TV Catch-up

Finally caught up with these two over the weekend. Highlight for spoilers:

• Jericho: When the marines blamed all this mess on Iran and North Korea, I was immediately suspicious. Too easy a culprit, and the marines rolling in to save the day was too easy a solution for the series. So while I guess it wasn't a surprise, it was cool to see how they arrived at the conclusion that these guys weren't for real. Jake is quite the player though, moving from Heather to Emily to fake marine chick.
  
  I'm glad that the Hawkins' ex-girlfriend storyline is over. I can't say I'm that interested in it, but I guess his story will pick up with him after the "old man." And I like that his daughter ends up as the shooter, since they'd had a scene earlier in the series where he's teaching her to shoot.



• Halfway Home: A male prostitute, an arsonist, an armed robber, a drug trafficker, and a computer scammer are sent to a halfway house as part of their release. Most of the conflict comes from the fact that the arsonist (played by TV That Guy Regan Burns) is, other than his pyromania, a straight laced play-by-the-rules type, while all the rest are more what you'd expect from criminals. A lot of what you'd expect from a low-budget improv-heavy show on Comedy Central... lots of wackiness, lots of random references (Robert Mapplethorpe, etc), and lots of sex jokes (mostly from Oscar Nunez, who, in a bit of a departure from his reserved Office character, plays a flamboyant prostitute). It's mildly funny in parts, but I can't say that I'm motivated to ever watch it again, especially given how crowded Wednesdays are with good TV.

And a random bit of TV news, Digital Spy is reporting that, much like Ricky Gervais' The Office, Extras will not get a third season, but instead will produce a special to wrap up the series. While I'm a little sad that we won't get another season of this very funny and underrated show, I'm happy to see that we haven't seen the last of it.