Funny Ladies and the Gays of Their Lives

My Name Is Earl - My Name is Inmate 28301-016, The Gangs of Camden County
30 Rock - SeinfeldVision
The Office - Fun Run, Dunder Mifflin Infinity
Ugly Betty - Family/Affair
Grey's Anatomy - Love/Addiction

Let's talk funny ladies of Thursday night. And just so that I can fit in Marc (Michael Urie), last night's episode of Earl, Kenneth the Page (he's not technically but come ON) and George O'Malley (well, T.R. Knight in real life at least), let's talk about their gay friends as well.

What a great night for ladies that make me laugh. I love Earl, but Jaime Pressly's Joy really busts it out and steals every scene she's in. Catalina makes her one note role into something funny and endearing. Liz Lemon is now stealing 30 Rock back from Alec Baldwin. Pam is the heart and centre of The Office's funny ladies, yet plays it so simply, that the humour is effortless. America Ferrera's Ugly Betty is obviously the centre of the pratfalls and jokes on her, but she plays it so confidently that the jokes are really on her detractors. Especially, Wilhelmina, a wicked Vanessa Williams whose every arch of the eye comes with a satisfying sting, and Amanda, her social/office climbing rival. Then finally, there's Cristina Yang and Miranda Bailey, who by being strong leaders who demand nothing but perfection, gives Grey's Anatomy the laughs it needs.

Earl is really in jail and trying to survive day by day. He meets an old childhood friend (Ben Foster) whom he basically pushed into trouble since then, and finally convinces him to see himself as the good scout that he can be. Earl's friend is released after Earl took favours from everybody to help, but by getting the most annoying inmate out, Earl is forgiven. Meanwhile, Randy has no Earl to fall back on, and Joy must take care of him. Joy. Must take care of Randy. Read that sentence carefully. It's as scary as it sounds, and funny as hell. Catalina and Crabman help, but Randy is still sad and tries to commit a crime to join Earl in jail.

In last nights episode, Randy fails to get arrested, but then tries to become a jail guard (or, "bad men zoo keeper"). Meanwhile, Earl is asked by the warden (Coach) to solve the gang war headed by Hector and Jamal. The great twist is, they are actually lovers, always starting gang wars so that they can get alone time to make out. Who thinks of this stuff? Totally hilarious. Especially U-Turn being sweet to another man. I think I had to rub my eyes a few times to make sure I was seeing right.

We're back from summer hiatus on 30 Rock and Jack Donaghy is in trouble after using the electronic image of Jerry Seinfeld and splicing him in every NBC show possible. Liz and Floyd have broken up, but Liz buys her perfect wedding dress, well, because the saleswoman was that good as the girls shop for Cerie's dress. It's a simple premise but somehow it all works.

Seinfeld guests as himself, meeting Kenneth the Page, always interesting. Then tries to track down Jack to give him a piece of his mind. Jenna has become Britney fat after starring in the Broadway musical Mystic Pizza The Musical (what, no The Rural Juror The Musical?)(;)), and Tracy Morgan is thrown out by his wife and turns Kenneth into his office-wife.

I actually got tired of Seinfeld halfway through the series (gasp, yes, I just denounced the king of TV comedies) and while he wasn't actually particularly funny here, he was written in well with funny happening all around him, which just shows the brilliance of Tina Fey and the 30 Rock writing staff. Just throwing Seinfeld against Jack or Kenneth or even a crying Liz Lemon was genius. Also, welcome back Alec Baldwin, I'm glad you didn't quit.


Jim and Pam, PB&J as Kevin coins, are secretly dating in The Office, Michael runs over Meredith who might have rabies, a charity fun run is organized on rabies behalf, and the cameras catch Jim and Pam make out and being together. (YES! FINALLY! AND IT DOESN'T SUCK! They are still FUNNY! TOGETHER)

Ryan comes back to bring Dunder Miflin into the 21st Century, but the real importance is that Toby catches Jim and Pam PDA'ing in the office, sends out a memo warning against, and thus inadvertantly outs Jim and Pam's new relationship. This stirs up all the couples in the office, with Angela still mourning the death of her dog and getting angry with Dwight, while Kelly tries to win Ryan back, now that he's back in Scranton.

I guess the gay here is Oscar but we just get mostly reaction shots from him in these episodes. Uh, next time, next time. Love how Pam and Jim are playing this out. SO CUTE!

Betty steals "The Book" from Wilhelmina's home but accidentally finds out Wil's sleeping with her new bodyguard. Wil offers a deal to Betty. Keep it from Daniel (and thus Bradford) and she will help bring back Ignacio, who meanwhile, has his own plans to return from Mexico. Henry is back from Tuscon... to work, but Christina finally reveals to him of Charlie's indiscretions, leaving Henry free to pursue Betty (YAY! Was drunk Henry not the cutest?)

Justin is now interning at Mode and has become Marc's little pet assistant AND infonet to Betty's life. Marc's still scheming with Amanda who inherited Fay's nasty little dog (which comes with a nice living expense). While the story was a bit lame, Becky Newton and Michael Urie (Marc, above, in his hilarious thunderstorm effect, been done, but still hilarious), makes the whole thing a complete hoot. Hilda is trying to move on after Santos' death but Justin finally clicks in to his own grief and finally returns to Hilda instead of attending a Shakira photoshoot.

I know some people don't like the emotional dramatics of this show but I love that Ugly Betty can bounce back and forth between high camp and high emotion in a split second. Speaking of which, Alex is awake and noticing her boobs (Rebecca Romijn hilariously grabbing her boobs constantly) and mends ways with Daniel and Bradford. Bradford meanwhile knows of Wilhelmina's extra-curricular activities with other men and holds off the wedding.

Meanwhile, Cristina is still getting over her failed wedding and is now hiding from Burke's mom who is at Seattle Grace trying to track her down. If Katherine Heigl got the Emmy this year (really for last years work) for Grey's Anatomy, then Sandra Oh deserves it this year, for trying to move on while hilarious commanding her own interns AND trying to trade in her wedding gifts for some leverage for her career. Meanwhile, after confessing his love for Izzie, George tries to tell Callie that their marriage is over but Callie is not having a good day being chief, being undermined at all times by Bailey.

It's always been the biggest problem with the show (and many other shows with a title of a character), but the weakest link is again Meredith Grey, who is a complete bitch to Lexie, and while I know she has MAJOR issues with her father and his second family (that helps explain her troubles with McDreamy... god... is it over yet? Are they together or not? Just pick one please and stick with it for a while), there is no way she would be that mean to Lexie, and even if she is, is it really going to win us viewers over right now? Especially when I thought she should have died back after the Ferry accident so we could have moved on with the rest of the excellent cast.

Izzie, Bailey, Christina, each are funny, emotional, and full characters on their own. As much as I hate Gizzie, I still love George and T.R. Knight eyes alone are expressive enough to convey the utter confusion and aimlessness he finds himself in. Meredith at this point, adds nothing to the show. This second episode is still an improvement over the season premiere, which was an improvement with the hole it fell into last year, but it's still got a bit of a climb left, and it mostly needs to fix Meredith before we can get back onto the ground. Still, at least Christina is making me laugh again.