Who Dat Ninja?

The almighty weekend is here, and man, it's a long time coming after a full week of work after last weekend's all too short Thanksgiving break. Sweet Christmas, bring on Saturday and Sunday.

- Here is a dilemma that many of us Jews are now faced with - to see or not to see Mel Gibson's Apocalypto? If it were a movie about Jesus or a movie on the quality level of, say, What Women Want, this would be a no-brainer - hells no do I want to see the latest film from Mel "Jews start all Wars" Gibson. But, Apocalypto looks to be a legitimately great movie, full of intensity, drama, and badass Mayan-on-Mayan action. Hmmm ... thoughts?

- Subways in LA are the bane of my existence, and I'm talking sandwiches here, not underground trains. Oftentimes I like to grab a subway sandwich for lunch, but if I go at peak lunch hour I tend to end up waiting for obscene amounts of time for my foot-long Turkey. Now, in NYC there are big lines for Subways also - BUT, there are two main differences:

a.) on the East Coast, people know what they want and order it quickly.

b.) on the East Coast, the employees at Subways tend to be sandwich-making machines, whereas here they tend to be slow, lethargic, and constantly in need of a reminder on how to ring u pa combo meal.

I love ya, Subway, but your West Coast operations need some serious help, stat.

- As a closet Avril Lavigne fan, I have to express my disappointment with her latest single, from the Eragon soundtrack. Rather than her usual pop-punk teeny-bopper rock, it seems to be a generic ballad that could have just as easily have been sung by Kelly Clarkson or Faith Hill or any other lame-o pop star. Where is the Avril who made us jump up and down to the upbeat tunes of Sk8tr Boi or He Wasn't, I ask you! Also, it is continuously sad to see the once-great Gwen Stefani devolve into a generic hip hop act. Once, she was a true punk rock princess as lead singer of No Doubt. Now, she is just another dance-pop act. One of the better dance-pop acts, sure, but how many other true female rock stars are around in this day and age? Where are the women who rock (not named Donna)? So sad ... Yep, who knew I had such strong opinions on female pop stars?

TV STUFF:

I've got to say, with no bias or anything, that NBC can be proud of itself for its new Thursday night lineup, which is bar none the best two hour block of comedy on TV since FOX's Sunday night lineup included Futurama and Malcolm in the Middle. I mean, I've never been into Scrubs (on principal I don't like shows about doctors or hospitals, and don't get why people do), but I recognize it's a quality comedy and it's great to see it finally be surrounded by other quality comedies in Earl, Office, and 30 Rock. And how great is it to have a lineup of comedies with not a single laughtrack to be heard? NBC is really making a bold statement there, because for too long now there's been this comedy generation gap where people were either only comfortable with fake-laugh-filled sitcoms that were the same, aesthetically, as every other sitcom since 1950, or in the other camp people who had moved on and embraced the single-camera sitcom as the wave of the future. Well, I think it's a good thing that we are finally moving on and saying - nope, laugh tracks in 2006 are pretty quaint, go watch TV Land if you want to be told when to laugh. Okay, maybe that's a bit harsh, but I think it's great that sitcoms that try something different are being put into the limelight.

So on that note ...

- Last night's OFFICE was pretty classic. I forgot to hype it up here, but I should have, as it was written by comedic legends in their own time, RICKY GERVAIS and STEPHEN MERCHANT, the braintrust behind the original Office in the UK. I still would love to see David Brent and Michael Scott somehow meet, but for now a Gervais-penned episode is the next best thing. To his credit though (and to the credit of the US writing team, who I'm sure did their share of Americanizing rewrites), last night's ep felt like just another episode of The Office, which is fine since almost every ep this season has been gold. Last night was no exception -- the entire premise was hilarious - and the ep was bursting at the seams with laugh out loud moments. From Ed Helms' misguided attempts to woo Pam, to Michael's take on "Scared Straight," to Dwight bending over with a pocket full of bills ... the humor didn't let up. Still, I did get a sense of Gervais' uncanny ability to weave little poignant moments into his comedy with the final scene, where Michael realizes that everyone had just been joking with him about how they'd rather be in prison than at work. Gervais is the master at making comedic characters also feel real and sympathetic, without ever resorting to obvious ploys for sentimentality or typical sitcom-ish "aww, shucks" moments. Overall, a great, great ep.

My Grade: A

- My Name is Earl was okay, though it seemed to lose some steam from previous eps. I like that they are finally going somewhere with Randy's puppy dog love for Catalina, and am curious to see where that plotline will go from here. Lack of legit laughs though kept this ep from greatness. My Grade: B

- 30 Rock on the other hand rebounded greatly from it's lackluster super-sized ep, and scored a rating jump and season pick-up from NBC to boot. I thought last night's ep really did a great job of balancing the quirky humor with some good character moments - it wasn't as laugh out loud funny as some previous eps, but it made me feel more invested in Tina Fey's character than I had to date, and though some of the peripheral characters still need a lot of fleshing-out, Alec Baldwin's deadpan delivery, refined to an artform, was great as usual. My Grade: B+

- Oh, what is a TV geek to do come January when Heroes goes head to head with 24? Well, actually, the solution is pretty simple ... Sorry, Heroes, but even a master of the space-time continuum has nothing on JACK BAUER, who can probably, if he wanted to, manipulate space, time, AND save the cute red-headed girl from the diner in 24 hours or less, beyotch.

Alright, I'm out - Have a great weekend and remember: I'm usually right.