The Office: "Double Date"

The double date between Michael/Helene and Jim/Pam was painfully awkward, to say the least, but cringingly funny. A highlight was seeing Michael gradually realize that he doesn't really want to be dating a woman older than he is because he still wants to, or have the option to want to, do things like a triathlon or bungee jumping. Prior to this, it was nice to see Pam coming to terms with Michael dating her mom when she saw how sweet Michael was being to Helene on her birthday by having their table at the restaurant specially decorated and especially the very thoughtful gift of the scrapbook. Things went off the wheels, however, upon the aforementioned realization by Michael, and he proceeded to dump Helene on her birthday in front of Pam. Clever touch of showing that Pam and Michael are both sides of the same coin when it came to potentially avoiding unpleasant situations, with each trying to weasel out of it by claiming the higher ground (e.g. Pam trying to avoid going to the lunch by pretending to be tied up with work; Michael pretending that his reason for breaking up with Helene was because he didn't want to make Pam awkward). Jim refusing to let Pam off the hook in terms of going to the lunch was hilarious, and harks back to Pam similarly dragging Jim back in "The Dinner Party" when he was on the verge of escaping Michael's titular dinner party. The plot then took a turn for the slapstick with Pam's punch of Michael in the parking lot, although it does set up the laugh-out-loud moment when Toby told Pam it was ok for her to do so as long as it's outside the office premises, and then Toby proceeding to teach Pam how to punch to inflict the maximum possible damage on Michael! The subplot of Dwight and Andy trying to one-up the other in terms of being polite was fun in the initial part, but ran out of steam a little towards the end. It was probably not helped by the fact that it was built on a fairly incredulous premise of Dwight wanting the entire office to ow him favors so he could cash in those favors later to oust Jim. Even by Dwight standards, it was pretty unbelievable. Still, an enjoyable episode overall.

Stargate Universe: "Water"

Ok episode this week. Felt like a rehash of the second episode on the desert planet, when the team needed to mine resources from an inhospitable planet due to a shortage back on ship (in this case water). To be fair, the writers did admit the similarities, though, in the many references back to the earlier ep, and even the sand alien from that ep made an appearance here. Eli's holier-than-thou chastisement of everyone else for lying to Young when he was off-world about the alien situation was off-putting, and again relegates the character several notches down in my favorite character list for the show, which admittedly runs pretty thin. Though the situation with Young not leaving Scott behind after the latter fell into a crevasse was predictable, I did like the portrayal of Young being a good commander again (and that's not mentioning him entrusting the ship to TJ and telling her she'll do fine). It's pretty run-of-the-mill stuff, but the show really needs a strong moral anchor right now. The alien attacking Gorman was pretty horrifying, though I don't think the various homages to the "Alien" franchise, e.g. Greer wielding the flame thrower, the ice planet etc, worked that well as homages. Again, the show is aiming too hard for "Battlestar Galactica"-like gritty realism, reinforced by the brief scene at the end where Young had to deal with the various mundane complaints of the residents. But it just comes across so far like a kid trying to act grown-up, and it's not working so far. Would the show work better if it lightened up and adopted the approach of its SG franchise predecessors. I'm not sure, but there's only one way for the producers to tell.

It didn't get more than one million views for no reason...

Well, 1 748 945 views to be exact, at the time of writing. 靜茹's 會呼吸的痛, with music from 宇恆 and lyrics by 姚若龍. Awesome song all round. 靜茹 sings it beautifully as someone internalizing their pain, and hence makes the song (with its soulful melody and killer lyrics) even more heartbreaking than it already is. Play it again, folks, and make it more than 2 million views, for the song deserves it!

The Office: "Koi Pond"

Though "Koi Pond" wasn't an episode filled with a lot of funny moments, I love that it made for compelling viewing nonetheless. The main plot with Michael falling into a koi pond while going to a meeting with Jim brought up some nice revelations along the way. Firstly, Michael going too far with his self-deprecating jokes and again making the audience feel for him when he revealed in one of his anecdotes that he didn't even have the numbers of five friends to recommend for the cell phone deal. And of course, the office finding out from the video that Jim actually let Michael fall into the pond without catching him, and Jim admitting to Michael that perhaps he didn't help because on a subconscious level, he was a little bitter at Michael for hand-holding him to the meeting. Michael feeling better at this admission (which understandably soothed his ego) and their later repartee at the kitchen after Oscar made fun of Jim, was terrifically played out, and was a perfect close to the storyline. Elsewhere, it was nice to see sweet Pam again, as she tried to put in a good word for Andy with Erin, and finding out that Erin was interested and might actually be a good match for him. The earlier cold call storyline also provided a nice moment in the car with Andy and Pam where he admitted that it was nice to role-play as Pam's husband for a while, having been sick of being lonely. Which probably also explained why he was so stung during the first cold call when Pam was overly eager to dismiss the potential client's mistake that they were a couple. Another good episode of "The Office". The next installment can't come soon enough!

Parks and Recreation: "Kaboom"; "Greg Pikitis"

A little light on laughs these past two weeks, but it's good to see the pit filled in in "Kaboom", and Louis CK does his usual deadpan magic in "Greg", owning the funniest bits as he tries to correct Leslie's law-enforcing ways on Pikitis. The Halloween party storyline is a bit predictable, but at least gives a nice twist in that Tom actually loves (or at the least cares for) his "wife" from their greencard marriage.

Stargate Universe: "Light"

Nice! First episode of SGU that I really enjoyed. Despite the protracted end (they're not gonna kill off half the main cast just five episodes in), plus mwah suspected that the star might revitalized Destiny's heretofore non-existent (or practically non-existent anyway) power, I thought this was pretty well-worked. I cared about the various characters as they awaited their impending doom (especially Eli which has gone from one my least fav characters to probably my fav), and I really liked the quiet strength portrayed by Colonel Young too. The FX was incredible with Destiny going into the star (and the show answered the question in my head "The ship's getting pretty close to the star without anything happening to it, isn't it?" with the fact that the shield was activated), and though the problem with the shuttle re-engaging with Destiny seems a bit manufactured suspense, it was pretty exciting nevertheless. And Rush was even ok for once, as he worked with the rest in getting the shuttle back safely, and earlier when he was going through what was, at that time, his farewell to Young. See SGU? The show does work when the crew is working alongside each other. The only thing that felt off, though, was the end when Young confronted Rush as to whether he deliberately took his name off the lottery for the shuttle because he knew all along that Destiny was going to survive. Like Eli said, it was pretty apparent, at least from what the audience was shown in this episode, that Rush most likely didn't know that, or even if he did, it was a weak hunch at best. Why the writers have Rush not flat out deny that to Young, or to have Young question that in the first place, comes across like a really tacked-on attempt at restoring the conflict between the two leading characters of the ship, after they had more or less reconciled with each other. Still, a good episode nonetheless, and the the show will be sticking around in my TV diet for a while more.

The Office: "The Lover"

Wow. Just wow. Quite an episode of "The Office" this week. So many memorable moments, I don't even know where to begin. Let's start with Michael and Pam going at each other in the aftermath of Pam's discovery that Michael has been sleeping with her mom. One of the most powerful moments in the show's history, and especially painful to see them being so vituperative to each other, considering the history between these two characters; Michael is obviously very fond of Pam, and though Pam has so often looked out for Michael in the past (most notably and recently when she encouraged Michael to drive up north to see Holly). A great shot at the end of Michael leaving, and then thinking of coming back, ostensibly to patch things up with Pam, but then realizing it was futile...all done in a one-second silent shot. Very nice. Jim's in the thankless position of being caught in the middle, but used all his nous and charm to get across to Pam at the end, including a well-worked tie-in to the B-plot of Dwight planting a listening device in a wooden mallard that he gave to Jim. The tag where Dwight revealed he had the last laugh provided some welcome levity to the intense proceedings of the episode that transpired. I can't really end the recap without mentioning Michael manipulating Toby into speaking to Pam about her blow-up in the conference room in particular and her animosity to Michael in general (and surely it speaks volumes of how much Michael treasures his friendship with Pam that he's willing to go through the onerity of pretending to be Toby's friend?). Toby really believing that Michael has finally come round to being his friend, only to find out he's been "used later, was heartbreaking and funny in a resigned "Oh Toby" kind of way. Add to this the fact that he greeted Jim at the wrong time (just when Jim found out the bombshell from Michael that he's dating Pam's mom). Poor Toby can't catch a break. Funny, powerful, heartrending...this episode, penned by longtime "Office" scribes Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg (the latter also directed), had it all! The next episode can't come soon enough!