Natalie Tootie

The Office is another of NBC's comedies that has greatly improved this year. This is the first year I and a number of my friends have watched it. Previous seasons suffered from what my friend Daniel calls, "Sitcom Embarrassment Syndrome" which is when a show get so uncomfortable that you can't watch it anymore. This season, The Office has done a lot of work to improve that and the show has become really good because of it.

NBC has been doing a great job of adding touching drama to their Thursday night comedies. This week on the "Summer Catalog" episode of Parks and Recreation they tempered the comedy with the continuing story of the love triangle between Ann Perkins (Rashida Jones), Andy Dwyer (Chris Pratt) and April Ludgate (Aubrey Plaza).

Discovery HD has started showing episodes of Life, a show from the makers of Planet Earth. It's a great show to watch and it's narrated by Oprah Winfrey who I love although I miss Sigourney Weaver a little.

I'm sure there must be some sort of technical Emmy for lighting, and I think Parenthood should go after it. I think it was very creative to use the lighter fluid barbecue flares as both a visual warmth and a representation of family tradition. This episode was all about things passed down through the family, from barbecues to paper animals to, bizarrely, masturbation

Lately I've been watching Hoarders. It's the most bizarre show because I think it's the first show I've ever seen that really shows what mental illness is. Literally, these people are crazy. A woman had this pumpkin that was rotting in her living room. When they took it out, she said goodbye to it and told it what a wonderful pumpkin it was. Then, she reached into the rot to get some of the seeds because since it was such a good pumpkin she felt she should try to grow some.

When you first start watching Kirstie Alley's Big Life what you think is that this is the most contrived manufactured reality show ever. From the paparazzi they hired to pretend to be interested in Kirstie to the bad dialog everything about this show is a bit off. Every scene with a conversation is like a bad scene from The Hills. What stands out is the character of Jim the handyman.