Because I Said -- Thursday Night Television

Due to being felled by the some random 24-hour stomach flu, I had to miss work on Tuesday. It was bad. I could barely get out of bed. Go ahead. Take a moment to feel very, very sorry for me.

No, no. Keep it up. I was SO sick. SO sad.

Sigh.

So, as a result of missing work on Tuesday, I fell woefully behind and had to stay at work until nearly 8pm (!!!) tonight. I scrapped plans with Stetson to see Volver (yes, I STILL haven't seen it) and came home exhausted. I briefly toyed with the idea of meeting Charles for a drink, but between the cold and the fact that I needed to pack for a week in Jersey and Albany, I decided that it was going to be a quiet night at home. I glanced at the bag I was supposed to pack, made some dinner, and then plopped myself down on my bed for Thursday: The BEST night of television.

First I watched Ugly Betty. As you may know, Betty took the Best Comedy prize at Monday's Golden Globe Awards. I was very excited. The show continues to be funny and fresh and the cast is just getting better and better each week (particularly the stunning and hilarious Becki Newton -- honestly, this girl is destined for great, great things). I thought that I'd seen it all with the excellent denoument of a just-long-enough plot arc featuring Salma Hayek (co-producer of the show and, in my humble opinion, one of the most beautiful women on the planet...she looked FABU at the Globes), but I was wrong. Tonight's show ended with one of those jaw-dropping, last-five-minute moments that all shows promise and few rarely deliver. I nearly vomited.

I decided to give in to the natural flow of ABC and watched Grey's Anatomy next. I was so pleased when ABC made it a two-fer and Grey's won the Globe for Best Drama. Shonda Rhimes (the show's creator and head writer) gets mad props from me. She juggles a ton of truly compelling characters and makes it work beautifully. Furthermore, I don't think anyone's given her credit for doing one of the most taboo things on television -- making the lead male and lead female actually get together -- and having the show thrive despite of it. Countless shows (except for maybe Friends) have be cowed by bringing couples together (none as much as Moonlighting) and Grey's has done it without a flinch. Perfection.

Next I poured myself a glass of wine and opted to go for the Scrubs musical. It was getting late and I really needed to pack so I figured it would be good background. I was wrong. I watched the whole thing intently. Not only did I stupidly not count for a personal weakness for musicals, I forgot how great Scrubs can be. I watched in the beginning, then faded off, then picked up again when Comedy Central starting running reruns. Honestly, it can't be said that Scrubs does any one thing with much originality -- I feel it necessary to point out that Buffy did a musical episode to SPECTACULAR and PEERLESS effect about four years ago -- but Scrubs incorporates comedy, drama, and everything in between into such an effective little package. I'll be honest, while I loved Garden State, Zach Braff mildly irks me. Still, the rest of the cast is uniformly brilliant and the musical episode (apparently written by the people who wrote Avenue Q) was terrific. I fully cop to watching it twice.

What to do next? Well, I packed (during the second viewing of the Scrubs musical) and I had a long day at work tomorrow before I jetted off to tropical Newark, NJ. What to do, indeed? I toyed with the idea of just going to bed, but clearly I don't do that (note the time of this post). Instead, I watched The Office.

Now, I wrote a while ago that Ugly Betty was the best thing on television. At the time, I believed that. I had just seen the greatest episode of the season -- "Fey's Sleigh Ride" -- and was pretty psyched about how the show was turning out. Still, I don't think anything really compares to The Office. Full disclosure: I never saw the British version. I know for a fact that the BBC does good work. I'm a HUGE fan of the BBC version of Coupling (and I like to pretend the NBC's version of Coupling never happened). Still, the US version of The Office is transcendent. It's like what a really good Jars of Clay concert must be for hardcore Christians. It's got comedy unlike any other. It's got drama. It's got romance. It's got emotion. Each week, it sends me on a rollercoaster ride. One second I'm cracking up. The next second I'm tearing up. Then I'm rewinding scenes to rewatch one castmember's staggeringly nuanced moment (highlight on Jim at the sales meeting when he overhears Michael mention that Pam's going on a date). This show is the very definition of brilliance.

Watch it. And watch all of Thursday TV. I sometimes think that people look at TV as the ugly stepchild of film. I love film. Nay, I ADORE film. But television is its own unique challenge. Being consistent week to week is, I'd say, harder than crafting a great 2-hour flick. Being loyal to legions of fans for seasons is more satisfying to the viewer than a solid trilogy. It's true that some TV series are primo garbage. It is also true that some TV series are art of the highest degree.

Ugly Betty. Grey's Anatomy. Scrubs. The Office.

I salute you.

Enjoy the following clip from the Scrubs musical (not nearly the best number in the show, but just to whet your appetite):