MagneticMediaFed

Um. That was excruciating. I almost had to turn it off. But does that make it good? Thoughts? I’m kind of at a loss.

I love making end of the year top ten lists. Sometimes I think it’s the only reason I put up with the fifty weeks of mediocre nonsense (but then I take my antidepressants and go back to playing with that shiny piece of foil). The problem with having television as your medium of choice is that the television schedule doesn’t fit nicely into the Gregorian calendar. Typical seasons on the networks run from September to May, while cable tends to stick closer to the actual climatological patterns of the earth. It’s easy to say that first season Friday Night Lights was the best thing of 2007 except for the fact that half of the season landed squarely in 2006. MagneticMediaFed has figured out the solution to all of this: EPISODES. Episodes are what make television TELEVISION. A good episode keeps you glued to the screen for the full hour (or half hour), it tells a complete story while adding significantly to the series as a whole, it shows you something you didn’t think you’d see or makes you laugh in ways you didn’t think were possible.

I’ve spent a good chunk of the past couple weeks culling over the MMF-archives reminding myself of those episodes that I thought really stuck out. I watch a lot of television, though I don’t purport to watch all television (anyone who does should be shunned and bathed — not necessarily in that order). Because of this, my list only includes the shows that I regularly watch and is missing some obvious gems that I simply don’t know/care about (i.e. Battlestar Galactica, A Shot At Love with Tila Tequila). Still, I think most of the bases are covered. If there was a fantastic episode you remember from this past calendar year, please let us know in the comments. The full list, available right after the jump…

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Better to burn out or to fade away?

This thing is killing me. We all knew the writers’ strike was going to be a major inconvenience, but I never suspected it would have the effect it’s currently having on my psyche. Ever since the writers took to the picket line three weeks ago, television has kind of sucked, and not just because my beloved late-night shows immediately went into reruns. Despite the fact that we’ve still been getting new scripted episodes these past few weeks, the strike has, in a way, highlighted just how solidly mediocre this fall has been. The new series, while marked by very few cancellations (honestly, who would have thought Cavemen would still be airing new episodes three weeks into November?), have generated no significant hits (with the exception of Samantha Who?, but it’s hard to say if it is the show that is successful or its Dancing With the Stars lead-in) while our favorite returning series from years past have either been wildly inconsistent (How I Met Your Mother), shockingly awful (Weeds) or just kind of a mess (Friday Night Lights). To top it all off the two series that have been consistantly good and occasionally great in The Office and 30 Rock are the first to run out of episodes. The whole mess can put your average television viewer into something of an existential conundrum: if interesting stories can vanish as quickly as they appear, what’s the point of it all? More after the jump…

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Pic via Flickr

I’m going to forgo the usual episode recaps today as I 1) haven’t actually watched anything from last night and 2) feel like dedicating some space to the WGA strike as tomorrow night will mark the first significant casualty of the work-stoppage. Thursday’s episode of The Office entitle “The Deposition” will be the last new episode we can expect from the show until the strike ends. The Office was one of the first series to close up shop due in large part to the fact that a good chunk of the cast happens to also write for the show.

The Futon Critic has a really handy guide with the amount of episodes each show has left to air before going dark. Most of the networks biggest series will have trouble making it past the first week in December (which, luckily for them, is traditionally dark). We should expect little (if any) scripted programming come 2008.

In the meantime, treat yourself to the endless supply of strike blogs popping up on the internet, the most informative being the guild’s official blog United Hollywood. Here are some others:

Late Show Writers on Strike
Scribe Vibe (Variety)
Show Tracker (LA Times)

One last note: since the major sticking point for this strike is writer’s compensation for ad-supported material posted on the web, I would encourage everyone to avoid using the networks’ video services until a deal is made.

“I fashioned my hat back into my pants.”

Steve Carell gets Michael Scott. I mean, really understands the man. Since he also happens to play Michael Scott it is expected that his level of understanding should, in fact, be a tad deeper than most, so perhaps I shouldn’t be as surprised as I am by how well he writes Michael Scott. Carell, who penned Thursday’s episode, captures like few can the duality of Michael Scott’s idiocy and humanity — how the character can be so overcome with jealousy he (pardon the expression) can’t see the forest for the trees, and yet can snap back to reality at a moments notice. More after the jump…

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“I think I cut my penis on the lid!”

That was funny. I felt like I was in good hands while reading the opening titles. The script was by Mindy Kaling and it was directed by wonderboy Joss Whedon. Not too shabby of a starting point. What really made this week’s episode soar (compared to last week) was that the situation really drove the comedy. We know Jim doesn’t want to see Karen so why not put him in a room with Karen and see what happens? We know Michael and Dwight can get carried up in the moment, but what happens when that veil of fun is pulled away? The result was an episode I found to be easily the funniest of the season and generally most fun going back even further. More after the jump…

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Five-part harmony.

I understand the need to give a perennial loser victories now and again, but those victories have to be kept within the framework of that character’s personality. This may seem particularly nitpicky, but I absolutely didn’t buy the “Michael Scott Director’s Cut” ad that was shown at the end of the episode (and this is from a guy who found the idea of a human intentionally driving into a lake to be completely sublime). As I saw it, Michael Scott is not capable of producing that ad. More after the jump…

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It’s been a month since new shows started popping up and my god has it been a rough ride. I was able to keep for the better part of two weeks, but lately I’ve had to throw my hands up and declare that once again, the television has won. Part of the problem, for me at least, is this fall seems to have more decent shows than season’s past. There are always one or two really good new programs, but typically the rest of it is just dreck. This year there have only been a small handful of shows I would consider abdominal, but with an unusually large amount resting somewhere in the middle. But how does one justify sticking with a series that is at its very best just OK. I think now would be as good a time as any to look at where we are and decide how to move forward.

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Melancholy.

For the past month The Office has been trying to figure out how to turn a thirty-minute comedy into an hour-long comedy with varying results. There have certainly been some laugh out loud moments over these last four episode, but structurally the series has had trouble filling the time… until this week. It turns out the key to extending a comedy to an hour is not to add more comedy, but to make it a drama. More after the jump…

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OK, I’m really short on time (and sleep) and thus am going to do my best to break down this week’s The Office focusing on two key points… right after the break.

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While I evenually puked my guts out, I never puked my heart out.

Did anyone else while watching Thursday’s season premiere of The Office feel a pervasive though unfounded sense of imminent dread? Luckily the episode was an hour long and thus that fear had plenty of time to dissipate before things became too wrapped up. When all was said and done I had had a good time and was glad the show was back on the air. Still, I have this feeling that the aforementioned dread will continue to haunt this series. In a way, it has to. How long can the creators possibly keep things going, especially after the bar was set so high last season? More after the break…

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“So I’m back, and I’m never, ever, going to leave. I’m going nowhere. This place is like the hospital where I was born, my house, my old-age home and my graveyard for my bones.” - Michael Scott

For the past two years The Office has done what none of us thought it could successfully do: separate itself from its British counterpart. The problem is it may have run its course last night. I’ll probably continue to watch the show (because, really, where else can you find decent comedy on television these days?) but I don’t really want to.

Thursday’s hour-long episode felt much more like a series finale than a season finale. More on this after the break…

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Fire walk with her.

Two items in relation to last night’s episode of The Office, which I shall detail in convenient number form only to get lazy halfway through and switch to letters:

1) Super-sizing. The Office was 40 minutes (or 30 minutes sans commercials) again last night. I suspect this is because NBC* is so hard up for programming they actually don’t have a single show that can fill out their Thursday line-up — or at least they don’t have a show that can get even half as many viewers as Earl or The Office. NBC probably thinks of this as a massive problem (which makes sense as the network seems to be hemmoraging viewers at record levels).

It’s not. There’s more after the break…

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Foliage.

Last week I was of the opinion that The Office might have run its course. A good thing doesn’t last forever, and that seems to be especially true of television comedies. Luckily, television also has the power to get you to change your mind one week later. Thursday night’s “Super-Sized” episode of The Office (and wow, how many 40-minute episodes have their been this season? Four?) might be my favorite episode in the series two-year run.

There were brilliant moments scattered all over this one, but what made it great TV is that it was the type of episode where Michael actually learns something (or at least appears to have learned something). Either way, where we start the show isn’t where we are when it ends. More after the break…

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He was only in this episode during three or four scenes, and yet “Product Recall” was completley owned by Creed, which is a good thing since I found the rest of the episode a tad forced.

“Forced” is the one thing Creed is not. Ever since he described himself to the camera (as formerly homeless) early on, every single move he made was expertly calculated and incredibly cruel. It may turn off some of the shows fans, but if The Office wants do try something different, being a tad more acidic might be the trick.

Michael Scott is far more childish than he is selfish (which is what David Brendt was most) and his childishness comes off most of the time as endearing. This is obviously fine, but it’s nice to know that there is a guy like Creed who is solely looking at for number one everyone else be damned.

The way he managed to get himself off the hook for the product recall, and figured out a way to pocket some extra cash in the process, was one of the more brilliant character decisions the show has made this season.

The counter of that would be the Andy subplot with the high school girl. Maybe it was because we had only heard about his girlfriend seconds before the reveal, but it simply didn’t work. Creed, on the other hand, would have been completely unapologetic about the discovery.