Monday Lookaround

A look back at the best and worst of last week, and a look ahead to what's coming up.

Highlights
1. Lost. Time-tripping along in the season premiere. Round and round the island goes, when it stops, nobody knows . . . . Though there were plenty of plot twists and revelations, my personal favorite parts were Hurley chucking a Hot Pocket at Ben (was I the only one who had Jim Gaffigan chirping "Hot Pock-ets!" in their head during that scene?) and Frogurt the annoying Lostaway getting a flaming arrow to the chest. That'll teach him to speak out of line to Sawyer.

2. Battlestar Galactica. It was a quiet episode, but more like the quiet before the storm. The little dashes of humor -- Adama's "Sometimes I hate this job" -- were a nice break from the bleakness of last week's premiere. It was gripping to watch the seeds being sown -- Baltar preaching a message of anarchy, Roslin giving up the fight and Gaeta making yet another horribly bad decision -- and wondering how it will all turn out.

3. Flight of the Conchords. Bret ("Brit!") buys a $2.75 mug that throws him and Jemaine into poverty, and the only way out is for Jemaine to become a man-whore. Hooo boy, who hasn't been there?

Honorable mention: Burn Notice. It's nice to have Michael and the gang back. Those overhead shots of Miami are amazing eye candy in HD. And a bikini cat-fight to boot! Rarrrr!

Lowlights
1. Top Chef. Restaurant Wars is usually among the best episodes of the season. But this one floundered under the weak leadership of both teams. This has been a pretty uninspiring year for Top Chef, and this episode was pretty par for the course. Radikha's hosting must have been pretty awful for her to go home, considering Leah's entree was inedible. Can't wait for Leah to go home. In fact, just give them all the boot except for Jamie, Fabio and Stefan (and maybe Jeff) and let them battle it out. It's pretty clear they're head and shoulders above the rest.

2. The Office. The whole Hilary Swank hot-or-not bit went on for waaaay too long. And I was disappointed that Michael caved and decided to crush the nice family paper company.

3. That creepy commercial for a certain car insurance company featuring the farmer who looks like a refugee from Deliverance, a driver who looks like a serial killer asking for directions, and a wad of cash with eyeballs sitting on a fencepost. It just makes me want to change the channel.

Looking forward to. . .
1. Battlestar Galactica. Looks like civil war starts to break out in the fleet. Oh frak. . .

2. Damages. Ellen gets out into the field with an investigative reporter, and bad things happen in West Virginia. (Do good things ever happen in West Virginia?)

3. Lost. Lord knows what'll happen. Just let it come, and I'll try to figure it out later.