This Week in Television - Apr. 19-23, 2010

Lost
This episode felt a little like filler so I don't know what to say here, but I like that everyone is gradually coming together in the flash-sideways timeline, and that on the island an escape attempt is happening that kind of echoes the first time the Oceanic 6 left. Jack even jumped out of the boat the exact same way that Sawyer jumped out of the helicopter.

Glee
Ok, so first of all I abhor "makeovers" because they're so offensive to the subject involved and they end up turning that person into someone fake, and secondly when Sue was made over to look like Madonna and star in a music video reshoot of "Vogue", my reaction was just "WTF...?" Actually my first reaction was to laugh, but as it went on I just felt that it was so oddly out of place (and with production values impossibly high for a crappy high school video project). As awesome as Sue is, and as nice as it was that they were able to make use of Jane Lynch's pre-existing singing abilities, and even given her supposed obsession with Madonna that only surfaced this very episode, it just felt too widely out of character for Sue Sylvester to participate in something that borders on glee club territory, which she so passionately hates. Also Brittany's dumb lines are classic: "When I pulled my hamstring, I went to a misogynist." Not just what she says but the way she always says these lines quietly, as if she knows it's stupid but is saying it anyway.

V
I'm still having trouble buying Tyler and Lisa's "love" because I haven't really seen anything between them that I found touching. Mostly they probably just find each other attractive because that's about all I can see right now. Shouldn't Anna have Joshua take the empathy test too? I realize that the writers probably need him and all, but it's not really like Anna to overlook that kind of thing. And Valerie's neglecting to at least ask Ryan questions about the thing growing INSIDE HER is creating the same problem that I had with The Thing's wife in the Fantastic Four movie. It makes it hard for me to sympathize with Ryan if he loses her.

Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains
Goddammit, I can't stand Parvati. I mean, yes, she made a very smart move, but she spent most of the episode (and basically the season, too) bragging about how amazing she is, calling herself the queen of the game, and complaining that nobody came to talk to her when the tribes merged. I don't care how brilliant a player you are, that just spells spoiled brat. At least Jeff Probst called her out on it at tribal council. I'm disappointed that a Hero went home, but I'm glad it was JT because he deserves it after his extreme stupidity set all of this in motion. Also props to Rupert for finally catching on to what's really going on, although he is an episode too late.

Flash Forward
I just about died laughing when, for some reason, they decided to throw in an old gag from The Simpsons and have Demetri's photo get shot instead of Demetri himself. I'm not sure if it was meant to be humourous or not, but either way it was an odd thing to put into a tense moment in a drama show.

The Office
Kevin as Cookie Monster was even better than the time he made the Kool-Aid Jug face. Erin's reaction to the bad news at lunch was also hilarious thanks to Ellie Kemper's performance.

30 Rock
Double episodes this week! I wish our Canadian channels wouldn't "hijack" the American networks, because even though my satellite was tuned to NBC, I was watching 30 Rock on CityTV, and they pasted an annoying promo over some subtitles in one scene so I probably missed a joke. Loved the randomness of Tracy attempting to bring his wife a sandwich but ending up at a strip club instead. Apparently the second episode with the janitors was meant to be a parody of the Conan/Leno situation, but since that was resolved months ago it literally went over my head. Looking back on it now when there was discussion of 10:00 and 11:30 shifts and one of them had a name similar to Conan (Khonani), I feel stupid for missing it. But that being said, the episode was still funny without that extra layer. Like Jack, I'm not sure if I prefer Nancy or Avery either.

Fringe
Oh, okay, so Mrs. Bishop was the reason Walter couldn't tell Peter. I'm not sure if they'd mentioned in a previous episode that she committed suicide. But I like that they went with Peter figuring it out on his own during the universe fluctuation bridge exchange thing. Makes it more interesting than Walter or Olivia flat out telling him.

Hero of the Week: Jack Donaghy from 30 Rock wins for his second time, because both of his dates are so cool that he spent two episodes agonizing over which one to choose and still hasn't picked one. I feel your pain, brotha.

Douchebag of the Week: Parvati from Survivor, also for the second time. It would have been hilarious if she'd given her two idols to Jerri and Sandra and then the Heroes voted for Parvati anyway, but alas that did not happen, and now I'm going to have to hear her boast about being "the queen" again next week. *Facepalm.*