A look back at the best and worst of TV in the past week (Jan. 9-15), and a peek at what’s coming up.
Highlights
1. “Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien” (NBC). Suddenly with nothing left to lose, Conan’s been on fire this past week. If he’d been this loose and sharp and edgy for the past seven months, maybe he’d have had better ratings and this whole mess could have been avoided. Hopefully he’ll retain that “Ehhh, F—- it” attitude when he has his new show on Fox or wherever.
2. “Chuck” (NBC). I’ve never been an avid fan, but I’m really liking this new season. Great mix of action and comedy, and it’s nice and breezy and disposable, not like “Lost,” where I’d go crazy if I missed an episode. It might sound like faint praise, but you need shows like that, that you can just tune into and pick things up and have fun. Characters’ romance can kill shows like this, but “Chuck” may have solved that with he and Sarah now having very solid reasons for not getting together. And holy crap. what happened to Captain Awesome? That was a great cliffhanger.
3. “30 Rock” (NBC). Wow, a trifecta for NBC. Whoda thunk? This was close thought — it was a terrific week for sitcoms. “Parks and Recreation” with creepy Will Arnett was great, “Modern Family” with tractor porn was great, “Archer” was great and twisted, “Cougar Town” was good even though they dumped Scott Foley, and “How I Met Your Mother” was great and even advanced the mother storyline. But nothing made me laugh as much as “30 Rock.”
Lowlights
1. “The Tonight Show” mess (NBC). Shame on NBC. They’ve created an utter debacle and are a national laughingstock. Booooooooo.
2. Jay Leno (NBC). The man’s obviously never heard the phrase “retire with dignity.” And in his insatiable desire to be liked, he somehow doesn’t get that other late-night hosts are making fun AT him, not with him. He’s coming out of this looking like an oblivious bully.
3. Nothing else, NBC’s idiocy overshadowed everything.
Looking forward to . . .
1. “Human Target” (8 p.m., Sunday, Fox). I love explosions. I really do. And this new show looks like it’ll be full of them.
2. “Burn Notice” (10 p.m. Thursday, USA). Speaking of blowing things up . . . . Woo hoo! Michael Weston & Co. are back! Sure it’s predictable and formulaic, but if that predictable formula is also a lot of fun, who cares?
3. “Caprica” (9 p.m., Friday, Syfy). The long-awaited “Battlestar Galactica” prequel starts. I’m more curious than excited though, I’m not totally sold on it yet.
