A look back at the best and worst of TV in the past week (Jan. 2-8), and a peek at what’s coming up.
Highlights
1. “Cougar Town” (ABC). In a shocking upset! I haven’t watched in a while, but I took a chance on Lisa Kudrow’s guest appearance and was floored by how the quality of writing had finally caught up to the talent of the actors. Very funny stuff, especially the back-and-forth faux flirtation between Ellie (Christa Miller) and Jeff (Scott Foley, who’s joined the cast under my radar). And Kudrow was awesome as a dermatologist with a wicked mean streak. Pretty much every line she said just killed me. I’m going to have to start watching this series more regularly.
2. “Better Off Ted” (ABC). Two episodes this week, and both were hilarious. Portia de Rossi can crack me up just by arching her eyebrows. In the first episode, the evil Veridian Corp. manipulated an employee’s death into a motivational tool (wow, that was way too close to real-life) and in the second Ted was terrorized by a chatty security guard (and spiders). I’d better laugh while I can, there are only two more weeks of “Ted” left.
3. “The Colbert Report” (Comedy Central). It’s now in glorious HD, and the new set is like patriotic eye candy. And I loved his widescreen flip-off to cable companies who weren’t carrying the network in HD.
Lowlights
1. “The Bachelor” (ABC). The one where we found out waaay too much about Santa Rosa bachelorette Channy Chooch’s gardening. That’s all I’ll say on the matter, her 15 minutes of fame are officially up.
2. 49ers vs. Rams (Fox). Yeah, the Niners ended up winning, but that first half was just unwatchable, maybe the worst half of football in the NFL this season.
3. “Chelsea Lately Bloopers” (E). I should’ve known. Bloopers shows are inherently stupid. “Chelsea Lately” is a good show, and I thought it might feature jokes that were too racy to broadcast, or something like that. Instead it was just a lot of multiple takes interrupted by laughing. Watching someone crack up as they try to do a scene 15 times gets really boring really fast.
Looking forward to . . .
1. “Archer” (10 p.m. Thursday, FX). The season premiere of the hilariously twisted animated spy spoof. This will be good.
2. “Chuck” (9 p.m. Sunday, NBC). I always thought the show was nice enough, but it didn’t do enough to get me to watch week after week. But the new season is getting good buzz, and I like spy shows, so I’m intrigued. I’ll give it a shot. Don’t disappoint me, Chuck!
3. “How I Met Your Mother” (8 p.m. Monday, CBS). It’s a special musical celebrating the series’ 100th episode. And that Barney guy can carry a tune. Guest stars include Tim Gunn, Rachel Bilson and Stacy Keibler.
