30 Rock, The Office, and More

With the Celtics taking up most of my time and energy lately I've been neglecting my pet project. No matter. I am posting now.

1) I'm going to go ahead and blame the writers strike and forced creativity on the fact that after the first two post strike episodes of 30 Rock ("MILF Island" and "Subway Hero", both outstanding) the past three have been relatively subpar. You never want to force comedy and I fear that has taken place because I did not find myself laughing too much in those latter three episodes with the exception of the Cleveland and Detroit jokes when Floyd returned.

To be completely honest though, I am scared for 30 Rock. From what I have read, NBC is aggressively riding both that and The Office to reestablish their ties to great comedies and I think they are letting the dreaded "focus groups" steer things a bit too much here. I say that because from what I have heard, "people" love Keneth and they love Liz and Jack too. Because NBC is placing a large amount of faith into 30 Rock they are going to ride these characters to appeal to a wider audience. Of course this neglects the reason I came to love the show so much in the first place, the great ensemble cast. 30 Rock is not 30 Rock without Tracey, Jenna, the writers, and of course an appearance every now and again from Dr. Spaceman. If they use Liz and Jack to drive the show and Keneth (whom I really don't find that funny) as the "comic relief" I think they'll find the show all of a sudden becoming a lot less funny. They need to go with what got them where they are and that is the ensemble cast.

Oh, and as for The Office which I already mentioned, well I'm afraid the same things are going on there. It seems that people want lots of Jim and Pam and Michael doing ridiculous things as opposed to smart and witty writing mixed with great bit performances by the supporting cast. Still, there are some things on The Office that will ALWAYS crack me up. They are:

a) Michael trying to act cool.

b) Ryan acting like a douchebag.

c) Michael being outwardly mean to Toby.

2) I am one season away from wrapping up my submersion with Six Feet Under. Trust me, there will be plenty more to come on this when I am done.

3) Don't know whether or not you are watching the Real World: Hollywood, but if you are not I would highly suggest doing so. I more or less took Australia off but this new season is well worth the time. I really have no opinions on anybody on there except for the two people that they follow around 95% of the time. Those people would be an absolutely insane body-builder from Chicago who has already been intervened upon and sent to rehab and a stripper from Philadelphia who feels the need to dress like a stripper at all times and looks like she could be Delonte West's sister. Just trust me on this one okay?

4) Every now and again I pop on some of the first season of Friday Night Lights reruns they play on the Universal channel. What a great first season. The second season was not nearly up to the first season's standard, but that is mainly because the first season was so, so damn good.

That be it for now dudes.