This Last Week in TBG TV: September 21 – 25, 2009

Law & Order: SVU - "Unstable"

Run-on Plot: Black guy rapes a white girl and the guy may or may not be the suspect in a rape from ten years earlier in which another guy was convicted.

This Week's Most Preposterous Moment: Wentworth Miller guests as a cop who won't play by the rules. He slaps around a crack-addicted woman in front of her young daughter, before Detectives Benson and Stabler make the save. In the next beat, they task Miller with taking the daughter to social services, unescorted. And, the kid (said to be six-years-old) goes willingly without a whimper. I love this terrible show.

Moral of the Story: "There's still enough work in Hollywood for Black actors – two rapists and a crackhead in ONE episode?! Dyn-o-mite!"


Law & Order - "Memo from the Dark Side"

Run-on Plot: The shooting of a former Marine, presumably in self-defense, inexplicably leads to New York City's district attorney indicting the entire Bush Administration.

Liberal Agenda Factor (10 out of 10): I will never ceased to be amazed at how this show completely obfuscates the lawyers' weekly sh*ts on the Constitution by ramping up the left-wing rhetoric. Hell, I voted for the socialist NOT born in America and even I think the L&O writers get a wee bit sledgehammery, sometimes.

Moral of the Story: If you're pro-torture, the terrorists have won.

The Office - "The Meeting"

Run-on Plot: Michael Scott intentionally sabotages Jim's opportunity for a promotion, before realizing that Jim is not an immediate threat to his job and working with Jim to get him the promotion after Michael's initial sabotage was successful.

Good: The entire "Toby & Dwight, P.I." sequence was a hoot. Loved their odd bonding over old-timey trains (and slaughterhouses) with a terrific mistaken-identity payoff at the end ("Are you gonna eat the whole bag, assh*le?!")

Not-So-Good: "Inappropriate n' insensitive Michael Scott" has been done to death. The entire opening sequence involving Oscar and an upcoming colonoscopy was too long and not at all funny. Has the writing for his character evolved at all since the first season?

Pam & Jim's Insufferable Adorability Index (IAI): 1.5 (out of 10)…next to no interaction between them this week. Pam's RSVP problems produced a few chuckles.

Grade: B-


Community - "Spanish 101"

Run-on Plot: Jeff continues his pursuit of a snotty classmate while learning the error of his ways after verbally undressing Chevy Chase.

Good: The "Guatemalan protest" secondary story kind of clicked. The piñata representation of the journalist who was beaten to death is just the kind of dark comedy I'm hoping becomes this show's staple. Close second: the reaction shots of the African-American characters to "minstrel" bit at the end.

Not-So-Good: The Britta character is SO unlikeable and holier-than-thou that I'm actually rooting for the lecherous Jeff to see the error of his ways…in pursuing her. Also, 2009 Chevy Chase is…not…funny. Stop saying that he is, America. Stop it.

Grade: B