The question on everyone’s minds. Let’s get to it.

Community: “Beginner Pottery”
I dig it when Jeff goes crazy. Really, I do. The show does a great job of exposing the hypocrisy of being too good for community college—at first, it seems Jeff is just jealous that someone is putting in less effort and is getting more attention than he is, but it turns out he really cares about beginner pottery (and I love, love, love the dark turn they gave that at the end with the voiceovers). I wish they pulled back the curtain on Britta’s  activism that way—I still feel like I don’t know who she is at all, and I was shocked this week when she mentioned that she’d never gotten an A before. Why hasn’t she? I wish I knew. The subplot with the boat was mostly hilarious, but once again boiled down to a “we’-re-all-good-friends” message.

Parks and Recreation: “Park Safety”
Wow, something took its mean pills last night. Yeah, it’s funny when they’re mean to Jerry, but I can’t take too much of that all strung together. Even when they were trying to be nice to him—and not laugh when he said “twout,” for example—it was done in such a snickering and pitying way that it went back to being mean again.

The Office: “New Leads”
This episode was interesting in that it kind of acknowledged how much things have changed on the show. Dwight isn’t Michael’s lackey anymore, Jim has gone from being aloof and above it all to part of the corporate machine, etc. It was nice that they mostly addressed these changes. I’m not liking the direction that Andy and Erin are going in, though. I loved Erin when she first started—she seemed odd in that she was so eager to please Michael no matter what he asked her to do, but that he was the one putting her up to it. Now it seems like she’s not just a sweet person catering to Michael’s whims—she’s actually coming across and dim and weird. She’s rivaling Creed in her disconnect from reality.

30 Rock: “Don Geiss, America, and Hope”
Back to basics: Liz is unlucky in love and thinking about settling, Jack Donaghy struggles to be a Master of the Universe, Tracey is worried that his reputation will become too vanilla. The good news about the show sticking with its roots, though, is that its roots are what it does best. (Except for that “porn for women” thing. That was lame.) I particularly loved the adversarial dates that Liz goes on with Wesley. (Snipes!) Most women I know find Britishisms charming, so it’s hilarious to me that Liz is so turned off by them. (“Gang way for the foot cycle!”)

So, who won Thursday?

Competition was fierce this week, but there can be only one winner.

Community: Basic Genealogy
Usually, I dig how this show is warmer and fuzzier than the others. This week, though, the you’re-a-great-friend-no-YOU’RE-a-great-mom thing was too much even for me. And how many episodes can end at school-wide dances?

Parks and Recreation: The Possum
I could endlessly re-watch Andy tackle the possum—the sound he makes is just incredible. Also, Ron gets to try out his entire repertoire of angry faces when Mark doesn’t think his workshop is up to code.

The Office: St. Patrick’s Day
I love when the show has moments that feel like Classic Office. Megadesk is certainly one of those. The rest of it—Jo keeping them all late on St. Patrick’s Day—feels like a classic Office situation, but they didn’t really manage to wring enough jokes out of it. But, hey, it ends with the return of Todd Packer!

30 Rock: Future Husband
If you had to make me choose between John Hamm and Michael Sheen as hypothetical future husbands, I’d pick Michael Sheen. 30 Rock always wins Emmys for its guest stars because it seriously gets the best guest stars. Elizabeth Banks is still tearing it up, too. And I like how this episode picks up immediately where the last one left off, with a waffle in the DVD player.

So, who won Thursday?

So, the Olympics are over—NBC comedies are back! The question resurfaces: Who won Thursday? Let’s take a look at last night’s episodes:

Community: Physical Education
Abed’s constant pop-culture references are the center of the story instead of a commentary on the action when he tries to impress a girl by trying out some famous personas. I don’t watch Mad Men, so his Don Draper seemed a little shaky to me, but he does do a good impression of Joel McHale.

Parks & Recreation: Woman of the Year
The relationship between Leslie and Ron is quickly becoming one of my favorite things about the show, and I was pretty pleased with the way he spent the first half of the episode needling her, and the second half of the episode supporting her. The “lesson” he was trying to teach her, though—that awards are meaningless—was a little weak. This episode also featured some nice moments with TiFaux Dan’s Crush of the Moment, who is in a band that is no longer called Mouse Rat.

The Office: The Delivery Part 1 + 2
OMG it’s a baby girl SQUEEEEEEE! Even though this episode was obiviously all about Jim and Pam, there were lots of good bits with the other characters, like Michael throwing the keys to Jim’s car away, or Kevin’s “Ultrafeast,” or Dwight’s remodeling of Jim and Pam’s kitchen.

So, who won Thursday?

OK Go–the treadmill people for those of you who haven’t been a fan since before their first real album and don’t have a personal check from the band’s merch guy that you never cashed because you thought it might be worth something some day, the way your uncle’s Beatles talcum powder is–has put out a new video.

You’ve probably heard about this video already, even if you what you heard wasn’t exactly about this video. Instead, you’ve probably read the argument that the label shouldn’t allow the video to be embedded because band would make more money if you watched the video on YouTube instead of here, and the counter-argument that people would only want to watch the video on YouTube if it became an embeddable, viral sensation in the first place.

That’s all old news, though, so let’s forget about it. Instead, let’s just watch the video. Because it is AMAZING. Even if you don’t accept the face-value whimsy, it’s fun to dissect it and figure out where there might be hidden cuts. I’m of the opinion that it doesn’t matter if there’s some video trickery, it’s still endlessly entertaining. The song is good, too.

This guy, apparently.

No NBC sitcoms–see y’all after the Olympics!

Valentine’s Day came early to the NBC comedies. Who handled it best?

Community: Communication Studies
While last week’s episode of Community played to all of its strengths, this week’s episode indulged all of its bad habits. It was another episode exploring the shallow relationship between Jeff and Brita. (And, is it me, or is everything we know about Brita told and not shown? I still don’t really know who she is.) Abed’s pop-culture meta-commentary was especially on-the-nose (if this were a sitcom, you’d do this—but it is a sitcom, get it!), and even Senior Chang’s antics were more frantic than funny, unlike last week’s more subtle “clearly I had no other plans fall through.”

Parks and Recreation: Galentine’s Day
This episode checked in on all of the show’s couples: Leslie and Justin, Tom and Wendy, Ann and Mark, and April, her boyfriend, his boyfriend, and Andy. (Oh, Andy. The world is not ready for “Sex Hair.”) Though things don’t really look good for any of them, the show managed to mix in a lot of sweet, touching moments alongside big laughs.

The Office: Manager and Salesman
This episode effectively ended the “Jim as co-manager” arc, resetting things so that Michael is back to being sole manager and Jim is back to salesman, a blow that’s softened by the fact that salesmen can apparently make more money than their managers. This is especially disappointing since, despite all the machinations, Jim never did anything as co-manager except make Ryan sit in the closet. That, in turn, inspired a Dwight/Ryan team-up that also didn’t go anywhere. Sometimes I think this show is ust spinning its wheels.

30 Rock: Anna Howard Shaw Day
Valentine’s Day is a holiday about loneliness and insecurity, so it’s right in 30 Rock’s strike zone. Liz schedules a root canal for Valentine’s Day thinking it’ll count as an opt-out for the holiday, only to realize that she couldn’t find anyone who cared enough about her to take her home from the surgery. Meanwhile, Jack starts dating Elizabeth Banks (!), someone who knows all his games and is better at playing them. Liz’s exes appear to her as a laughing-gas hallucination, and stick around for an over-credits bumper that should probably be considered racist but was still really, really funny.

So, who won Thursday?

There’s no question that Thursday is my TV day. The DVR fires up at 8 pm and doesn’t finish recording until 12:30 on Friday. I can last for a week just on what I record on Thursdays.

The centerpiece of this weekly marathon is obviously the NBC Thursday-night sitcoms: Community, Parks and Recreation, the Office, and 30 Rock. And, on days when I can’t sit down to watch all of them, I find it really hard to decide which ones to watch. It used to be that I’d head straight for the Office and 30 Rock, but Community and Parks & Rec have really grown into strong comedies, while conventional wisdom says that 30 Rock is slipping, and sometimes the Office is just too harsh.

This constant horse-race of the four shows jockeying to be the best each week have given me the idea for a new weekly feature: Who Wins Thursday? Each week, it’s a toss-up as to which of the four sitcoms is the best. I’m determined to crown a winner each week.

And, since I can’t wait for this week’s Valentine’s Day slate of episodes, I’m going to start with last week. The rundown:

Community: Romantic Expressionism

Jeff and Brita conspire to keep Annie from dating a “gateway douchebag,” while everyone else tries to Rifftrax b-movies in Abed’s dorm. Jeff and Brita work better as co-conspirators than each others’ romantic interests. But Troy steals everybody’s thunder in both plots, trying awkwardly to seduce Annie away from Vaughn while maintaining that his relationship with Abed is totally cool.

Parks and Recreation: Sweetums

A candy company tries to sponsor Leslie’s park, and she crusades against their high fructose corn syrup and tries to get Ron to start living a healthier life. Meanwhile, Tom Haverford gets the rest of the gang to help him move out of Wendy’s house. While it does have a hilarious cameo from “DJ Roomba,” the episode’s plot feels more like a Simpsons-style corporate parody, and b-story with Tom is a downer.

The Office: Sabre

When Michael Scott has trouble transitioning to working for Sabre, the company that bought Dunder Mifflin, he visits David Wallace. The resulting misery is the Office’s bread and butter, but I still find it difficult to watch. When working at Dunder Mifflin is demonstrated to be the better of two options, nobody wins. The b-plot involves Jim and Pam in a situation where neither of them are allowed to be cute or make silly “what?” faces.

30 Rock: Verna

Jack tries to help Jenna get over her mommy issues, which somehow don’t include the fact that Jan Hooks is her mom and looks totally frightening. While they’re walking around oblivious, Liz and Frank move in together and have a Paranormal Activity-style camera set up to show how Liz eats in her sleep. A lot of it is funny, but both plots have elements that are gross and off-putting.

So…

Shit! Lost is starting already? Tonight*?! With the show being off the air for almost a year, I meant to, you know, try and remember what was happening before the season premiere. Oops, too late, I guess. Or is it?

If you’re like me and forgot to do a Lost refresher, here’s what you can read to get back up to speed.

TV Guide has been doing “catch-ups” about all of the characters, so you can see where we left off with Jack, Kate,  Hurley, Richard, Sun & Jin, Sayid, Sawyer, etc.

New York Magazine’s Vulture blog does a good job of collecting theories about this season that have been floating around the Internet. They mostly sound like BS, but some of them are entertaining.

The AV Club does a great “pre-game” post from the point of view of just having re-watched seasons four and five. The writer grapples with whether the story all hangs together, lists our most pressing outstanding questions, and even includes a recap video.

I easily tire of “Doc” Jensen’s Lost interpretations, but people seem to love him, and those people would probably be interested in Entertainment Weekly’s Lost package. The best feature is a list of 10 episodes you need to see to basically get the gist of what’s going on. It’s all very Locke-heavy.

Just for fun: Jersey Shore’s popularity means that people are all about Italian-Americans now, so this one Italian-American family seeks to capitalize on that with their video recaps (via Flavorwire). And New Yorkers might be tickled to see the island mapped out, NYC-subway-style.

And, though everyone might be flipping out that “the first four minutes” of the season premiere were leaked online, two of those minutes are really the last two minutes of last season finale. If you’re really super-impatient, you can watch that to get your “previously, on Lost” fix.

*Groundhog Day. Does this mean that our favorite Losties will have to keep re-living their days until they get them right?

I’ve never had much use for Jimmy Kimmel. I’m like Lucille from Arrested Development: “I don’t know who that is and I don’t care to find out.” But he impressed me by going on The Jay Leno Show and making things as awkward as possible. Kimmel’s show airs at 12 on ABC. He easily could’ve stayed above the fray on this whole late-night situation, or he could take easy pot-shots at Carson Daly like Letterman did. Instead, he totally bullies Leno–and Leno isn’t really able to turn the tables on him. So I give a tip of the cap to him. Watch the clip below. It’s really uncomfortable.

If you missed How I Met Your Mother’s 100th episode, you also missed the musical number. Of course there was a musical number!

I applaud the show’s decision to reign it in at one song, instead of an entire musical episode. Musical episodes of shows can be fun, but they often employ some kind of gimmick to explain away the presence of the songs (magic spells, weird aural diseases, and the like). That wouldn’t really fit on How I Met Your Mother. I love that they have the guts to just break into song, even if they Rob Marshall it at the end. For your pleasure (after 30s of commercials):