Fall Back into Television (Week 5)

Another weird week for television watching. Missed Thursday due to a concert commitment (which I'm totally planning to actually write about for once) and didn't catch up at all, so this week should be nice and short.

• How I Met Your Mother - So apparently I'm just about as dense as a brick, because I did not see that ending coming, despite the fact that it was telegraphed about as obviously as you can get without flashing a big sign that said FORESHADOWING every time Sarah Chalke was onscreen. And I will miss her, even though I thought her whole character was a bit shoehorned into the show. She really does have some great comedic timing, and she melded well with the cast. Sad, but necessary for the plot.
  
  It was a great episode to boot: tons of continuity (zitchdog!), a return to natural characterizations, and Robin's completely awesome speech. I'm totally back in sync with this show. Oh, and super major props for not trying to wedge another storyline for Marshall and Lily just because they're there. I think they are actually starting to gather that the best plot heavy episodes are the ones where we focus on just one thing, rather than the traditional multi-arcs for everyone. We saw it two years ago with Something Borrowed/Something Blue, and saw how it didn't work last year with Miracles. Let's hope they keep this going.
  
  
• Chuck - And yeah, I think I'm done. It's a good show, but it's just not for me. I appreciate it while it's going on, and I chuckle and think that Zachary Levi has actually become Seth 2.0 in my mind (the exact ratio of nerd/hot that I like, only his show hasn't yet collapsed in on itself and his personality like The OC eventually did). But I'm just not that into it. And since I have to tape Heroes for Frank while it's on the air, I have to actively seek it out on the Internet later, which is something I'm very reluctant to do for some reason.
  
  Still, it was pretty sweet to see Nicole Ritchie getting beat the hell up.
  
  
• South Park - I don't know, I sort of really enjoyed that. I mean, it wasn't terribly hilarious, but I love me some Cloverfield (and by extension, some Cloverfield-parody). And even though I don't know what that deal was with the pan-flute bands, "Tapas and Moodscapes" is just about the best title for a CD ever invented. I'm cautiously optimistic after a really rough start to the season.
  
  
• 30 Rock - Sweet damn, how I've missed this show. Some of it was a little tone deaf (Jenna's Japanese commercial and Will Arnette's homo-bit primarily) but man, there were some great moments. I love Tracey's little commentaries on his own dialogue ("Yes, I am provocative!") whenever he's doing something in public. It reminded me of that bit from Season One, where he ended a supposedly witty conversation with a loud "Haha! Banter!" Which is something I've longed to do ever since.
  
  And the soap opera bit was perfect ("Ever since that incident with the weather machine.") even up to the aborted kiss. God, Alec Baldwin really is awesome at this part. I'm not sure if I'm entirely up for this adoption/baby line, after the mess that was Baby Momma, but I'm willing to give it a go.
  
  Oh, and I didn't even mention my favorite throwaway moment:
  Liz: Kenneth, do you know what imperative means?
  Kenneth: Oooh, ooh, tell me!
  [Liz badger face]
  
  (Note: Since someone asked - No I'm not from the future, NBC has the episode online a week early. And there was no way I was waiting until the airdate to watch it. Self control is not one of my strong suits)
  
  
• The Amazing Race - And now we finally remember why the artificial bunching is so important - that was about the least intense episode ever filmed, because the last team was so very behind from the last leg, they couldn't even pretend to build suspense on who was going home. Although team Gross Frat Guys gave them the material to try anyways. Seriously, this is a crazy-weak field of competitors: Those blondes from last week that ambled through something like 4 weeks of the show without getting eliminated, Aja and Ty's inability to navigate anywhere, the Frat Guys inability to build or operate anything.
  
  Even the strong teams seem to have something that slows them down: Team Siblings stopping a prearranged truck driver to ask for directions, Team Divorcees deciding to play hoops before getting a clue. But this just gives me more and more hope that my Team Teenwolf is going to have the chops to make it to the end. Even the editing seems to support a final three of Divorcees / Siblings / Teenwolf. But that Terence/Sarah combo is resilient, and the older couple are really strong. I like that there is some parity there, but seriously people, let's pick it up.
  
  Oh, and way to finally use my most desired travel destination in the entire world: Cambodia and Angkor Wat. Man, if I ever get to travel anywhere, it's so going to be there.
  
  
• Things I Missed: Most egregiously - The Office and Ugly Betty, which I usually immediately catch up on, but I haven't been in an Office mood even once this whole week. Survivor (but I heard it was crap anyways), and It's Always Sunny, which I think means I'm officially a full month behind.
  
  
• Things That I've Given Up On: Pushing Daisies (I love this show when I watch it, but for some reason I can't be bothered), Dirty Sexy Money (ditto, plus I've heard Samarie Armstrong is gone, and she was totally my primary reason for watching), and Fringe (let's just accept it and move on, I can't keep making excuses).

So much for this week being short. To save space, 30 Rock wins every single award this week: Best Episode, Best Line (Devon(about running the company GE): "It's just G now, I sold the E to Samsung. They're SameSung now."), Best Moment (a toss up between the soap opera bit and the Will/Jack face off about enemies almost kissing), Most Disappointing (the lack of good Jenna and no Toofer), and Most Anticipated. No, seriously, I have a problem with how much I love this show.