Thursday Night Menu

I was a little disappointed in last night’s Extreme Couponing. The first segment featured twins who went around finding free stuff on their birthday, like lunch at Red Robin. That’s not extreme. Anyone can do that. Then, they found a grocery store selling ten pork chops for ten dollars. And they only bought ten! How is that extreme? They should be backing a truck up and buying enough pork to last them until the Rapture. Lame. Double lame, because they were twins.

The second segment featured the guy from the pilot, who bought a ton of stuff with the intent of donating some of it to U.S. soldiers, which is nice. Apparently, he’s donated tens of thousands of dollars worth of goods in the same manner. It’s great to see such support for our soldiers, I only wish they’d shown video of the soldiers opening their gift packages to see the looks on their faces as they received twenty pounds of women’s deodorant and Colgate toothpaste.

There was a twist at the end where it looked like he had used all his coupons and would still have to pay sixty bucks, but that twist was resolved .00034 second later and he didn’t have to pay sixty bucks. I won’t spoil it for you, but the solution to this problem involved more coupons.

I also got around to watching The Sports Show with Norm MacDonald from Tuesday and it was actually really fun. Sloppy as hell, shoddily constructed, it sounded like the audience was actually talking to each other during part of it, and Norm flubbed a bunch of lines (including his first joke) but a lot of good laughs overall. To the menu!

Community: Took me a while to get into this show, but I’m in deep now. It’s a bit overly gimmicky and I sort of hope they get rid of Chevy Chase, because he’s not really much fun. Tonight’s episode sounds like it centers around… let’s see… Chevy Chase. Darn. (NBC)

The Paul Riser Show: Paul Riser has used a time machine to escape the mid-90’s, where we had him safely locked away, and he has a new show. I’ve got nothing against him, really, he just seems to be a relic of a time when he was the best we could do, and we can do a lot better than him nowadays. The show looks like a Curb Your Enthusiasm style affair, which is underlined by visit from Larry David. (NBC)

The Office: I really don’t watch this anymore, but I might tune in to see how they handle Steve Carell’s departure. (NBC)

Parks and Recreation: Seasons 1 and 2 are on Netflix Instant, so if you haven’t been watching there’s an easy way to catch up (mostly). This is my favorite TV show right now. It’s not the funniest, but it doesn’t have to be: I just consistently enjoy pretty much everyone on it. (NBC)

30 Rock: Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin are always great together, everyone else, less so, but it’s still usually pretty watchable. Former seasons are also available on Netfix Instant, and I think the show works best when you’re consuming mass quantities at once. (NBC)

House Hunters International: People with a million dollar budget look for a home in Australia. Will they be able to afford the platinum mansion with sixteen bedrooms and a helicopter landing pad, or will they have to settle for the solid gold orbiting space mansion with only fourteen bedrooms? (HGTV)