TV Tues - Only Two Weeks Until New Eps of Heroes and Studio 60!

Following a month or two of holiday-inspired drought in TV land, new episodes and new shows are finally starting to appear. I haven't had a chance to watch any of the new shows from the past couple of days, unfortunately, but there are a few things from last week that I felt needed some commentary.

The O.C. (Fox Thursday 8:00): It's sort of sad that the show has been axed now that it's in the middle of its strongest season since the first, but at least they've been given enough of a heads up that they'll be able to wrap the series up with no cliffhangers or dangling plots.

My Name is Earl (NBC Thursday 7:00): Always love the glimpses into Earl's criminal past, and this Cops-themed ep was no exception. Lots of great call backs to earlier episodes throughout, and Randy's inability to sing the right words to "Bad Boys" was a nice touch.

The Office (NBC Thursday 7:30): While this last week's episode was great as usual -- Dwight trying to comfort Pam was awesome -- it just couldn't compare to the hilarious Christmas episode from a few weeks back; the scene where Michael marked his "girlfriend"s arm with a marker so he could tell her apart from her friend had me cackling at the top of my lungs for several minutes . . . it was probably a good thing that neither of my roomies was home at the time. By far the best sitcom on TV right now.

Scrubs (NBC Thursday 8:00): The House send-up didn't quite live up to its promise, and yet this was still one of the stronger episodes of the season for me. Why? Because they managed to keep most of the truly bizarre stuff confined to J.D.'s imagination, instead of allowing it to bleed into their "reality." A little bizarre is good; Turk making Carla wait on a marching band when she goes into labor, not so good.

30 Rock (NBC Thursday 8:30): Still amazed at how much I'm loving this show, especially considering how much they're still underusing poor Jane Krakowski. But any scene with Alec Baldwin and Kenneth the page interacting is guaranteed to be comedy gold.


NEW SHOWS

The Apprentice (NBC Sundays 8:00): Initial thoughts as I watched the first few minutes of the season premiere were (1) they totally sampled that sound of Trump's baby cooing from that old Aaliyah song "Are You That Somebody" and (2) holy crap, when did Trump mary Julie Cooper from The O.C.? Making the contestants put up the tent that would turn out to be the home of the losers each week was a nice touch, made even better by the fact that they were all working on it in their very nice business outfits; I think the female contestant who was hammering in the tent stakes with her high heel shoe deserves bonus points. Although Martin wass scoring high on my "kick this guy off before he annoys me to death" scale (if he had quoted one more "old" African/Nigerian/Whateverian saying, I might have snapped), I have to say that Frank was a much bigger detriment to his team on this task. But, I don't have to deal with Martin anymore, so that's a bonus.

The Knights of Prosperity (ABC Wednesdays 8:00): New sitcom about a group of losers who decide the best way to achieve their dreams is to rob Mick Jagger. Some laugh-out-loud moments, most of which came by way of big-man Rockefeller. I can see that there's the possibility of intensly uncomfortable moments for me (Donal Logue's attempt to pass himself off as a British doorman had me squirming), but as of right now, this one has earned itself a tentative spot on my viewing schedule.

In Case of Emergency (ABC Wednesdays 8:30): New sitcom about a group of losers (hey, I think there's a theme, here) from the same graduating class who find that when their lives go down the tubes, they have only each other to turn to. The first episode was much better than I had expected, considering the horrible reviews it got from just about every TV critic imaginable, so we'll have to see if later episodes demonstrate more reason for the rampant hatred.