13 April 2007

I've un-shunned television.

I go through episodes where I really just think television is the worst. I’m generally affected by this feeling every week from about Saturday afternoon (during the college football off-season) until Thursday evenings when I often get sucked into sitting though the most un-funny program on the air, My Name is Earl.

Then, The Office and 30 Rock comes on and I’m a television believer again. I don’t think I’ve sat through a more entertaining hour of TV in a year than I did last night.

First, The Office. The best part about last night’s episode was…umm…EVERYTHING. Sometimes I feel like a hypocrite for loving it so much now since I was such a hater/latecomer to the program. I trashed talked it for it for about a year because I was a BBC/Ricky Gervais devotee and really didn’t want to switch to the American version. And I think some people would agree that the first few episodes were purely trying to make and American version of the British show, which is impossible. No one can replicate David Brent.

But once I was forced into watching an episode last season, I realized the show had really come into its own and is really a completely different program than the BBC show. About the only thing that remained the same was the dynamic between characters, but their personalities are all their own and the NBC show has a much more Americanized sense of humor than the dry British comedy.

The first 5 minutes of last night’s episode, centered around the return of Andy (Drew) to Dunder Mifflin after a stint in anger management rehab, was comedic genius. In fact, I was so focused on talking with my fellow Office-watching friends about the Dwight shunning of Andy and the “bear attack” comment in that scene this morning that I forgot to mention the awesome recurrence of Ryan asking about the appropriateness long-sleeve tees.

The gambling subplot was brilliant. I wasn’t sure, at first, why they scripted Kelly in to talk about the Netflix process for a good 30 seconds, but the payoff was worth it.

I decided against including a list of my favorite lines from last night, not only because I knew I’d botch something or overlook a favorite, but I also anticipate you guys will leave the best ones the comment section.

30 Rock continues to be my personal “can’t-miss” favorite, and they added Emily Mortimer (of Match Point) to the cast this week as Jack’s new love interest. Jenna was interestingly missing from this episode, but it did feature a Tracey Jordan-produced trailer for his upcoming Thomas Jefferson biopic--a drama, in the style of "Norbit," where Tracey plays all of the main characters:


My two favorite lines from last night:

Tracey: “Thank you Don Geiss for coming to this meeting. Can I interest you in some grenadine or fried rice?”

Floyd: “Jack, in my opinion, the Foo Fighters wrote their hit song “Best of You” in large part as a tribute to your managerial skills.”

3 comments:

Rachel said...

wow dave and alec in one picture....now thats something i could keep looking at :) could you even imagine being in a room with those two! man that would be hillarious.

i'm glad you finally gave the office a chance, it sure took some convincing. but i do agree with you about the first few episodes, i even stopped watching for a bit after the first one, but then gave it another chance.

i said it last night and i'll say it again...i dont understand why my name is earl SUCKS SO MUCH. all the actors are awesome :(

Do you think its apropriate for me to wear my long sleeve T out tonight? or might it be too cold.

Charlotte : ) said...

"Visual aids!"

"A quilt. A depression quilt!"

"Pfff... I have no time to sew a quilt."

Unknown said...

LG: What are you doing tonight?

Sham: Staying in and writing a paper.

LG: No, I think you're calling your Congressman to tell them to vote against the midget legislation.

Sham: OK, but after that, can I write my paper?