Monday Night TV

Highlight for spoilers:

• Prison Break: Interesting to see the warden back, though I'm not sure I buy that quick a turnaround. I had no idea Ixtapa was in Zihuatanejo (or possibly the other way around), probably a Shawshank Redemption reference that fanboys spotted a year go. The smoking doctor... I mean, I'm sure free clinics are crappy, but that seemed over the top. But you do feel sympathetic for C-Note. But on the topic of sympathy, I didn't really need that T-Bag flashback sequence. I like him better as just crazy with no real explanation. Sometimes the bad guys are better off bad. Sarah screwing over Kellerman was kinda funny. But how telegraphed was the warden letting Schofield out of the deal? Really I liked this one. I've mostly just been sticking with it because the first season was good and I wanted to see it end, but this was a pretty exciting episode.

• Heroes: Putting a scene before the previouslies was kinda cool. And I know that wireless actress from something. But there's so much crossover, I have no idea how to compose my thoughts in any way other than a random list:

• I've enjoyed the "maybe Claire's dad is evil, maybe he isn't" thing, and him giving Isaac a gun is great in that it works both ways (kill him cause he's a good guy or kill him to save the world?).
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• Sylar was doing a great job selling Mohinder on how helpful he was, but the creepy "I can feel them"/destiny speech was a pretty bad idea on that front. And I have no idea how he's supposed to cover the fact that every powered person they meet gets killed by Sylar.
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• Holy crap, when Peter gets cornered he turns into Superman.
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• I had no idea Parkman's wife was played by an Aussie actress, but the second she got upset her accent became obvious.
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• Has Stan Lee ever had a cameo that wasn't "hey, look at me!"
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• But that went from lame to awesome in a heartbeat, with Parkman, Nuke-boy, and wireless chick showing up at the Bennett's, and the confrontation between Isaac and Peter.

• Studio 60: When Matt said Samuel Taylor Coleridge I thought Rime of the Ancient Mariner was his most famous. "Water, water, everywhere but not a drop to drink"? That's pretty famous. And Jordan's practice baby was totally ripped off of Newsradio, when Joe gave Lisa an electric infant as a wedding present. "When you're practicing nursing, don't put it on high." As usual, the best moments come when Timothy Busfield is on screen... the baby beheading was hilarious. Also, aren't all paramecia single-celled?
  
  
  At first I was weirded out at Matt's reaction to the concept of guys discussing how they wanted to have sex with Harriet, cause that's just how guys tend to operate. It was obviously inappropriate to do at work especially in front of a woman, but not shockingly so. But then yeah, the church-themed debauchery was pretty wrong.
  
  Sounds like this might be it for Studio 60. Not a great ending point, not a great show. If they've got anymore episodes in the can, I hope they show up over the summer or online or something. As frustrating as it's been, I still keep feeling like there's something there.
  

On the Tivo: Everybody Hates Chris.

Wow, Blades of Glory. That looks awful and hilarious.

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30 Rock/Studio 60

One of those New York gossip columns has a pretty amusing story from the WGAs:

Tina Fey dissed archfoe Aaron Sorkin Sunday night at the Writers Guild Awards. The "30 Rock" star competes with Sorkin's "Studio 60": Both take place behind the scenes at a show like "Saturday Night Live," where Fey was head writer. Wiggling around the Hudson Theatre stage in a party frock with plunging decolletage, Fey told the crowd, "I hear Aaron Sorkin is in Los Angeles wearing the same dress - but longer, and not funny."

I like Studio 60 (mostly), but that's still damn funny. The "archfoe" thing is weird, though. Given Sorkin's reaction to recent criticism, he might think of Tina Fey as a foe of sorts, but I can't imagine her having more than a casual dislike of him. When everyone was on the Studio 60 bandwagon before the season started, 30 Rock had some fun at their own expense, with those ads that had Alec Baldwin thinking he'd signed up for the Sorkin show, so it seems like Tina Fey at least has a bit of a sense of humor about the situation.

Via Defamer.

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Monday Night TV

No Prison Break this week, and yes, I'm like the only guy in the world that doesn't watch 24. I gave up shortly into season 3. People seem to love it these days though, so I might take some time this summer when network shows are reruns to grab some DVDs and catch up. Highlight to reveal spoilers:

• Everybody Hates Chris: Orlando Jones guest stars as a sub who challenges Chris. He was ok, the plot was ok, and the jokes were ok. I did like the callback to the Gritzky jersey, the Officer and a Gentleman parody was ok, and the "B-" t-shirt was sorta funny. The narration jokes didn't really work, though. The show hasn't wowed me in a while, and really needs to generate some laughs to keep me coming back.

• Heroes: Mohinder's been calling heroes at random, and one calls him back (Glenn from the Gilmore Girls, and also those Office-style Burger King commercials a few years back), with some kinda melty powers, but Sylar beats him to the guy. Cool effects on the melty thing. I'm not sure I like Sylar's philosophical musings, though. But that's the standard way to make a comic book villain evil and creepy, so it's at least appropriate.
  
  Claire wants to meet her father, her mom just wants to extort him. I love the "$50k! And you get half!' part, sounding all generous when she's really screwing Claire out of $25k. I'm surprised we weren't beaten over the head with Motorola logos when she took Claire's pic with her phone, though. And wow, Ma Petrelli is a cold bitch.
  
  Weiss' (Parkman, but he'll forever be Weiss to me) career as a bodyguard doesn't last long, turning quickly to diamond thieving. But he leaves the case with his prints on it, and I'm sure the cops will have noticed that it wasn't there when they showed up. Maybe just an editing thing and we're supposed to think he did clean up after himself, but it still bugged me. Also, apparently his psychic powers are directional, given that he heard JessNikka coming in the elevator. These two parts set things up nicely. With JessNikka headed after Nathan, Claire possibly chasing her dad, and Weiss potentially after JessNikka, that could finally get everyone all together in New York. Which is good, cause Nikki's family hasn't been a very interesting story so far, but getting them involved in the action could help.
  
  Hope calling Hiro "Sulu" makes the whole George Takei guest star thing confusing. So does Hiro's father look like the guy who played Sulu, or is it like Last Action Hero, where Stallone played the Terminator? And was that Dauber from Coach as Hope's boyfriend/gaming commission dude?
  
  Hiro and Ando have kind of stalled out to me. They were by far the best storyline early on, but now they're sort of treading water. The best storyline now, Peter and the invisible Dr. Who, didn't appear (get it? I'm hilarious). I'm still loving the show, though. They manage to keep action going in at least one storyline every episode, so even when it's heavy on character development, they can cut to some excitement.

• Studio 60: It was nice to know that I was supposed to notice the singer's chest in the beginning. What a terrible song, though, and that actress is not comfortable at all standing in front of an audience and pretending to sing. Cool to see Stephen Tobolowski... but he was underused. Hopefully he gets brought back in some capacity.
  
  I'm not sure how I feel about Matt's drug problem starting up as a storyline. Danny's already a recovering addict, do we need more of that? And was the Tyler Durden moment at the end supposed to be surprising? Other people not remembering the guy at first stuck out, then when the singer mentioned the dreamy thing, it became pretty obvious.
  
  The flashes of Sorkin brilliance continue to frustrate me. The B-story about the metric conversion sketch? That's what this show should be like all the time. It was funny, it was both about making a sketch comedy show and about the characters, and it didn't take itself too seriously. Plus, it was heavy on Matt, Danny, Nate Corddry, and Timothy Busfield, with a little Mark McKinney thrown in.
  

Tivo: Some TCM stuff, but that's it.

NBC's plugging the 5th anniversary of Last Call with Carson Daly. Really?

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Last Night's TV

I'm loving Heroes more and more, and caring less and less about the shows I watch before and after. Spoilertastic beyond this point (highlight to read):

• Prison Break: Oh, at least we're headed somewhere. I'm glad Bellick's out of prison, cause that storyline was headed nowhere. Sucks to lose Haywire, but I think that had to happen, both because it was silly that the stupidest of the bunch had lasted longer than a lot of the brighter ones, and because it gives us another excuse to show how evil Mahone is. Which we have to see at least once per episode.

• Heroes: The NCC-1701 license plate on Hiro's dad's car was a nice touch. But mostly I didn't care for the Hiro storyline. Though I guess I'd been wondering what his friends and family were thinking when he took off for New York at random. And how he could afford to. So that explained that. And I still don't care that much about JessNikka and her family. But the Sylar action was quite cool, and Invisible Dr. Who is a great addition to the cast. The big reveal at the end (which was promoted in a creepy way with the high school cheerleader "Who's your daddy?" thing) was actually kind of predictable, but it makes sense. The only other candidate was Linderman.
  

• Studio 60: It's becoming more and more romantic comedy, as they randomly pair off characters. I had thought there was some real chemistry between Darius and Lucy, but I guess the black guy/white girl romance thing still freaks out the networks. So they stick her with Tom, and Danny and Jordan and Matt and Harriett. If the show somehow gets renewed (doubtful), they can start breaking them up and swapping around. Matt and Lucy, Danny and Harriett, Matt and Jordan, Lucy and Jordan (for sweeps).

Still parked on the Tivo: Everybody Hates Chris.

Studio 60 will be taking a break in March to make room for The Black Donnellys, which seems to be an Irish family/organized crime drama. I'm guessing it was greenlit somewhere around the time The Departed started getting buzz.

Also at that time, 30 Rock will be off for a bit for Andy Barker, PI to air 5 episodes. This one involves Andy Richter as an accountant who rents office space that used to belong to a private eye. When clients come in asking for investigative work, Andy decides it sounds like fun and just goes along with it. Sounds like a fun premise. If Andy Richter Controls the Universe is any indicator, Andy Barker will be awesome, watched by no one, shuffled around in the schedule enough that even hardcore fans don't know when it's on, and finally canceled.

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