fauxlivia agrees to marry her boyfriend, only to have them both find out that she is pregnant amid fears she’s been infected with the beetle.  It’s Peter’s child.  She still loves him and is now carrying Walternate’s grandchild.

Fringe has done a really good job of blurring the lines of right and wrong.  We fell in love with the regular universe, our universe, the blue universe, the one where 9/11 actually happened, but we’ve found out some interesting things about this universe over the past few seasons. We discovered that Walter has very loose morals, that he stole a child from the other universe.  We sympathize with this because he lost his son and loved him so much. We feel for Walter and like his craziness. 

Then we’re faced with the fact that Walternate has waged war on our universe. He is responsible for many of the Fringe events.  He is the scientist using our world as a lab.  But is this unjustified?  His universe is unravelling.  He may be taking it too far, but does his universe deserve these tears in reality’s fabric?  We are shown a Fringe team who we initially see as kind of evil, an Olivia with a semi-malicious smile and a care-free attitude that makes her a strong counterpoint to the conservative, do-good agent from our universe, and this Fauxlivia tricks Peter and attacks our universe while undercover.  Walternate holds our Olivia hostage but only to try to gain some knowledge on her abilities. 

But still, if this was war, and the fate of our world was held in the balance, I would want my secretary of defence to do the same thing.  I find myself wondering which universe is more justified, whether I can actually want the red universe to crumble.  I like them over there. I like that Charlie is still alive and I like Walter with his whole brain (despite his evilness).  I like Olivia’s smile and Astrid’s obviously autistic nature.  These are good people too.   It is a fabulous confusion for me as a viewer.  Initially they are the enemy but I have come to feel for them.  I have Stockholm syndrome for the red universe.

I am really hoping for a conclusion to this show where both sides can survive.

Maybe a war on another plane of existence against the watchers or the beings that the watchers are watching for.  Olivia and Olivia side by side.  Or a dead Fauxlivia with Olivia raising her child with Peter.  A child that will have a John Conner like role in the future.  A child of two worlds.  Other than Walter and Olivia, all the other main characters only exist in one universe.  Their counterparts are dead on the other side.   A merging of the characters in a cross universe Fringe team/defence council to prevent the collapse of all the known parallel multiverses is not out of the question.

Wow, I can’t believe I just wrote that.

Grey’s Anatomy – “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)” (B)

This was a rather light episode, with not a whole lot of new stuff happening at Seattle Grace this week. Meredith was offered a new clinical trial, but in the end didn’t take it. Lexie realized she was mad that Mark had put her in the same position again, leaving her exactly where we ended the week before. Oh and Karev was a jerk who cares. Not exactly breaking the mould. Still, for a filler episode it wasn’t without its charm.

Meredith’s story was the least fleshed out of all. It felt like they just kept repeating the same scene over and over until she made her decision. Meredith sees the Chief, he tells her that this is her birthright and won’t move on without her, she goes off to ponder it some more, and so on and so on. And after all this her decision is to simply stick with the status quo. Yet despite of this the storyline wasn’t without a few good laughs. I loved the scene between Owen and Christina where she complains about Meredith’s dilemma to him.

CHRISTINA: Meredith has two groundbreaking clinical trials and I don’t have any.
OWEN: Okay, but you have a husband that loves you.
CHRISTINA: Well so does she.

On the other hand, Lexie had a pretty strong showing this week. Watching her complain about her dad’s new girlfriend was particularly funny, especially since Meredith all of a sudden became quite mellow towards her father.

LEXIE: You hate him! Hate him with me.

I also thought Lexie’s peanut butter cup scene with Avery was quite strong, with both actors doing an exceptional job playing their parts. It looks like there may be a budding friendship in the works.

More than anything though, this was a set up episode, and this was never more evident than in Karev’s story this week. For the second week in a row we were introduced to Dr. Lucy Fields (Rachael Taylor), the gifted new OB at Seattle Grace. I can all but guarantee we will see her and Karev hook up in the future, but for the mean time their relationship remains somewhat tenuous. They have good chemistry though, so this future couple has my blessing (I’m sure the Grey’s people were just waiting for my go ahead).