Fall Back into Television (Week 4)

Big time television update: Due to strange things like moving offices and the complete collapse of the economic market in the United States and abroad, I somehow procured a sweet new (slightly used) TV to put in my bedroom, for next to no cash. There's no real reason for doing this, except that it lets me be even more of a time wasting lump than usual, by combining both my television watching and my Internet browsing into some kind of unholy vortex of slacking from which there is no escape.

The only problem with this setup is that I'm way too cheap to spring for another cable box in my bedroom, which means that if I want to change the channel in my bedroom, I have to physically walk into the living room. So in a weird way, I actually get more exercise this way than before.

Anyways, when we last left TV, I had just about given up hope for mankind when the best episode of the entire week was from a show that I have written about in the past as "actively unfunny; it's like the writers truly hate the people who are supposedly watching."

Did this week restore my faith in televised-humanity? Let's find out.

• The Big Bang Theory - Thank God, at least that part of my universe is righted - this one was not good at all. Still, I have a sort of affection for this show. It's got a certain charm, and even when they're off, there are some good laughs to be had. Maybe I've just lost my ability to hate the mediocre. I dunno.
  
  
• How I Met Your Mother - And let's have another round of God thanking, because we've finally found an episode this season that I really, really enjoyed. Insular flashback episodes are always great, and even if this one was a little overly self-referential it was still really funny. Intervention for holding interventions, Barney's magic, fake Cockney accent for Lily - I'm totally on board. And how awesome is that preview for this week? Some manner of girl fight at a wedding? I know I promised to stop hyping this show, but sweet damn, let's bring it on!
  
  
• Chuck - Bryce! I love Bryce. Mostly because in my mind I think that Bryce also secretly loves Chuck, in a really inappropriate way. It's like an alternate fan-fiction world played out onscreen, if your mind works like mine (be glad that it doesn't). But overall: yawn. Took me three different sit-downs in front of Hulu to get through the whole thing, because I kept finding more interesting things to do.
  
  
• Gossip Girl - Again, I only caught about 5 minutes of this show while flipping over to Monday Night Football, but the part I saw had a cute guy tied to a bell(?) wearing nothing but boxers. Seriously, if this show actually is a gay porn, someone needs to tell me.
  
  
• Project Runway - Well that was just about the most predictable and boring finale possible. So little drama that they seriously spent 5 minutes on a dog taking a poop in the workroom. That said, I felt pretty confident after looking at the lines before the show that it was going to go Leanne, Korto, Kenley in that order, but they did manage to inject a touch of drama during the judging, going out of their way to praise Kenley like they did.
  
  Still, I can't complain about this season too much, even if it was kinda boring, since two of my three favorites from the beginning were the final two. Here's hoping they get everything sorted so that we can get to the next season. I don't care if it's Bravo or Lifetime, I just want the chance say "Where the hell is my chiffon?" as angrily as possible and not have the reference wasted.
  
  
• Ugly Betty - What did I just say not 2 episodes ago? Give the people what they want - Amanda and Mark! Not an hour long return of Gio and the amazingly boring tiny French child subplot. I was pretty much completely over this entire episode the second it began. But I did like the chase scene, Judith Light tearing things up, and Hilda being crazy awesome with the acting, while resolving a terrible storyline perfectly.
  
  
• Survivor - So apparently I don't care about what happens this season at all, in regards to teams and strategies. Instead, I just follow the saga of Gay Charlie and Marcus. I swear I thought I was hallucinating, but didn't Marcus playfully bite Charlie on the shoulder during that reward challenge? If Marcus is just playing him for an alliance, my wrath will be swift and terrible.
  
  But anyways - so Fang is just about as dumb as a bag of rocks, aren't they? Don't just talk about things, you actually have to do them for it to matter. You know she has the idol, she knows that you know, you know that she knows you know (*whew*). Get on the ball people.
  
  
• The Office - That was about as off an episode as The Office can get, but it was still pretty funny. The problem seemed to be that everything was too over-the-top. The cold open was manic, Dwight's subplot was overdone, as was Jan's awkwardness. Even the ending voicemails were just too twee for my tastes. Too on-the-nose that even though they're not in sync, they totally are. Blerg. The good parts though: Jan's singing Son of a Preacher Man for 20 minutes. Holly (just in general). Angela dressing the baby up as a salad.
  
  Frankly, I almost don't want to see how they're going to resolve the Holly character at this point, considering the limited time Amy Ryan has on the show. I'm anticipating pain. So much pain. Do you remember how Amy Adams ended her run on the show? I'm wincing right now, just thinking about it.
  
  
• The Amazing Race - Wow, I'm not sure I've ever seen an episode that was so delineated into teams of good and bad racers. Top five were great, despite #4 & #5 detour switching (No! BAD!), whereas the bottom three were seemingly completely inept - either at the travelling part (Pinks and Aja and Ty) or the challenges (Team Gross Frat Guys). Still super rooting for team Mom/Crazy Haired Son, and starting to come around on the Sarah/Terence combo, assuming he turns down his awfulness by about 400%. Seriously, she's kind of awesome, despite his tool-like nature ("You're bad at ripping things"? I will poke you in the eye, sir).
  
  
• Things I Missed - Was there a new Fringe this week? Because I didn't watch it if there was one. Also, no Pushing Daisies or Dirty Sexy Money, because I just can't be bothered, no Simpsons because it was on against Amazing Race, and no It's Always Sunny because I forgot this week and am somehow three episodes behind now. Man, I'm just falling down on keeping up with things. Especially since I have no excuse now, what with the TV in the bedroom and all.
  

Recap

Best Episode of the Week:
How I Met Your Mother - Intervention

Best Line of the Week:
Project Runway - "100,000 dollars. Drinks are on this brother." (Whatever. I love Leanne.)

Best Moment of the Week:
Amazing Race - The whole Maori warriors Roadblock. (Nose touching is just too cute.)
Runner Up:
Survivor - No seriously, he bit his shoulder. (I'm reading way too much into this.)

Most Disappointing:
Ugly Betty and the continuing reset of last season.

Most Anticipated:
How I Met Your Mother - Wedding time!