The holidays are finally, really upon us and with them, hiatus. Not just for our favorite shows, but for Remote Uncontrolled.

Until TV gets back to being more regular programming and less holiday specials, we’ll be in our caves, gorging on DVDs and hibernating until January, when we emerge, wiser, chubbier, and probably really angry/shocked/annoyed by something on Lost.

For the rest of December, your weekly Roundtable will be our Best Of lists. But, for now, here’s what we thought this week. Tell us what you thought in the comments.

Ellen

Glee
I’ve been behind on Fox’s improbably successful high-school-musical dramedy for most of this season despite exclaiming after watching the pilot that this show was too much of what I liked to ever get beyond a first show order. I like to think I’m drawing them out, but this week’s “Hairography” confirmed what I had suspected about Glee all along: Only a show this great could disappoint me so much week to week. With another show, I would just roll my eyes and change the channel when a very old Beyoncé song was used to supposedly comic effect (well, okay, it was Destiny’s Child’s “Bootylicious,” but really?) or set its leading lady and its token gay in competition for the same guy. And I wouldn’t put up with a supporting character like Terri whose one note as a conniving evil harpy allows her “hysterical pregnancy” to overshadow Quinn’s real-world dilemma over how much room to give her baby’s father in her life. (On that note, television writers: Stop trying to make “sext” happen.) In its component parts Glee seems like everything I ever wanted in a television show, but I’m still waiting for the whole to wow me like the pilot did.

[Editorial note: Ellen says here what I have struggled to articulate ALL SEASON. Stop letting us down, Glee! And please stop having characters with disabilities until you can write them better.]

Zoe

House
Dear god, why? Why do the writers possibly think that we care about House and Cuddy dating? We don’t. It’s excruciating. Please stop. But man, angry, bitter Chase sure is a fun Chase, isn’t he? I never particularly liked Cameron–though compared to 13, she was a treasure. But her being gone at least means potentially new storylines and with House really draining the well, I offer a thumbs up to the possibilities and a thumbs down to my inevitable disappointment.

In short: less House and Cuddy, more bitter, angry Chase.

Scott

Beyonce: I Am…. Yours/Paul McCartney: Good Evening New York City

Thanksgiving always brings some weird TV events, and this year’s double bill of Beyonce and Paul McCartney on ABC was no exception. I’m a huge fan of Beyonce, arguably the greatest pop star of this decade, but the awkwardly-titled I Am… Yours was a Frankenstein monster of forced narrative and abbreviated performances. At the beginning of the hourlong special, Beyonce explains that she has ditched her regular show for a completely new production that she only has three days to put together. Our only explanation is that she was “asked” to do so. Who would ask her to do such a thing, and why would she accept such a task?! Immediately my mind goes to an eccentric billionaire wager of some kind, with Justin Timberlake challenging Beyonce to create a new show from scratch in three days for a TV special, and Beyonce challenging Mr. Sexyback to get David Fincher to direct him in a movie about Facebook. Alas, the actual program, while beautifully filmed by Oscar-winning cinematographer Dion Beebe, is much less interesting, with a by-the-numbers song/backstage/song structure squeezed into a network TV schedule that doesn’t allow any song to be performed in its entirety or any backstage shenanigans to play out fully. Even in small doses though, Beyonce is a dynamite performer onstage. I feel I finally understand the ferocious force of nature that is Sasha Fierce.

Paul McCartney’s Good Evening New York City retains the traditional structure of I Am… Yours (ugh, every time I type that I get a little angrier) and every other concert TV special that’s ever existed, but the performance is so great that it’s hard to complain. Filmed during McCartney’s Citi Field show this July that was touted as his return to the site of the Beatles’ Shea Stadium shows in 1965, McCartney proves he was the best Beatle (yeah, I said it!) with electrifying performances of pretty much every hit song he’s ever written. It’s truly astounding that a 67-year-old who’s been singing these songs since JFK was president can still invest them with this much energy and emotion, but boy he’s still got it. Hearing him effortlessly hit the high note in “Hey Jude” and seeing him without a drop of sweat on his brow after playing 2-1/2 hours straight in the middle of July is the best advertisement for vegetarianism I’ve ever seen. Until he goes on a club tour playing Ram in its entirety (fingers crossed), I can’t imagine Paul McCartney’s songs sounding better than this.

Robert

V
I have to admit I’m struggling a bit with ABC’s remake of V. In the ’80s, there was nothing like it on television and for as long as I could remember, I thought there would never be anything like it again. It blended science fiction, heavy character drama, social commentary and even a smattering of light-hearted sentimentality (c’mon, who didn’t love Willie?) in a sometimes bold, sometimes campy package. Maybe that’s my problem. I can’t seem to separate the new V from the old V. And from what I’ve seen of the first four episodes, neither can the folks behind the new V.

It must be difficult to remake something that was so well-known and loved by audiences. You can build interesting characters and set up new plot lines, but if the audience already has a general idea where you’re going, how do you keep it interesting? Part of the problem for me is that V feels too self-aware, as if not only do we know where it’s going, but so does the show itself. Glances are held for an extra beat, ominous music cues linger, dialog feels pointed. I wonder what it’s like to watch the new V having never seen the original. Do all the characters seem unreasonably paranoid and suspicious? Have details that seem important been glossed over? Does any of it make sense?

The reference to Independence Day in the pilot was a nice wink but it’s a perfect example of what I’m talking about. Will we get a District 9 reference when the show fires up next year? Even a commercial for Scrubs that aired during last week’s episode tossed out a cheeky “spoiler” about what the V really are. That was cute. Didn’t make me want to watch Scrubs or help me suspend my disbelief regarding V, but cute.

For all the talent involved, I also find something lacking in the storytelling of the new V. Whether it’s a sense of passion or urgency, I don’t know, but I’m thinking this show is going to have to turn everything on its head to really bring it home and become the phenomenon it so desperately needs to be. Still, the fourth episode–important because it’s the last before the winter break and because it signifies what might be a big shift in the show’s direction–was encouraging and gave us plenty to chew on. Lives hang in the balance, new opportunities are presented, characters find themselves at a crossroads and it’s revealed that much, much more is to come. I may be a little mixed on what’s come so far, but I can hardly wait until March 2010!