TV Sweeptacular: Earl, Office, and Weeds!

One of my favorite shows, Showtime’s Weeds starring Mary Louise Parker, has been renewed for a third season only a month after the second season finale which reportedly had the best ratings for the show on the network since it first aired in 2005.

If you’re not familiar with the show, it follows the lives of Nancy and her family, living in small town suburban America. When her husband unexpectedly dies, Nancy is pushed to finding alternate means of providing for her family. After suggestions from her friends she decides to go into the botany (heheh) business to make ends meet.

The second season was hilarious and featured some of the best performances from Parker, as well as fantastic supportive roles from Kevin Nealon, Elizabeth Perkins, and Justin Kirk who plays her painful-to-watch-but-can’t-look-away brother.

Justin’s addition to the show added much hilarity to the show, such as when he had the five minute conversation with Nancy’s 11 year old son on masturbation techniques (even the banana-spiel was new to me), or the next episode where he brings the same kid to a massage parlor for his first “happy ending.” Of course there’s the girlfriend that used the strap-on on him, the time the dog ate his foot, and everything else horribly wrong that the man did.

In other TV news, it’s officially sweeps week! I feel special this time because I get to participate in the Neilsen ratings, starting with tonight’s programs. NBC has finally gotten their act together and put back the “Must See TV” in Thursday’s programming. What once was their hottest spot for TV shows has been flailing lately with duds like “Deal or No Deal” taking up an entire hour in the night.

Tonight is the first night featuring the new lineup, with returning favorites such as My Name Is Earl, and my personal favorite The Office at the 7 & 7:30pm timeslots (tonight’s episodes are actually 40 minutes a piece). The newest entry in to the Thursday timeslot is the new Tina Fey-Alec Baldwin helmed 30 Rock which has been slow to build an audience but is quickly gaining popularity with better plot lines and consistently funny dialog.

Tonight’s My Name Is Earl pulls the first stunt of the night: claymation Earl. (Shrug). I’m more interested in seeing Jim come back to Scranton with the new girl in tow on The Office. I’m a sucker for good love triangle stories as long as they keep perpetuating them.

If a show doesn’t have two lovelorn characters hook up in the first few episodes, they can never have them hook up for fear of ruining a show. Look what happened to Moonlighting, or Lois & Clark; both shows jumped the shark as soon as the series put the characters in a relationship. I’m sure there’s better examples than Lois & Clark, but what can I say.. I’m a Superman nut and it was the second one to pop in my head.