From the adorable lengths to which Leslie Knope went to cheer up Tom upon learning about the dissolution of his green-card marriage that involved taking the gang to a Rainforest Café-esque Dinosaur-themed restaurant and Pawnee’s local strip club The Glitter Factory (“I’ve gone on record that if I had to have a stripper’s name it would be Equality,” said Knope), the continuation of Andy’s futile attempt to win back Anne that culminated in a successful attempt to swindle Mark in Pool (“I know that legally Anne is now mine but it weirdly doesn’t feel that way”) and the overall awesomeness that is Ron Swanson (Note: I too will take a free breakfast buffet anytime anyplace!), there is very little we didn’t love about what was quite possibly the funniest episode of PARKS AND RECREATION to date.
Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for NBC’s original mockumentary THE OFFICE. Having gone on record as saying that I’m not the biggest fan of those Michael Scott-centric episodes that remove what little sense of normalcy the character exhibits — last night’s instalment that had a High School class known as “Michael Scott’s Tots” learning that Michael was not in fact going to make good on his promise from years earlier to pay for every student’s College tuition — had us anxiously wincing in pain as we waited for the other shoe to drop. Michael’s intentions may have been in the right place (revealing that years prior he truly believed he’d be a millionaire by the time he was forty). But, for a class to think that a manager of a local paper company was seriously going to be able to afford to pay for an entire classes College Tuition. Really!? It’s almost as unbelievable as the way in which Jim got bested by Dwight.
As for 30 ROCK, while there was nothing NOT funny about Liz Lemon’s meltdown as she transformed from level-headed writer into crazy-insecure actress and the High Def hi-jinx that ensued (Who else caught Alec Baldwin looking like an early 90’s version of himself in HD?), a stellar episode was tarnished slightly by Frank’s somewhat predictable transformation into his very-own version of Liz after he was put in charge of the TGS writer’s room while Liz was off shooting the pilot to DEALBREAKERS. Not to mention Tracy’s mission to score an ‘EGOT’ (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony) that had us scratching our head over THE VIEW’s Whoopie Golberg and Sherri Shepherd (Tracy’s wife) in the same episode.
And finally, the night’s biggest head-scratcher was reserved for BONES. A show which not only should be embarrassed by the ridiculously blatant product placement for FOX’s upcoming James Cameron epic Avatar (What is this, SMALLVILLE?). But for so blatantly borrowing their central mystery from King of Kong, one of the most enthralling documentaries we’ve seen in recent memory. That said, we’re not gonna lie, Punky Pong is kinda fun!