This Week in Television - Jan. 31-Feb. 6, 2011

The Cape
I didn't find Dice to be a very interesting villain. Ironically, I knew she was going to tell Fleming "You're the one who's going to kill my father" before she even said it, just because it seemed like an obvious plotline. And I didn't like that The Cape and Orwell were somehow "blind spots" in Dice's predictions, because there was really no reason or explanation for it. Just a really easy deus ex machina for the writers to make her lose in the end, because otherwise she would always be a step ahead of them and thus undefeatable. If you're going to include a character like that, you have to either explain their defeat better, let them win, or not include them at all. Also The Cape should've just ziplined across the rope or something instead of going through the trouble of trying to master tightrope walking in a short period of time.

V
This episode was boring (not to mention aggravating thanks to the massive tool that is Tyler Evans) but it got a little more interesting toward the end. Don't really like when V goes into religion, but I kind of enjoy the stuff with Anna and her mother, and anything involving Visitors killing each other, even if the special effects are distracting because they're so cheesy.

Community
Wow. I knew they were doing a Dungeons and Dragons episode, but that was even better than I thought it would be. It was like the equivalent of South Park's World of Warcraft episode, with everyone teaming up to take down an enemy who was ruining the game. The sound effects and music were a nice touch to fill out the scenario rather than going into fantasy sequences where we actually see everything acted out (though Chang did apply some hilarious makeup for his character). I wonder how long they can keep casting Pierce as the villain in this type of episode though, because after this and the trampoline episode, they should know by now that he gets pissed off when you exclude him.

The Office
The joke about Erin not liking Holly is getting old. She's already expressed it to the cameras several times, I don't see why it needs to continue. The caption contest had potential but then everyone's captions weren't really as funny as they would have been if that were done a few seasons ago, or if Michael was involved. I guess it was all filler for the real purpose of this episode, which was to show how well Holly knows Michael. It would have been sweet, but then I remembered it had been done before on The Simpsons when Homer went off looking for his soulmate and Marge found him by using her knowledge of his habits and interests. Kind of a disappointing episode after the last few were getting good again.

Parks and Recreation
The last thing I expected Will Forte's character to be was an obsessed Twilight fan, but I think they did a good job of representing the phenomenon. The books aren't really relevant in any historical context, nor are they "good" in the critical sense, but they're like pop fiction because people still love to read them (and, apparently, argue over their values without having an actual opinion on the books themselves). But putting the video of the meeting in the time capsule was a good idea. Has anyone ever put a video recording in a time capsule before? Loved Andy listing his best qualities ("I'm nice... I'm in a band... and that's it!") and Tom's line "Twilight is DOPE." But I was sad to see Tom and Lucy break up so soon, because they were awesome and we didn't get much time with them together.

30 Rock
It may not have been the funniest episode this week, but it was interesting seeing Jack try to adjust to the Kabletown boss's methods because he is used to a system where classes are seperate and nobody is equal. The Tracy/Jenna story seemed incredibly small and irrelevant, and the Liz pretending to be pregnant story didn't really lead to a lot of good jokes, except when she claimed to be eating for two and ordered "two egg sandwiches...times two is four!"

Fringe
Nice little easter egg when a book with "Dr. Spock" written on the spine was found among William Bell's things. I don't know if I like the idea of the universe's fate resting on Peter having to choose an Olivia, because unless the genre is straight up romance, love stories should always be more of a subplot than that kind of plot device. And the mind reader being overwhelmed in public places thing has been done to death on other shows, and they didn't do anything new with it here, so I was disappointed by that, too. But it was cool to see the mysterious bowling alley guy again, I wasn't expecting that. And we got another classic Walter moment, getting excited at spotting a "punch buggy".

Glee (Superbowl Episode)
Being the Superbowl episode, I knew this one had to be football heavy, but I don't buy that a bunch of chauvinist, homophobic jocks would join glee club (even temporarily) just to play football, or that wearing zombie makeup and chanting "brains!" would do anything at all to freak out the other team. I also don't buy that Sue would win "loser of the year" just for having to forfeit the cheerleading competition. I mean a bigger loser than Mel Gibson or Dina Lohan? Please. The Thriller halftime show was decent though.

Hero of the Week: Annie from Community as Hector the Well-Endowed. She satisfied that maiden real good. Lemme see those notes, Troy.

Douchebag of the Week: Pierce from Community. I actually like Pierce because I think he's funny, but this week he just seemed like more of a relentless dick than usual. But still funny.