A Blog For All Seasons: SMALLVILLE, SIMPSONS, OFFICE, MORE!

And I'm back.

It was a busy weekend this week, with a few birthdays and many good times. My travels brought me to the hard-rockin' Mexican joint Pink Taco in Century City, to the swanky One Sunset in West Hollywood, and to the Grove in LA, where I had my first ever sampling of the LA-area phenomenan known as Pinkberry (it's basically a redux of early-90's yogurt chain TCBY, except more yogurt-y and more about decking your very vanilla yogurt with fruit than with Reeses Peanut Butter Cups).

Also, I will give a blog shout-out to my co-worker Justin D, a fellow future-ruler-of-Hollywood-and-possible-CEO-of-NBC Universal. Happy birthday, and good times on Friday.

TV STUFF:

So I think I'm going ot try to stick with the shorter format for these TV Reviews, with the exception being shows that require a little more analysis like a Heroes, 24, or Lost. Anyways, since the G-Man and I were "Bound For Glory" last night, I didn't get a chance to catch all of FOX's Sunday night lineup ... so I haven't seen KOTH or Family Guy yet (though I heard FG was a rerun?!), but I did manage to catch THE SIMPSONS ...

THE SIMPSONS:

- This was an episode that felt like a real anomaly, because unlike most recent Simpsons eps, which are light on plot but heavy on random humor, this one actually had a pretty developed storyline and had much more subtle humor than is typically featured of late. Personally - I enjoyed it. Even if it was light on laugh out loud moments, there were a number of really good lines, and this is the first time in a while where it felt like guest voice talent (in this case, the great Steve Buscemi) was actually used really well, and was perfect as Dwight, a criminal who forms a strange bond with Marge after she is a hostage in one of his bank-robbery attempts. As I mentioned, this ep had some really great, clever dialogue that reminded me of old-school Simpsons - the kind of stuff that will be repeated by Simpsons nerds for years to come. Kent Brockman, Homer, and Skinner all had some classics. The ep did falter a bit towards the end, and Homer seemed to weave in and out of the story a bit randomly, but all in all this was a really refreshing, extremely solid episode of The Simpsons.

My Grade: B+

SMALLVILLE:

- This episode of Smallville had some really, really great character moments that reinforced the idea that, even though it tends to have silly moments and lame plot lines, there are certain little things that this show does right that makes it, in its own way, worthy of the Superman legacy. This ep had some great, Rockwellian imagery of Clark in his farm that I really liked - reminded me of Alex Ross circa Kingdom Come. I also was a big fan of the training scenes with Clark helping cousin Kara to control her abilities. I think this is where the show is at its best - when it tones down the sex appeal and focuses on the fun and innocence of the Superman / Clark Kent mythology. Of course, this ep had to have its cake and eat it too. In addition to gratuitous bikini shots of Kara, we were treated to an ulta-lame group of models-turned-supervillains, each with a pretty bland elemental power (as if this type of villain wasn't done to death on this show by now, and also now with Reaper and its similar freak-of-the-week formula). It's always such a letdown to me when Smallville features such boring, uninspired villains. I mean on a show like The X-Files, fans can recount with wild enthusiasm all their favorite monsters-of-the-week, from Fluke Man to El Chubacabra to the Jersey Devil. But honestly, how many of Smallville's random meteor-rock monsters have been memorable in the least? It's just a shame that with so many great DC Universe characters at their disposal, the writers come back to these same types of generic villains over and over again. Anyways, I do think they're doing a very nice job of establishing Kara, and her character has already pretty much won me over, and makes a nice addition to Smallville alongside Chloe, Lana, and Lois. Of course, Lex was great as always, and I can't see his storyline with Kara kick into high gear. So, all the peripheral stuff here was really well done - it's just that the episode was very much dragged down by an uninspired A-plot.

My Grade: B

THE OFFICE:

- Yes! After two slightly below-par episodes so far this season ... this week, The Office of old was back! Okay, well, that isn't 100% true. The fact is, the 1-hour format is killin' this show, and the show is simply not doing a good job of adjusting to the longer running times. However, with this third ep of Season 4, I felt that the first half-hour was, in and of itself, a near-perfect and downright HILARIOUS episode that had me dyin' of laughter. I mean, Jim and Pam's prank on Dwight, in which they made Mr. Schrute believe that the company website had gone Tron on him and become a sentient being ... seriously one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Comedy gold. That first half of the ep was chock full of other good stuff too - so much so that it would have been worthy of a flat-out A in my book ... But then, we go the second half-hour, which saw a huge loss in storytelling momentum from Part 1. Michael Scott essentially kidnapping the pizza delivery guy continued the show's streak of featuring drawn-out and too-out-there Michael plotlines that tend to drag down the episode, and portray Michael as so much of an idiot that you fail to even understand his own internal logic. Dont' get me wrong - the second half of the episode had some great moments, particularly from the under-utilized Andy, as played to perfection by Ed Helms. Andy's character is a bit ambiguous right now, so it was good to see him get a bit of the spotlight, and his taking a fancy to Angela, much to the chagrin of Dwight, has unlimited comedic potential. So yeah, this WOULD have been an all-time classic at 30 minutes. At 60 minutes, it was merely very, very good.

My Grade: A -

30 ROCK:

Two Words - WEREWOLF BAR-MITZVAH! That little slice of Tracy-Morgan-infused random hilarity was sheer awesomeness. I mean -- WEREWOLF BAR-MITZVAH~! Need I say more? Okay, I'll say more. Actually, all in all this was a pretty damn good ep of 30 Rock, but a bit of a letdown if only because, with Will Arnett back as a guest star, I was expecting huge, great, wonderful things, but I don't know if many moments lived up to Arnett's original turn last season as a rival exec to Alec Baldwin. In this one, Arnett was great as per usual, but only got a few scenes in which to reprise his lusty longings for Kenneth the Page. I guess my complaint, overall, is that Alec Baldwin's character has just become a bit too toned-down and sympathetic. I say keep Tina Fey as the down to earth center of gravity, and keep Baldwin as the slightly insane, clueless exec. It makes his verbal sparring with Will Arnett that much funnier! But still - Werewolf Bar Mitzvah = genius.

My Grade: B+

GOSSIP GIRL:

- Well, if last week's ep of GG completely won me over, this week's lost me a bit. Not to say I didn't really enjoy it, but it just seemed like the premise of the show has quickly become totally flipped. I mean, we started out with Serena and Blair as bitter ex-friends turned rivals, and Dan as the outsider pining over Serena. Now all of a sudden, Dan is seeming to-cool-for-school, and is already weighing the pros and cons of putting up with Serena's drama. I mean, if he was 30 or even 25 it'd be understandable, but the kid is supposed to be in high school - why all the angst? He basically has already got the girl in the palm of his hand - he should be jumping for joy. However, there is a lot of fun character stuff going on and I look forward to seeing where it all leads. Behind Pushing Daisies and maybe Chuck, this is certainly up there as one of my fav shows of the new season.

My Grade: B+

And by the way, EVERYONE: Tonight, there's no Prison Break on due to baseball on FOX. So if you don't happen to be a big baseball fan, there's no better time to watch CHUCK on NBC. The show is fun, funny, and aciton-packed. Ch-Ch-Chuck it outttt ...

- Alright ... so the next few weeks are going to be packed with Halloween fun. Knott's Scary Farm III this weekend, Page-O-Ween next weekend, and of course the annual Halloween Horror Movie Marathon! I picked up a few key DVD's this weekend in the form of 80's cult classic THE MONSTER SQUAD and legendary blaxploitation flick BLACKULA. Any suggestions for the additional movie (clearly something more straight-up horror would be appropriate given the campiness of the other two ...). So, any ideas? I've still yet to see Zach Snyder's recent remake of DAWN OF THE DEAD, but own a copy I snagged from work, so was considering that one ... Thoughts?