This Week in Television - Sept. 27-Oct. 1, 2010

No Ordinary Family
I know ABC is owned by Disney but wow, this definitely felt like a watered down Disney project. Was the title "No Ordinary Family" meant to be ironic? Because I found the family to be incredibly ordinary and bland - except for the super powers, of course. And even in that respect the pilot fails to bring nothing new whatsoever to the superpower genre because everything in it has been done before in Heroes, The Incredibles, and all those Marvel movies (and in each of those cases, it was probably done better). In spite of this I might keep watching for a bit, though I don't even know why. I guess it's the nerd in me who enjoys seeing superpowers in action. I miss Heroes already.

Glee
This episode was dumb, if only because I don't understand why anyone would find it appealing to watch the cast of Glee do shot by shot remakes of Britney Spears videos (not to mention Rachel was singing "Baby One More Time" one or two octaves too high when the sluttiness of the song is meant to be accented by a low growl like Britney's). I mean the musical numbers on Glee are already largely unappealing and I still don't understand the popularity of nobodys singing famous songs that Glee and American Idol have cultivated, but now we have to watch them butcher music videos too? It was like watching that horrible show on MuchMusic where they give average people makeovers to look like singers and then remake a music video with them lip-syncing the song. At least Sue was awesome in the scene where she threatened to sue Mr. Schue after being injured in the "sex riot", and when she told Becky to be ready to make a citizen's arrest.

Running Wilde
I thought this week's episode was funnier than last week's. Good to see David Cross return, and I liked the running gag of Fa'ad seeming to subtly seduce everyone with his strange classy charms.

Survivor: Nicaragua
Whoever is editing these episodes together is making Naonka look like a cartoonish stereotype - not that she isn't, but I'm sure they're just throwing her worst moments together to make it look like she's like that all the time. So far I'm rooting for Jill on the old tribe, because she is one of the few people who hasn't said or done anything stupid yet.

Community
Drew Carey looks weird without all that weight. Good to see Rob Corddry though, I usually find him funny as the wild douchebag types he tends to play (as he did here). I suspect Chang has ulterior motives for wanting into the study group, which should be fun in a later episode when he finally makes it in.

30 Rock
The funniest part of Paul Giamatti's guest appearance was how the woman he had a crush on looked like she was from the '80's. Also enjoyed Jack's tapes to his future child and Kenneth wearing a Tracy mask (which actually fooled his drugged up wife). Season five is going well.

The Office
Michael trying to mess with Toby was fun, but it was kind of a nice moment when he made Toby laugh with his Gabe impression. I figured there was a good reason why Dwight wasn't allowed in that store, but I thought it would just be that he went during closing hours without realizing it. Hope Pam doesn't get busted. Pretty sure what she's doing is illegal.

Fringe
I liked this one better than last week's episode. I don't mind the weekly case formula as long as they include the continuing story as well, which they did. Now that Walter owns Massive Dynamic, maybe he can rein Nina in so she stops being so shady. Bonus irony points for shooting a deaf guy with a silenced weapon.

Hero of the Week: Jack Donaghy from 30 Rock, for being voted "Most" in his class at Harvard Business School. Rock on, JD!

Douchebag of the Week: Alan (Rob Corddry) from Community, for ratting out Jeff back in the day, and Jeff still did him the favour of convincing Ted (Drew Carey) to make him partner. Not cool, man!