Alex’s TV On-the-Go: Week of April 9th

This week on…

Nurse Jackie - “Twitter”

On this week’s episode we saw Eddie (Paul Schultze) starting to bond with Jackie’s husband (Dominic Fumusa) to an almost frightening level. In the hospital, Jackie (Edie Falco) once again had to deal with Dr. Cooper (Peter Facinelli) after she gave the wrong test results out to a family with a sick little boy. Meanwhile, the fresh out of rehab Nurse Sam (Arjun Gupta) is starting to get suspicious of Jackie, and tries to figure out if she’s using). All in all, the episode had a much faster pace than last week’s and did a great job of balancing out the storylines. It’s also nice to see that someone in the hospital might finally pick up on Jackie’s drug use, and I’m guessing that the rest of the season will be a cat and mouse race between Sam and Jackie. On a final note, we had more Zoey (Merritt Wever), so thank you for listening writers, much appreciated!

Parenthood - “The Big O”

This week, we found out for sure that Jabar is Crosby’s (Dax Shepard) legitimate child – and Crosby finally mustered up the courage to tell his parents (Craig T. Nelson and Bonnie Bedelia) this fact. Meanwhile, Adam (Peter Krause) and Kristina (Monica Potter) welcomed a new aid (Friday Night Light”’s Minka Kelly) to the house to work with Max (Max Burkholder), who also gave some helpful tips to Kristina for her and Adam’s sex life. This episode served as a great showcase for Potter, of whom I’ve always been a fan even in her early days in the Freddie Prinze Jr. romantic comedy “Head Over Heels”; yes I’ll fully admit to seeing that in theaters. In a nice change of pace we finally got to see a side of Julia (Erika Christensen) that actually made me sympathize with her. She confronted Joel (Sam Jaeger) about his flirting with Raquel (Erinn Hayes), and he finally admitted she tried to kiss him a few months ago, though Joel stopped her. It’ll be interesting to see where this storyline goes, especially since it will finally let us move away from Julia constantly disappointing her daughter.

Glee - “Sectionals”

As most of us “gleeks” already know, Glee returns from its 4 month hiatus next week, so in honor of its return here’s a brief recap of the fall finale. Rachel (Lea Michele) clued Finn (Corey Monteith) in and told him that Puck (Mark Salling) was in fact Quinn’s (Dianna Agron) baby daddy, causing Finn quit the glee club. The group showed up to sectionals only to find out Sue (Jane Lynch) had leaked their set list to the other two groups so all of their songs were already being used and they were, of course, set to perform last. After a pep talk from Mr. Schuster (Matthew Morrison), Finn came in at the last minute to save the day and help New Directions take sectionals. Meanwhile, Ken (Patrick Gallagher) left Emma at the altar because he realized Emma would never get over Will. The episode ended with Sue being kicked out of the Cheerios for leaking the set list and Will and Emma finally getting together. An intense episode to say the least!

The Office – “The Good Old Days”

When I first started watching “The Office” I couldn’t get enough of it. I bought the first three seasons on DVD and watched all the episodes within two weeks; it was comedic gold as far as I was concerned. The cast dynamic and the storylines were top notch, and the will they or won’t they romance between Jim (John Krasinski) and Pam (Jenna Fisher) was thrilling to watch.

Unfortunately nothing this good can last, and now in its 6th season it feels as if “The Office” has hit its peak and is slowly becoming more of a procedural show than a comedy. To me, the show peaked early on in the season with Jim and Pam’s wedding. It was a great episode that was able to showcase different storylines and cater to each of the characters’ strengths. Since then the show has struggled to find compelling storylines to throw its characters into.

While I sit here and complain about the current status of the show, you still have to keep in mind that even its worst episodes are still miles ahead of most other network comedies (I’m looking at you, “Two and a Half Men”). I simply feel the show is too good to go down a road filled with storylines that make no sense just for the sake of keeping the show on the air. I know NBC doesn’t want to give up the name because the show has been a critical success and was once an awards darling, but why destroy a good thing?

At this point the majority of the lead actors on the show have gone on to develop decent film careers, so I’m sure bringing the series to a close might be a relief to some of them right now. Not that I’m one to ever hope for people being out of work, but I would love to see the season end with Michael (Steve Carell) leaving the company and finally getting back together with Holly (Oscar Nominee Amy Ryan). Here’s to hoping!