Opinion Five-Spot, WE 12/12/10 - Men of a Certain Age, Glee, Community, The Office, Desperate Housewives

Here's a Five-Spot of TV opinions for the week ending December 12, 2010:

Men of a Certain Age - I'm not quite "of a certain age," but this is still one of the most enjoyable shows I watch, and I'm happy to have it back for one more run (probably the last run based on its ratings). Love the show's usually dry humor. It looked like they might be backpedaling on some of the things set up in last season's finale, but I'm happy they ultimately kept Terry working for Owen. I think that's got potential to make Bakula's character more interesting this season. (Haven't seen last night's ep 2 yet.)

Glee - I usually watch Glee, though often not till days later, and I usually don't have much of anything to say about it. (Which is weird because so many of the real critics have so much to say.) What stuck out to me about the Christmas episode was the sheer volume of music. They had a whole Christmas album to burn through, so it's understandable, but I've typically liked the relatively low number of songs per episode this season. Here's hoping it gets back to about the same number as most of season 2.

Community - There's no arguing that this show's stop motion animated Christmas episode was ambitious. And the visuals were really something to behold. But mostly I just found myself admiring this episode more than actually enjoying it. I didn't find any of it that funny, and there aren't many (or even any?) comedies I know of that can produce high marks out of me without producing the laughs. Didn't even really get a kick out of the much loved Lost joke. (Not a big season 6 fan, but maybe I'm secretly defensive?!)

The Office - Always love holiday eps of this show. (Well, not always; hated season 5's "Moroccan Christmas.") I was amazed by how well John Krasinski played the utter terror Dwight had caused, and then there was the return of Amy Ryan. I like her, I suppose, but I've never been as in love with her as some; she seems just a little too perfectly matched to Michael for my tastes. And so Erin's thing about not really getting the big deal resonated with me. Downside: Jim/Pam gift story predictable and (roughly) been done before.

Desperate Housewives - There are many shows that do these big "event" episodes that make you roll your eyes when you read the description. For many shows, the execution is similarly eyeroll-worthy. But Desperate Housewives usually legitimately steps up its game for the event eps. Yes, it's easy to look back on it in retrospect and say that nothing really happened, that there were seemingly no significant casualties. But while the Wisteria Lane chaos was going on, I was gripped, and that's what I remember.