Thursday night TV

Last night I watched Ugly Betty, followed by The Office, the SNL Thursday Night edition and Life on Mars.

Ugly Betty seems to me to be spinning its wheels. We've seen Willamina get power and lose it over and over, and Betty doesn't seem to get much of anywhere, despite her spandy-new-much-too-big-and-expensive-for-her apartment. I have noticed though that she doesn't fall down before the credits happen anymore, which seems to be progress. How they dress her doesn't make a lot of sense to me as they are actually often nice and expensive-looking garments--they just don't match at all. It seems as if in real life even if someone was color blind, or as in Betty's case, pattern blind, they'd learn the glories of a predominantly black wardrobe. She doesn't even have a white cat like I do to make that problematic!

I also wonder how they could have a teenage kid on for four episodes, and never let him interact with Justin. Seems like they missed a great opportunity for some character development for Justin there, or at least some humor, but in these shows with giant casts, there always seems to be someone shortchanged. In this case it was Justin and Amanda, though Christina never gets much to do either. Anyhow, the posters at Television Without Pity seemed to love this episode, mostly because of Gio, who doesn't interest me much, especially as we know he isn't staying.

I enjoyed The Office "Baby Shower" even if it wasn't my favorite episode. Somehow when Michael dropped the watermelon I laughed for about 10 minutes. I think these days that's so valuable that I kept up my good mood just based on that. Oddly, that part was the part that TWOP folks seemed to hate. It was very gross and dumb, which on any other show would be a real turnoff but for some reason or other doesn't bother me on The Office. I did notice Phyllis was wearing orange while party planning, the color that former head of the party planning committee Angela said was "whorey," which made me giggle too.

I kind of missed having Pam there, but at the conference I attended last week, there was a panel on female comedians on television, specifically Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Sara Silverman. I really enjoyed that panel but started thinking about Mindy Kaling who plays the very funny Kelly on The Office. She's also a writer/producer and I wonder how much influence she has over storylines and if that's part of the reason I enjoy a show so much that might skew very "guy" otherwise. I've read her blog (which sadly doesn't seem to have been updated since April or I'd link) and she's very girly--the blog is all about things she's bought like cute shoes and candy. Candy doesn't impress me much, so I don't know.

There's really no one to identify with on the show--Pam's too unambitious--though maybe her recent education will change some of that, Kelly's too silly, Meredith too drunk, Jan too certifiably insane and Phyllis is too--Phyllis. Angela's cat obsession and occasional inexplicable bitchiness make her the closest but obviously I can't imagine dating either Dwight or Andy. And Holly won't be there much longer, but I don't recognize her in me either. Maybe that isn't necessary--I like the show for the "surprise" that makes up most of the humor, and the funny and sometimes touching romances, and even for the discomfort that often makes me want to hide my face but there's no one in particular I feel for.

The SNL special was OK--better than the actual shows seems to be. I realized while seeing the movie Hamlet II that I really am not too crazy about Amy Poehler. She just seems very smug to me, and not all that funny. It bugs me that she's taken the Office team that was working on the spinoff for her own show that I'll probably feel compelled to watch but won't like very much. But maybe she'll surprise me. I've been know to change my mind.

Life on Mars was OK, but as I said in my previous post, awfully violent and full of that guy thing where men bond by literally punching each other in the face and then become best friends. This is mystifying to me. My concern with the first episode was that these period pieces often draw you in with wall to wall music and then they can't afford to keep that up. There was somewhat less music this time, but fun enough choices though the Gilbert O'Sullivan song was simply not as evocative as "Little Willie" from last time. Ditto the Kinks song v. the Who song from the first episode, which is weird because I like The Kinks better, but it just wasn't as exciting. (Edited later to say apparently it was Mott the Hoople, not The Kinks, which might explain that). Anyhow, I'm not sure what to make of this one yet, but will probably watch next week too. Thursday night has been a huge TV night for me since the days of Hill Street Blues and at times I've tried to cut down on my watching, that's always a spot where I need a show.