Ugh. This looks like it’s the one.

When last we were at Scranton Business Park, David Wallace left us with the chillingly glum observation that he didn’t know Michael was dating Holly. The branch manager whose last girlfriend and former boss sued the company is dating the HR rep. What’s not for a CFO to love about that arrangement?

So yeah, Holly’s gone, just as sure as Amy Ryan is gone, at least by all accounts. She wrapped her sixth and final episode several weeks ago, and it airs tonight. (The hour-long season premiere counts as two episodes.) And if there was any doubt, tonight’s episode title is…

Employee Transfer — Pam is embarrassed when she is the only person at corporate wearing a costume on Halloween. Holly and Michael take the long trip to Nashua after they get some shocking news from corporate. Meanwhile, Dwight torments Andy and tries to get under his skin.

Or maybe you reveled in the beauty that is the DVR and watched both?

ABC missed the boat on offering air time to Barack Obama’s campaign for the half-hour ad that took over the other networks last night. So they stuck to their regularly scheduled programming, which was a new episode of “Pushing Daisies.”

Politics aside, the “Daisies” fan in me hopes that the move brought a lot more eyeballs to the struggling second-year show. It’s in danger of being cancelled—go here to find out more on how to possibly save it—so those of us who already love this series pray that others fell in love with it last night, too.

So what would a newcomer have seen if tuning into “Daisies” for the first time? The usual: Witty writing, smart acting and a kooky sense of humor that inspires big grins.

I mean, my husband actually giggled for half an hour after Chuck uttered the phrase “piss-jitters.” HA!

Anyway, the mystery du jour revolved around a murder at the dim sum restaurant below Emerson’s office. Turned out that the chef of those pork buns Mr. Cod loves so much was running an illegal gambling operation, and he lost his daughter’s hand in marriage in a bad hand of poker. (Using food instead of cards, of course, just in case the cops busted in.)

The daughter’s new fiance—the socially awkward maitre’d who happened to be a cousin of gangster-like gambler Shrimp Boy—did in dear ol’ dad to cash in on the life insurance policy he’d just taken out.

Plus, we saw the return of Simone, the scary dog obedience expert who was part of a case Emerson and the gang investigated last season. She and Emerson make a fun—if not frightening—couple.

So should I count the ways I loved “Daisies” last night? Why not?!?

Thank the TV gods that “Lipstick Jungle,” which is in ratings trouble, seems to be moving back to Joe the Billionaire tonight and away from the “Joe the Plumber” plots of previous episodes. Read more of this entry »

What a disappointment “Carnegie Hall Opening Night 2008: A Celebration of Leonard Bernstein” is. This latest installment of PBS’ “Great Performances,” airing at 9 tonight on Thirteen/WNET, is billed as a tribute to Bernstein on the 90th anniversary of his birth. It’s more wake than birthday party, though. Read more of this entry »

There’s been flurry of “Lost” news recently, so I figured I’d give y’all a round up of the latest scoop.

And need I say it again? If you want to remain spoiler-free, don’t keep reading!

Item #1: We’ll be seeing lots and lots of Juliet. 

Lots of fans worried that Season 5 would focus only on the Oceanic 6 and how they get back to the Who-Knows-Where-It-Is-Now island. While that is a big focus, TV Guide assures us that we’ll still see lots of the left-behind Losties. (Did you really think there would be a season without Sawyer?) It also looks like Juliet—who didn’t have a whole lot to do last year—will be a busy little beaver.

Anyone else think S &J make a super cute couple?

Item #2: Matthew Abaddon in cahoots with Charles Widmore? 

So how long WAS that homecoming dance? Did it seem like it was 18 hours long to you?

Because an awful lot happened in what—back in my day—would have been a three-hour shindig that any self-respecting student would show up for at least an hour late.

But chipmunk-cheeked Silver managed to rouse herself from pain pill popping to get dressed (in what I could swear was a polyester nightshirt), drive Dixon home and shove him into a dance-appropriate outfit, and motor over to the high school before it all ended.

Naomi dissed, danced with, and then dissed again the hottie she met in detention.  (And man, why is she so worked up over Annie and Ethan? In my opinion, Detention Boy is way more interesting than Mr. Milquetoast. Move on, girlfriend.) Not to mention, she had time to reject Adrianna, make up with her and take her back to rehab with Navin’s help.

Clearly, L.A.’s traffic problem does not apply in Beverly Hills.

There was a whole lot of illicit smooching going on, too. Ethan and Annie kissed, even though Annie said she didn’t want to hook up with him because of her budding friendship with Naomi. Oops! Oh well.

And anyone else think it was kinda creepy that Ryan totally macked on new student (a.k.a. the narc) Kimberly the SECOND she told him she was 25?

So here’s what else bugged me about last night’s episode…

There’s a lot riding on what Tina Fey has planned for the third season of 30 Rock. An entire genre may be at stake, according to one writer.

There’s half as many sitcoms on the air today compared to eight years ago, and this one seems to be hanging by a thread. How good the funniest, smartest and most consistent 22-minute laugher on TV can be over the next eight months could go a long way to demonstrating that the sitcom as a genre isn’t dead yet.

That said, Tina Fey is hoping her current show gets the same boost from her Palin impression that her old show has gotten. I’ve weighed in already that I think the premiere airs too late for that.

Honestly, it feels like 30 Rock has been off the air almost as long as Arrested Development by now.

Sorry for the comparison, but it’s really the most apt one to make. A paltry 6.4 million viewers tuned in week-to-week last season, and that’s not going to cut it if you want the AD references to stop.

It’s with that in mind that I regret to say 30 Rock returns Thursday with a good but not as great as I was hoping Season 3 premiere. Maybe I built it up in my mind after six months of withdrawal. Or maybe I’m experiencing Tina Fey Fatigue. I can’t help but worry that six weeks of Fey-as-Palin hype haven’t created unrealistic expectations for those who do carry over and tune in to “Do-Over,” Thursday’s premiere, which hit the interwebs Oct. 23.

But don’t get me wrong. A mediocre 30 Rock is funnier than 98 percent of what’s on TV these days, so with that in mind here’s the happy recap, as someone I admire used to say.

Here’s your Spoiler Alert, if you needed one. Full episode, courtesy of Hulu.com, and recap after the jump.

Oh, little J., little J., will it all be A-OK?

Quitting Eleanor, leaving school.

Snogging Nate? Are you a fool?

Whew. OK, that’s all out of my system now. And truth be told, if I had a choice between curfews and algebra and rubbing elbows with fashionistas and smooching major hotties at midnight, I might follow right in little J.’s shoe-booted footsteps.

But I probably wouldn’t let a teenage flake of a model—or anyone who wears rubber leggings, for that matter—be my business advisor.

Perhaps Jenny’s eyeshadow overdose affected her brain? Because she stupidly ends up following the advice of Agnes (played by Willa Holland, formerly Marissa’s little sis on “The O.C.”). The little pipsqueak was the one who convinced Jenny to launch her own fashion line, after Eleanor basically stole two of her dresses to show some otherwise disinterested department store buyers.

But Jenny, Jenny, Jenny. Your instincts were spot on.

You’re 15. You have no money. No investors. No contacts. No one knows who you are. A few online photos and a mention in Nylon magazine isn’t going to get you very far. Ask Isaac Mizrahi. He was the darling of the fashion world, and the dude still went bankrupt. That was before he hooked up with Target, of course. So hey, maybe things will all work out!

Anyway, you can’t blame a girl for trying. And you can’t blame a girl for taking advantage of the situation when your brother’s smokin’ hot friend comes to rescue you from a shady photographer’s clutches.

Nate, you little slut. First Blair, then Serena, then Blair, then Catherine and now Jenny? Let’s see how long this one lasts.

I must say I’m enjoying “My Own Worst Enemy,” even if the premise of the NBC Jekyll-and-Hyde spy drama — a secret agent who would undergo an operation to develop a separate consciousness and identity instead of just pretending to be someone else — is so lame I can hardly wrap my own consciousness around it. Read more of this entry »

You know how on the Oscars someone invariably wins for a performance he gave three years ago? That’s how I feel about Simon Baker’s success on CBS’ hit “The Mentalist.”

On the one hand, Baker should’ve become a big star with his previous Eye Network outing, “The Guardian.” And he’s been an attractive presence in movies good (the delicious race-reversal comedy “Something New”) and bad (the ultra-violent, beyond-awful, post-Civil War study “Ride With the Devil,” a rare misstep by Ang Lee). So I’m glad Baker has gotten his due.

On the other hand, “The Mentalist,” which airs at 9 p.m. Tuesdays, is lightweight fare at best, particularly when compared to the dramatic complexity of “The Guardian.” Read more of this entry »

In last Thursday’s “There’s No ‘I’ in Team,” Dr. Wonderful, aka, Dr. McDreamy/Derek Shepherd, certainly had brass cajones by taking all the glory and credit for his and Meredith’s successful clinical trial, especially when it was blared on the cover of the latest issue of the national medical journal “Annals of American Neurosurgery.” Then he calls Mer, whom I’m usually not crazy about, “a baby.” I wanted to reach through the TV and slap him. It took him until the end of the ep to admit (kind of) that he shouldn’t get all the credit for the trial’s success. Oh gee, thanks, Derek. That’s SO big of you. Just goes to show you what raging egomaniacs surgeons are.

Doesn’t that adage that it’s a bad idea to mix business with pleasure turn out to be true nine times out of 10-and at Seattle Grace 10 out of 10? Witness the latest romance, between Callie and Hahn. After their first date, during which Callie couldn’t bring herself to give Hahn any “action” below the latter’s waist, she spent the next day dodging Hahn for fear of facing the subject. And then when Hahn put her hand on Callie’s butt at work, yowsa! Come to think of it, there was a lot of inappropriate sexual activity going on at SG last week-more than usual. There was the aforementioned hand on butt, there was Callie asking Sloan for his expertise (he calls it “The Sloan Method”—barf) on how to please a woman and they both dropped their drawers, and then at the end of the ep, Callie and Hahn started to ravage each other after Callie told Hahn to remove her pants so they could “try it again.”

And all of it was in public rooms, such as a break room or an exam room. Just think what would have happened had the Chief walked in on them. OK, he’s a TV character and he’s not going to actually fire some of the lead characters. But if this had been real life, and, say you worked at a law firm, and one of the firm’s partners caught you and a coworker “doing to the deed” in the conference room, chances are that you’d both get at least put on probation, or maybe even get pointed to the nearest Department of Labor’s unemployment line.

In the opening scenes, Little Lexie “Lexiepedia” continues to get more and more pathetic. First she buys all this stuff for George’s locker to congratulate him on having passed the intern exam. Then, in one of the closing scenes, she hysterically rants to Geo about how he can’t tell that she’s crazy about him. Meanwhile, he just stands there looking clueless. The guy obviously has no romantic feelings for her. My fear is that he’ll give into her childish tirade and pretend—to her AND HIMSELF—that he likes her but just didn’t realize it until now.

OK, I know I’m being Debbie Downer here, but would it actually be possible for Bailey to snare her second-year residents and THAT DAY assign them to the chain-reaction kidney transplants? Don’t things like that require extensive preparation and run-throughs for all involved? You don’t just through them in to the pack of wolves.

Elsewhere, Cristina is still treating her interns like crap, which is doing no good for neither her nor the group she’s trying to teach. If the preview for next week’s episode is any indication, her cold little heart will go aflutter—and maybe she won’t torture her interns—after she and Dr. Hunt suck face. Here’s “TV Guide’s” scoop on the military doctor, who will soon be dubbed “McHunky.” He will be the head of trauma surgery at SG’s ER. It won’t be a permanent gig for actor Kevin McKidd, and Dr. Hunt won’t exactly exhibit the disposition of Mother Teresa, but as long as he keeps Cristina entertained….

This week, on “Life During Wartime”(9:00-10:01 p.m., ET), the Chief gives Bailey new power and new responsibility, to help her become the best general surgeon at Seattle Grace. He also hands her the challenge of removing a young girl’s inoperable tumor. Meanwhile, Dr. Hunt challenges both the attending doctors’ methods and the residents’ surgical abilities.   (Photos: Courtesy of ABC.)

OK, wasn’t it just yesterday that we crowned Joshua Allen the lord of “So You Think You Can Dance”?

Well, I guess August wasn’t exactly yesterday. But it seems way too soon to be hearing about upcoming auditions for next summer’s season!

Either way, the show kicks off its latest search on Thursday, Nov. 13 in New York City—WHEE!

I’m particularly excited because “Dance” ignored NYC during the last go-round, preferring to focus on cities like Salt Lake City and Milwaukee. And while I’ve got nothing but love for middle staters, let’s be honest: Those auditions didn’t exactly yield super-talent.

(Here’s where all you Gev and Thayne lovers point out that two of last season’s Top 10 boys hailed from Utah. To which I say: Yeah, yeah, yeah…)

Anyway, here’s the deets on the Big Apple date:

WHEN: Registration begins at 8:00 AM on Thursday, Nov. 13

WHERE: Mark Morris Dance Center,  3 Lafayette Ave,  Brooklyn, NY. http://markmorrisdancegroup.org/the_dance_center

Additional dates and venues for Denver, Los Angeles, Memphis, Miami and Seattle will be announced shortly.

Keep watching www.fox.com/dance for more info.

(Photo courtesy of FOX)

For the life of me I can not figure out how Amy Ryan could be so in demand that she can’t commit to a full-time gig on The Office.

I mean, Steve Carell balances a booming film career with his leading Office role. Ryan’s a great actress, sure, but is she more in demand than he is? Maybe studios are more flexible with the schedules of bankable stars, and his films have grossed more than $500 million.

Still an Office gig hasn’t kept John Krasinski, Jenna Fischer or Rainn Wilson out of theaters. And they are neither top-grossers nor Oscar-nominated.

Ryan talks here with The Daily News about her upcoming role in Clint Eastwood’s The Changeling, a role that sounds closer to Helene in Gone Baby Gone than it does to Holly Flax.

“People who are struggling in some form in their lives are usually the most interesting parts to play,” says Ryan, 38. “If you’re playing a really nice character who has everything together, there’s no conflict, there’s no real drama. I’d much rather take on these kinds of parts.”

Did you like the “Jim-proposes-to-Pam” scene near the end of the season premiere?

I did, but it turns out the writers were divided pretty sharply on it. One faction favored going for true documentary effect by omitting the audio of the dialogue so all you’d hear was the passing traffic.

What’s more, as showrunner Greg Daniels tells The Washington Post, the original plan was to shoot the scene at an actual rest stop on Connecticut Merritt Parkway (which seems completely random, partly because it doesn’t run anywhere near Scranton, Pa.). That was deemed too costly, but the Hollywood reproduction ended up costing more than twice as much. And there’s more…

One of the things that we decided at the last minute was to leave the sound in; we also had one version where it’s the exact same visuals, but you weren’t able to hear their dialogue. And that’s a very poetic way of doing it. The staff was completely divided down the middle, and I lost sleep over which way to go on that.

Read more of this entry »

Just got an e-mail from the good folks at Warner Brothers, and apparently there’s been such a huge fan outcry to yesterday’s episode, “Yellow Fever,” that creator and executive producer Eric Kripke asked them to pass along a message for him.

I’m posting it after the break, because he used a four-letter word that isn’t really really bad, but isn’t really at place in a family blog, though I’m sure you can figure it out from the headline to this post.

After the break, Kripke’s message, verbatim, and then three clips from next week’s episode, “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester.”

Also, if anyone wonders: I’m only on Season 2 of SPN, so I haven’t been posting updates on the show this season, because I don’t want to be spoiled. Hopefully I’ll catch up by the winter break and then be able to watch Season 4 and erase the eps from my DVR and blog regularly in the new year.

OK, now the break:

It’s been a while since I’ve gotten sucked into the sappy storylines of The Office.

Once upon a time, Jim’s crush on Pam was a peripheral distraction that you couldn’t ignore anymore. And once you stopped trying, you could totally relate to it. Then they went and overdid it, leaning too heavy on that aspect of the show and throwing things off balance. And they brought in Karen.

Well, “Crime Aid” looked like it was going to be one of those loopy, stupid episodes where Michael gets way too goofy, the laughs are plenty but the story is sitcom-ish. It looked like another “Safety Training.” Instead, it was a frenetic thing of beauty.

So much went on in 21-plus minutes, so many parallel stories and odd character pairings. The overarching plot was almost secondary to the episodic events within.

It was so satisfying (and smile-inducing) to see Michael and Holly trade dorky jokes and TMI comments about their budding affair. No, Michael, the third date is no gimme. Well, unless it’s with Holly, who seems incapable of not going with the flow no matter what bizarre comment her new beau throws out. Yup, twice.

Omigod. Omigod. OMIGOD!!!!

Does anyone have a paper bag? I’m pretty sure I’m hyperventilating.

GASP!

“Lost” Season 5 trailer’s been leaked to the Web.

GASP!

Click here to watch.

Hurry up, ABC’s already pulled it from You Tube!

Now, go to your quiet place, calm down, and discuss amongst yourselves.

(Photos courtesy of ABC)

Nick’s parental abandonment issues were front and center in this episode, except this time the angst wasn’t about his late, emotionally distant dad, Dutch.

Instead, he confronted his mom, Claire, whom he hadn’t seen in more than 30 years.

See, Mommy George up and left the family when Nick was a kid, which meant he was prone to wandering the cavernous hallways of Darling Manor feeling unwanted and unloved. (Although he was apparently good friends with a briefcase on wheels.)

So imagine Nick’s surprise when Nola announced that the surprise witness in her case against Letitia—for Nick’s dad’s murder, no less—just happens to be Claire George.

She’s been living in a fancy France chateau all these years, courtesy of Letitia and a $350,000 annual “stipend.” Seems Claire was the last person Dutch called before he boarded the plane that would take him to his death.

Nick stormed over to France, determined to prove Letitia wrong when she said it was Claire’s choice to leave New York. Nick is convinced the affair between Letitia and Dutch drove her away.

But in some of the rawest scenes “DSM” has had so far, Nick learns that Letitia was right.

Claire’s reasons for abandoning her son—that she didn’t fit in with the Darlings and New York society—was pretty flimsy. And then she continued to pretend to her French hubby that Nick is some trust fund lawyer instead of her son, even after Nick shows them photos of her granddaughter? Cold.

Yet I’m still confused about why Nick is so convinced that Letitia is innocent.

That story Claire told him, about how Dutch phoned her the day he died, to say he was leaving Letitia and wanted to start over again with her? Seemed to give Letitia a motive for murder to me! And that vicious hissing of Letitia’s when she was discussing Dutch’s relationship with Claire showed she’s got some serious anger bottled up inside.

So has Nick just become so smitten with the Darlings again that he’s willing to believe anything? Especially now that he’s vice chair of Darling Enterprises? I can’t believe Nick would be that gullible, especially since it seems like SOMEONE murdered his dad, and if it’s not Letitia, it’s probably another Darling. And to those who say, maybe he’s staying on to find the real killer, the show hasn’t done a very good job of setting up that possibility.

Anyway, while Nick was having Mommy issues, Patrick and Brian were having Daddy issues.

The Season 3 premiere airs on NBC one week from tonight, but you can catch it online any second new.

It’s not up yet (I just checked) but Hulu and NBC.com are carrying the premiere a week ahead of schedule. UPDATE: Fancast.com has it now! UPDATE UPDATE: It’s up, and you can view it by scrolling to the bottom of this post! You can also get a free download of the premiere on Monday from iTunes and TV Guide.

Apparently, NBC is trying to make a way-too-late attempt to take advantage of the Tina Fey-Sarah Palin buzz, which already has mostly dissipated. But it’s not gone yet. Palin’s limited stint on SNL last week brought the show its best ratings in 14 years.

The line of the night: Lorne Michaels explaining to Palin that a 30 Rock sketch was nixed because nobody knows that show. Don’t get mad at him. Blame the people who are tuning in elsewhere.

It was ridiculous that Fey and Palin didn’t share the stage at all. Read more of this entry »

So a nasty ear/sinus infection and sore throat (TMI?) kept me from blogging about an episode of The Office for the first time in almost two years.

That’s not to say that I didn’t post my insights and observations about “Baby Shower” (loved it), along with podcast pal Chris Serico (kinda liked it, I think), aka CGC.

I’m still feeling oogy, but I’m back on the horse. We’ve got a new episode tonight, and I can’t wait to sit back with a hot cup of tea with honey and just enjoy the funny. I’d say it’s got a tough act to follow after last week’s bit of brilliance.

Here’s the episode summary for “Crime Aid”…

Michael helps Pam get a part time job at corporate so she can afford to go to art school. Michael and Holly get an early start at the office on their date night. After the office gets robbed, Michael decides to hold an auction to raise money for all the items lost.