This Week in Television - Oct. 3-7, 2011

The Playboy Club
Well, The Playboy Club was canceled this week. I don't know why this one got the axe and Charlie's Angels is still going, because I caught a few minutes of the latter and it was awful in a way that should have been left in an earlier TV era. Different networks, though. Speaking of different networks, it looks like CityTV will air the remaining episodes in Canada, and Bravo may or may not be choosing to continue the series, so we're not done just yet. Anyway, last week's was probably the best episode of these first three. It feels like they're not sure what pace to go at regarding the murder thing, as they spent the first two episodes with it lurking in the background, then this week they almost blew everything wide open, and then they put it back down to just the mob boss' son being pretty much the only person left who is suspicious of Maureen. And it may have been overkill to add a third woman for Nick, putting him in a crazy love quadrangle - even if the third woman is a closet lesbian. We get it, he's a womanizer, that doesn't mean he has to have 50 regular girlfriends.

Glee
This episode was all about everyone worrying that they're not good enough, and then recycling the show's old "be happy with yourself and like who you are" theme. In other words, another after school special episode. It was funny when Mike's father suggested he was on drugs, and then we got the scenes of Mike dancing and hallucinating his father and Tina, and I was like "maybe he's on drugs after all!" Then I hoped his backup dancers in the audition were also hallucinated, because I didn't buy that he would bring them, or need them. McKinley must be a top of the line Catholic high school, because the production values on every single thing they do there are way too high for high school students. And Sue's very brief cameo in the bleachers during Brittany's performance seemed unnecessary and a lazy excuse to squeeze Jane Lynch into the episode because they didn't have anything else for her to do. Might as well have just left her out entirely, it wouldn't have made a difference to anything whatsoever in the episode. I'm glad Mr. Schue kicked Mercedes out of the glee club, because she's been spoiled since day one and no one has ever really acknowledged it. I mean what she said about Rachel might be true, and Rachel is also full of herself, but not really in an aggressive way that is destructive to others like Mercedes. P.S. Coach Beiste stuffing her face with spaghetti was kind of funny but didn't do any favours for her, or spaghetti.

New Girl
I think the storyline with Schmidt aiming too high in his conquests could have been used later on in the series as a way for him to realize that maybe he can get better women if he stops being a douche and trying so hard. Instead it just kind of resulted in him pitying himself for going home with Natasha Lyonne and having no apparent epiphanies about it, but I did enjoy the scene in the bathroom with Jess cutting off her underwear and being misinterpreted by Katie Cassidy as crazy and threatening. However, it's going to get old soon if every episode ends with the guys joining Jess in making fools of themselves.

Survivor: South Pacific
Good job at the challenge, Dawn. She was the underdog but somehow she won it. Stacey probably shouldn't have been voted out, but it was funny when Coach tried to hug her and she refused. Why is everyone always so arrogant about Redemption Island? Unless you're the very last person voted out, you don't just have to win one challenge to get back in the game, you have to win a bunch in a row without losing. What part of that sounds easy?

Up All Night
Nothing against Maya Rudolph, but I don't find her character as funny or interesting as Reagan and Chris, and Nick Cannon is even more useless, but then I've never seen him make a valuable contribution to anything. But I really enjoyed the stuff with the A-Team van and them thinking the Native guy turned into a bird. I'm liking this show, but I would like it more without the Ava B-stories.

Suburgatory
Missed the premiere last week because it screwed up when I tried to tape it, so I'm coming in on episode 2. I liked the bright, sterile atmosphere and quirky suburban lifestyle this show seems to be developing. I don't know if ALL of the humour is my thing, but I did get a big laugh out of Ryan saying he would want to have dinner with a dead Scarlett Johansson. I'm not entirely sure yet if I like this show, but I'll keep watching for now.

Community
I enjoy episodes like this, that are about the group dealing with their own politics. Interesting to note that Pierce already rose in popularity after being at the bottom a short time ago, although the rankings were based on who everyone would want to be partners with for class projects, not necessarily who everyone likes best. But I knew the group had 7 characters, so as soon as they campaigned the teacher to let them pick their own partners, someone was going to get left out. Chang's film noir story was hilarious, if only because he was acting so insane and I am amused by things that make no sense. The biology teacher's speech about Legos was true, too. Can you even buy a set of just plain Lego bricks anymore?

Parks and Recreation
I recall the "patriotic person secretly not born in the town they love" story being used for Hank on King of the Hill, but since that show was more hit and miss and the stakes are higher for Leslie, I think it worked better here. Also, it's awesome that this episode was about Leslie's book, because for those who don't know, it is a real book. It's sitting in my room right now. According to multiple forewords, Leslie wrote the entire thing from memory and finished it in a 55-hour marathon without sleep and hopped up on energy drinks. Anyway, another very fun episode - loved the stuff with drunk Joan, Andy being Burt Macklin again (which never gets old), Tom spraying himself with cologne (he just kept spraying and spraying!), and Ann trying to figure out how to get the two most antisocial people she knows to talk to her.

The Office
This wasn't one of the funnier episodes because it spent a lot of time on Darryl being depressed and didn't have Robert California, who I feel is a more entertaining Michael Scott void-filler than Andy. I found some laughs in the little things, though, like the applicant who ate Stanley's lunch, and Oscar's delivery of the line about the guy who "got fixated on his calves, and his triceps went to hell".

Fringe
I thought Peter wasn't supposed to exist, but I guess it was just adult Peter that got erased, as both child Peters kicked the bucket in this new timeline. The psychic link made the spore thing more interesting, because spores by themselves would have been boring, and Walter spending time with the lonely kid worked as a transition to finally moving towards finding Peter as he acknowledges the hole in his life. Maybe he'll build some crazy machine that will allow Peter to stabilize long enough to convey the message he's been trying to send.

Hero of the Week: Ann from Parks and Recreation, for finally figuring out how to get Ron and April's attention (not an easy thing to do).

Douchebag of the Week: Todd from Community. No offense, Todd.