Television

Parks and Recreation – Eagleton

Season
3 of Parks and Recreation continued this week with an episode that had just about
everything; some brilliant comedic scenes, a couple of endearing
moments, and even a Bizzaro Pawnee. While it might not be an episode
that’s well remembered years from now (they can’t all be), Eagleton
still brought the funny like only Parks and Recreation
can.

Choosing
to use the cold open to setup one of the episode’s two story-lines,
versus just doing a one-off joke, they sacrificed some comedy. Ron’s
date of birth, which he worked so hard to keep hidden was
discovered by his inability to pass up a free scoop of ice cream. Ron, being the epitome of all things manly,
hates having his “friends” gathered around him, and his fear of
what Leslie would do with the information comes to fruition as he’s
tortured with her plans for an extravagant party. Ron is always an
excellent source of comedy and watching him angrily count the days to
his inevitable birthday bash was no exception.
The bristly attitude that never seems to soften for long was
present, but what really provided the laughs was seeing Ron behave
like a caged animal, becoming ever more fearful of what Leslie had
planned for him (“Leslie has
a lot of qualities I find horrifying, but the worst one by far is how
thoughtful she can be“).
An especially impressive feat for Leslie considering she was too
preoccupied with the episode’s other storyline to personally oversee
his misery.

30 Rock – Respawn

The season five finale of 30 Rock threw in all of the things I like about the show, and found a way to make a very tight, cohesive story out of them.  Along for the ride are guest stars Victor Garber, and the food network’s Ina Garten.  There are four stories going on this week, and every one of them is well-written.

The Office – The Inner Circle

It really didn’t take that long for Deangelo Vickers to turn into a
full on Will Ferrell character. And while it’s a bit disappointing that
that’s what he ended up being, it’s okay because this was his last
episode. These last couple weeks are going to explore the question of
who takes over running the Scranton branch now that Vickers is in the
hospital with apparently serious brain damage (the closing segment with
Ferrell wandering into the office one last time in a hospital gown and
failing to produce a cogent sentence was both funny and quite sad, if
you really look at it), but obviously it’s not going to be someone
particularly famous. They’re bringing a few big names on to celebrate
seven years of The Office for a little bit, but no movie star, or even
established TV lead, is going to want to take over somebody else’s show
in the eight season. Darryl or Andy or Dwight (probably not Jim, I don’t
think) will be the new boss, and the show will trundle on without its
leader. I think it’s a mistake to go this route, but there’s no stopping
it. We might as well just enjoy the talent they’ve brought on for a
moment, and I had quite a few laughs last night.

Community – A Fist Full of Paintballs

It took all year but paintball finally returned to Greendale this week as Community’s
“A Fist Full of Paintballs” hit the airwaves. To say I was excited for
the beginning of the two-part season finale would be a dramatic
understatement given how phenomenal season one’s “Modern Warfare” was,
and much to my complete and utter lack of surprise, it absolutely
killed. Possibly not the best episode of the season as it has some
fierce competition, but an absolutely outstanding twenty minutes of
television nonetheless.

Dexter’s Got Some New Friends…

With filming on the much anticipated sixth season of Showtime’s Dexter
set to get underway at the month’s end, the flow of information about
what is going on has finally begun. The plot remains elusive, but
tvline.com got their hands on casting call information for some of the
new blood set to appear this year.

TV Show Renewals: The Good, The Bad, and The Ones That Should End

So it’s that time of year again that some TV fans rejoice at and others sit nervously in the corner praying to some divine entity about. This year has seen some fairly shocking renewals on the major networks as well as some shows getting left out in the cold despite strong and loyal fan bases. So before I get into the shows that deserved their pick-ups and those that should just, well, end, here’s what has happened in the world of TV so far:

Smallville – Dominion

I will admit I have a soft spot for the sweetness and tenderness in Smallville. It might be because of the show’s initial goal – turning a special teenager into a responsible superhero –
or the fact that these moments have remained over the years one of the
very few things the show always does right. Whatever the reason, the
opening scene of this episode of Smallville with Lois and Clark made me forget about last week’s painful experience and hope for the best.