The Best TV Shows on TV – TV’s Moments of Joy: Very Wool

Hey, we were really busy this week.  Did we miss anything?  Is everybody still talking about the Royal Wedding?  That’s probably still going to be the big story for another week or two, because how often does something like that happen.  You know?  Will and Kate could dominate… wait, what?  Really?  Him?  In the eye?  Well, hot crackers!

Yeah, the real world seemed a lot like the second-to-last episode of any season of 24 this week.  Seriously, the President and his advisers watched the raid in real time via satellite – that’s some Jack Bauer stuff right there.  It was definitely a historic week for America.

And since it’s Friday, that means we’re going to look at the things that made us happy on TV this week – that’s right, it’s the Best TV Shows on TV, our weekly look at the best television shows we saw.  And this week, some of our favorites had a pretty obvious focus.  But it wasn’t all Osama, all the time.  No, some of the best shows on TV were in fine form this week.  So we’re going to look at some moments of joy, and also bring you some video clips from some of the late night talk shows to see what they had to say.

Community – The two-part season finale kicked off this week with another paintball war.  This time, the battle broke out at a Western-themed school picnic, when an ice cream company announced the $100,000 grand prize for the last one standing in a game of Paintball Assassin.  Remember how crazy the Greendale students went when the prize was guaranteed first place for registration?  While last year’s “Modern Warfare” took on 80s action movies, this year’s paintball battle homaged famous Westerns.  From the Sergio Leone-style opening credits to the Ennio Morricone music cues, from the Wild Bunch gatling gun to the Black Rider’s Red Dead Redemption outfit, Community lovingly satirized the genre.  And the aforementioned Black Rider?  None other than Josh Holloway, better known as Sawyer from LOST.  He’s one of our favorites, and seeing him with a sawed-off shotgun was fantastic.  And even better, he and Annie actually shared some dialogue from LOST.  (He even gave the Sawyer-esque nickname of “Bean Allergy”.)  Jeff was, of course, fantastically jealous of the Black Rider.  (“You’re not even that handsome.  You’re just an average guy with a big chin.”)  Pierce’s descent into villainy continued (culminating in a standoff straight out of The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly), and they set up an absolutely insane cliffhanger for next week which includes a malevolent ice cream mascot.  And since Myndi is out of town, we feel like we can get away with saying that Alison Brie (Annie) in her Old West outfit is just crazy hot.  Yeah, we said it.

Fringe – And speaking of Community, Professor Professorson returned to the FOX show as Sam Weiss, the bowling alley owner with inside information on the other universe.  This week, a machine in that other universe wreaked havoc on our world with a massive lightning storm.  Peter, the only one who’s supposed to be able to operate the machine in either our world or theirs, was out of commission with a massive head injury, which left Walter and Olivia to save the world.  Walter did his best Ben Franklin impression, while Olivia and Sam had to steal something very important from a museum.  (And Sam actually got to use his bowling skills to save the day.)  And in the last few minutes, Peter jumped forward in time.  On the one hand, he went to the future of our universe, which means that we win the war.  On the other hand, their Walter seems to be active in our world, which can’t possibly be good.  And, you know, Peter is in the future.  In the upcoming season finale, one of the good guys is supposed to die, and we’re more than a little worried about Broyles at this point.  We’re on the edge of our seats for the season finale, airing in a few short hours.  (If you read this on Friday.  If not, then it already aired.  Send us a note and we’ll tell you about it!)

Modern Family–Clair and Gloria’s Mothers Day hike with the kids turns whiny (“I’m so bored, I’d rather be reading!”), and the two ladies take off. They bitch about the kids a little–Claire wants to hit hers and Gloria admits Manny writes lousy poetry–but Manny overhears and Claire’s kids just refuse to apologize to her.  Mitch paints Cam as the mom in their relationship, as does everyone in their playgroup, and he responds by being so manly as to throw a football to a bunch of kids that beans an old guy on a bike.  Meanwhile, Jay and Phil make a feast for everyone (loved Phil’s Julia Child impression), and when Phil finds a mother’s day “recipe” from 9 year old Jay tucked away in Jay’s cookbook, it ends up making Jay shed a couple tears, which Phil can’t help but share with the whole family.  They’re all amazed, but then it happens again at the dinner table and everyone makes up.  Always hilarious, but with a sweet, gooey center…it’s why Modern Family is a practically perfect sitcom.

Parks and Recreation – Parker Posey, who we know is hilarious thanks to her roles in Christopher Guest movies, guest-starred this week as Leslie’s former best friend, and now the Deputy Director of the Parks Department in Eagleton, Pawnee’s more affluent neighbor.  Leslie fought her over a fence Eagleton built around their side of a shared park, and the Eagleton scenes were all hilarious.  In contrast to Pawnee’s town forums and their lineup of freaks, Eagleton offered a forum that looked like the lunch crowd at a country club complete with caterers and gift bags.  Things got heated, and at one point there was a garbage fight.  It’s possible that nothing will ever be funnier than Andy hitting Tom a little too hard with a bag of trash.

In the B-plot, it was Ron Swanson’s birthday.  Ron doesn’t like celebrating, and he doesn’t like anybody knowing is personal information, so the fact that Leslie discovered his date of birth upset him greatly.  He was actually panicked about the possibility of a party.  Nick Offerman was hilarious as always, and it’s really funny to see a disheveled Ron.  His actual party was just about perfect, and this story also brought us the kiss that nobody could have anticipated.  We’re not giving it way, but it was amazing.

Wipeout — As we’ve established, we’re big fans of people falling down.  So of course, we treasure every episode of Wipeout.  But this week there was something really special.  Contestant Bill Carlson announced that he would propose to his girlfriend if he won, and it takes a special kind of man to bring an engagement ring to the Wipeout course.  One bad landing on the Big Balls, and that ring ends up inside you.  He was the last person to make it past all three rounds, which meant he (just barely) went to the Wipeout Zone.  And then before his run, Jill brought his girlfriend out and he made his proposal.  It was really sweet and genuine, and we’re glad he changed his mind about not proposing until after he won, because, well, he didn’t.

Raising Hope–So, we found out this week that Burt’s one big flirt when he’s cleaning pools around town.  He’s basically an 80s movie cliche come to life; he drinks from the hose with his shirt off, does push ups on the pool deck, and some rather suggestive stuff with a snake.  Jimmy tattled on him to Virginia, who was sweetly hurt for a minute, until her new friend Sylvia encourages her to do the same (with Burt’s blessing).  Her innocent, and sort of lame, exchange with Greg “Barista” starts out great (free scones!), but ends up making the guy a bit of a stalker, though a pretty harmless one.  Burt ends up feeling guilty and ends his flirting with his client, but then, when he gets the go-ahead to pick it back up, things just get weird.  Jimmy proves to be a decent flirt with Barney, out-hustling Sabrina, until she one-ups him with a fake award.  Their back and forth is always fun, and the slow build towards romance doesn’t feel the least bit forced.

The Office – Will Ferrell ended his run on the show this week, after an episode exposing Deangelo’s many flaws as a manager.   He’s petty, he’s a sexist, he’s more than a little dim.  And he’s crazy enough to think that a juggling demonstation without using any balls is exactly as impressive as an actual juggling demonstration.  We really liked his interactions with Dwight, who’s decided he’s tired of kissing up.  In all these years, we’ve never really seen somebody desperate for Dwight’s approval like that.  (Deangelo:  “No matter what I do, Dwight pushes me away.  It reminds me of my relationship with my son, only there, I’m the Dwight.”)  We also loved Pam’s near constant exasperation, and Ryan trying to convincve Deangelo that he was Kelly’s boss.  Deangelo ends his tenure in a manner that might be more slapstick than we’ve come to expect, but Ferrell is really good at that sort of thing.  So we’re going to continue to wait for the new boss, and hold tight for some more Will Ferrell…

30 Rock – The season came to an end this week, as the TGS staff went on their own summer vacations.  Liz looked forward to a peaceful time at a summer house, a plan which fell apart when Tracy bought the rest of the neighborhood.  Jenna had the chance to be the face of the Wool Council, but she and Paul (spunkybean favorite Will Forte) had to pretend to be normal.  And special guest star Victor Garber (Jack Bristow from Alias) was perfect as the very staid head of the Council.  Jack went a little crazy after his wife was kidnapped by Kim Jong Il, and tried to make Kenneth into a surrogate Avery.  Alec Baldwin is always great when he’s unhinged, and Kenneth’s discomfort was so well-played.  Tracy Morgan had a one-liner that caused spit-takes all over the country (the joke about the hummingbird), and best of all, the season ended with a completely unexpected Lost reference.  (Somebody over at 30 Rock seems to be a fan.)  We’re looking forward to seeing Tina Fey host Saturday Night Live this week, and we’ll be eagerly awaiting next season.

Conan – There isn’t much we can add to this video.  Monday night, Will Ferrell visited Conan’s show for an event dubbed BEARDPOCALYPSE.  It was the funniest thing we saw all week.  Please enjoy.

EDIT:  Conan’s video player has been a little janky (and it can’t be because EJ screwed up the embed code at 2 in the morning), so you can also see it here. 

There were plenty of other TV shows to watch this week, and we’re sadly, a little behind on our viewing.  So next week, we’ll talk about the Justified season finale, new developments on The Killing, and more from our favorites.  Enjoy your weekend, and we’ll see you right back here!

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