This Week in Television - May 10-14, 2010

So Heroes and Flash Forward have both been canceled. I think I'm actually a little relieved, because as you can see my TV lineup is already up to 10 regular shows. But I'll miss them, even if they were going downhill.

Lost
I don't know if I would say I disliked this episode, but I was disappointed because, being about Jacob and the Man in Black, I was expecting it to be the mother of all episodes. It did have its share of revelations, of course, but as always it also created more questions that we probably didn't need seeing as how there are only two episodes left. And, dammit, I was so sure the Man in Black would have a name! Even he didn't ask what his own name was!

Glee
So Puck gets his Mohawk shaved off into a very respectable buzzcut and suddenly he's such a loser that nerds get away with throwing him in the dumpster? This is why I hate it when adults try to write about high school. They either have no clue how it works or take way too many liberties with what they do know. That being said, I did enjoy Brittany asking "Who is that guy?" when he walked into the room.

V
That was actually a tense scene when Lisa had to point out her "attacker" from the lineup. I get why she went with Anna's plan though. She needs to make her think she's still with her, and being Anna's enemy is much scarier than being Erica's.

Happy Town
Well, I like that this show takes crazy turns. I would not have guessed that having a bird crash through Henley's windshield (which I also couldn't have predicted) would lead to her having sex with a stranger, who then steals the special hammer thing she found. Also I believe a connection was implied between the disappearance of the writing in Grieves' notebook and the disappearances of people in town. I would still like to think that he is the Magic Man, but again that would be too obvious.

Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains
Since this post is late I'm including the Sunday finale along with Thursday's episode. Colby yelling at his brother during the reward challenge was funny. I guess for once he had someone else to blame for his poor challenge performances. And Russell's anger at not being chosen to come along on the reward can probably just be attributed to his arrogance, because his rationale made no sense to me: "Terrible strategic move, she should have brought a guy!" Um, okay. As this season has progressed, Russell has become more and more of a tyrant who throws tantrums whenever things don't go the way he wanted them to. I don't think he was as bad last season, and that's because he actually was in control the entire time. Seeing Parvati squeeze through two more tribal councils in the finale had me seriously worried that she would win after all, but luckily it went to Sandra. Hell, I would've been okay with Russell winning too. As I said earlier, I was strongly against the idea of spoiled little Parv being rewarded the title of first Survivor to ever win twice. But of course that meant that at the reunion show we had to watch Russell and Parvati (mostly Russell) continue to insist upon their own greatness in spite of losing. Russ even went so far as to wave JT's letter around because "proving a former winner dumb makes me the greatest" and then proceeded to suggest that the game was flawed because it wasn't suited to stroking his ego. I thought he was furious last season, but that is some of the sorest losing I've ever seen. And I guarantee you he'll be back for the next all stars season.

Flash Forward
I'm wondering what Gabriel's motives are for wanting the events of flash forwards to play out as he saw them. I guess he just saw something he liked in one of them (Lloyd and Olivia's relationship, maybe?). I don't think Janis is going to kill Mark, and her refusal is why a team of men will be sent into Mark's office to do the job for her.

Parks and Recreation
I'd heard about Rob Lowe and Adam Scott joining the cast so I was interested to see how they would fit in. I liked Lowe's thing where he points at someone, says their name, and then holds for a long pause because it is a believable little quirk that I could see someone having. And Scott's backstory about being an irresponsible 18 year-old mayor was also a good gag, but mainly I like the potential storyline that these two have opened up: cutbacks in the parks department. Not that I necessarily want that to happen - or that I don't enjoy Ron Swanson's giggly delight over it - I'm just interested to see where it leads. Also Jean Ralphio trying to hit on April in front of Andy is not cool.

The Office
The montage of Dwight doing painful things to his groin to make himself sterile was fun, and the acting out of lining up Toby with Hitler and Bin Laden and shooting them all through the throat with one bullet, but overall this episode wasn't that memorable.

30 Rock
I'm starting to think that Jack likes Avery more than Nancy, firstly because he is a man of expensive and classy tastes and she's high society, and secondly because Elizabeth Banks is probably a more readily available guest star than Julianne Moore. Tracy's horrible childhood memories were the highlight of the episode though. "Our basketball hoop was a RIBCAGE!"

Fringe
Damn, I love this show. Starting in the alternate universe and then having a slightly different title sequence (like the 80's one in "Peter") was awesome. Wouldn't it be a really cool and unprecedented thing if there were a spinoff show airing at the same time, only the episodes were slightly different to reflect the two universes? Anyway, back to the episode. Rounding up some other Cortexiphan subjects made the group more like a superhero team, which would've been awesome because Peter looked like a supervillain in that trippy drawing where his eyes were smoking. I am so ready for part 2 of this episode.

Hero of the Week: Sandra from Survivor, because I was hoping she would win, and she did, and to top it off she threw Russell's trademark hat into the fire. You can say all you want about Russell and/or Parvati playing a better game than her, but Sandra used the exact same under the radar strategy as she used the first time, and it worked twice so she's gotta be doing something right.

Douchebag of the Week: Russell from Survivor, because his childish and arrogant behaviour at the reunion was rude and uncalled for. You'll never win with that strategy, so stop calling yourself the greatest Survivor of all time!