TVSquad

All the talk last week was about Conan O'Brien's first week at The Tonight Show (and rightfully so), but let's not forget that David Letterman had new episodes too. The CBS site offers a recap of the best moments from The Late Show and I've posted it below. It features comments about Jay Leno and Conan, Bill Cosby, John Krasinski, Paris Hilton, Paula Abdul, Jessica Biel, a cranky new neighbor, and a giant bird flying around the studio audience.

The folks at our sister site Cinematical are working hard to give you news and reviews of the best -- and worst -- the silver screen has to offer. Here are some of their musings on the latest blockbusters, indies, and everything in between:

• Land of the Lost, the new Will Ferrell movie, opened in theaters this weekend. I'm kind of undecided about whether or not I want to see it, but Cinematical's interview with director Brad Silberling is pretty interesting.
• The Summer of '91: Truth or Dare, Boyz n the Hood, Thelma & Louise, and Point Break. It was a good time. Relive it with Cinematical.
• Although I'm not so sure about John Krasinski's beard in this film, I do like the idea of he and Maya Rudolph playing a couple. Plus, Away We Go is directed by Sam Mendes, who helmed American Beauty. I'm so there.
• In honor of this weekend's release of The Hangover, Cinematical Seven looks at Wicked Hangovers on Film.
• Wow. This is probably the greatest wedding invitation in the history of the world. Cinematical gets away with posting this by calling it a "short film," so I'm totally going to link to it too. The video is four minutes long, but it's amazing.

The folks at our sister site Cinematical are working hard to give you news and reviews of the best -- and worst -- the silver screen has to offer. Here are some of their musings on the latest blockbusters, indies, and everything in between:

• The Cinematical crew is staying at Sundance until the bitter end. Check out their Sundance in 60 Seconds for Friday, January 23.
• I've been hearing a lot about the new Lil' Wayne documentary and it sounds really interesting. Check out what Cinematical has to say about The Carter.
• John Krasinski is more than the adorable Jim Halpert on The Office; he's also a budding director. He premiered his first film, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men at Sundance. Jim Rocchi got a chance to interview him. Check it out here.
• Another movie that premiered at Sundance that I'm excited about is Paper Heart. Starring Michael Cera and Charlyne Yi. It's both a comedy about a documentary and a documentary about a comedy, if that makes sense. Cinematical explains it all in their review.
• Hey! Oscar nominations were this week! Check out what gott snubbed!

So let's talk about last night's episode of The Office. Should Hilary Swank be offended that half of Dunder-Mifflin didn't find her "hot," or should she be flattered that the other half did?

It's funny that this even came up because just the other day I made a reference to Swank in another post about a reality TV star that was rather unfair so I won't link to again, and here we see a major network sitcom discussing whether Swank is hot or not.

This being the web, where a mention of something on a TV show can mean an almost instantaneous response (even Wikipedia locked the Janis Joplin entry after last night's 30 Rock episode), we knew there would be a lot of talk about Swank, and someone has put up a site called IsHilarySwankHot.com. It's pretty basic, you just go there and click yes or no.

For the record, I have no opinion on the matter.

(S05E05) [Jay couldn't be here tonight, as he's off being Jay Black somewhere.] Tonight's theme seemed to be about relationship crossroads. We had three storylines interweaving, and all of them centered on the three major hook-ups on the show. Dwight decided that the only way to come to terms with how he felt about Andy and Angela's impending nuptials was to goad Andy into a pointless feud. Michael and Holly had to deal with the fallout of David Wallace discovering that they'd become romantically involved (the hint is in the episode title), and Pam had to have quite possibly the most awkward lunch in history with Jim's brothers.

As always, The Office manages to weave slapstick humor brilliantly with moments of raw emotion and pathos. Particularly, again, with a wonderful performance by Steve Carell. With most of the action centering on the major storylines, we didn't get much work out of the supporting cast, so it was at least good to see them having some costume fun in the cold open. Don't forget the rest of the cast, writers, we love them all!

Here come two more lists of the ten actors and actresses that are finalists for Emmy nominations in the supporting comedy categories. As with the other awards, there are some surprises on the list, and some notable omissions. For the ladies, the headline is that last year's winner, Jaime Pressly (My Name Is Earl), didn't make the cut. Surprise finalists include Conchata Ferrell (Two And A Half Men) and Amy Poehler (Saturday Night Live). I don't mind seeing Conchata on the list because she is consistently funny on the show, but I don't know that there is enough to her role for her to actually garner a nomination when you consider the competition.

On the other side of the coin, the defending champ, Jeremy Piven (Entourage), is back. None of the boys over at SNL managed to make the leap from Variety to Comedy that Poehler did.

In last season's finale of The Office, sparks flew between Michael Scott and Toby's HR replacement Holly. Amy Ryan, seen for four seasons on The Wire, brought a new dynamic to the show as Holly with her interactions with Steve Carell's Michael. "Amy gave the character of Holly an openness and matured innocence that exposed a new side of Michael," said Paul Lieberstein, who played Toby and was recently promoted to executive producer on the show. "She placed her character right on his level."

All I can say is bring on more Holly and congratulations to Toby! I guess since Lieberstein will still be so involved with the show, there's always a chance of more Toby in the future, but the beautiful Ryan will add a new dynamic to the series. While Amy Ryan's currently only set for five or so episodes, I hope they can expand that if it works. Now that Pam is back off the market and Karen's gone, Holly represents a new amorous target for the boys of the office. And having her be the HR rep at the same time makes it all the more taboo to pursue. Which means Michael will be all over it like Dwight on Second Life.

The big screen adaptation of I Dream of Jeannie has been years in the making. Now a script writer is attached, so who knows, maybe we'll see it in theaters in the next few years (IMDB.com lists a release date of 2010). And something tells me we'll probably see a belly button or two.

Producer Sid Ganis is bringing Rita Hsiao, who scribed Mulan, on board to rewrite the script for a movie based on the 1960s series. Ganis is psyched for Hsiao's vision of the character -- a Jeannie who's smack in the middle of modern times.

In a Hollywood Reporter story, Ganis said of Hsiao's meeting with the producers, "She has a terrific, bright, fresh approach to Jeannie's story, with a twist and turn along the way. She captured all of our imaginations in the telling of it."

(S04E14) I performed tonight in Hartford, CT. Coming out of the comedy club, a woman who wasn't at the show checked me out. I heard her say helloooooo in a guttural way, like I was a really good looking guy. A few seconds later, though, once she got a better look at me, she said, "Never mind." Then, she and her friends laughed for as long as I could hear them.

Apparently, I'm only good looking when someone is looking at me out of the corner of her eye.

I bring this up not to inform you that I'm unattractive -- my blogger profile photo does a better job of informing you of that than I ever could -- but rather because I didn't think I could be any more depressed than I was after that comment. I honestly thought their derisive laughter was going to be the low-point of my evening. Then I watched tonight's Office finale...

"This is man is an impostor. Do not do business with him. This is not Dwight Schrute." --Dwight to Jim

NBC has released a sneak peek of The Office's season finale called "Good-bye Toby." After Thursday night's stellar episode, I'm psyched for the finale even though I tend to be underwhelmed by one-hour Office episodes. How about you? Ready for next Thursday?

In the scene, Jim reprograms Dwight's phone to forward to his own. Dwight reacts...well, exactly how you'd expect him to. It's pretty hilarious. I love the Jim-Pam-Dwight dynamic. And I love any time Jim pulls a prank on Dwight. My favorite prank had to be when Jim sent Dwight a fax from "future Dwight" telling him not to drink the coffee.

I put the video after the jump. I also put the two-minute recap of last Thursday's show just in case you missed it. The Office's one-hour season finale is Thursday May 15th at 9 p.m. ET / PT.

(S04E13) Remember that movie The Chase? Okay, you probably don't, but believe me, it exists [link NSFW]. Anyway, Charlie Sheen takes Kristy Swanson hostage, and over the course of the movie some major league Stockholm Syndrome kicks in (like, really major league: they do it while he's leading the cops on a high speed chase). The lesson of the movie is obvious: if you kidnap the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer, she'll eventually fall in love with you.

I bring this up because I'm becoming scared that I might have lost perspective on The Office. I've sincerely loved every episode that has aired since its return from the break. Now, here's the question: is this because the writers spent the entire strike doing brain push-ups? Or is it because The Office is Charlie Sheen to my Kristy Swanson? My (glowing) review after the jump...

(S04E12) Jay Black couldn't be with us today because he was called away suddenly. Something about not leaving the table until he'd finished all his vegetables but he didn't like asparagus and yet that didn't matter he can sit there all night if he has to or until the asparagus evolves arms and legs and jumps off his plate and leaves on its own. So he figured since my name is the closest to his, maybe we could get away with this last minute pinch hit.

I got an episode that won't necessarily go down in the annals of time as an Office classic, but does bring us back to the core of the show: the office. The episode takes place entirely in one day, entirely in the office, and virtually every cast member gets pulled into one storyline or the other. For me, this is when The Office is at its best, when its presenting us barely controlled chaos. Offices are constantly bustling with activity productive or otherwise. Tonight's episode captured just that, and very well.

(S04E10) Hey Pam will you... wait for me one second while I tie my shoe?

For everything that happened this week -- a return to form for those of you who were upset that the previous two episodes strayed from the confines of Dunder-Mifflin -- I believe it's that question (and Pam's reaction to it) that will set up the conflict over the remaining episodes of the season. I'm about as good at reading female facial signals as Rain Man, but even I could tell that Pam's face during the "proposal" wasn't exactly filled with the kind of joy you'd expect it would be. Maybe the producers are just giving us a red herring and Pam's reaction tonight will be the equivalent of Lost's four-toed statue (interesting for a blip, then forgotten about) or maybe things are not all that well in JAM-land.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's talk about the rest of the episode first...

(S04E09) It feels really good to be back, doesn't it? My calculations might be a bit off, but it seems to me the amount of time we had off for the writer's strike was about the same as what we usually have off for a summer break. For some reason, though, it felt longer. Something about the cold winter months makes me long for the sweet siren song of Scranton, I suppose.

I wasn't there when we won WWII, but I imagine the joy I felt when a new Office showed up in my TiVo was similar to what it felt like on V.E. day. I almost wanted to dress up in a sailor uniform and give Steve Carell a long, deep kiss in Times Square (though, to be fair, I almost always feel that way). I was happy The Office was back, the only thing I worried about was whether it'd still be good...

I went to the UCB Theatre in New York on Sunday night to see their signature show, "ASSSSCAT." It was side-splittingly funny as usual; the group last night featured UCB founder and SNLer Amy Poehler, Jack McBrayer and John Lutz from 30 Rock, Paul Scheer and Rob Huebel from Human Giant, among others, and the guest monologist was Samm Levine (Freaks and Geeks). I had a fantastic time.

But I kind of wish I was at the theater about 20 hours before that, when the entire cast of SNL put on a makeshift version of their show, hosted by Michael Cera (we mentioned this show when it was announced last week). Fortunately, The New York Times was there, and they not only have an article about the event, but a nice slide show as well.