I promised last week to pick up where I left off… so, where was I? Oh yes, hump day.

WEDNESDAY
Wednesday has become an incredibly strong night for comedy. Modern Family is easily one of the funniest shows on TV, and is arguably the funniest show since Arrested Development went off the air. Up All Night is definitely a great show, especially one for new parents. And Happy Endings is more than just a showcase of super-hottie Kim Bauer, aka Elisha Cuthbert – it’s another really well-scripted sitcom.

And, of course, let’s not forget South Park, which had another stellar season, even though I was a little let down with their take on the Occupy movement, which really had nothing to do with the protests at all. Still, the way they came back from the incredibly depressing “You’re Getting Old” was brilliant.

THURSDAY
The Office has survived without Michael Scott. Is the show as funny as it was many years ago? No. But then, the same thing could be said for the past few years when Steve Carell was still on the show. It may not have as many laugh-out-loud moments as it once did, but it’s still one of the funnier shows out there. And Community has just continued it’s brilliance this season. I mean, wow. If you’re not watching this show, you really should be. If, of course, it comes back in the spring. There’s a chance that the show’s hilarious Christmas episode (which did a spot-on parody of Glee) could be the series’ last. If Community is canceled, after Whitney got a full season order, then NBC is in worse shape than anyone could have possibly imagined.

And let’s not forget the triumphant return of Beavis and Butt-head. The show hasn’t aged at all in the 14 years since it’s last been on the air, and it turns out, that’s a good thing. The humor is exactly the same – infantile. Beavis and Butt-head have the same level of intelligence – none. The biggest change is that now they don’t simply make fun of music videos, they also rip apart other MTV shows – mostly Jersey Shore. Personally, I like it better when they go off on people besides Snooki and co., who are after all pretty easy targets. (And secretly I wish they’d mock one of my episodes of Made, though I’m sure the odds are definitely against that.)

FRIDAY
Fringe is a whole new show this year, with the final events of last season creating an entirely new timeline in both universes. (If you don’t watch the show, that sentence must have been entirely confusing.) I have no idea where they’re going with this “where does Peter fit in” arc – can he get back to his old timeline, or is he stuck in this new one he’s created? But I guess that’s’ the cool thing about Fringe, it keeps you guessing, and you’re never going to be able to figure it out…nor do you want to.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Star Wars: The Clone Wars is phenomenal television, and is way too political and smart to be written off as a simple “kids show,” though it can function as both at the same time. Just watch the brilliantly subversive “Nomad Droids” episode. The stories are dark, the violence is brutal, and the analogies to our modern-day political landscape come at you fast and furious, and the line between good and evil can be crystal clear in one episode, and awfully murky the next.

Then there’s the Onion News Network, which is political and social satire at its finest. If you have IFC, you should really be watching this show. It’s got the same sensibility of The Onion, but you don’t have to read! Although you should read all of the text that’s on the bottom of the screen (we in the biz call those “chyrons”), because those tend to be pretty damn funny, too.

SATURDAY
Saturday Night Live is another show I have a conflicted relationship with. There are sketches and entire episodes that are positively brilliant and consistently hysterical. Then there are the hosts and the individual skits that don’t make me smile, let alone laugh. At all. But I keep watching, namely because the great moments make suffering through the duds worth it. Of the recent batch of episodes, I felt Ben Stiller and Anna Farris were disappointing, Steve Buscemi was underused, Katy Perry did nothing for me, Emma Stone and Melissa McCarthy were great, Jimmy Fallon’s impressions were spot-on as usual, and Jason Segel’s monologue with the Muppets was one of the show’s best in a long, long time.

In conclusion… I watch too much damn TV… and I’m proud of it!

First, there’s this very in-depth, head-to-head battle between the hamburgers of Shake Shack, Five Guys, and In-N-Out. These guys take their hamburgers VERY seriously, and I respect that.

If you want to freak yourself out, read this article about the people who truly, genuinely believe that the world is going to end this Saturday.

If you think those people need to get a clue, then read about the woman that had the nerve to talk on her cell phone for sixteen freaking straight hours (!) – on an Amtrak quiet car of all places! When she was finally escorted off the train by police, she said that she felt disrespected. How her fellow passengers lasted 16 hours I will never know…

After reading that you may want something that’s intentionally funny. So I direct you to this hysterical (and in very poor taste, so the easily offended should beware!) piece about a new Planned Parenthood center from the brilliant satirists at The Onion.

Then there’s this great article about the brand new, totally revamped Star Tours attraction opening tomorrow in Disney World and early June in Disney Land.  (I want to go to there!)

And speaking of Disney, there’s a new teaser poster for the new Muppets move, titled simply “The Muppets,” that’s been making the rounds:
I predict this movie will make a gazillion dollars this Thanksgiving weekend.

And last but not least, here’s a long video paying homage to the wondrous place that is Cornell University, through the magic of time-lapse footage.

This Is from Alex Silver on Vimeo.

Star Wars is coming to Blu-Ray – and there’s an official date: September 27!  I still don’t have a Blu-Ray player, but between this and the complete Lost collection, clearly I need one.  The biggest question is how “special” these editions will be.  Will the prequels get new effects?  It sure would be nice if they fixed the Episode I Yoda, who looked worse than the OT Yoda.

And there’s also been some official ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ news – Anne Hathaway will play Selina Kyle, and Tom Hardy will play Bane.  There’s no word if Selina’s alter-ego Catwoman will be in the film, but it stands to reason she will be.  It also seems likely that the version of Bane in this movie will be more than just a hulking muscular goon.  I must admit that at first I was a little disappointed by this news.  I mean, Anne Hathaway is beautiful and everything, but can she make for a compelling Miss Kyle?  But then I had a similar reaction to hearing that Heath Ledger was going to play the Joker, and we all know how that turned out.  So I still have faith that this movie will rock.

And the biggest news of all (coming right as Nick’s Marathon is about to start!) is that the Nintendo 3DS has a release date and price: March 27, 2011 and $249.  It is pricey for a handheld, but come on – it’s 3D!  Without glasses!  All of the early reviews and impressions are amazing, and come on, who wouldn’t want to play Mario games in 3D?!  They still haven’t announced the games that will be available at launch, which is odd, but given the list of games that we know are coming – Mario Kart, Paper Mario, Kid Icarus, Ocarina of Time – it’s bound to be an amazing little gadget.  Yay for the future!

It’s been a while since I weighed in on my thoughts on TV’s finest programming, so without further ado (or Apu, if you prefer), here are some quick thoughts on the current season through the halfway point. Beware of spoilers.

The Simpsons – Still funny after all these years, The Simpsons continues to be funny, occasionally touching, and culturally relevant. (Their triumvirate of jabs at Fox News got some positive and negative coverage.) I’m not sure about how I feel about their pretty racy Katy Perry gag, not because it wasn’t funny, but because it seemed like the kind of thing that would have felt more at home on Family Guy. And speaking of…

Family Guy, The Cleveland Show, and American Dad! – I lump these three shows together because they are pretty similar in tone, though I do stand by my assertion that of the three, the funniest and best written remains the under-appreciated American Dad! Cleveland has its moments, but it still feels like a Family Guy clone (as did American Dad before it found its own footing). And Family Guy has been pretty inconsistent – the murder mystery premiere was pretty lame, but the recent Christmas show had some good moments. Which proves that they CAN tell a story well, if and when they choose to actually do so.

Boardwalk Empire – Does it feel pretty similar to The Sopranos? Sure. But was it pretty damn entertaining anyway? Yup. There is plenty of gratuitous violence and nudity, but the characters and stories are really well fleshed out. And though I wasn’t totally sure about buying Buscemi in a lead role, his supporting cast goes a long way at making the world seem real.

How I Met Your Mother – HIMYM is still making funny observations about life in clever ways, like the “Where’s the poop?” bit and “The Mermaid Theory.” And while I do wish that Ted would actually start to come close to maybe perhaps finding the damn Mother already, the show’s use of flashbacks and flashforwards are still used to great effect. My main complaint with this season so far is the Zoey storyline – I’m just not feeling it. We know she’s not the Mother, so it feels like the show is just spinning its wheels.

The Event – Look, I’d love for TV to have another Lost-esque show on the air. But you can’t force a square peg into a round hole, and despite starting off promising, The Event got really lame really fast. Too bad.

Parenthood – Why aren’t more people watching this show? And why does it so frequently got pre-empted by The Biggest Loser? Parenthood is an amazingly well-written and well-acted show, with a realistic depiction of family life. Check it out! It’s honestly a lot better quality than…

Glee – Sure, I love the music. But this season it just seems like the writers are trying to shoehorn as many songs as possible into every show. I get it – iTunes downloads are what makes the show profitable, but when there are 7 songs and no story, the show suffers. And for every interesting storyline – like Kurt being bullied – there are many more retreads – Emma breaks Will’s heart by getting married, Rachel and Finn fight, Sue turns evil then good then evil again.

South Park – SP had a strong fall season, with the Jersey Shore spoof and Randy’s obsession with Food Network being standouts. The Coon arc could have been a two-parter instead of a trilogy, but the payoff at the end made it all worth it. Mint Berry Crunch!

30 Rock – Still brilliant. Tracy still gets a never-ending stream of hysterical and quotable lines. The humor works on every level, and the meta stuff never crosses the line of being “too meta,” if that makes sense.

The Office – Also going strong in Michael Scott’s final season. I have to say that after each episode I become more and more convinced that the honorable thing to do is to end the series on a high note with his departure, but the odds of that happening seem slim.

Community – Another under-rated show that is very funny. Their parodies are always spot-on, and the show seems to be embracing the whole cast now instead of being focused primarily on Jeff and Britta. Although it does seem that every episode has a theme about what great friends all of our characters are.

Fringe – Damn this show is amazing. The whole Olivia/Fauxlivia storyline played out beautifully over the first half of the season, and the upcoming battle between the two universes looks very promising. I personally don’t mind that the show is being moved to the “death slot” of Friday nights since we DVR everything anyway, but at least the new promos show that the producers are willign to make light of their new night.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars – This has to be some of, if not the, best political commentary around today. These are war stories, but they also focus on corruption, greed, and the behind the scenes machinations of the military-industrial complex. Heavy stuff for a kids show on the Cartoon Network, right? Well, there are plenty of fights and lightsaber battles, too, for good measure. And even though the last few episodes have been Galactic Senate-heavy, the second half of the season looks to heavily feature action – and Darth Maul’s brother!

Smallville – You gotta give it to the team behind Smallville – they are doing all they can to make this season memorable. Storylines are moving at a furious pace, and the Lois-Clark relationship has never been so fascinating, and as much as I loved Lana, her romance with Clark pales in comparison. Having less main characters has given the show much more focus, although I do miss Chloe. And it’s been nice seeing some old familiar faces, with the appearance of Lionel Luthor particularly well done. (Although I have to wonder why Earth-2’s Clark is named Clark also – the Kents named their adopted son after Martha’s maiden name, so it seems strange that Lionel would pick the same first name. Whatever.) I’m looking forward to more guest stars in the second half, as well as seeing more of Darkseid and his minions. The show has a nasty record of flubbing season finales, but I will hold out hope that it can nail the series finale.

Aw – ain’t that girl cute?  Who would want to pick on her?  Well, she was made fun of by boys at her school because she loved Star Wars.  Can you believe that?  It seems like there are constantly these stories popping up about young kids being bullied.

And plenty of those stories involve kids being picked on via the internet.  Katie, the girl pictured above, wasn’t teased online, but in person.  And in her case, the internet has actually rallied to her cause.  Long story short, she has been flooded with positive comments telling her that it’s OK for girls to like Star Wars (look at some of the comments in the first link), and she even got some feedback from a few of the actors from The Clone Wars.   Hell, her Facebook event page to support her has over 17,000 people ‘attending!’

It’s a great story over the positive power of the web, and how people can come together to help people and make them feel cared for, especially in a time when people use it to ostracize.  Of course, Facebook and email and Twitter and everything else online are tools, and every tool will be misused by some jerks.  But they can also be used to do a lot of good, and it’s nice that sweet stories like Katie’s get picked up now and again, too.

HUGE NERD NEWS – The Star Wars films are going to be re-released in 3D!

Now, I know the 3D craze has its fans and its detractors, but here’s the thing you gotta keep in mind here – ILM is going to be doing the conversions for the movies.  ILM, or Industrial Light and Magic for the uninitiated, is the company that basically invented all of modern movie special effects.  These guys know what they’re doing, so The Saga is in good hands.

Obviously, it is a given that I will see all six movies in the theater in 3D.  I may be getting a tad too old for midnight shows, but I’d say these would certainly be “opening weekend” type-events.

The question is, how do I handle these movies with Eli?

Now this is something I’ve written about before, but this news definitely impacts things, as seeing the movies on the big screen – an in 3 dimensions no less – will certainly have more of an impact than popping in a disc at home.

The movies will be released in Episode order – so starting with The Phantom Menace and ending with Return of the Jedi, with one film coming out a year beginning in 2012.  So let’s break it down:

By the time TPM comes out, Eli will be 2 years old, which should give him the cognitive capacity to understand that lightsabers are cool, Darth Maul is mean, and Jar Jar Binks is silly.  He’ll love it, even if he doesn’t understand the politics/midichlorian stuff.

When he’s 3, he’ll see AOTC, and he may be bored by the love scenes and all that kissing, but there’s enough action to keep him interested.

At 4, Eli may be too young for the dark parts of ROTS.  But he will definitely be old enough to get into and enjoy The Clone Wars series, so maybe that can tide him over for a few years.

At 5, Eli will be perfectly ready for ANH.  I, at the age of 35, will feel like a 5 year old seeing this movie in 3D for the first time.

ESB is a little dark, sure, but nothing a 6 year old can’t handle.  Plus without having seen Ep. III, Eli may still be surprised that Vader is Luke’s father.  (Or maybe not – Eli is already a pretty smart kid, so he may put the pieces together for himself.)  Assuming Eli handles ESB without a hitch, he can then watch ROTS.

And then, when the little guy is 7, Eli will finally get to meet the Ewoks in ROTJ, and the saga – and our yearly tradition – will come to an end.

PS It should probably feel strange for me to be planning trips to the movies in 2017 when I’m not totally sure what I’m doing this weekend, but this feels totally normal to me.

The movies will be beautiful, sound great, and they will feature some brand-new special features.  Like what, you ask?  Well, how about this never-before-seen opening sequence from return of the Jedi? (Watch it fast, before it gets yanked!)

Pretty cool, right?  I’m not big on re-buying movies and things in the latest format, but Star Wars is clearly the exception where I need to have it in the best and newest way possible.  I mean, it’s Star Wars!

PS The original trilogy will be on the discs as the Special Edition versions – apparently the original versions couldn’t stand up to the upgrade to Blu-Ray quality.  I’m quite fine with the changes made to the 2004 Special Editions, and though such a suggestion may be nerd blasphemy, I actually hope Lucas does a little more tinkering, and replaces the puppet Yoda from Episode I with a digital version.  Seriously, The Phantom Menace Yoda looked worse than the one in Empire, and that’s just not right.

Now you can have Yoda, Darth Vader, or C3PO (and in a few months, Han Solo too!) give you turn by turn directions on your TomTom GPS device.  I can no longer imagine getting directions from anyone but a Star Wars character.

I was debating getting a GPS a while back, but the point became moot when I got the Droid (the cell phone, not an actual droid), which conveniently has an app for that.  The pros of the Droid GPS? It doesn’t cost any extra, I carry it around with me at all times, and it is already preloaded with all of my contacts/addresses.

The con?

No Yoda option.

Clearly, I need me a TomTom.

Check out the videos from the recording sessions with Vader and Yoda: