Thursday TV Recaps for Poor People!

Hello, fellow peasants. It was nice of Steve to slum it in these recaps last week, but now he is back in his plush castle made of premium cable and diamonds, and I resume my Thursday night job of drinking Mad Dog with network television. And what a night it was!

Community

I’m going to be honest: I’ll have to watch this at least three more times before I can figure out everything that is going on. Like Troy’s honest reaction to Inception: there’s just so many layers.

• WHEN IS GOING ON

Annie’s lesson to Abed about empathy is necessary, even if it does break him. Abed’s kind of flying off the handle, isn’t he? He’s gone from the heart of the group who keeps everybody together to the guy whose selfish, almost cruel attitude could tear everybody apart. Even though he comes around by the end of this episode, his darkness has been casting a shadow on most of these new episodes. This show has fantastic character evolution so I really, really hope Abed evolves into somebody…less weird. Nicer.

More on this, and other things, after the jump!

Troy and Britta’s awkward date is sweet, but the fact that both Troy and Abed think they should have been with each other show that just because Annie isn’t as socially clueless as Abed, it doesn’t mean she’s always right about other people. But I think of everybody on the show, Annie does care the most about everybody in the study group. I used to think that about Abed but I don’t anymore. It’s Annie. Bonus points for her face. Sigh. Cartoon hearts pulsing from my eyes.

I died laughing about the waiter who hates Die Hard and Troy’s truth serum admission that he prefers women in pajamas instead of lingerie because he likes to know they’re comfortable. Also, Dean’s outfit that makes him admit to himself he might be taking things too far. Oh, and Annie going on about how sci-fi doesn’t always get things right, because in 2001 all we did was get snowboarding into the Olympics and over-validate Carson Daly. But please, share your thoughts in the comments. My pea brain craves your insight and approval re: what the hell even was that?

30 Rock

I normally hate precocious young actors but I LOVED mini-Liz. And I like that they’re committing to the joke about Liz being way into Mythbusters, sexually. Good episode, right? Sweet. Happy. Solid.

The Office

Are these episodes getting longer? It was mean to put Parks and Rec last.

Parks and Rec

Yay, it’s back!! And there is really a lot happening in this episode! I loved all of it. Most impossible-to-contain squees come from guest star Bradley Whitford and a handful of West Wing references. Do you know that The West Wing is my all-time favorite TV show, network drama category? It is true.

• The ghost of Leo McGarry approves this message.

My heart broke into a million tiny, government-themed pieces when Josh and Sam were never reunited onscreen.

April filling in for Leslie is weird because, how can she do that? It becomes sweet when she actually tries to accomplish something with the pet adoption drive, even though it bombs. My temporary recapper/editor hates April. Some people absolutely love her. What are all of your current thoughts? I go back and forth. Right now I am pro-April. She calls a guy Mr. Hamster-Penis. Come on. That is funny.

Also extremely hilarious is when Ann and Leslie hang out in Tom’s apartment with all of the really nice blankets, cheese plate, and thermostat set to 80. Their relationship makes more sense now because I would date Tom to hang out there.

One not-excellent bit: Ron, April, Ann and Leslie all have to deal with real/potential job change-ups. This is too much convoluted budgeting talk for 22 minutes of a sitcom. MOAR KISSING PLZ. Or, okay, Ben calling Leslie khaleesi is also acceptable.

Please share your thoughts/feelings/theories now. Especially about Abed. And April. And The West Wing.