TV Party Tonight

You know what? TV's really good again.

I realize that I'm a little late with this stunning revelation, but just bear with me. There's a lot of punching going on in comics, and I can't get to everything when it's topical. But still, for the first time in a long while, there's a lot of TV going on that I want to see.

As Scott said a few days ago, Tuesday is the new Sunday, and it now has my favorite three-hour TV rock block. The whole thing starts off on NBC with My Name is Earl, which is unquestionably the best new show of the season, a fact which was confirmed by the Smokey and the Bandit-themed episode that aired tonight. I've been a fan of Jason Lee ever since I saw Mallrats when I was 13, and although he's made a few choices I don't agree with, he's great in the role. Ethan Suplee (who makes the whole thing a weird kind of 'Rats Reunion, I guess) is also great as Earl's brother Randy, and his speech about the differences between women and men is not to be missed. He also delivers my absolute favorite line in the series: "It's the army of Karma! Made up of people from every nation!" Jaime Pressly and Nadine Velazquez round out the regular cast and are thoroughly enjoyable.

And of course, there's Crabman.

Earl is followed up by the American version of one of my favorite comedies of all time, The Office. I'm a pretty big fan of Steve Carrell, but I didn't care for the first season, which came off as far too derrivative of the original. This year, though, it's really come into its own, and for the past four weeks, it's been incredible. On last week's, they even made not one, but two jokes about Karate Kid, thus ensuring that they have my undying loyalty forever.

It's amazing that those two shows are made by the same network that airs the bottomlessly awful Will & Grace. Yeesh.

As an interesting note, series creator and star of the BBC Office Ricky Gervais serves as an executive producer on the US version, but I'm not sure how involved he is in the series, since he's doing a new show called Extras for the BBC and HBO. Between the new DVR and getting HBO On Demand, I have been able to bend television to my will, and no longer have to watch anything unless I'm damn well ready to watch it. Over the past week, I've used my new television-based superpowers to catch up on Extras where Gervais plays a professional movie extra. Each episode features a celebrity guest star playing themselves, and it's phenomenal.

Anyway, once those two are over, I skip over to ABC for the new season of Boston Legal. Longtime ISB readers will recall that, due mainly to Scott's nigh-fanatical devotion to David E. Kelly, I love this show so much that I've had parties about it. Now granted, there were only two attendees at said party, but I did some drinking and I think I sang a song, so it counts. Now if only I could remember it was on...

The new season--while oddly full of costumes--has recently picked up, and on tonight's episode, William Shatner's character called a judge a "douchebag," and then kneecapped a child-rapist with his nine mili.

Denny Crane.

Then it's eleven, and it's time for the Daily Show and the Colbert Report, which cap off the three best hours of television during the week. It's pretty amazing.

A few more notes on TV:

Arrested Development is back on the air finally, after being displaced for a month by sports. Attention, Fox: I have no need of sports. I have need of the Bluth Family and their Wacky Hijinks™. Also, I have no need of Bill O'Reilly. As a representative of the 18-25 demographic, I'd be far more likely to watch his show if it was hosted instead by Jeffrey Tambor. Just sayin'.

Another new show that Tug likes a lot is How I Met Your Mother, which is pretty much standard sitcom fare, with two exceptions. First, it's narrated by foulmouthed comedian and teller of the best joke in the world, Bob Saget. And secondly, it features NPH himself in the role of Barney. It's not a great show, but Barney's a fun character and the cast is pretty talented.

But as for right now, I see Adam Corolla on my television, which means it's probably time to go to bed.