Escape to the House of Mummies, pt 1

I think, for no real reason, I'm putting the Haikus before the reviews this time (that right). Also, I have a lot to say, so I'm splitting it in half.

House, "Lucky Thirteen":

The ground shifts below
The Earth seems to be changing
Are you changing too?

Holdup, for some reason I've got an assload to say about this one, but I don't feel like saying it (plus most of it doesn't make sense). See, I'm of two minds on this one. I thought this would get to the bottom of 13 (insert House-like pun about 13's bottom). I thought we would finally figure out something tangible about someone who, even after a year, is still pretty "mysterious." I'm not sure we did*. Other than the extended character study, the patient-of-the-week (henceforth PoW) story wasn't great, and tied a little too neatly into Thirteen's real life (admittedly, that was the point, but we don't want this to turn into Grey's Anatomy). And it was a little too easy to see Wilson was stringing House along, and the fact that Lucas didn't doesn't say much about his PI skills. If nothing else, that last shot of 13 in bed, alone but not alone, staring straight at the camera, was one of the hauntingest TV tableaux (is that the right word) I've seen in a long time.

*Originally there was a pretty in-depth analysis of 13 as a character here, including Sherlock Holmes paralells, but I cut it because it confused even me. Maybe later.

Fringe, "The Cure":

It's your choice, my friend
Two paths will lie before you
But you must take one

It's pretty clear that Fringe is trying. Unlike, say, Heroes, it actually cares if I like it or not, and it wants me to be invested in its storylines. This week it tried to make a standard monster-of-the-week story, without the Pattern or Walter's research. It also tried to make me care about Wooden Lead Actress's past (I'll start using her name again when she shows an emotion). Unfortunately, it's not trying hard enough. I'll stick with it because it has potential, but this episode was hella boring, and I don't really care about most of the non-alien characters (yeah, I know he's not really an alien, when they get to that one I'll be interesteder).

Pushing Daisies, "Frescorts":
You know what? I don't have anything to say about this one. It was creepier than usual, it made references to a movie I've never seen, and it was funny. If you like the show, you'd like it; if not' I hate you, you joyless, cynical, bastard, and you should reevaluate your life. Also, the Young Emerson stuff was great.

South Park, "Pandemic":
First of all, my splitting the review up is not a meta-joke about this episode. It's a coincidence. For everything else, see below:

There shall be no review
There shall be no haiku
Until I've seen part two.

My Name is Earl, "Quit Your Snitchin'"
Says Riley Freeman: "No snitchin'," in a much better episode of television. Not that this one was bad-- I liked that Earl went through all this trouble trying to do something nice for Randy, and I how it played with the idea of Camden as a wretched hive of scum and villainy-- but it was fairly unmemorable.

The Office, "Crime Aid"
♥, ♥, ♥, ♥, ♥,
♡, ♡, ♡, ♡, ♡, ♡, ♡,
❤, ❤, ❤, ❤, ❤
What can I say? I like it. This week, I liked the various acknowledgements of the camera crew, Dwight trying to act like a real person (and failing), and the strangely ominous David Wallace line at the end.

Thursday Night Live (or whatever the name really is) Number 3:
This was probably the best of the three, not that that's saying a lot. Will Ferrell showed up, can't go wrong there. What else happened...the big board thing was alright, Samberg did one of his things. I'm not exactly sad to see them go, especially since they'll be replaced by a much better show.

It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, "Dennis Reynolds: An Erotic Life":
This probably should have been the two-parter, or just two different episodes. Both the Dennis and Charlie/Dee stories were great concepts (Charlie/ Dee stories are usually my favorites anyway-- they're like Cartman and Butters, or Brian and Stewie), but they both could have used some more breathing room, and neither really had anything to do with each other (other than the fountain, Dennis' one true story). Liked most of the actual scenes (even if there weren't enough), especially Dee's glue trip and Mac and Frank in the movie theater.

The Sarah Silverman Program, "Patriot Tact":
Remember how I said last week I would try and figure out what I like so much about this show? Other than all the jokes about having too much hair, I'm still clueless. Whatever the reason, I found the two patients arguing about whether what Sarah did was right right in front of her, while she just spouted off non-sequiturs, was one of my favorite TV moments of the week. Plus this Thursday's episode is called "Pee" (I'm five).

30 Rock, "Do-Over":

(Just read my pair of
"amnesia" haikus
from last week's reviews)

I think I actually watched this Sunday afternoon, but it went up on the webernets last Thursday or Friday, so whatever. It's good-- not as good as last year's finale, but better than "Seinfeld Vision" or most of season 1. And that's coming from someone who has literally seen every episode at least twice (except this new one). Jack getting promoted twice in a week was great. I loved that Pete was in anger management for the arrow stunt. Devon as hopeless screwup was the funniest thing they've ever done with what was formerly a prety one-note character (especially "I sold the E to Samsung. They're Samesung now"). The only problem: I though Mullally would be playing Sarah Palin.

End of Part I. To be continued in Part... II.