TV catch up

Let's run down the lineup as quickly as we can.

Big Bang Theory: Really funny episode this week that saw the main nerds geeking out over their inadvertant purchase of The Time Machine from the 1960 movie. I thought this would turn out to be a spoof on The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, with them making it a time-share time machine, but it ended up producing a nice Leonard/Penny storyline forcing Leonard to question his geeky habits, something all of us nerds must go through at some point in our lives. More episodes like this will keep me watching on a regular basis.

How I Met Your Mother: The two CBS comedies flipped this week as this was the lesser of the two. A solid episode, but lighter on the laughs than normal. With it being Ted's 30th birthday, you would have thought there would be more, but instead it dealt with some major storyline issues involving the fallout between Ted and Barney after Barney slept with Robin. Seeing Ted not want to be Barney's bro anymore was tough, but you know they'll be back as friends soon enough. So, not my favorite episode, but a necessary evil in terms of storyline development. Oh and the lack of resolution on 'the goat story' was frustrating, but I'm sure they never thought that the show would still be going 3 seasons in, so they felt the need to prolong it. I'm sure we'll hear that story someday.

House: Good to have Dr. Crankypants finally back and up against a worthy patient - a man who is eternally nice. Actually, the 'patient of the week' story wasn't all that interesting in comparison to some of the other stuff going on. Such as House and Cutthroat Bitch fighting for 'custody' over Wilson. You just know whenever someone tries to tell House no, that he's always going to retalliate big time. I didn't care for the 'House has syphilis' fake out because they've done the cry wolf thing before and it's beginning to lose impact. The performance review stuff produced some decent moments, particularly between House and Cuddy, but then again, when aren't their scenes together good. In case you can't tell, there was a lot going on here. *sigh*, such is life in a post-strike world.

Reaper: So the cat's finally out of the bag and Andi finally knows what Sam has been up to these past few months. Funny, it was not as cathartic a moment as I would have liked. Probably because of the fact that she's still pretty creeped out by it and because you know this will probably mean more problems, rather than happily ever after for those two. And we are already seeing it play out somewhat as the Devil has cashed in on his favor for allowing Sam to tell Andi; he wants Sam to be a mole in Tony's organization. Frankly, I think Sam got off easy here and if all I had to do to stop telling my hot girlfriend secrets was to help the Devil stop a gay demon from starting a revolution, I'd do it in a heartbeat. So, you'll forgive me if I don't sympathize with Sam for feeling like he's in a bad situation. At least we're finally getting some advancement on this show. Let's just hope it isn't a case of too little, too late in terms of a second season renewal.

Price is Right Million Dollar Spectacular: A fun show, but nobody won a million, so no need to talk about it anymore.

Mythbusters: There was no new episode this week, but I stumbled upon something called the "Mythbusters Young Scientist Special". It was an episode where some junior high kids had won a contest and got to be on the show. They all helped with environment myths. I actually saw this on something called The Science Channel and not Discovery. I never saw it on Discover and I'm not sure if it's because it never aired on there or if my TiVo just never caught it because it went by a special title. If you've never seen this episode and you're a fan of the show, you may want to see if you have The Science Channel and see if it's still airing on there.

My Name is Earl: Once again an NBC Thursday sitcom has some questionable content during it's supposed 'family hour'. This episode saw all sorts of different characters pining over one another in an episode aptly titled 'Love Octagon'. Despite all the loving going on, most of it wasn't all that interesting. In fact, the few scenes involving Joy and Darnell having to live at the Crab Shack produced more entertainment than the main plot did. Still, this one gave us a major development as Earl got hitched again, this time to Billie (Alyssa Milano). Go Earl!

The Office: An excellent episode this week that finally had them staying put in the office. Seeing Michael deal with a quasi-realistic situation (Stanley's insubordination) was a lot of fun. I loved seeing him once again go to Darrell for some help about the 'urban lifestyle'. The cold opening involving Michael wanting to do something with the wet cement outside was hilarious (If you didn't see it, the office workers convinced him to put his whole face in the cement. Ha!) I was disappointed that they introduced a couple of subplots and then didn't resolve them, but I have a feeling this is a case of 'more to come later...' That definitely has to be the case with Ryan and Toby teaming up to give Jim a formal warning. The Dwight flipping Andy's car for profit, may just be a one-off thing, but their battle for Angela's affection certainly won't be. By the way, if you actually want to buy Andy's Xterra, the show is actually selling it on Ebay. Bid now here.

30 Rock: A somewhat meh episode as they seemed to just be biding time here until their season finale next week; a theme common in a lot of show's this past week. I enjoyed the return of Floyd and some more Cleveland references, but they weren't as good as the ones from his episode last year. I'll have to call my parents to see if we finally got that IKEA up there yet or not. The drinking game between the TGS staff and the teamsters was good, but could have been a lot better. Jack's demotion and subsequent hiring in the White House wasn't all that exciting, but maybe it'll have a good payoff next week. Frankly, this show is a lot better when they focus on random humor instead of trying to do long-term cliched sitcom storylines.

Survivor: A fantastic episode that finally saw the smug women's alliance get dropped down a peg this week. Probst said it best at the end of this episode, this group of castaways has become the masters of the blindside. The only real negative of the episode was seeing James get eliminated from the game due to injury. It's a shame that stellar personalities like him and Jonathan had to be removed prematurely. I can only imagine how much this game has been changed as a result of their injuries. I thought the challenges were a little weak, especially since they weren't anything we haven't seen before. I'm glad the time spent showing the reward challenge winners and their loved ones enjoying jellyfish lake was brief, since I wouldn't have been able to stomach seeing Alexis, Natalie and Cirie basking in their happiness for very long.

Lost: Not a lot happened this week, which made for maybe my least favorite episode of the season (Not surprisingly, the other candidate also heavily involved Kate and Aaron). The flashbacks didn't really provide us with a whole lot beyond sowing the seeds for the destructive turn that Jack's life takes. On one hand I felt he unnecessarily forced the issue with Kate and what she was doing, but on the other hand, it is so like Kate to continue playing both men and also never being content with being happy and in one place. These two main characters have such unlikeable flaws and this episode only magnified them that much more. Maybe that's why Jack got sick as was hinted at via Rose, who questioned why Jack got appendicitis. Speaking of Jack's ailment, that provided no drama since we all knew he would be fine. The Sawyer/Claire/Miles stuff was somewhat interesting, but left a lot of questions. Did Miles actually see Christian and if so, did he see a real person or a ghost? For that matter, could Claire be a ghost, which is why Miles took such a keen interest in her? Hopefully we'll get more clarity on that next week. Speaking of next week, it definitely looks like it'll be a return to excellence as we finally get some advancement on what's happening on the freighter and it's the return of Horace Goodspeed!

CSI: Still haven't seen it yet. It always gets the short end of the stick as a result of Thursdays being such a crowded TV night.