Standout TV from this year...

It's that time of year again. The time when baking deserts and drinking too much becomes your paramount concern and the only way to keep new content on your blog is to resort to lists (Heaven forbid)! And so without further ado, my breakouts to watch for the coming post-holiday season (even if at least one of them doesn't return until April, once again reminding me why Fox is my nemesis).

Glee (http://www.fox.com/glee)
While Fox may be my nemesis when it comes to making it difficult for me to watch my favourite shows they certainly delivered with this smart, original and comedic musical series. With catchy tunes and a marketing machine that seems to run itself, Glee has become one of the most talked about new shows in recent years. Though it has been suggested that the momentum the show has now can't keep up for too much longer and while I think that it is often true that breakouts don't stay strong forever (see Grey's Anatomy), the value of "where do we go from here" is often overlooked and can sometimes be an even greater, albeit slower pay off. If you haven't had a chance to catch an episode, have a look see. At the very least you will get some great one liners out of Jane Lynch's Coach Sylvester.

Better off Ted (http://abc.go.com/shows/better-off-ted)
This series actually premiered March 2009 but I'm just getting around to watching it now and with the second season just gearing up it seems like as good a time as any to extol the virtues of the team at Veridian Dynamic. The series follows Ted, a middle management type, as he navigates the corporate environment and the everyday ups and downs of working with an overbearing boss (played to exquisite perfection by Portia DeRossi), a team of sometimes slow on the uptake genius product developers and a very pretty co-worker/love interest. With a corporate entity that literally steals the show (through cleverly played commercial inserts) and manages to be a secondary character to the whole mess, Better off Ted is a standout comedic series.

Cougar Town (http://abc.go.com/shows/cougar-town)
Courtney Cox is back and she's better than ever as newly divorced forty-something Jules in this new family comedy on ABC. Although ABC trying to convince us that Courtney is a typical woman in her forties who's been thrown back into the dating pool is a little stale (any promo shot will immediately disprove all the things Jules is constantly saying about her body). The cast of secondary characters and sounding boards from which Jules' neuroses rebound are really the crowning achievement on this show since even though Courtney is working it as hard as she can she's always been about the team effort. There are a lot of great jokes in this one for the ladies so if you're bored and want a few laughs and drama-lite (no heavy stuff here folks) then tune it. It's worth a try.

I know it's a little heavy on the comedies but that's what I seem to have been into of late. Maybe it's an economic crisis thing but I haven't had the heart to sit down and enjoy Damages, The Wire, Flash Forward or any of the other shows that everyone's been raving about. If you have a show that you absolutely adored this season (whether it's new or old) post it, I'm always on the lookout for a decent show I can pull an all nighter with.

To that end, these returning gems deserve a nod:
Californication
30 Rock
The Big Bang Theory
How I Met Your Mother
In Plain Sight
Mad Men
The Mentalist
Supernatural
True Blood
Ugly Betty (has finally rallied! Check out the last episode!)

Mama/Papa drama falls short on the funny...

I am a BIG fan of Tina Fey.

I liked her on Saturday Night Live, I think she's incredibly witty on the fly and I was super excited to see her present an award at the Oscars. I am quick to defend when things go wrong for my favourites...

I can't defend last week's 30 Rock.

For those of you who missed the episode it seems to be grounded in the fact that in losing Elena (guest star Selma Hayek), Jack has found his moral compass. Taking Frank under his wing after an impromptu "guy's night" with the boys in the writers room Jack convinces him to go back to law school. Later on in the episode he convinces Liz to give up her maniacal quest to adopt a young girl's baby (more on that later).

I have no issue with the idea that Jack's loss thrown his life into disarray; this seems reasonable to me. That said, it occurs to me that with Jack's sordid history he would likely be very upset by the idea that he has become the moral compass of the cast at the Girlie Show. Do we remember how he convinces Kenneth to steal cable by buying a brand new state of the art television for his crappy little apartment? Two weeks ago Jack's confessions after church caused a priest to run away from the confessional, yelling for backup. Clearly Jack has no qualms about doing the amoral. And what's more, he enjoys it! Whether this is a setup to make Liz' choices seem even more insane, or simply an excuse to quote Harry and the Hendersons (as an excuse for a cameo appearance by the series' star John Lithgow) I'm not sure it works.

But even if I could forgive Jack his proclivity for extreme personality changes, Liz's romp through this episode is fraught with issues; the first of which is an issue of re-use. Echos of episodes past chase her about as she does her very best to steal Becca's unborn baby (Becca is played by guest star Pheobe Stole) . Have we forgotten that in episode 9 of the first season she actually succeeds in stealing the Makeup artists' baby (albeit subconsciously)? It seems the bio-clock has been slowly ticking away in Fey's writers room as the last two projects she's put out (30 Rock and Baby Mama) have featured leads that were desperate to make babies as it were.

What's more, Liz Lemon's late night heart to heart in the donut shop with Becca seems problematic and sketchy. Not only does this girl not know Liz Lemon (who's giving her crazy eyes when she should be re-assuring her) but co-worker Pete leave Liz alone with Becca, knowing full well that Liz has a history of baby snatching and strange behaviour. While the character of Liz Lemon is supposed to be neurotic and obsessive there comes a time when the writers take it too far and I think that this episode is an example of that. Liz' quirks, no longer endearing, begin to wear upon the audience as we fight the urge to bitch slap the sense back into our TV sets.

Bottom line: not my favourite episode. And does anyone know what happened to Dr. Baird (guest star Jon Hamm)? Perhaps his train wreck of a daughter could turn Liz off children for awhile...it would be a welcome change.

EDIT: (March 22nd) Okay I take it back. They wrapped up the Jon Hamm storyline quite nicely in this week's episode and Jack behaved in a decidedly unbecoming fashion. Order has been restored to my universe...