Anagram Hallucinations, Charming Nosiness and Good Ass Bad Ass

Catching up on some recent television happenings.

Monday's Studio 60 was the first in a long time where I didn't spend 44 minutes groaning and rolling my eyes back in my head at the wasted potential and heavy handed lecturing. I still don't buy Jordan and Danny. And it suffered a distinct lack of Jack Rudolph. And why didn't Danny, of all people, realize Matt was high? Still, while it wasn't The Sixth Sense, I did enjoy the "Tim Batale" (gee, what could that be an anagram for?) bit and seeing the "genesis" of the Matt and Harry relationship. Some attractions and relationships just seem to thrive on controversy and arguments (of course, I wouldn't know anything about this). Also, the head writer in the flashbacks was Stephen Tobolowsky – perhaps best known as "Ned... Ryerson. "Needlenose Ned"? "Ned the Head"? BING!" from Groundhog Day. (also, a mini-Deadwood reunion with Sarah Paulson – Hugo Jarry and Miss Issringhausen, respectively). Good episode, but probably too little, too late, sadly, unless Sorkin has pictures of Jeff Zucker freebasing with teenage girls. Given Sorkin's past, that's probably a lot of photo albums to sort through, though.

Another solid, if not quite as quippy, Veronica Mars. The cliffhanger was unexpected, and it was good to see (however briefly) Cliff and Wallace. Dick never fails as a source of amusement: "Volcanic Hot. Like I might have to use an oven mitt to feel her up." Nice to see the love for Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang. A specialty of VM is calling back bit players for the days of yore, like Arturo, the pizza delivery mugger and Jeff Ratner, the "toiletry thief." I think the tweener that charmed Logan was one of Gaby's beauty pageant recruits from Desperate Housewives. I normally hate kids on TV, but she served the purpose for the story and wasn't too obnoxious. Other good lines:

"Which one's yours?"

"I would have settled for 'I find her nosiness charming.'"

"Who was that on the phone?" "Just your brother in law."

Finally, a Gilmore Girls that seemed like a return to form. The dog funeral was perfectly in character, and Zack's apprehension over playing Celine Dion was great. Chris has always been an ass, and I don't envy the writers of this season given what they had to work with after the ending that got dumped on them at the end of last season. Though they tried to clean up his character during the courting and engagement phase, the cardboard nature of the characterization still holds true after we found him basically twirling a mustache the last few episodes. Even if Chris is a poorly written ass, I do completely understand his issues with Lorelai's feelings for Luke. Probably owing a lot to my post about the Green Eyed Monster yesterday. But whether the emotion is right or wrong, the plot in this story bears out that his concerns were justified. And Lauren Graham never nominated for an Emmy? Shame.

On the other hand, we had a "good" ass last night on House. The hackneyed melodrama of the Tritter debacle behind us, we got back to solid medical mysteries leavened with a script full of snarky House-isms. Too many to jot down, in fact, but there were these:

"They killed our lord! You gonna trust 'em?"

"Coulda left the scarf at home and just told him you'd be wearing a look of desperation."

"Girls can't hold me too long because I can only pay for an hour."

"She's gonna jump off the lobby balcony!" "You think I can catch her?"

"Seems a lot nicer than that one from wicca-needs-a-daddy-figure dot com."

Funny conversation about wanting to "torture" the girl to see how she reacts. Fox must have had a "human drilling" theme week planned for sweeps. In fact, if they really wanted to torture her, they should have just invited network buddy Jack Bauer over. I'm sure they would have gotten a resounding "hey, I'll handle this. Let me get my bag with painful drugs, sharp sticks and dry cleaning bags and we'll get to the bottom of this in just a few minutes. Won't be as much fun if we're not related, but still…"

Gruesome head drilling I can live with. Pulling out a 25 foot tapeworm? Uh, no.