It seems like most networks have put their heavy hitters on Thursday as long as I can remember, for some reason. Why is that? Maybe because people are exhausted from a week of work, but it isn't Friday, when nobody who's anybody is at home watching TV. No, we're at home playing video games. There are a few shows on Thursday that I used to watch: Smallville (if it were about Superman anymore, I'd watch it, but it's a damn soap opera) and CSI (same show every week, only fun for about three years and at most one spinoff). But, what's left is great.
NBC Thursday night comedies (NBC, 8pm)
NBC's only got four comedies on the air, but they're all mashed together in the same two hour block... and they're all great. First, we've got My Name Is Earl, which was shut down for a while last year due to the star, Jason Lee, having chicken pox. Chicken pox is terrible when you're an adult, apparently, which is why many parents are having these "chicken pox parties" where they get lots of kids together with one kid who has the disease. Sounds good, except we have a vaccine, and chicken pox kills a few kids every year. Hey, parents... do your research before diseasing your kids.
Next up is 30 Rock, Tina Fey's Emmy winner. Tina Fey was the head writer for Saturday Night Live before she made this show, which ended up way funnier than SNL has been in the last ten years. Maybe doing all of your writing between midnight and 6AM in one day isn't the best way to go? The only bad thing about the show is that Tina Fey had a baby about a year before the show began. Raising a child while writing, producing, and starring in a show? I doubt I could keep a goldfish alive while doing that. But hey, we've all got our priorities.
At 9 we've got The Office, the American version of Ricky Gervais' British comedy. Some people believe the British version is better, but I have zero doubts that most of them have never seen a complete episode of the fantastic American version. The BBC America commercial even said, "The original is always the best," but that's just plain untrue. These are the same people who prefer Manhunter to Red Dragon. Manhunter was way worse, but it came first, so it must be better. Even Ricky Gervais himself says that ours is better. Period. Done.
Closing it all out is Scrubs, which used to be the funniest show on TV, but now that it's on right after 30 Rock and The Office, it can't really be called that anymore. It's a fantastic problem to have, since Scrubs was no better before the new guys came around, but there's just such a high concentration of funny, it gives it a little less impact. It's like this month, with video games. I'd normally be really excited about Trauma Center 2, but it's coming out within a week of Super Mario Galaxy, and the day after Rock Band. It's a good time to like video games and comedy.
Supernatural (9PM, CW)
The only show to legitimately scare me from time to time. The first season even had a message in the beginning asking you to turn out your lights, although I suppose that's gone because some kid has epilepsy and his parents are too busy to raise him, so they leave him in front of the TV, and then when the TV steers him wrong, they raise hell. It's even worse with video games. My guess is Tina Fey is involved somehow.
Also, Paul's complaint that it's too talky couldn't possibly be right. I don't think anything could be too talky for me. I'm all about the script. If it's poorly written, I'll go somewhere else, which is one of the reasons I'm recording this instead of CSI.
Big Shots (10PM, or 10:07 or something, ABC)
I believe I'm actually the only one who watches this, and I don't even give it my full attention. This is the type of show I watch while playing a game, like Picross or Puzzle Quest. Other such shows include The Apprentice and VH1's The Pickup Artist. You know, the kind that you don't really need to see to appreciate, and if you gave it all of your attention, you'd be wasting your time. I do that a lot. If I find two things that aren't entertaining separately, maybe they would be if I were to do them simultaneously? Like driving and talking on the phone with customer service, or eating and swimming.
And that takes care of the week proper. Join us next time for TV: Weekend Edition, because really, there's not too much spread out Friday through Sunday, especially now that I've cut Shark. Too much investigating, not enough Sharking.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment