This Week in Television - Sept. 26-30, 2011

The Playboy Club
I thought this was a better episode than the pilot, mainly because they dropped Hugh Hefner's narration and weren't blatantly trying to show off how progressive Playboy was. Nick Dalton isn't really an interesting character so far, but the animosity between Carol-Lynne and Maureen can probably drive the show for quite a while. And I don't think using the key in the photo shoot was a good idea - apparently they have unique identifiers on them, so someone will probably see the photos and recognize whose key it is, getting Maureen in big trouble. Putting it in the "vanishing cream" afterwards was hilariously eye-rolling, but I would've just flushed it down the toilet. I'm betting there will be a scene where one of the other bunnies goes, "Can I use some of your vanishing cream?" and then finds it in there.

Glee
Well, that was fast. It's only episode two and we're already on to a boring, drama-filled episode. Does anyone actually beat anyone up for "lunch money", or does that only happen on TV? Because I know Glee loves to pull out the high school cliches and stereotypes. And as soon as Blaine auditioned, I saw it coming that the judges would want him to be Tony. Even Sue and Brittany weren't that great in this episode; the only good part was Kurt's dad, because he makes good fatherly speeches.

New Girl
Because of his reactions to Jess, I found Winston funnier than Coach, though there wasn't much to develop his character in this episode. Still don't like Schmidt, but without the douchebag jar he was, ironically, a little bit less of a douchebag. I wasn't really a fan of the gag with the guys putting on the pretty hats either, but I hope it served its purpose in getting Jess to finally move on from her ex-boyfriend. Confronting it in this episode was fine, but I don't think she needs to dwell on it for the entire season/series (and speaking of that, FOX actually gave it a full season extension!).

Survivor: South Pacific
Yeah, so Brandon is crazy, and it doesn't help that he's constantly trying to play the Christian card in his talking heads in a lame attempt to make the audience at home think he's a good guy. And it's not a good sign if even Coach recognizes how crazy you are.

Up All Night
I enjoyed seeing Wills Arnett and Forte together again in some expectedly weird but funny scenes (though not as weird as Forte usually is), and Christina Applegate's willingness to put vanity aside and do a scene where she wears baggy clothes, gobbles food messily and spills it on herself, and then gets it stuck in her teeth. It's when actresses refuse to do those kinds of things that people start to claim women aren't funny. Oh, and I don't know how intentional this was, but in the old Youtube video of Ava and B-Ro fighting, the way Reagan's hair was, Applegate totally looked like Kelly Bundy again.

Community
I like Pierce being his old racist self again, he's funnier that way. Enjoyed the model UN stuff for Annie's exaggerated tantrum, Jeff and Pierce having an immature argument through their countries, and Abed's obsession with the two parallel Earths. Britta is one of the less funnier characters, but it's nice to see her get to go crazy once in a while, and pairing her with Chang for the B-story was an interesting idea, though it didn't seem like the episode for Britta to have her own storyline because I would've thought she'd be applying her self-righteous activism to fictionally improve the world at the model UN. Then again, I don't think she protests things with the intention of actually accomplishing anything.

The Office
Yeah, Andy definitely felt like a Michael Scott in this episode, so much so that if they had done this episode with Michael instead, it probably would have turned out exactly the same, although whether Michael would have gone through with the tattoo is debatable, because he can be cowardly. I suppose the real difference in dynamic is that, according to this episode and last week's, the office started out generally loving Andy, while it took several seasons for everyone to finally love Michael. With the exception of Dwight of course, but Dwight almost never shares his co-workers' opinions on anything. Anyway, I knew the tattoo was going to be something nice when Pam switched it at the last second, but the Nard dog was perfect.

Parks and Recreation
Anything involving Ron and his ex-wives is always classic. Interesting that Tammy 2 turns him into a crazy, sinful demon while Tammy 1 turns him into a meek little church boy. The drinking contest was great just for everyone's reaction to the horrible liquor, and for Ron's odd way of shoulder-chugging. Ben at Entertainment 720 was similar to last season's episode where he helped April and Andy with their living conditions, but I suppose this is the opposite because April and Andy were just appallingly poor and messy, while Tom and Jean-Ralphio are very particular about everything but prone to ridiculous overspending. And anyway both were hilarious and in line with the characters, so it's all good.

Fringe
Except for the short Walter segments, this episode felt like they were just killing time and taking advantage of the main characters being able to cross between universes whenever they want. But it wasn't a bad episode, I thought the idea of a psychologist studying himself without knowing it was interesting, and the conversation between the two alternates nicely paralleled the one between the two Olivias in its suggestion that it may have come down to just one moment/decision that ultimately made their lives different. Would it be awesome or hackneyed if Peter ended up being in a surprise third universe? ...Where Olivia has BLACK hair!

Hero of the Week: Tom and Jean-Ralphio from Parks and Recreation. Even though 99% of the Entertainment 720 headquarters is highly unnecessary, it's also 99% hilarious.

Douchebag of the Week: Tammy 1 from Parks and Recreation, because I was as horrified as Leslie was at what she turned Ron Swanson into.