Tuesday Night TV

I can't decide whether I like The Biggest Loser or not. I decided to give it a try several weeks ago, and the first episode I tried happened to be really good. Even though it was a reality show, none of the people were mean--they were even really nice to each other and supportive. It was easy to root for them. Plus, they did this really cool challenge where they had to foot-paddle a boat up to this mountain and then climb the mountain. Then, at the end of the show, they had to vote somebody off, but they voted off the guy who needed the help to lose his weight the least, and he was really sweet about it, and it was a serious tear-jerker. It's a compelling show in that it's pretty cool to see these people who really need to lose weight really losing weight. It's not about something petty or tacky, it's something real and good.

None of the subsequent episodes have been as compelling, though. Sometimes they vote strategically, getting rid of the greater threat or a person on the other trainer's team (and, for the life of me, I can't even figure out why it's beneficial to keep your team members, since only one person can win). Also, the show is hideously slow. It lasts for two hours! Two whole hours! There's tons of filler, millions of commercials, tedious recapping, and molasses-slow editing of the challenges (some of which are very boring. Tonight, they had to hold a bar over their heads. For like four hours).

Therefore, I've developed a system. I have it on and vaguely pay attention during the first hour (maybe I clean or look at my computer at the same time), then at eight I switch over to ABC's back-to-back Scrubs, checking back in with Biggest Loser during Scrubs' commercials.

And that's my segue into talking about Scrubs. This eighth season was not welcomed in all quarters; many people thought the show had run out of gas. It's true, last season was . . . not good. In general, it's had an upswing this year. It's probably better overall than it has been since its fourth or fifth season.

The weirdest thing is that they had to cut back their budget. One of the measures they took was that each cast member has to skip two episodes. Sometimes it's really noticeable--the first one tonight was ZachBraff-less, which is hard to cover up--but sometimes they do a really good job. Last week, both episodes were Turk-free, and I didn't even notice until somebody on the internet pointed it out.

The main problem (as I see it) is that it's fairly uneven from episode to episode. I really enjoyed last week's, but the two tonight were pretty weak. (Tonight's first episode's weakness I blame on Sarah Chalke, because without JD, it was an Elliot-centric episode, and Elliot is [if mostly by default] the least interesting of the major characters.) There's also more focus on some new characters, a batch of interns. One is this really mean girl played by Eliza Coupe (who was also very mean on Flight of the Conchords). I think she's funny, but Neal really dislikes her. Then there was another one played by Aziz Ansari, who I thought was funny when he was on Flight of the Conchords, but who I haaaaaaated on Scrubs. So, again, hit-or-miss.

Overall, I'm glad Scrubs is getting one more crack at it, if only to redeem itself from the lousy seventh season, and to run on a network that actually appreciates it (and promotes it--seriously, how many years ago was it that NBC so much as ran a commercial for Scrubs?). It is worth watching again--most weeks.

My Tuesday routine is going to get tougher if I decide to start watching American Idol again, but even if I do, it won't be for a couple more weeks. I like watching the fairly talented final handful of singers, but I don't want to watch anything until they've weeded out most of the crazies.