This Week in Television - Apr. 15-20, 2012

Glee

Why exactly is Mr. Schue forcing all the kids to have dreams and goals?  He teaches Spanish and one extra-curricular activity (which is, for some reason, treated like a regular class).  He's not even a guidance counselor, so it's not his job to get so aggressively involved in the futures of his students.  Although on the other hand, they're his best friends since he has zero adult friends.  The storyline with Unique was just Glee saying "Oh, wait, we haven't included any transsexuals yet!" and then slapping on the same "be proud of who you are" message that is included every single time a new character is introduced.  The only good part of the episode was Lord Tubbington doing household chores.

New Girl
Loved Zooey's meta shout-out to Bridge to Terabithia.  I don't think I liked Winston's storyline in this episode, and it's peculiar that he seems to get seperate scenes away from the rest of the cast more often than the other characters, but this new job of his is at least giving him something to do.  I actually kind of wanted Cece to be pregnant, if only for the comedic potential of her and Schmidt as parents, though at the same time it is a bit of a sitcom staple that can feel contrived if you do it wrong.  Russell's daughter was also funny with her sex malapropisms and obsession with Nick.  I think the latter might have felt creepier if she'd had more scenes with Nick uncomfortably reacting to her, but they wisely kept that to a minimum, and it was funnier for it.

Survivor: One World
Oh, Survivor.  I know you love playing the sappy music when someone gets a letter from home, but don't pretend anything involving Alicia can make the viewers weep.  She is the least sympathetic person on the show.  This season has now basically turned into not Troyzan vs. everyone, but Troyzan vs. Kim.  I'm not sure how I feel about Troyzan.  He is more or less a smart and capable player, but he's also being obnoxious.  I'm still rooting for Kim.

Community
I heard there was going to be a Dreamatorium episode, and that it was going to be very weird.  It was, but not as weird as I expected.  Troy saying he "didn't get Inception" could almost be taken as a meta comment on the nature of this episode, because I can see how some people might find it confusing even though it wasn't.  But having Annie and Abed impersonating their study group friends was a fascinating look at how they view the other characters (and themselves), and made for interesting juxtaposition given that Annie is sort of the heart of the show while Abed has trouble understanding emotion.  And it was hilarious that it did not occur to the Dean to change his outfit before going to the bank.

30 Rock
Kat was awesome in that she was like a young version of Liz, and just as funny.  The couch commercials starring Stacy Keach were also fantastic, as well as Liz and Criss pretending to be in a gay porno.  And I enjoy the running gag about Jenna's disturbingly violent relationship with Mickey Rourke, which I hadn't even noticed was a running gag before this season until I watched some reruns and found Jenna mentioning him every once in a while.  Could be gold if he ever makes a guest appearance.

The Office
Similar to last week, most of this episode just angered me.  I mean if you put a lot of Ryan and Nellie in the same episode, both being horrible but too self-centered to realize it (Nellie sort of did, but it failed to make her more likable), I am likely to pull an Andy and smash holes in my walls - although I did love that particular wall-punching callback.  The first time Andy did it in season three, he was overreacting, but this time it was completely justified, and kind of cute when Erin joined in his tantrum.  The second half of the episode was a little better for this, and for the enjoyable moment when Pam flat out tells Ryan she doesn't like him.  Oh, and the tag where Jim and Pam are secretly moved by Ryan's cheesy poem.

Parks and Recreation
Ah, I missed you, Parks and Rec.  This was one of those great episodes where every character got a chance to be awesome.  I think the more zany, unrealistic jokes on this show work best when they come from Andy - here inexplicably removing a ship from a bottle intact - because he is probably the most cartoonish character on the show, so he can get away with bending reality in a mockumentary from time to time.  Tom cheering up April was probably my favourite scene of the episode, though.  Being a self-centered tool (yet still a charmingly likable one) produces more of an impact when Tom does something sweet.  Leslie will destroy Bobby Newport at the debate, but I imagine his manager will have a trick up her sleeve because that episode won't have any conflict if it's too easy for Leslie.  But job loss stakes have been raised pending the election, and given that every single character on this show is so lovable, that's not something to shrug off.

Awake
To be honest, this was a mostly boring filler episode.  Don't have any more to say about it, but this was disappointingly the first episode I didn't find very entertaining.  Maybe it was the absence of the therapists.  I enjoy those scenes.

Fringe
Wow, this episode was pretty amazing.  The one complaint I have is that I knew Etta was Peter and Olivia's daughter pretty much as soon as she came on screen in the opening scene, and all of the obvious hints (everyone avoiding saying her last name, urgently pushing Walter about his team) only confirmed it.  It's rare that I predict something that well, so I don't know if it was a fluke or if it was really that heavy-handed, but the moment of reveal lost its power because of it.  For me, the biggest surprise of the episode was seeing William Bell inside the amber.  How does that dude keep dying and coming back so much?  Based on Olivia's absence and the "what he did to Olivia" line, I'm positing that he did something similar to when he inhabited her body, only this time he replaced the space her body was occupying with his own, or something like that.  Or maybe, if this is the future of the "Peterless" timeline, Bell never died in that one.  Anyway, this was one of the most absolutely riveting episodes ever, and having Desmond from Lost show up (the second biggest surprise of the episode, because I didn't know he was going to be in it) was icing on the cake.  I think I actually pumped my fist and went "Yes! Desmond!"  I love Lost too much.

Hero of the Week: Tom from Parks and Recreation, for making April smile, and because his bachelor pad is awesome.

Douchebag of the Week: Let's give Nellie a break and go with Ryan from The Office.  I haven't forgotten how much of a douche you are, Ryan.