So far, this season on Friday Night Lights has pleased me greatly. It’s a huge improvement over Season 2′s abortive murder storyline, Julie’s hideous teenage rebellion, Matt’s affair with his nurse, and Santiago-who-escaped-from-A-Few-Good-Men (he was on Brothers and Sisters this week!).

For those of you who don’t have DirecTV (um, everyone?) here’s what’s happened three episodes into Season Three.

After a sort-of week off that saw no new episodes of Saturday Night Live but two installments of Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday Christmas May Day, the SNL crew returned for a round of triumphant… coasting. I mean, don’t get me wrong, the lengthy opening sequence cutting from Tina Fey playing Sarah Palin at her first conference to the real Palin backstage with Lorne Michaels, Alec Baldwin, and, briefly, Mark Wahlberg, was fun enough. But the parade of guest stars came with jokes practically pre-written, and they were virtually all about Saturday Night Live itself (with a few nudges at Palin, and, for good self-deprecating cross-promotional measure, Fey’s 30 Rock).

• Is Heroes recycling old plots already?
• Kathy Griffin says Bravo are a lying bunch of cheap bastards
• Sport Soup not as good as The Soup
• A lot of people skipped the debates to watch the Project Runway finale
• Mad Men gets picked up for a third season
• Letterman dukes it out with McCain
• Placido Domingo bought a walk on role on Law & Order
• Ricky Gervais is afraid of hosting the Oscars
• Because I love her: The woman who brought nachos to the US has died
• MSNBC hating on all the dumb shows that won’t die
• This day in lists: Top 10 Kristen Wiig moments on SNL
• OMG Barack opens his burn book on McCain: