Ok, I must say, it makes my life infinitely better to have my Thursday shows back. Gods know I missed me my 30 Rock, The Office, and Scrubs. But they have not been gone so long that I forgot what they looked like--and they look different now. Maybe this is the nerd who's taking two production courses this semester speaking, but the lighting for 30 Rock and Scrubs was radically different. 30 Rock just appears to have better cinematography out of nowhere, and I'm ok with that, but it seems like Scrubs is using softer light (probably a bunch of diffusion) and it looks darker--and I can't help but think this is meant to mask the aging of the actors. As much as I used to have a crush on Zach Braff, I couldn't help but notice how old he looked, starting to lose his hair and get wrinkles, and he's not aging as well as say, Clive Owen or Harrison Ford. Let's just hope the same won't happen to John Krasinski, because I might die inside a little. Speaking of Jim Halpert, kudos to The Office for pulling off the look of the neon beer sign. Can't have been easy.

So tech nerd rubbish aside, I was fairly satisfied with the shows last night. 30 Rock quite obviously had the best episode of the three, in spite of a couple weak storylines that would have fallen completely flat on any other show (also, someone should inform them of the statistic that 13 people die every year from having vending machines fall on them. Pete got lucky!). While I was less thrilled with Pete and the ensemble last night, I couldn't be happier that MILF Island was finally revealed, especially given how well it tied in with everything related to Lemon and our Class A Moron. And by the way, if you do google "Class A Moron", the first site you get is 30 Rock's, which is close enough to Jack Donaghy to keep me satisfied. I seriously enjoyed "Gilly", Liz's names for Kenneth, and "Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate! Ack!". And I hope Liz won't lose her mind working on Deborah's spinoff.

On the uncomfortable front, how about that dinner party? I will say, I enjoyed the insight into Michael and Jan's relationship, to which a child should never be born. Good thing it seems the vasectomy count is up to sterile! Also probably sterile: Dwight's date. I was a little disappointed that she didn't turn out to be a relative, but you can't win 'em all. Another interesting relationship point? Jim was willing to leave Pam stranded at the party. Party foul, dude. Pam deserved a better dinner than burgers in the car for that crap. Overall, the episode was funny enough, but didn't sit well with me. I mean, it's The Office. I want to see what happens in the office, not in their home lives. Where's my Stanley, Phyllis, Meredith, Kevin, Oscar, Kelly, and most of all, Toby? Not ok, guys. It's like the beginning of season 3 of Lost--no one liked the avoidance of the ensemble there, and they won't like it here.

And then there was Scrubs, wrinkles and all. For a show that was supposed to be ending this season, there wasn't enough character growth and dare I ask for it, maturity in this episode. Brinner was funny at first, but they stretched that joke so far they lost it, and most of the cast didn't have enough to do. Cox and Elliot in particular were underutilized, to say nothing of the complete absence of Ted and Todd. On the bright side, looks like J.D. and Elliot might get together after all, appeasing poor saps like me who care about this crap.

All in all, I'm more than happy to have my shows back. I guess I'm just slightly disappointed since there was so much time since the last batch of new episodes and while writers weren't allowed to actually write, it's not like thinking about episode ideas can be restrained. But lame mindgrapes aside, I'm happy to have them back.