This Week in Television - Sept. 20-24, 2010

Glee
I like how the season opened by addressing some of the things viewers have been saying, like how the show is very gay and nobody likes it when Mr. Schue raps (both very valid complaints). But then we went right back into Glee's "after school special" habit of characters learning valuable lessons every episode (Rachel admitting she is self-centered, Mr. Schue learning he's not a bully). The best part was Brittany confessing that she wasn't on vacation, she was just lost in the sewers all summer. Also I could have sworn the new football coach was a man in drag, but apparently it actually is a female actress. Oops.

Running Wilde
I was excited for this, the new series from some of the people behind Arrested Development and starring Will Arnett. It's not as funny as Arrested Development, but I did enjoy it and there is a hint of a similar style in the editing and directing, and Arnett is playing a GOB-like character, but then he does in most of his work. I liked the little gags, like Steven (Arnett) pretending to dramatically play a piano that was playing itself, and he and his friend trying to perform a written dialogue but skipping and rearranging parts to make it weird.

Survivor: Nicaragua
Tribal council was hilarious - not in a good way, but because the young tribe are a bunch of brain-dead drama queens. But at least they voted off the right person. Shannon was a douche.

My Generation
I checked this one out because the concept sounded interesting, but I don't think I'll be coming back to it (it will probably be canceled anyway, being in FlashForward's unfortunate Thursday timeslot). One of my biggest problems with My Generation was that, for a fake documentary, the acting was not seamless enough to pull off the format. It just felt like a primetime soap shot like a documentary, which is what it is, and not like a documentary, which is what it wants to feel like. Also the stories felt like a bunch of Pro-American crap, like how September 11th and Bush's presidency had direct influences on the characters' lives, and I felt like they were reaching too far for the sympathetic moments. It's only the pilot, guys - give it a few episodes to better establish your characters before trying to make your viewers cry along with them.

Community
Adding Community to the blog because after I gave it a second chance this summer, I have decided it is awesome (look for my season 1 post at some point). Anyway, the opening of the season two premiere was great: all of the characters waking up in their bedrooms on the first day of classes, all uniquely decorated to remind us who they are. And when they were happy to see each other, it made me happy too. The plot of this episode wasn't the greatest, but I'll forgive it because I know they had to tie up the storylines that season one left open. As Abed said, hopefully they'll get away from the sappy romantic stuff and into more crazy hijinks. Also Senor Chang doing the Gollum thing was classic.

30 Rock
Like Community's opening, Liz wakes up to a series of phone calls that mean her work related stress is on its way back after the summer. This was one of the funniest episodes in a while (maybe because it was written by Tina Fey herself), and surprisingly it worked to have Jack just talk about his situation with Avery (Elizabeth Banks) without her actually being in the episode. But as much as I like Matt Damon, I don't think he pulled off the crying scenes very well.

The Office
They finally updated the opening credits sequence! I'm not sure who is a bigger candidate for Douchebag of the Week: Gabe for stealing Erin from Andy, or Michael's nephew for being an incompetent little punk, and not in the same way that Michael's incompetence is amusing (and sometimes even endearing). I think the writers improved on Jim and Pam, though, at least in this episode. Last season they weren't as likable.

Fringe
I have to admit I didn't like the premiere as much as I thought I would. On paper an episode about Olivia trying to get home while the world around her tries to turn her into Alt Olivia sounds cool, but I just didn't find it that exciting. I don't really buy that the cab driver wouldn't just continue to think she was insane, even if he did have that story about his wife being the only one who stood buy him during a rough patch, because people who claim the government is after them usually sound really, really bonkers, period. And the "Why make her think she's the other Olivia?" question doesn't seem that mysterious to me: it means Walternate gets both Olivias on his side, one of them having her Cortexiphan abilities and neither of them posing a threat to him. Seems obvious, unless there's some other reason that will come out of left field later on.

Hero of the Week: Our first Hero of the season is Liz Lemon from 30 Rock, for delivering the line "It okay! Don't be cry!", which would actually work toward cheering me up if I were crying, because I'd start laughing.

Douchebag of the Week: Well, it's nobody from The Office. I decided on Shannon from Survivor, for asking Sash if he was gay at tribal council, which is nobody's business, and claiming that "New York is full of gay people", which is nobody's opinion.