Steveats: Sbarro, my filthy guilty pleasure pizza

Debuting a new, semi-regular feature! I tryout questionable food items so that you don’t have to in… Steveats. (Note: Title developed in about 10 seconds of brainstorming.)

A couple weeks back, my ole journalism buddy and American Idol fan Rueb suggested that I review the various acceptable pizzas now at gas stations and convenience stores. While that’s definitely still in the cards, I recently had a chance to indulge in my true guilty pleasure pizza – Sbarro.

Now, my brain realizes that Sbarro is all sorts of disgusting. Theoretically, it is New York-style pizza, but Sbarro is to pizza as Velveeta is to cheese – technically the same, but only faintly familiar.

If you’ve never been to a Sbarro at a mall or truck stop, pizzas are seemingly baked at a Question Mark time and left out under a heat lamp, to be sold slice by slice, until there is no more. Traditionally, they offer on-demand cheese, pepperoni, a “stuffed” slice and a fourth random option, like broccoli or sausage.

I’ve written briefly before about my like of Sbarro’s. For this post today, I went with the “stuffed” pizza, which is essentially a kind pizza casserole. In the middle of two pieces of dough is some sausage, pepperoni and bacon, with cheese. It basically makes your heart want to explode from cholesterol, but, it’s also somewhat delicious. Plus, I’m positive it was all balanced out by the cucumber and tomato salad I had.

Other random things about Sbarro – the Wikipedia page is oddly cheerful. It is also the favorite New York pizza spot of Michael Scott, and Jack Donaghy once dated Pizzarina “Zarina” Sbarro. And hey, they also managed to file for bankruptcy twice in three years! But, they seem to be out of it…  for now.

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Why Community is better than your show: Completely hidden plotlines

Dear viewing public,

I know many of you still watch The Office. It's okay - I do too. I mean, this is the last year with Steve Carrell, so there is a good chance this is the last year it will be even remotely funny. However, it's shocking how fast the show has gone downhill, and I'm someone who still likes Pam and Jim, and didn't think the show jumped the shark when they got together.

It's just been a steady decline since, of all people, David Wallace left the show. It's not so much that he was a lynch pin cast member or anything, but his leaving and the selling of the paper company represented a turning point in the show. They were the sane, by-the-books corporation that a lot of Michael's humor flowered against. Now, he has some Paula Dean-esque boss, and her idiot son is in the office too.

So please, instead of watching The Office, please give Community a try for the next couple weeks. Remember before The Office got really popular, those first two or three funny seasons? You know, you initially resisted, because only your hipster friend Byron liked it, and while he liked it, he mostly just complained that it wasn't as funny as the British version.

Well, Community doesn't have a British version! So, no worries there. But I know you aren't watching it because of the latest TV ratings report. The Office is still pulling a 3.4, which is DOUBLE the audience of Community! That's an outrage, and apparently plenty of you aren't even turning the television off, since Outsourced is pulling a 2.5, despite being horrible.

Y'all should be watching Community - It's hilarious. I mean, even beyond the usual plots of each episode, there is stuff hidden in the background. For example, the pictures from this entry are all about Abed, who has about two lines in the entire episode. Yet if you pay close attention to the background, you can see him:

1) Rubbing a pregnant woman's tummy.
2) Getting into an argument with the woman and her boyfriend.
3) Delivering the baby in the couple's car!

The only reference to this? Near the end of the episode, Shirley says, "Oh Abed, we haven't seen much of you this week! What have you been up to?" His response: "Not much." And that's it!

Community is ridiculously great like this. The episodes weave plots and characters together, and none of the gags are cheap, and they refuse to go into tired sitcom cliches, like actually having Jeff fall for one of the women on the show. Please start watching and supporting it now, otherwise, I might actually have to start watching Outsourced instead. What else do I need to tell you to start watching? That it has funny comedy guest stars, like Betty White, Patton Oswalt and John Oliver?


What else do you need? T&A? Because it has that too:



EDIT - Thankfully, someone has made a YouTube compilation of this entire plot with Abed! If you want to see it, look below:

The duplicitous actors

Above, you see Amy Ryan from The Office. She plays the love interest of Michael Scott, and over the past couple years, she's been the best of all of his dates. You know, the sort of wacky, insane female match to his utterly insane character. However, in addition to playing Michael Scott's love interest on The Office, she also plays a harbor patrol cop in The Wire:


It reminds me of another actor, Omar Gooding. He first came up as a super colorful host of Wild and Crazy Kids:


And he progressed from that and roles on Hangin' With Mr. Cooper to being a drug-snorting nephew of Snoop Dog on the ultra-inappropriate ESPN show Playmakers:


Anyone else have some celebrity acting doppelgangers they like?

The first picture of Amy Ryan is from this site. The second picture is from here.

Props for The Carell Corral (and The Colbert Report)

Yesterday, I gave props to The Daily Show for its ridiculous and great Michael Steele Muppet. However, I'd be remiss if I didn't also praise its counterpart, The Colbert Report. (Also, I'm not really sure what "I'd be remiss" means, but I've also heard it used in this context. So, I'm going to assume I'm using it correctly. As Lt. Frank Drebin from Police Squad would say, like a blind man at an orgy, I'm feeling my way out.)

Wednesday's episode was the highlight of the past couple weeks for me. The show opened with a fake dream sequence seen above. Steve Carell was the guest, and mocked Colbert throughout the segment, until Colbert realized that it was all a dream, and that he hadn't lost his show, or his hand to a hoof... OR DID HE???

It was a bit of a flashback show because of Carell's presence, since they're both former Daily Show staffers. Instead of a straight interview for the final segment, they re-did a bit from their Daily Show days - Even Stevens. This was bitter, angry and confrontational, which made it awesome, and the cameo by Jon Stewart at the end helped too.

In terms of overall quality, The Colbert Report is definitely not as consistent as The Daily Show to me, but I think its highs tend to be higher. I also like the philosophical bent of the show more - Colbert is clearly playing a character, which makes him a bit more immune from the type of criticism Stewart normally gets, since Stewart is a slightly left-of-center person and broadcaster. I still agree with Stewart that if douchenozzles like Tucker Carlson want to call him a political commentator, they do so at their own peril, since he has at times followed a show with puppets making prank phone calls.

(p.s. By the way, did you know Carell is leaving The Office? I think this could be good for the show, which definitely lost some heat off its fastball this past season. I hope they give him a happy ending, and have him quit his job to be with Holly, but I realize with the spotty writing of this past season that they would probably make even this tender moment some ridiculous, farcical situation.)

A very late review of Thursday night television

Phew, where does the time go? It seems like just yesterday, I was watching the latest episode of Parks and Recreation, and The Office. However, it was actually four days ago!

Man, as a result, this entry could be as stale as the latest plotline of The Office. (Hi oh!) I was originally hoping that Michael's foxy new interest would finally allow him to find some happiness. Except for the nice lady who moved to Vermont, Michael has dated nothing but psychopaths and nuts.

Therefore, why do we need another one in the form of a cheating bartender? Even if the actress, Amy Pietz, is easy on the eyes for being 41. (Note on Pietz: She has been in more than a dozen relevant, important dramas in the past 20 years, in guest roles, and she doesn't look at all familiar to me, which is odd.) The last two episodes have been pretty horrid, with the big "reveal" two weeks ago being that Donna is married. Uh, I kind of thought that from the beginning of the episode. This week's episode was a tiny bit better, with the portions that featured Andy trying to humanize Donna's husband.

The non-Michael portions of each episode have also been decent, specifically, Daryl trying to punk Andy, and Dwight trying to nuke his sperm to prevent Angela from getting pregnant. Reiterating my comments from previous weeks though, The Office really needs to move away from focusing every episode on Michael.

Average grade for the two episodes: C-


In contrast, this past week's Parks and Recreation was excellent. There was more development between April and Andy, and by that, I mean April got bitter about him talking and flirting a bit with Anne. This occurred during her 21st birthday party, which in typical Pawnee class fashion, was hosted at the strip club that Tom is a part-owner of.

In addition to the April-Andy drama, there are several other minor subplots going on in the episode, and all of them were appealing. Leslie is sparring with a bureaucrat from the state about their budget, and surprisingly, it's not the billed major guest star Rob Lowe. Ron is happy that the budget auditors are in town, which is why he is smiling all goofy above. Anne is boozing it up at April's birthday party over her break-up with Mark. And Tom is trying to hook-up with a bunch of different ladies, but he keeps striking out, until he gets the number of a cute bartender, Lucy, at the end of the episode. (She kind of reminds me of Hilary Swank, but it's obviously not her. Her identity remains a mystery, as even IMDB has no answers, nor does Google.)

As compared to The Office, the plot twist at the end of Parks and Recreation is actually amusing and interesting. The show's writers have taken care to develop the main ensemble of the show, ensuring that we care a bit when something happens to them. This use to be the case with The Office, but the touch seems to be lost ever since the episode when Pam and Jim got together for good.

Grade: A+

Parks still good, Office still uneven

While I favored Community among Thursday's shows this week, Parks and Recreation was still pretty entertaining. Leslie tried to stop a rich socialite and former Miss Pawnee - one of the judges from the beauty contest in an earlier episode - from demolishing several historical aspects of a local mansion. Leslie going nuts about an environmental issue isn't exactly new, exciting ground for the show, but it didn't suck.

The better plot of the show centered on April and Ron's relationship. She had mistakenly scheduled him for 90+ meetings on March 31 because she thought March only had 30 days, not 31. As a result, dozens of people showed up, expecting a meeting with Ron. Because of this, Ron ordered April, Andy and Ann to pretend to be important Parks and Recreation employees to deal with all of the people.

Ron also yelled at April at one point, which later caused her to quit. This results in the episode's best scenes and sight gags, as Ron has to venture to April's parents' house to talk her into working in the department again. Of course, April's parents are completely normal and friendly, which has caused April and her sister Natalie to rebel by being apathetic. These three or four minutes really elevate an otherwise average episode.

Grade: B

So much for The Office recovering some of its mojo. A week after a pretty decent episode that didn't suck, we go right back to the awkward, uncomfortable episode of the early and mid-season. NBC already screwed up Heroes, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that they managed to do the same to The Office. (Note to self: Find some way to protect Parks and Recreation and Community.

The episode was mostly ridiculous and uncomfortable (some might say ridiculously uncomfortable) because of Michael's flirting with a bartender he met a couple of episodes ago. While she is undoubtedly foxy, which is nice, she already seems weird and kind of like Jan. I suppose someone on the show has to date regularly, but for an unsuccessful clod, Michael sure does pull down plenty of tail - Jan, the girl who moved to New Hampshire, Pam's mom, the woman he proposed to at Casino Night after three dates, this new bartender...

In other business around the office, Dwight at first tried to get Kelly into the minority training program, believing that he would be able to use her for his own benefit, as opposed to Daryl. However, Dwight changes his mind when he realizes that Ryan has more pull with her, and he then tries to get a Japanese janitor to apply instead. Kelly gets the appointment instead though, and honestly, this isn't Dwight's best work. This whole subplot is much better than all of Michael's awkward flirting with the bartender, but it is the B-plot of the episode for a reason.

Grade: D+

TV Review: Hey, The Office didn't suck this week!

Is it sad that I'm now surprised when The Office doesn't disappoint me? While it was still far behind Community this week in terms of quality, at least in this humble reviewer's opinion, the main plot angle exploring Erin and Andy's relationship was pretty humorous.

I think all of us know a girl like Erin - She's pretty and cute, and you wonder, "Hey, why doesn't she have a boyfriend?" Then you start to peel the onion like Michael Scott did, and you realize that she is completely, utterly effing nuts.

The highlight of the episode occurred in the restaurant, as Michael was quizzed my Erin about a bunch of random crap. In typical Michael Scott fashion though, he let it slip that Andy was once engaged to Angela, which makes Erin have a freaky panic attack, burying her face in her hair. "In the foster home my hair was my room."

The minor plot of the episode involved harassment around the workplace. Specifically, Kevin talks like Cookie Monster from Sesame Street. Or, as Dwight would say, "Is that the program where all the puppets live in a barrio?" However, the plot got less interesting as Toby's replacement in human resources tried to suspend Pam and Jim.

There were actually a ton of great lines in this episode. "If it wasn't for secretaries I wouldn't have a stepmom." "I knew it existed and I chose to let it die." "She's kind of a rube." "They're making fun of Cookie Monster, but in a strange way, it's like they're making fun of me." "How many pillows do you sleep on at night?" "I don't think he's the best dresser - he reminds me of Easter." "Of course, I'll get you a bowl of pickles."

With the Erin drama and all of the great lines though, this was probably my favorite episode of The Office this season. They need more shows like this, focusing on some of the secondary characters, as opposed to always making it about Michael Scott and the drama of the Saber / Dundler-Mifflin corporate hierarchy.

Grade: A-

TV Review: The rest of Thursday night, and inexplicably, South Park

I'm lumping in South Park with the rest of my Thursday night reviewing, since I forgot to write about the episode until now. Don't like it? Well, start your own god damn blog. As Butters would say, don't be such a phony.

- Even though I aggressively started off this entry by mentioning South Park, and included a photo from it, I still enjoyed Community more, even if it wasn't as good as Parks and Recreation. But hey, that was so good that it deserved its own entry last night. Maybe Community can reclaim its belt with its performance this coming Thursday.

I mean, it's not like this week's episode sucked. While Pierce got the most obvious sight gag of the week (Community loves sight gags, and I love them for it), the best storyline involved Annie and Shirley each trying to prove that they were "harder" than people thought. They were both asserting their dominance as a "bad cop" kind of character, and thankfully, Abed was there to spur them and the bald dean on.

Unfortunately though, their whole plot was based upon a premise that a prank gone horribly wrong caused Brita to frame Jeff for the crime. This fell kind of flat for me. It was enjoyable, but the cop dynamic between Annie and Shirley and Abed was better, and Troy and Pierce were wasted after the initial comic wizardry scenes. This could have been another A or A+ episode, but it fell just a bit short because the Jeff storyline was surprisingly stale.

Grade: A-

- Likewise, I would have given South Park a higher grade if they could have just reigned in the vomit a little bit. Seriously, there is projectile vomiting going on for about a quarter of the appropriately-named "The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs."

The underlying message of the episode is actually great, as it is subtle criticism against all of the people who try to assign ulterior motives to books like The Catcher in the Rye, or say, programs like South Park, that simply aren't there. The boys learn from Mr. Garrison that The Catcher in the Rye, the next class reading project, has been chosen for the class because it has been banned in so many classrooms. Unfortunately though, they're disappointed by the lack of swear words.

As a result, they collaborate to write the most disgusting novel of all-time, which shares its title with the episode. However, when they think they're going to get blamed and punished by their parents for it, they say that Butters wrote it... only to find out that the adults love the book, because they think it is an allegory for their own personal beliefs.

If you exclude all of the vomit, a gross-out device that has been used in countless South Park episodes, then this is a strong episode. (Hey, I'm a mark for anything with Butters in it, especially if he's threatening to kill John Lennon and calling people phonies.) Unfortunately though, like "Smug Alert" and "Canceled", the episode veers a bit too much into the gross out shit (or vomit) to really appeal to me fully.

Grade: B+

- Unsurprisingly, The Office still brings up the rear, although this week's episode was much better than last week's effort. The focus has started to shift away from the boring corporate crap and staff drama to where the show made its money: burgeoning relationships and Michael's "aw shucks" buffoonery that makes you cringe while fighting the urge to give him a big hug. It also helps that Kevin was doing Kevin stuff throughout the episode, such as being very, very enthusiastic about seeing Pam, and making thrusting motions in the direction of Andy and Erin.

Tackling it in reverse order, Pam the New Mom is desperate to get out of the house, even if it means hanging out with the crew from the office. She even brings Michael a friend, so that they can do a bit of a double date. Things are going great until Michael finds out it is a date, at which point, of course, he freaks out and almost gets thrown out of the bar. The episode's bartender kind of reflects the viewer's general point of view, in my opinion; she goes from wanting to throw Michael out because of his boorish behavior to taking pity on him, and throwing her hat into the ring for his affection on the sly.

The episode's other plots mostly revolved around the various romantic tendrils of the office's tree. Very minor plots included Oscar hoping to hook up with a potentially gay guy in the warehouse, and the continuing oddness of Kelly and Ryan. Andy stupidly downplaying his relationship with Erin got plenty of screen time, which is a shame, because I've decided that she is the second secretly hottest character on NBC Thursday night, after Annie on Community and slightly ahead of April on Parks and Recreation. He makes amends at the end of the episode though, which is nice of him. Meanwhile, Dwight chooses Pam's freakishly tall bridesmaid to pursue instead of Angela.

Frankly, all of these storylines are retreads from past seasons of The Office - Michael has had a string of stupid love interests, Kelly and Ryan are a sick joke of a couple at this point, and Dwight is now the focal point of a love triangle as opposed to Angela. I guess the Erin and Andy stuff has a kind of fresh feel to it in terms of The Office plots, except that both are so freakin' weird that I can't imagine them having anything resembling a normal relationship. All of THAT being said though, I still enjoyed the show this week.

Grade: B

- And finally, I forgot to mention last week that the 10th episode of the season was the final one for Archer. It'll return at some point next year, which is a shame, since I was just getting used to its greatness. So, sorry, but I won't be able to include silly pictures from it in the foreseeable future.

As pennance, please except this picture of billionaire playboy Xander Crews from Frisky Dingo. See, back before they did Archer, the creators had a show on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim called Frisky Dingo. While it didn't hit quite the high notes that Archer does - the voice talent isn't quite as good, since you didn't have H. Jon Benjamin or Jessica Walter - the show did have its own sort of continuous anarchy that made it wonderful. You can buy the combined season one and two pack, 25 episodes in total, for about $37. The individual seasons go for about $10 each. If you like Archer, or anything like Space Ghost Coast to Coast or Sealab 2021, then you'd also love Frisky Dingo.

Frisky Dingo overall grade: A-
Archer first season grade: A+

TV Review: Community still tops among Thursday night shows

The last one was well-received, at least by Carly Googles, so why not do it again? A belated look at my Thursday night viewing, ranking them from first to last. (And sorry Carly, I'm still not watching 30 Rock. Was it even on this week?)

- Community is again the top of the pyramid, or maybe more appropriately for Thursday's episode, at the head of the mast. The gang is trying to decide which blow off class to take, and they split between Jeff's pottery class suggestion and Pierce's idea of a sailing class. Ultimately, Pierce's group - with Shirley as the captain, and Troy and Brita and Starburns as supporting crewmates - has the funnier moments.

Helping them out significantly is the fact that the community college is apparently not within two hours of water. The sailing class exists solely because they were given a boat following a drug raid. Therefore, it is just out in the parking lot, and their salty instructor barks out at them how the "sea" - also known as the asphalt - is tossing their boat around. Even better, the instructor is played by Lee Majors, another in a string of surprisingly good guest appearances.

I agree with this review here about the best line of the episode, which is uttered by Majors - “From the moment you climbed abroad, I saw sea men inside of you.”

This whole angle with the sailing class overshadows the other plot of the night – Jeff taking beginner pottery and getting upset with a dreamy doctor who is taking it just for fun. They have a bit of a tortured competition, in that Jeff is tortured by losing the competition that the doctor doesn't even realize he is in. The whole thing falls flat though, excluding the cameo by Tony “Buster Bluth” Hale as the pottery instructor. Annie and Abed are also just secondary characters throughout the episode, which limits two of the best in the ensemble cast.

Speaking of the ensemble cast, there is a very minor subplot with Senor Chang throughout. Someone keeps stealing his clothes when he exercises at the YMCA, meaning we are subjected to him without a shirt. Funny, but not hilarious. Also, there wasn't a payoff with it on Thursday night's episode, which makes me wonder if it will be continued to be milked for a few more shows.

Grade: A-

Parks and Recreation jumps up to the second slot on my list, and it almost wrestled the top slot away from Community. However, I just couldn't put it ahead because the April, Andy and Ann triangle crap bogged down another really good episode.

The highlight of the episode, besides Jerry splitting his pants and farting (see picture), was definitely Andy Samburg. He did a cameo as a super loud park ranger, which was totally awesome. It reminded me of a voice my friend Andy and I would do when we were mocking how stereotypically nerdish we were being about something – typically Heroes or journalism or ladies.

Grade: A-

Archer was a bit disappointing this week. This was yet another episode detailing the various mommy issues that Sterling Archer has. While Jessica Walter (Lucille Bluth!) is always funny as Malory Archer, I feel like the drama between her and her screw-up son has been a little drawn out and prolonged at this point.

Instead, I wish they would focus some episodes on the secondary characters, such as the weird scientist Krueger, choking fetish secretary Cheryl / her name that episode, or Pam, the Human Resources director who can't keep her mouth shut. Parnell is great in every episode as Cyril Figgis, the prudish boyfriend (kinda) of Aisha Tyler's spy character Lana Kane, the closest thing the show has to a “straight” role.

Even a bad episode of Archer still beats the pants off of the last show on my list, though.

Grade: B

And finally, The Office just continues to disappoint. Seriously, how did it all go downhill this fast? Is Jeff Zucker writing for the show, or just Jay Leno?

The episode focused on the sales staff trying to earn back their sales leads after Michael confiscates them. Apparently, the sales staff was acting like bigshots because of the emphasis that Saber places on them. The whole angle felt out of place, since I don't want to see people within the office acting mean to one another, excluding Dwight.

Grade: C-

TV Review: All of my Thursday night shows, from first to worst!

If a picture normally tells a thousand words, then this one tells like, a million, and all of them funny about the latest episode of Community. I think this was one of the best episodes of the season, as all three story arcs – Pierce's slutty ex-stepdaughter, Brita getting whupped by Troy's grandma, and Abed and Shirley bonding – were all pretty hilarious. Annie kind of floated between the various arcs this week, but since she had heavily been in a couple of recent episodes, I imagine they're just trying to give everyone equal time at this point.

The singular funniest moment of the episode is captured above, although I found Brita's story angle the best of the three. Normally, she is the weakest part of the episode, but her talents were used pretty well in this episode.

Also, maybe this is just me reading into things again, but she seemed to be a little flirty with Troy. This actually works for me, much more than her and Jeff works. Likewise, he and Annie shared another moment, albeit after he had sex with Pierce's ex-stepdaughter. Maybe it only took 17 episodes for the writers and producers of Community to realize the most natural pairings on the show. In general, the show is really starting to gel for me, and I think this episode was the highlight of the season so far.

Grade: A+

In a close second would be Archer, which continues to delight me as a filthy, animated show that follows in the footsteps of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia and The League. While I realize its animated format means not everyone will be into it, the voice work of H. Jon Benjamin, Lucille Bluth and Chris Parnell is splendid.

Thursday night's episode focused on Archer and Lana being wooed by the rival of the Isis spy agency, Odin. While they intentionally express interest in Archer, they are actually more into Lana, and eventually try to off him.

In a weird way, the show feels like a merging of Arrested Development, Always Sunny and The Venture Bros. Besides Lucille, Judy Greer (Kitty the crazy secretary) does a voice, and Jeffrey Tambor guest starred this week week as the voice of the head of Odin. When you add these distinctive tones into the already great work of Benjamin and Parnell, then you just make a good thing better.

Grade: A

In third place for the night was Parks and Recreation, which had a solid if unspectacular episode. Leslie gets asked by the mayor's office to hunt down a rouge possum, which is exactly as “hilarious” as it sounds.

By this, I mean that things continue to be a little too “on the nose” for the show. A possum being loose in the house is more like an idea I would have for My Best Friend Landlord, not an actual network television show developed after 1990, excluding Disney or Nickelodeon or ABC Family shows.

The secondary story arcs were actually much better than anything Leslie was doing this episode. April was house-sitting for Anne, who she doesn't like, because she used to date Andy the Shoeshiner. While this didn't provide many chuckles, it did expand the character of April past her “oh whatever” roots a bit more.

I really wish they had made the focus of the episode the dynamics between Ron Swanson and Mark though. Ron's garage was badly, badly out of code, which made for hilarious sight gags as Mark was going to write him up for 20-plus violations. Their dry wits are normally the best part of any episode, so the two of them combining for a story arc was a dynamite as it sounds. I kept hoping they would devote some more time to it throughout the episode, but they only got two or three scenes together. Still, Parks and Recreation is at least progressing forward and remaining funny, unlike the last place Thursday night show.

Grade: B+

And in last place for the night, third of the three shows I watched, was The Office. With Pam finally having her baby in last week's episode, I thought we could focus solely on the funny this week. Unfortunately though, most of the episode featured whiny, sensitive, unfunny Michael, as he got into a fight with the Paula Dean clone that now owns Dundler-Mifflin.

The funniest part of the episode for me involved two site gags, one of which is illustrated by the picture of the right. When Jim was gone and staying home with Pam and the baby, Dwight took over his desk, and combined the two units with his two units to create MegaDesk. He keeps trying to recreate it through the first portions of the episode, before the middle drama with Paula Dean Clonus makes the funny die. The throwaway sight gag at the end of the episode, with Jim creating a three-desk, two-level creation called Quaddesk, was also funny.

However, The Office seems stuck in a rut right now. While I've mostly ignored the talk on the Interwebz about how it has fallen off, this is the first episode that really made me go, “Meh!” The birth episode was better than this one, and normally, the “special” episodes of The Office kind of suck. Heck, they didn't even reference the Dwight and Angela agreement of the birth episode. I'm hoping they go somewhere with the remaining six or so episodes of the season, because right now, it seems stuck in neutral.

Grade: C-

Dear The Office, please stop sucking.

[Right] Because I don't want to indulge the current edition of The Office with a picture, please instead take this picture of a hot Angela Kinsey and Rachael Harris with Jim. The picture is from this site.

I'm not one to really slag on The Office, as I think reports of its demise have been greatly exaggerated. Yes, Pam and Jim might have a sappy romance with almost no problems, but I kind of like that. Every other relationship on television is kind of dysfunctional, so it is good to have a sort of "model" couple that finally got together and stayed together after seasons of agony. It's like the polar opposite of LOST, where the status of Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Juliet changes every week.

However, the two newest episodes of the show have really left something to be desire. Two weeks ago was the clip show that I rightly slagged - Why bother coming back from a break if you're just going to show a clip show? And if you're not going to have every character in it? Just go with a new episode, NBC. This is why you stink now.

This week, the gang found out that some company had bought them out. The whole episode was so forgettable though that I have no idea what their name is. The only thing I remember clearly is that the head of the company is some Southern lady who looks and sounds suspiciously like Paula Dean, the horrible lady on Food Network who cooks everything in butter. "Y'all can't have some ice cream without butter on it!"

Yawn. I chuckled a few times during the episode, but at this point, every other show in NBC's Thursday night lineup is keeping my attention more.

TV Review: Thursday night slightly disappointing

The first result for "Thursday Night Lineup".

Normally, I can count on Thursday being my best night of television weekly, since it has an array of shows on. The NBC comedy lineup is quite formidable for a stereotypical 20-something like myself - Community, Parks and Recreation, The Office and 30 Rock. I watch all of them except 30 Rock usually, but I watched even that last night, which was a good thing because the other three shows were disappointing. A mini-review on each, with the warning that HUGE SPOILERS for all the shows lie ahead:

- The Office "returned" from a longer break than the other shows, and I'm not angling to get on the "blog" of "unnecessary" quotes with that statement. For some reason NBC or the show's producers thought it would be a good idea to come back from a long break with a clip show.

Now, clip shows have a time and a place, but I don't really think they're necessary in a show's sixth season. The Simpsons do them frequently, but they have been on for about 47 years now, and have done everything, as South Park so eloquently noticed at one point. The Office had a major story arc throughout the show's lifespan - the Pam and Jim courtship - surrounded by minor arcs revolving around Michael and (later) the higher up's ineffectiveness. I don't think you need a recap show, unlike, say, Lost, where there are dozens of characters to keep an eye on.

That being said, I found the B-story arc of the episode to be fairly entertaining. A corporate health assessor was trying to scope out the health of the Scranton branch of Dundler-Mifflin, and of course, Michael, Dwight and Andy were playing hijinks on him. Unfortunately though, unless I blinked, I don't even think Jim or Stanley were in the episode.

- Parks and Recreation focused on Leslie's second date and zany dinner party with some lawyer friend of Ann (Rashida Jones). To be honest, I find him impossibly dull. What's up with people who travel to exotic places suddenly being presented as "interesting" people? Traveling to some place awesome does not in turn make you awesome. A mathematical theorem, if you will:

Lame Person + Exotic Location = Lame Person
Fun Person + Exotic Location = Fun Person
Therefore, X Person + Y Location = X Person

Basically, I'm tired of people on television and in my actual life thinking that travel is some magical substitute for a lack of a real personality. Great, you touched a dolphin. Maybe next time Flipper can teach you some god damn tricks.

... But outside of that angle, which dominated the show, Parks and Recreation had some good singular moments. The continued slow-burn on the sexual tension between April and Andy is good, although Andy still seems way too old for her, even if he has the mindset of a kid.

- Community was also somewhat disappointing, but maybe it's just because I found last week's episode with Jack Black so awesome. (That's not even counting the Alison Brie cheerleader outfit, which was also so awesome.)

I found the main storyline of the episode, which was Jeff's relationship slash non-relationship with a faculty member, kind of flat. Yes, I realize they kind of hooked up around Halloween time, but she has been completely absent from recent episodes. So now, I'm just supposed to accept her on my screen, making out with Joel McHale? I say nay! Luckily, other portions of the episode were humorous, and as always, the last bit with Troy, Ahbed and Jeff delivered.

- Surprisingly, I found 30 Rock to be the highlight of the whole comedy block, even though I'm not a regular viewer. Everyone keeps telling me to get into it, but I missed the initial episodes, and I hate jumping into shows half-way through seasons.

If last night's episode is any indication of the regular quality though, I think I'll have to take the plunge. Liz Lemon (Tina Fey, looking as foxy as always) wanted to transplant the show to a sunny locale. She convinced her boss, Alec Baldwin (looking as foxy as always), to do so, but he changed her idea from Miami Beach to... Boston!

I like Boston, so I thought that was a bit of an improvement, as opposed to being in the bizarre crime capital of the world. In Boston, the gang got into plenty of trouble, especially Tracy Morgan, who was harassing historical reenactment guys on the street. Good times! I heart Tracy Morgan.

All of the pictures are on the first Google Images page of results for their respective show's search term. The picture at the top is from here. 30 Rock is from here. The Office is from here. Community is from here. And Parks and Recreation is from here.