I have to say, I am disappointed in the sweeps so far. Where art the lesbian kissing? Where art the nonsensical murders? Where art the made-up drama?
Is it just me and the shows I choose to watch? Or could networks finally be getting the idea that people don’t necessarily need gimmicks to keep watching and that sweeps is totally fake? I’m not holding my breath or anything, but it’s a nice thought.

Here’s what we thought about TV this week—let us know what you thought in the comments!

Scott

The Prisoner
Forgive me televisionistas, for I have sinned: I’m not a fan of The Prisoner , Patrick McGoohan’s beloved sci-fi satire that was quickly cancelled in 1967 only to gain a reputation as one of the greatest TV series of all time. That’s not to say I don’t recognize its brilliance: I love the pilot, the concept, the characters, the tone… everything about it really. The problem is that after the freshness of the first three or four episodes, it becomes abundantly clear that every episode will follow the exact same template: Number Six learns a little more about The Village, what he learns gives him an idea for an escape plan, the plan is foiled by the evil white balloon. Honestly, I’m not really a fan of any TV drama before The Sopranos for the same reason; episodic television is so damned… episodic.

The material would work wonderfully as a miniseries, though, which is what makes the new six episode AMC/ITV coproduction such an exciting proposition. Too bad that it’s mostly dullsville, thanks to a leading man who seems like he perpetually just woke up from a nap and writing that wants to be enigmatic but is really just clumsy and confusing. The good parts of last night’s first two episodes were enough to make me stick around until Tuesday’s conclusion, though. There were moments of occasional brilliance, especially episode one’s bizarre final montage of the evil white balloon rising over the desert landscape and Number Two calmly eating a strawberry cake. But the real reason to watch is Ian McKellan, clearly relishing a role he’s wanted to play since he first saw the series forty years ago. It’s hard to think of anyone who does sadistic imperiousness better.

Ellen

The Office
To the extent that a workplace mockumentary can have a game-changing episode, “Murder,” would be one. With rumors swirling around about Dunder Mifflin thanks to a Wall Street Journal article, Michael is too busy organizing a Southern-flavored murder-mystery-in-a-box to take David Wallace’s call, so it’s Jim who has to absorb the news that the company could be out of cash by Christmas. I know the show can’t keep yo-yoing back between Jim correcting Michael’s errors and recognizing that his former boss, now co-manager actually knows a few things about handling people, but this week it worked perfectly. The suspense is genuine. And was that a Reservoir Dogs reference at the end? I love my damn show.

30 Rock
If you weren’t lucky enough to see Danny/Jack, the former robot, on Broadway in “Xanadu” last year, I feel sorry for you. He seems like a great addition to the cast despite the dangerous overlap of him and Canadian Robin Scherbatsky on How I Met Your Mother. But I wanted to go big picture for a second: Is there a show that regularly mixes in as many highbrow references without taking itself seriously as 30 Rock does? This season has been hitting that cylinder, and not only because of Liz’s best-selling book based on her “Dealbreaker” skit last season. This week, she discovered that a Chinese knockoff of it exists called Dealbreaker: The Book For You Man No Good by Lesbian Yellow Sourfruit, and brags to Jack that it’s at #14 on the nonfiction bestseller lst “right behind The Founding Fathers Diet.” (Ironically, that would be much healthier than the way I normally eat, although I would miss tomatoes.) Last week’s episode did jokes on James Fenimore Cooper and “The Seagull.” The fricking Seagull! What kind of validation for my liberal-arts education will they squeeze in next?

Fringe
Just to keep my corner of this feature from being an unabashed lovefest, I present this week in Shows I Don’t Normally Watch: Tinfoil hats! I knew Fringe dealt with weird science, but never in my wildest dreams would I imagine that Walter Bishop, the formerly institutionalized scientist who helps the special FBI division (really?) solve crimes, would actually don one in pursuit of this week’s mind-controlling villain. Olivia and Peter set out to investigate a kidnapping, only to discover that the supposed teenage victim is actually the kidnapping mastermind, a fact clear from his first crazy-eyed appearance onscreen but a total shock to the feds. Having taken experimental drugs his father brought home, the kid is now controlling everyone around him so he can go find his long-lost mommy, although Peter arranges for a detour to a strip club. Fringe shares a lot of traits with your common procedural, including two leads with zero sexual chemistry and a Girl Of Indeterminate Ethnicity working in the lab, but dispenses with pesky realism, which is why I have to give it a weak recommendation. During the final-scene reveal that the teenage boy is one in a series of clones created by a mega-corporation for an experiment, I realized I hadn’t had this much fun shouting at the screen since season 3 of Grey’s Anatomy.

Zoe

Glee
I don’t have the expertise to discuss the latest episode of Glee, so I will be linking to these posts from Feminists With Disabilities. I’m also going to encourage everyone to just out some wheelchair dancing done by people who actually use wheelchairs. Kicks Glee‘s choreography’s ass.

Community
First off, look how Community managed to have a character in a wheelchair and not create a media storm about how brave and awesome they were for that. Kudos. Second off, they should have gotten a disabled actor. But this is really just me saying, man, Community continues to be one of my favorite shows. It’s just delightful, in a cute but non-cutesy sort of way. And I love Troy.