A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago

THE WAR OF THE ROSES/WAR AND POOS: Last night brought the first TiVo conflict of the post-strike era, and it was a doozy, with the HDDVR getting Survivor and NBC HD's Technical Difficulties Message, and the upstairs box thankfully picking up SD 30 Rock (followed by The Office) and Idol.

One could look at this Office as a disappointment -- we waited half a year for another episode, like "Diwali" "Phyllis's Wedding," going to unrealistic lengths to make us uncomfortable about Michael? That, I submit, is the wrong way to look at it. This episode was all about easing us back into the comfortable rhythms of the show -- the horrified Jim cutaways, Pam's deadpan confessionals, the clueless Andy sycophancy, Dwight's dogged pursuit of his two loves, Michael's tackiness (bonus: Jan's egotism). As a reminder of who our core characters are, it worked well enough. Now get back to the office. Also: even shot from only the shoulders up, Angela is distractingly pregnant.

30 Rock, for me, was far weirder. It was far more sit-commy than usual for that show, especially with the tacked-on Pete subplot. Some funny moments, especially the brief Tracy banana scene (and I always appreciate the absence of Jenna), but I never really go for the Bad Liz Lemon stuff. I realize what Fey was trying to do -- this episode was a jab at NBC's strike behavior, as much as Greenzo was about NBC's cynical environmental consciousness -- but it didn't hold together as well for me.

Over on Pervivor, Ozzy, despite his protestations, sure struts like the top rooster. Tribal council was interesting in a way different from the way that most interesting tribal councils are interesting. In this one, an argument broke out between two people whose analysis was exactly correct (though only one of them was smart and self-conscious enough to understand that). Anyway, because I root mostly for competence on ths show, I was sorry to see this bootee go. You know what? Sometimes trying not to spoil pretty much ruins what you can say about a program.