Quick TV roundup

Before we start another week of TV, let me quickly recap the highlights from last week and point out some questions that I'm left wondering about.

Heroes: Was last week a rerun, because it sure felt like I had seen all of that before. This show needs to get out of its creative rut in a hurry. Season 2, thus far, is severely lacking any focus and needs to create some sort of unifying mission for our heroes. I can only stand so many weeks of the Wonder twins temporarily killing people with Maya's crying power as they endlessly travel through Mexico. BTW, anyone else think that Parkman's dad (aka the Boogeyman) is NOT the one that through Mr. Nakamura off the roof?

Chuck: The show is finally getting its footing now that Chuck is going on missions. I loved his attempts to stop the "Wookie" from selling the diamond. I also enjoyed the various Bond references sprinkled throughout the episode. My gut is also telling me that we haven't seen the last from Katrina. Making her a recurring character could make for some interesting storylines. Speaking of recurring characters, we need more of the Nerd Herd!

Journeyman: I wish I could travel forward in time to figure out when we're going to get any sense of what's going on with Dan's ability. That way I would know whether to stop wasting my time with this show or not.

How I Met Your Mother and Aliens in America: Each of these episodes had their laughs, but were far from standout episodes. Now pressing issues with either of them. I mainly include them here as a way to promote other people to start watching them.

House: N/A due to baseball playoffs.

Reaper: Another fun episode that yielded a lot of laughs but still failed to break out of its formula. On one hand, the formula works, so I can't be too mad at them. Still, variety is the spice of life and this show could use to show that it at least has the ability to change things up once in a while. The Devil was still awesome this week, but we also saw that he knows how to perfectly get what he wants when someone tries to defy him.

Back to You: The initial problems with this show remain. The comedic talent on this show continue to be weighed down by the awful characters surrounding them. Like Journeyman, this show is on borrowed time.

Survivor: Only saw parts of it while flipping between it and the ball game. From the commercials, I figured each tribe would just steal the other's best players and for the most part I was right. Not sure how Sherea got chosen though. Also, how foolish of Zhan Hu to think they would just be stealing from the other tribe and not have to give anything in return. Idiots. They continued to show their intellectual ineptitude by throwing a challenge. Actually, I sort of see their rationale, but the way they went about it was all wrong. Plus, karma always has a way of getting revenge on people like this who try to throw challenges. Despite the remaining Zhan Hu thinking everything went according to plan, I don't see this having a big impact...yet. Aaron is no great loss and Fei Long still remains a strong threat even without him. This week it looks like someone will discover the hidden immunity. Given the way this season has played out, I wonder how long it will take before they tell the rest of the tribe that they found it.

CSI: Didn't watch because of the ball game. Anyone want to tell me if Sara accepted Grissom's marriage proposal?

My Name is Earl and 30 Rock: Of these two, 30 Rock was the clear winner this week. I get what Earl was trying to do with its creative writing episode, but it just felt a little flat to me. On 30 Rock, none of the three primarily storylines were really advanced, but they continued to deliver some LOL moments while telling them.

The Office: I'm so torn on this week's episode as I thought it was really well done but severely was lacking in the humor dept. Given the storylines they're dealing with right now, I suppose the somber tone was appropriate, but I wish they would go back to having more fun in the office. I may have said it before, but they really have entered into this parallel universe where Jim and Pam are happy and in love and everyone else is miserable. As much as I don't want to see anything ruin PB and J's relationship, I want Michael and Dwight back to their old selves as well. It should be interesting to see how much things change, including my opinions on the season, now that they go back to half hour episodes this week.