This Week in Television - Feb. 14-18, 2011

The Cape
This episode just ended up feeling like a Fringe rip-off, with Orwell playing Olivia, Cape playing Peter, and the circus folk playing Walter. And I would think it would be a really bad idea to seek the help of a man who betrayed you and now works for your nemesis. Even if he is chief of police.

Glee
Wow, were they hinting that Glee is finally going to do an original song for once? They should really consider it; the combination of the Justin Bieber tributes and Lauren's TERRIBLE performance (she really can't sing) in this week's episode made my ears die a little inside. And I can believe that Sue might enjoy singing with the sick kids at the hospital, but having her perform a song with the glee club was a stretch. But I like the idea of her coaching the third team, and I hope she crushes the other two at Regionals.

V
I liked that we got a snippet of back story on Hobbes with the mention of a mysterious woman he apparently cares a lot about, but I don't like that they pretty much just recycled the Ryan blackmail arc and applied it to him. And I don't like that they killed Tyler's dad. Not because I liked the character, but because it's just going to make Tyler even whinier and less likable, and because once again I was hoping it would be Tyler as the collateral damage (alas, he arrived on the scene after the gunfire ended). But Erica going into raging assault mode at the end was cool, and I hope it makes the next episode decent.

Survivor: Redemption Island
Wow, only the first episode and Phillip is already the new Coach. I can see those two being good buddies in a future All-Stars season. I like how they put a question mark after the "Former Federal Agent" in his description. And I feel like the only reason they added the "redemption island" twist is for an inevitable Rob/Russell showdown on that island after they're both voted off.

Community
I knew this week was going to be an episode revolving around Pierce in the hospital, but I didn't know it was going to be a documentary parody. And I thought it might get too sentimental, but instead they turned it into Pierce using the opportunity to mess with everyone, which was great. Last season Abed used his knowledge of the group to predict everyone in his films, and this is sort of Pierce's version of that, knowing exactly how to push everyone's buttons, though I guess he has no beef with Annie or Abed. All of the LeVar Burton stuff was hilarious too, and I loved the shout-out to "the unjust cancellation of Firefly". Awesome episode.

The Office
Oh. My. God. I never would have predicted that season 7 would produce one of the funniest episodes of the entire series. The table reading of the script in a past episode was another of the season's most memorable moments, but seeing it produced as a "so stupid its epically awesome" movie directed by Michael Scott and starring his co-workers? Please tell me the full, uncut version of Threat Level Midnight will be on the season 7 DVD. Loved all of the stupid little details, like the newspaper clippings that only seemed to establish Michael Scarn as someone who saves sporting events; the photoshopped pictures of him with "Catherine Zeta-Scarn"; Darryl leaning into it as Michael smashed the Abe Lincoln painting down on his head; the terrible "Go PUCK yourself!" line, and various misused hero catchphrases; Scarn's "emotional" moments as he remembers dead loved ones; Toby's head repeatedly exploding for Michael's own personal satisfaction, etc. Every bit was fantastic.

Parks and Recreation
Nice to see Ben getting a chance to go crazy for once instead of playing the straight man. Didn't really like the Ira and the Douche gag though, because the shock jocks with sound effects thing was already done on Family Guy, and possibly even an old episode of The Simpsons but I don't remember for sure because it's been a while. The Andy and April stuff was, again, sweet, and Ron typing out every word he knows on the annoying typewriter was classic.

30 Rock
Though I find Tracy hilarious, him being gone gives more screen time to the often benched supporting characters like Pete and Frank, in an amusing little shout-out to famous band feuds. Glad Liz's storyline worked out the way it did, because her boyfriends always lead to funny stuff, and Jack's was only good in the payoff scene where he does his best impression of his daughter's nanny at an NBC/Kabletown negotiation.

Fringe
As much as I love Fringe's ongoing serialized storyline, I didn't really like that this episode's "monster of the week" story took a back seat to the Peter/Olivia romance. Actually I guess what I mean to say is niether of the two parts really interested me. I like that Olivia is making an effort to have a good time with Peter, but much like last week's pregnancy reveal, it didn't really have to take the entire episode. Or maybe it did, might've been too fast without this one step.

Hero of the Week: Michael Scott (or perhaps I should say Agent Michael Scarn) from The Office, because Threat Level Midnight was, for me, the best thing all week.

Douchebag of the Week: Phillip from Survivor. At least Coach's ridiculous personality was amusing, but this guy is a dick.