I sat down last night to watch the long-awaited “Baby episode” on NBC’s The Office.  For me, it was the culmination of many years of the “Jim and Pam” storyline.  I can’t imagine the show holding nearly as much interest now that we’ve reached this point.  In all honesty, the proposal episode was probably the highlight.  If not that, then certainly the wedding, although I’m a little torn on that one.  Half the fun of the show has been “Will they, or won’t they?”  Now where do they go from here?   [Interesting bit of trivia, Jenna Fischer's real-life fiance Lee Kirk played the lactation specialist. Got milk?  The scene makes perfect sense now!]

I find it interesting how NBC has embraced social networking.  Not only do they have several of their characters on Twitter, but there is an entire blog set up for the Jim and Pam story, and one just for the Baby, complete with pictures, and fake comments from the “parents”.  It’s almost as if they’re real people…

But they’re not, right?

I’ve started to watch the new TV show, “V”. What? “V”. Huh? What’s it called? “V! The letter ‘V’, as in VICTOR.”

That’s the conversation that I had several times at work the other night. Not only had no one heard of it, but I’m surprised at the number of people who don’t remember the original show from 1983. Was it a TV series or a mini-series? I don’t remember. I was only a kid, but even *I* remember watching the lizard visitors come to Earth. And a pair of human-visitor twins… one human looking one with a lizard tongue. One lizard looking one with a human tongue… Yup. The things the mind remembers. Now if only I could remember where I put my car keys in the morning. What’s up with that?

I’ve only seen 2 episodes so far. I’m not sure how many have aired, but that’s all that I’ve seen. And it’s not half bad. The special effects are nice. The cast isn’t bad. I love the line where the reporter says to the Visitor “Are there any ugly Visitors? All the Visitors are very attractive.”

Ah.. welcome to Hollywood

I’m a big fan of The Office (US).  I’ve heard people say that the UK version is better than the US one, but I’ve never seen the UK show, so I can’t make any comparison.  But I like the US one, though I think it’s an acquired taste for some.

I’ve started watching from Season 1 again because I had missed so many episodes over the years.  I’ve deliberately avoided watching any of the new ones on TV. That would just ruin it for me. 

By far, the best part of the show has been the evolution of Jim and Pam’s relationship.  Oh sure, they’re just two television characters.  I know that!  But this has been one of those couples that I’ve been rooting for, for so long, that there’s actually an emotional response watching them move from one level to the next. 

I think that I’m actually jealous of Jim.  How sad is that?

I discovered a new show recently.  Brotherhood. One of the guys at work mentioned it to me, so I went looking for it.  I’ve only watched the first 5 episodes, but so far it’s very good. 

It’s an HBO show, centred around a couple of Irish brothers in Rhode Island.  One is a state representative.  The other is a local gangster.  Because it’s HBO, the show is a little more realistic than some of the shows on other networks.  There’s fair amount of violence, but nothing too over the top.

Brotherhood was on the air from 2006-2008, which is pretty typical of most of the HBO shows that I’ve liked (Deadwood was 3 seasons, Rome was only 2).  I don’t know if it never caught on, or if they just decided that enough was enough, but 3 seasons was it. 

In this era of crappy reality TV and cheap clones of mediocre shows, it’s nice to find a diamond in the rough from time to time.  Brotherhood is worth the wait.