Weekend TiVo Drain

Monday 10.9
How I Met Your Mother/The Class: CBS flipped ‘em and Mr. TiVo skipped the first 15 of Mother—luckily, CBS’ InnerTube had the full episode, because this show’s all about the details. It’s like Pulp Fiction with a (well-earned) laugh track. As for The Class: From critical Fall Season darling to Monday-night liability in under a month? Kill off some characters, this boat is too crowded—start with the newswoman, her gay ex-boyfriend and her even gayer husband (Sam fucking Harris! The original ‘80s Star Search winner! Miss the mullet, Sam).

Heroes/Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip: On Heroes (continues to be a hit; I continue to be happily stunned), Supercheerleader got jacked. Hard. Gotta be tough to bounce back from your own autopsy. Studio 60 seems to be inching closer to the shark-tank ramp every week, but it still blows away everything else on network TV right now (including kindred NBC cousin 30 Rock—more on that in a few clicks). This ep about a stolen joke and scrambling to cover ass for “The West Coast Feed” was probably the most inside-baseball yet, and it still dazzled. Laughed every time at “The bear said, ‘Raaar!’”

Tuesday 10.10
Gilmore Girls/Veronica Mars: Yes, Lorelei is phoning it in—maybe even texting it in. She’s completely given up on everything but her hair, apparently. And the fact that post-teen Lane is really played by a 30-something actress is becoming waaay too obvious. Gonna be a long, desperate final season. Prospects are brighter on Veronica Mars, which is as strong as ever despite subliminal dumbing-down for The CW audience (there is one … somewhere).

Wednesday 10.11
30 Rock/Twenty Good Years: May have been premature in declaring that 30 Rock would outlast Studio 60: The latter pulls such an upscale smarty-rich demo that it’ll probably coast for a couple of years on NBC even if the ratings slip; the former tanked ratings-wise on its Wednesday debut, but mostly because everyone thinks NBC quit programming Hump Day after moving Law & Order Classic to Fridays (“They just do an MSNBC news-crawl all night, don’t they?”). It’s still funny, though—and Twenty Good Years is still pure shit. Just so we’re clear.

Lost/The Nine: The Lost: Season 3 DVD isn’t out yet—we’re only three goddamn episodes into it, so quit asking (only a slight exaggeration). The Nine is clipping along at a frighteningly fast pace, like ABC knows something we don’t but can easily guess: It’s dark and it ain’t holding the Lost audience, so let’s get it over with by the holidays so we can trim down the Christmas party guest list.

Thursday 10.12
My Name is Earl/The Office: Sadly, My Name is Earl seems to be losing it as quickly as The Office is becoming Legendary (capital L, suckas). Earl wasted a slam-dunk guest in Amy Sedaris (Amy! Sedaris!), but The Office killed with the same ol’ cubicle folk. Without Jim around, Pam seems to be getting more diabolical just to keep herself amused/sane (the Million Dollar Baby “grief” story, so left-field perfect it hurt). But, this Tale of Two Offices can’t go on forever; bring Jim back to Scranton. Hell, bring Karen, too—Pam’s obviously ready to throw down.