Last night had to have set the record for the most break-the-fourth-wall moments in BL’s history…I counted at least four. They don’t usually bother me, but these seemed a bit obtrusive.

As obsessed as I’ve been with the election, I somehow missed this, but the pledged delegate thing is actually happening, which improved my opinion of the show. I enjoy watching Alan and Shirley butt heads, as they’re two of my faves on the show.

Denny’s “love story” was contrived and didn’t serve the story or his character at all. I know it was supposed to be whirlwind, but it shouldn’t have been a one-episode-and-out deal.

100 Word Review: Hell’s Kitchen continues to be a show that boggles my mind. Primarily because the contestants seem so inept that I can’t imagine that Chef Gordon Ramsay would actually hire any of them to work in a McDonald’s - much less his new LA restaurant. Tonight Vanessa, who burned her hand last week (and has been struggling the whole time) quit the show over her injury. Both teams had pizza related challenges and service tonight. Louross and Christina ended up on the chopping block after Ramasy said both teams “won” tonight’s service. Neither were illuminated, however, because Ramasy made Vanessa, tonight’s pick.

100 Word Review: This weekend I had the chance to check out two new cartoons on Nick. One was the abysmal Speed Race The Next Generation, and the other was Amy Poehler’s The Mighty B. The show features the voice talent of Poehler, Kennan Thompson and Andy Richter, and its off to a very nice start. Poehler’s Bessie Higgenbottom, who is voiced very similarly to one of her better SNL characters, is the world’s most ambitious Honeybee Scout. Her determination to win all 4,000 Honeybee badges is the premise to the show, and it looks like they’ll get some mileage out of it.

You can find out more about The Mighty B on their official website.

100 Word Review: There are some people that say that this show hasn’t been good in years. I don’t understand those people. The Simpsons, to me, is as good as it has ever been. In this episode Bart ends up in the 4-H club, raises a cow, rescues said cow from slaughter, and ends up forced into a shotgun wedding with one of Cletus’ kids. Is it the greatest episode of the series? Of course not, but it is amusing in places and there are a few great lines. “Sorry, Lise. I can’t be a vegetarian. I love the taste of death.”

100 Word Review: As King of the Hill ages, Hank is starting to do things that are out of character more and more with each episode, and for a long time fan - I really find that disappointing. In this episode we learn that all of Peggy’s birthdays go horribly wrong. This year she’s planned a mystery train trip with a 70s theme. After things start falling apart she and Hank venture off into the bathroom and in a moment of passion ‘do it’. Now, if you can get past the fact that Hank would never do that - then you’ll probably enjoy the episode.

Season 4, Episode 9 - The Shape of Things to Come

If Daniel Craig steps out of the 007 shoes, I think that Michael Emerson would be a fitting successor to the James Bond genre.

“The Shape of Things to Come” was EASILY in the list of my top episodes, primarily because it focused on the single greatest aspect of the show…Benjamin Linus. Between his genuine fear when he heard “Code 14j”, to his desperate play to save Alex and his subsequent mournfulness when she was surprisingly shot, we got our first, I believe, real look into Ben’s soul.

He showed that he was not nearly as helpless as he was making himself out to be to his captors. I loved the moment with the shotgun in the piano bench as well as when he calmly walked into closet and locked the door behind him. Ben always knows exactly what he’s doing, there’s no doubt.

Speaking of knowing what he’s doing, it’s apparent that he has some form of control over Cerebus (a.k.a. Smokie). Ben is obviously ruthless, and is willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish what he wants, but it’s becoming obvious that he’s not pure evil like he seemed to be early on. He obviously cares about the other people on the island, which ties into the next point…

Charles Widmore. There’s your pure evil. He wants the island for his own evil purposes, and Ben is doing what he can to stop that…up to, but not, killing Widmore himself. Is that connected to “the rules” that Ben talked about a few times? I don’t even know where to begin speculating on it. And we’re obviously heading toward an intense finale, with an impending showdown between Ben, Penny, Desmond and Charles. Flippin’ awesome.

Michael Emerson’s performance alone makes this easily my favorite episode of the season, and in my top five for the series. Phenomenal.

A+

100 word review: Jack is getting the top job at GE, and Liz is going to replace him…at least until Don Guice died. ouch. Now it looks like Will Arnett will have more important role on the show going forward, which is a good thing.

All in all, this was another good episode. Much better than Milf Island. The sub-plot with Tracy and the porn-game didn’t do much for me, but there were a few gags in there that were worth a laugh.

This show continues to channel Arrested Development each week…and I mean that in a good way.

Season 4, Episode 10 - Night Out

After last week’s amazing episode, it was highly likely that this episode would be a disappointment, but fortunately it wasn’t. Although, it wasn’t quite up to par with the quality of the previous episode, it was pretty good.

Ryan has plans for the Scranton branch to come in on Saturday to input their own sales as if they were sales from the Dunder Mifflin Infinity website, which does not appear have turned into the success that Ryan thought it would be. After giving the gang a pep talk, Ryan mentions to Michael that he “should see” the women that Ryan meets in clubs in New York, which Michael takes as an invitation to join him for a night of club hopping.

So, shortly after Ryan leaves the office, Michael and Dwight are on their way to New York to party down.

Meanwhile, Jim has come up with the brilliant idea to have people work a few hours later on Friday, and not come in on Saturday at all - which sounds great, in theory, but nothing ever seems to quite go right when Jim exerts his managerial role.

In New York Michael and Dwight meet up with Ryan, who is abnormally happy to see him (and hanging out with a man that Dwight is convinced is a hobbit). As you can imagine, a night of hilarity ensues.

Back at the branch the work is complete, and the gang is leaving for the evening…except that Jim forgot to tell the security guard they were staying late, and he locked them all in. The team quickly turns on Jim and Pam. Tobey makes several attempts to impress Pam, including being very proud of having the security guard’s home phone number, and finding a football to throw around (which Pam then accidentally throws into Meredith’s face).

That comes to a head as Tobey accidentally puts his hand on Pam’s knee…and keeps it there just long enough for everyone to notice…utterly embarrassed, he announces that he’s decided to move away and jump the fence to run home…which he proceeds to do.

Jim and Co are finally free when the cleaning ladies show up, and Oscar talks to them to get everyone out of the parking lot.

Back in New York, it has become clear that Ryan has a drug problem, and he eventually collapses on the dance floor and Michael and Dwight take him home. It looks like Ryan’s life is going to fall apart this season - who know’s where he’ll be next year?

All in all, it was a good episode. If you want to check it out right now, for free, you can do so a Hulu.com.

Season 4, Episode 9- Chairmodel

WARNING! WARNING! Major plot line SPOILERS discussed below! Continue AT YOUR OWN RISK!

Ok, are you sufficiently warned?

Alright, let’s continue.

This week’s episode finally put us back into the actual office, and was a return to form of sorts. It was also a “game changer” of an episode, and the rest of the season will springboard from this episode.

After last week’s dinner party, Michael and Jan are broken up - at least for now - and Michael is back out on the prowl. After becoming enamored with a model in an office furniture catalog, he demands that everyone in the office give him the number of a woman to be set-up with, or they’ll be fired.

Pam, eager to get him to move past this and pick a new chair, so she can get his old one, gives him the name of her landlord.

Meanwhile, Kevin and Andy are dealing with a parking issue that it plaguing the other office workers. Office park neighbors W.B. Jones are renovating their offices, and their construction guys are taking up parking spaces, forcing half of the Dunder-Mifflin employees to park in a satellite parking lot. If you ask Kevin and Andy, this is the single biggest issue facing the world today, and there is no possible way things can continue until this situation is corrected.

It’s a perfect look at what actually working in an office is like, because people really do flip out over stuff like this.

Michael calls up Pam’s landlord, and they meet at a coffee shop. When Michael sees her, and she’s not a super model, he goes into full “Michael Scott” mode, and makes you want to punch him in the face for treating that woman like dirt. They have an awkward conversation that ends with him calling her an old lady, and that’s about it.

It’s really, however, what this meeting sets up that is important. After Michael returns to the office, Jim jokingly goes up to Pam and mentions that she’s probably just been kicked out of her apartment. She jokingly responds that its ok, she’ll just move, then suggests that she should move in with her boyfriend since he’s a slob too. Jim immediately jumps on that with a “yes”, and Pam hesitates, responding that she won’t move in with someone unless she’s engaged.

Now, i honestly couldn’t tell if she was fishing for a proposal, making an excuse for not doing it, or making a general statement of something she believes. Like, that’s just her rule in general, and she has to stick by it for her to stick with her own moral code.

Jim doesn’t skip a beat, telling her that he’s going to propose…he’s just not going to tell her when…but when he does, he says “it’s going to kick your ass, Beasley.” She smiles and jokes with him like she isn’t sure if she can believe him or not.

Then as Jim walks away, there is a look on Pam’s face that is just unreadable. She looks nervous, and I can’t tell where this is going in the long run…the writer’s are either going to screw this whole thing up and break them apart over this, or just keep us hanging with a “did she say yes or no” season finale cliffhanger.

One thing we do know, is that Jim is serious. In his interview segment following the scene, he pulled out a ring and told us he bought it “a week after they started dating”.

Kevin and Andy’s story wraps up when they gather the five bosses of the office park, and demand their parking spaces back…they get them…and Kevin is very proud that he “finally got to win one”…and as silly as it is, I was proud of him too. Go Kevin!

Dwight promises to find the woman in the catalog upon his return…and quickly does some investigative work discovering she’s dead. Got high and wrecked her car. Tragic. Of course, Michael and Dwight have to go to her grave, which is apparently within driving distance of Dunder Mifflin.

There is one more Pam and Jim moment in the episode worth note, where - as they are walking back to their cars - Jim drops to one knee, looks up at a poker-faced Pam and says “Hey Pam will you… wait for me one second while I tie my shoe?” Pam’s reaction is, again, hard to read, because she seems disappointed, but they both laugh it off, and keep walking.

Where will this go? Feel free to speculate below…but if I’m going to keep watching the show, it better go to a happy place for once. I hate it when shows tease the “will they, won’t they stuff” for years, get the couple together for a few episodes, then break them up again…and I seriously hope the writer’s of the this show are more clever than that.

Season 4, Episode 9 - Dinner Party

If there is one word in the english language to describe this episode of ‘The Office’ that word is “awkward.”

Almost the entire episode takes place at a dinner party at Michael an Jan’s condo - and we really get to see how their relationship is going post “The Deposition”. The verdict? Not well.

The party goers consisted of Pam and Jim, Angela and Andy, and eventually Dwight and his former babysitter. In possibly the most disturbing line of the night we discover that Dwight and the aging babysitter are together for “purely carnal” reasons. ugh.

The real story, though, is the monumental break-down between Jan and Michael. From her playing a CD that her former assistant obviously wrote about a night the two slept together, to Michael stopping in the middle of dinner to hang his neon bar sign - to Jan smashing his very tiny $200 plasma TV - it just kept getting more and more awkward…you know, until the police showed up.

I can’t say that this episode was great, mainly because I don’t consider it great to sit in a chair and squirm for 30 minutes while watching a television show. Like Pam, Jim, and I assume everyone else except Dwight, I wanted to escape from the dinner party. It was uncomfortable, awkward, and disturbing.

Having that said, it was brilliantly written, and its this kind of writing that makes the show so great. I hope, however, that next week we get back into the actual office, and keep Jan away for an episode or two. I don’t know about you, but I really need a break from that crazy woman.