This Week in Television - Jan. 24-28, 2011

The Cape
Not really a fan of Vinnie Jones. He's like a male Michelle Rodriguez, always playing the tough guy with attitude, but with some campiness thrown in for comic relief. I didn't find this episode to be as interesting as it wanted me to, but when that bearded guy was dressed as The Cape I was expecting him to die because of what happened to the Kick-Ass impersonator in Kick-Ass and I'm glad it went another direction instead. Good for Trip for not opening the door to someone who was a stranger to him, but he's still boring and the flashbacks of the father/son scenes fail to tug at my heartstrings. I'm not a cold person, I'm moved all the time, but Vince's relationship with his family is just so generic and stiff, and I think they should've tried harder to make it memorable in order for viewers to sympathize with them, rather than automatically expect pathos just because his family...exists.

Community
This was a Pierce episode for sure. It may have somewhat resembled the episode from last season where Annie got him to write the Greendale theme song and he wanted to prove how creative he was, but this time we got some of his back story in the old commercial clip. It explains a lot about Pierce's "Michael Scott" quality wherein he thinks he's the coolest and funniest person in the room yet needs everyone else to think so, too. It was kind of nice to see the kids take to him, even if it made them think drugs were awesome. By the way, didn't appreciate Dean Pelton pointing out the play's structure resembling the deceptive nature of drugs. It was already clear to me and Community isn't the kind of show that spells things out for viewers that way. But I always enjoy the Dean's weird fetishes (Jeff in a coffin, Jeff in cat ears, bumblebee costumes). The play was also a good way for Chang to start integrating himself into the group, though perhaps he won't quite be there until Jeff can accept a hug from him without shoving him away.

The Office
I'd heard Ricky Gervais was going to show up as David Brent, his character from the British version of The Office, and I knew that if he crossed paths with Michael Scott, they would get along famously. But that short cold opening was just awesome to watch, and funny. David would probably be the only person in the world who completely 100% gets Michael's sense of humour - even moreso than Holly or Kevin, who have been known to enjoy some of his jokes. Andy's seminar was funny but might have worked better in an earlier season, because the joke about so many people in the office knowing nothing about business success has kind of been well established by now. Enjoyed Michael's Greek character too, but Jim's little B-story about his shunned childhood friend was flat with an uninteresting payoff, and the Scrabble thing was sort of done in the first season of Parks and Recreation, although in this case Erin wasn't losing on purpose.

Parks and Recreation
Since I am a big fan of both Ron and Andy, an episode where they are bonding like buddies can be nothing but awesome. For a while I think Ron was liking him better than April for an assistant, but then Andy started talking about his personal drama and that is something April would never do to Ron. Gotta love Andy's charming idiocy though: "Leslie, I'm checking your symptoms online and it says you might have connectivity problems." Also nice to see Ann finally getting mad (and April admitting some respect for it) and Ben warming up to Leslie. Rob Lowe was funny in this episode, too.

30 Rock
It may have been an easy joke, but I laughed really hard at the Mel Gibson montage inserted into the telethon footage. It was cool that the writers got something to do in this episode, because we don't see them much anymore, but the Lutz storyline just didn't feel right. It was too weird seeing everyone be nice to him, and even more alienating seeing those "talking head" shots of Lutz confessing things to a mirror. I'm not sure whether the scene with Tracy and Liz making up was supposed to be touching or just sort of a parody of something touching, but it certainly wasn't as effective as Liz and Jack's scene last week, or as funny as their ending that consisted of giving each other meaningful looks that somehow turned into karate poses and fighting stances. Also like how Dennis was involved in Liz's vision of herself at rock bottom. He was her worst boyfriend, after all. Bonus points for referencing Charles Widmore as an A-lister who owns an island.

Fringe
This episode's reveals were not surprising: I knew immediately there was going to be something suspicious about Peter at the beginning of the episode when Walter said he'd heard the front door and Peter told him he was imagining it, and when they said there was a mole at Massive Dynamic I knew it was "Dr. Falcon" because they made a point of showing him shoot some shifty looks. But I liked the scene where Walter discovered what Peter had done. When he asked him "If you've done nothing wrong, then why didn't you tell us?" I thought that Peter wasn't answering because he knew it was wrong, but in hindsight there is that additional layer where the roles were once reversed, and Walter had his big secret about Peter's origin but insisted he'd done nothing wrong. Interesting.

Hero of the Week: Andy from Parks and Recreation, for impressing Ron Swanson (the meat tornado was a great suggestion) and continuing his loyalty to April, even if her forehead was all sweaty and gross.

Douchebag of the Week: Lutz from 30 Rock. Sometimes everyone seems to hate him for no reason, and sometimes that reason is clear. Very clear.