Thursday Night TV

Heading into Thursday, it was feeling like a mixed bag. There were those few shows I was ecstatic about seeing again ever since I saw their season finales last season and then there are the more aged shows that I feel I've been watching more or less because of habit. Two things of note last night though: (a) I didn't check out any of the new shows the networks were shoving down our throats ($#!t My Dad Says and Outsourced looked absolutely abysmal) and (b) I spontaneously decided to cut out The Mentalist from my list. More free time for me!


On to the shows I did watch. Now, as amazing as Tina Fey is, and Jane Krakowski is sometimes as well, I feel 30 Rock hasn't been "must-see'TV" for awhile now and that's how I felt about the premiere as well. Maybe it's because I'm just not as enamored with Matt Damon's turn as pilot Carol or Krakowski dialed down the CRAZY this episode, but it was just okay. The other show is Grey's Anatomy, which in its defense has been doing a bit better. Its season finale was one of the best I saw last year and it would've been impossible to top what they did then. They didn't try to top it, thankfully, and instead tried to really deal with the trauma and fall out of the shooting. And to end with Owen and Cristina's wedding (I'm a big fan of the couple) was icing to the cake. 30 Rock - B; Grey's Anatomy - B

The big showdown of the night happened at 8PM when underrated Community went up against the behemoth that is Big Bang Theory. Not surprisingly BBT won the night in viewers, but in terms of quality they both came about pretty evenly with Community probably besting it just a tad since it had Betty White and DID NOT have one of its characters' penis stuck in a robot's hand. Actually for Big Bang Theory, my problem was that while the Penny/Sheldon plot was pure comedy gold, the B-plot with the three other guys was not as strong. This is unlike Community, which was strong throughout. The interplay between the disparate personalities in the group is one of the best things about this show and they delivered from the get go. Big Bang Theory - B; Community - B+

Finally, but certainly not least Fringe delivered one of the best episodes it has ever done (which is saying a lot) and one of the best premiere I saw this week. The most shocking thing is that the focus was all on Olivia, which at the beginning of the show's run was the least interesting character. Now? There's no such thing in this show. It was fantastic getting an extended look at the alternate universe Olivia now inhabits (Dogs! The Musical!) and also seeing Olivia struggle with all of the emotions and situations inherent to being over there (missing Peter, seeing her mom, etc.). I feel as if Anna Torv will have plenty of material this season to put forth a great Emmy reel, not as if they'd pay attention anyway. I just feel sorry for Joshua Jackson since he's the one actor not able to do double duty between both universes. Oh well. Fringe - A