It's gotten better, though. It's definitely gotten better. And the first 3 of this season with Deschanel weren't great, although they did write and film them early in the summer, so were probably using leftover ideas from Season 4.

She was supposed to film 4 before going on maternity leave, and I think only made it through 3. So there were two episodes with no Deschanel, no Fox. She's back next week, so it will have been 5.

It's been so good that I'm not convinced we need Zooey Deschanel back. Where does her character have left to go? I guess she could become a principal, and I guess she could end up with Nick (or someone). But I feel like her story has basically been told at this point.

Whoa, was that Jim Gaffigan as Col. Sanders during the commercials? His impression was somewhere between Darrell Hammond's "good accent but soulless" and Norm Macdonald's "Don't Give a F*ck"

HUGE gap between critics' rating and viewers' rating on Rotten Tomatoes… one might almost think critics will give anything the Coen Brothers do a pass.

Saw it over the weekend. It was a bit of a trifle.

I used to eat at a burger restaurant that had tables decorated with laminated pogs (in 2008). I think this was done so you could easily tell exactly when the place opened.

What, no mention of 2 Broke Girls? She showed up a few weeks ago as an ex-love of Garrett Morris' character.

Sadly, he's only 29. Google him and you'll find a Boston Globe story from 2010 where a theater director calls him the most talented actor in Boston since Matt Damon. Seriously.

Last night's vintage SNL (Rob Lowe / Eminem, season premiere of 2000-2001) was fascinating. On the syndicated, VH1/Comedy Central version, they skip Weekend Update entirely and show a very odd improvised piece with Will Ferrell and Molly Shannon, and a mediocre Dateline sketch where Lowe impersonates Stone Phillips.
But…

You know, I haven't minded Cooper Barrett. It has some moments; I think on Fox in 2002 or something, it might have had a chance. Bordertown, on the other hand, is somehow worse than Allen Gregory, and that's saying something.

I'm convinced Seth wants it to end, Fox won't let it end, so every episode is just a giant middle finger at the viewers in the hopes that they can shrink the audience. Kinda like Pearl Jam's late 90s / early 00s albums.

He has had a weird, weird career. He's played Shakespeare, Martin Luther and Merlin, and a Soviet war hero, and a bunch of other random stuff. Anyone else ever seen the Darwin Awards movie?

So he wants Burt Reynolds' career?

Except they shot this back in the summer, right? Long before Ranazzissi's lies were exposed?

Yeah, late to the party, but I believe I read that they were planning one more episode with some Zooey - John Cho subplot, and she was just too pregnant to really hide it.

I also had a roommate who liked to dry-hump girls while I [tried to] sleep! Small world!

People forget now how big Zoolander was supposed to be. Among other things, it was meant to be Will Ferrell's big break. If you watch SNL eps from fall 2000 and early 2001, he has the Mugatu hair in the goodnights, and basically only shows up to play George W. Bush, because Lorne let him out during the week to go…

Wiig does stuff like this (and Walter Mitty, and Anchorman 2, and maybe Ghostbusters) for the money. Her heart seems to be in weird little micro-indies set in NYC that are mostly terrible.

So where's the Odd Couple? Any chance they'll actually air the second season?