TV Is Back: South Park and The Sarah Silverman Program

As Tuned In's James Poniewozik exclaimed yesterday, "South Park is back, just when we needed it." And it brought its friends!

I love South Park. It has an enduring ability to savage the worst parts of our society while still actually being funny, not to mention that it's ability to deal with current events is matched only by SNL, since the episodes are sometimes produced in as little as a week. There are off episodes, of course, but no other current shows has as many "great moments per capita" as South Park.

If you were looking for one of those classics last night, you were mostly sadly mistaken. The episode involved Cartman pulling Butters into his "American Liberation Front" to save us from Chinese domination (he has nightmares about the Beijing Opening Ceremonies), which quickly ascends into a hostage crisis farce where Butters keeps shooting people in the crotch. This is the good part of the episode. Unfortunately, it also includes a stupid plot involving the boys having been traumatized by Steven Spielberg and George Lucas "raping" Indiana Jones in the latest movie, which plays on the cliches of a Lifetime-style weepie. The biggest problem for me with this isn't the way they deal Spielberg and Lucas (incredibly, ludicrously disrespectful, but half the point of these guys is they don't respect anybody... and was it any worse than what they did to Mel Gibson? Well, maybe...), but the fact that it just isn't funny. In a show like this, that's the ultimate sin. There were flashes of brilliance, though, mostly involving Cartman, and I'm confident the show will return to form next week. It's stayed at the height of its powers longer than any other show in my memory.

The Sarah Silverman Program is a showcase for the "no holds barred" comedienne who gets her unique touch from making jokes about racism and bodily functions with a wink and a smile. This works on the internet and in cut-up form, but in half-hour form it has only been really funny in fits and starts. This season premiere was probably the best episode I've seen. One of the large, slovenly, geeky gay guys across the hall (Brian Posehn), introduces Sarah to pot... and she discovers that as long as she's high, she's a genius, but she can't remember her incredible insights while she's sober. So she develops a system where she leaves her sober self voicemail messages urging her to follow her instructions. This also leads to a farcical hostage crisis (two in one night!). On a normal sitcom, Sarah would eventually go the well one too many times and learn, at the very least, that pot isn't for her. But there's no comeuppance, and high-Sarah changes people's lives and takes down a corporation with little to no repercussions. I'll probably never say this again, but it was actually better than South Park.

Bits: Sheep Tasering Edition

I'm going for fun stuff today... it's too serious around here!

-I had bus drivers who wish they thought of this. Apparently a bus driver in Florida stopped their school bus on the train tracks and told the kids that unless they started behaving they would just leave them there to get run over. Hey, it falls under my definition of "fun stuff," okay?

-Controversy has developed in Australia after police tasered a sheep that was blocking traffic. I have trouble believing the sheep was enough of a threat to warrant such treatment (Hey, police officers around the world, you're not supposed to taser somebody unless they're getting violent. 'Cause I think everybody must have been out sick that day), but you have to admit, the whole thing's hysterical. I only wish there was video.

-British supermarket chain Asda, owned by none other than Walmart (shocker!) is now selling beer for cheaper than water. The article seems to imply that this means that beer is too cheap... I would read it as water being way too expensive. I'll try not to go on my rant here about the stupidity of bottled water. I remember a comedian I saw on television once, who did a bit about bottled water: "I don't want the water that comes out of the tap for free. I want to forage for water, like my ancestors did."

-The admittedly biased Huffington Post has an article about how Gov. Sarah Palin said that women who don't vote for another woman are going to hell. Because you know they totally are. Cooties hell. Or Wisteria Lane, maybe.

-I'm sorry, South Park's season premiere is on now. Cartman: "What is wrong with you, Butters? Defeating the Chinese won't mean anything if we do it by going around shooting people in the dick! Goddammit!"

-Today's Free TV on the Internet: I confess I haven't been paying that much attention, but word on the web has it that Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has put together several of its best episodes in a row, which unfortunately have also been its lowest rated. (io9 has started throwing around comparisons to Drive. Never a good sign for ratings. Watch this week's episode now!

TV Is Back: The Office & Chuck

Two of NBC's big shows returned this week, with mixed but mostly positive results. SPOILERS ENSUE




In the past couple years NBC has established it in the eyes of many as the most quality-laden of the big networks, though others can make the claim. "The Office," really the vanguard of NBC's current lineup, isn't television's funniest show. That honor probably goes to "30 Rock," though "South Park" and any number of AdultSwim shows have their good days. However, "The Office" is probably the best comedy on TV, and that's because it doesn't just give us jokes, it gives us a huge cast of great characters, almost all of which we care about.

"The Office" returned with a one-hour premiere called "Weight Loss", which took the novel tack of stretching an episode's story out over eight weeks of summer (defined by a weight loss competition between branches that gets, of course, a little crazy). This was probably the best managed of the one-hour "Office" eps we've seen so far, with every member of the large cast being given something significant to do.

Of course we all are huge fans of the Jim/Pam relationship, which had one of its greatest moments in this episode as Jim asked Pam to marry him. This was pulled off pretty much perfectly, in what might be the best straight romantic moment I've ever seen in a TV comedy. Does anyone seriously want to make the argument that a Ross and Rachel moment was more satisfying than this?

But the show is so diverse, there's plenty more to talk about. Michael and the new HR woman (Amy Ryan, wonderfully willing to make a fool of herself) inching toward what may be a relationship... in an episode where Michael often manages to succeed despite himself, but the one time he thinks he's succeeded he's actually probably failed. Angela and "a fiancee I very much like"... and Dwight's beeper. Kelly and Ryan... and Michael's retention of his weird need to impress Ryan. "That wasn't a tapeworm." "A 1000-year old church within the continental Unites States?" "We were fighting the power and eating whatever we wanted." "wika wika wika woo wika woo" The pay-off of the "Kevin is mentally challenged" bit. Pam trapped in a computer. And so much more. WATCH IT!

"Chuck" was one of those shows most affected by the writers' strike. It did pretty well at its debut, but has been off the air for what, ten months or so? I gave it a glowing review when it first came on the air, but how will that hold up?

Well, it helps to keep in mind that this is one of those shows that isn't anything more than what it is. It's a geeky guy trying to be a spy with the help of a hot chick and, well, Adam Baldwin. It's not on a level that much higher than David Hasselhoff with a cool car, or a green guy with stretchy pants. However, it's very well done, and achieves a high level of charm without seeming to try (which would make it cloying). Zachary Levi's Chuck Bartowski is a highly relatable wish-fufillment fantasy of a dweeby guy who gets the beautiful, butt-kicking girl and, under-pressure, discovers he's secretly competent. On top of this the show is genuinely funny, and that usually ends up being enough.

The premiere was titled "Chuck Versus the First Date" (all the episode titles are "Chuck Versus..." something), and mostly revolved around the NSA's (or is it the CIA... or does it matter) attempts to build a new "Intersect" which would would replace Chuck, either resulting in his "freedom" or Adam Baldwin having to kill him, or both. Michael Clarke Duncan plays the obligatory scary mercenary of the episode, who gets lines like "Do you find me imposing? I was going for imposing." As all this comes to a head, the new Intersect blows up and some ancillary characters die and the status quo is saved. Yay.

Perhaps the single most memorable moment of a strong but probably forgettable episode? "WELCOME TO THUNDERDOME!"

Coming this week? "Pushing Daisies" and "30 Rock".