This week's television remains mostly Situation Comedies, but Dexter's season premiere has now joined the list, likewise Family Guy and American Dad. Now, due to the difficulties I have in watching television during the week I'll probably remain a week behind everyone else as far as Dexter is concerned.

American Dad:
Episode One: In the Country... Club

One of my favourite genres in the world of film is the war movie, or more specifically the America sub-genre of 'Vietnam Movies' "In the Country... Club" grabbed these and gave us a wholesale feast of them. With Platoon, Apocalypse Now and Rambo all being homaged and parodied on the field of 'Vietnam re-enactment paintballing' this episode was nothing short of amazing.

As an aside, where's the British "Falklands War" movie genre? Gap in the market there! Quick, get writing about trench foot!

Community:
Episode Three - Introduction to Film

Community continues to be my favourite new show this season, after spending the first two episodes going "**** me, it's Chevy Chase" I spent the third one going "**** me, it's John Michael Higgins". John is one of those people who's been in so many shows I adore, including (but not limited to) Arrested Development,
Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, Seinfeld and Boston Legal.

He was fantastic as the offbeat 'seize the day' Professor Whitman, a role which looks like it was a one off - but I'm hoping might have the potential to become recurring. Either way it was great to watch him shimmy up lamp posts, tear up menus and just have immense fun on screen.

The rest of the cast continue to grow, at this moment things are still very centered around Jeff, but we are getting to know the others. The episode wasn't as strong as last weeks, but it was still clever, funny and warming to watch.

Cougar Town: Episodes One and Two
Kevin Biegel and Bill Lawrence's new "older promiscuous woman" related show has made it onto my viewing list thanks to the interesting cast (especially Christa Miller who's one of my all time favourite women on TV) and Bill's own involvement. More on this show later this week, but if you want a short version - it's something I feel guilty about liking.

Curb Your Enthusiasm:
Episode Two: Vehicular Fellatio

I wondered how long Curb was going to take to resolve the majority of it's "Meet the Blacks" plot and clear space for the Seinfeld reunion arc to move in. It looks like that plate is now clear, and while I am going to miss Vivica A. Fox a lot at least J.B. Smoove is around for a while longer.

The opening (and closing) joke in particular was something very special, I've never understood those products which are so heavily vacuum sealed that it's impossible to open them without application of force, a knife or often both - and it's also a situation I've been in more than once myself. So Larry's cries of frustration and anger were hilarious.

Dexter:
Episode One:

I've held off from watching Dexter's first episode despite it being leaked online, this has of course frustrated a few of my friends who've already seen it and know better than spoilering it for me. If I'm honest I've approached this season with a real sense of trepidation, mostly because the third season was a huge let down.

After watching it I'm still undecided. As I've said many times before, Michael C. Hall is great, but Dexter's last season started well before degenerating into a mess. We'll see how things turn out.

Family Guy:
Episode One: Road to the Multiverse

I don't know how long I'm going to be writing about Family Guy on here, probably just when there's the odd exceptional episode. This was one of them, but then I've always enjoyed the Brian/Stewie heavy "Road to ____" episodes as they often shake things up. This one was no exception, giving us a 'Sliders' (now there's a show which should have ended when the cast started to leave) style trip through alternate realities. Some of which were very funny, the Disney reality in particular was amazing.


Seriously how awesome are those? Just look how amazing Peter looks.

But unfortunately the other dimensions on the whole were kind of "eh" and a lot of the other really cool alternate realities only made an appearance in the title sequence. I especially liked these two:

I am tired of the constant 'Meg is ugly', let's treat Meg like crap jokes though - that's one ship which has gotten old.


The Office:
Episode Three: The Promotion

I don't have that much to say about this week's Office, apart from a few moments it seemed to be lacking in funny. I'm not sure how this Jim/Scott co-Manager thing is going to work out, it feels like it's going to be milked for a while (and it's not that funny) before everything returns to normal. I'd be a lot happier if the writers could come up with a solution which results in some growth and change in the office without losing any of the characters. But we'll see, as next weeks episode "Niagra" looks to be a great one.

On DVD I've just finished the second season of The Sopranos, more on that tomorrow. I'm also gearing up to watch Breaking Bad and Sons of Anarchy, I just can't find the time right now.