TVSquad

Looky there. With just those seven little words The Sarah Connor Chronicles has become the show I'm most looking forward to next season. With music, there's nothing I like more than putting a little Garbage on the turntable. Because of that, over the years I've become just a little bit obsessed with Shirley Manson. And now comes word that the lovely and talented Miss Manson has been signed to the show.

Just that is enough to make me watch, but it gets even better. This isn't a musical guest like someone stopping by to play at P3 or the Montecito. Oh no, Shirley will join the cast in a regular role as Catherine Weaver, CEO of a high-tech company. One could certainly argue that it's stunt casting, or that they could find a more qualified actor to take on such a big role. But any crazy argument like that will fall on deaf ears here pal. It's Shirley Manson. That's all I need to know.

(S01E07) Maybe the writers of The Class are getting the hint and following what seems to be a pretty obvious suggestion: take out storylines! Let the characters breathe! Get rid of the high-strung socialite and the husband she doesn't realize is gay! This episode managed to do all of that; we don't see Holly and Kyle (and Holly's Paul Lynde sound-alike husband) at all, and Duncan and Nicole get some time to interact without Yonk in the way, and take Lina and Richie along for the ride. And, of course, Kat and Ethan do their goofy stuff, this time in a bar (notice most of the episodes have been named for the Kat/Ethan story of the week? I just figured that out tonight... I'm slow, I guess).

So, now that things are a bit smoother and less cluttered, there'd be more room for the funny right? Well, that's what you might think, but you'd be wrong.

(S01E06) For a fleeting second, I thought The Class was just going to concentrate on two stories this week. For the first act, it looked like all we'd see was Richie, Duncan and Yonk in Atlantic City and Holly's adventures at the petting zoo. Yes, one of the storylines would be a Holly storyline, but I was glad that the writers decided to smarten up and rotate out one storyline per week, leaving more room for silly things like effective jokes and character development.

But then I saw Lina in an FDR costume and Kat being Kat, and I just went, "oh crap."

(S01E02) For those of you who were trying to figure out how eight relative strangers, thrown together in a kind of a convoluted fashion, was going to constitute a sitcom, this episode shows you what the formula is going to be.

And what is that formula? Three parallel storylines that are not designed to intersect for some time in the future. You've got sappy Ethan's brewing friendship with the cynical Kat and Richie's accident-prone flirtation with Kat's twin Lina (how convenient is it that Kat and Lina are twins? That ensures that two of the pairs of strangers will stay connected); you have Nicole and Duncan's affair; and you have Kyle and Holly, who are still rebuilding their friendship after he came out of the closet at their prom ten years ago.