J.D., Dr. Cox, and Turk are back from the original cast; we get to see Elliot in a nice scene in the beginning and we do get an update on a couple of other characters by the end of the episode. Hopefully we’ll see more characters from the past later on in the season. Sacred Heart has now been turned into a medical school on a University. Denise is also back as a student advisor and it’s nice to have her back also.

The biggest clue that this won’t be the same Scrubs that we remember is when we hear J.D.’s thoughts and as he walks past Lucy, the newest student, it immediately switches to her. Actually, I’m not sure if Bill Lawrence purposely did it, but J.D.’s inner monologues were definitely short in this episode and also seemed to be interrupted throughout this episode. Lucy is the main focus out of all the students and she’s interesting; like a younger more innocent version of J.D. She does come off as being slightly annoying a little, but there’s other characters that round her off like Cole, the jerk whose dad owns the school, or guy who melted down the first time he went through Med School and is now hooking up with Denise. All these characters are different and they all sort of balance each other out, very much like the original cast did in the first eight seasons.

This episode served as an introduction and it was very easy to get sucked into this world again. Things are different, but the comedy style is very much still the same.  The world and the characters are the same, but there is a slight bit of maturity added to them. This episode was a good introduction and I look forward to seeing what’s to come in further episodes.

My biggest worry with this season of Scrubs is whether we’ll basically just be seeing a rehash of past episodes, like the same life lessons with different characters. For newcomers this won’t be such a big deal, but for fans of the show, it’s going to feel a bit repetitive. I’m hoping that Bill Lawrence can continue to make this show feel new while still making it familiar; so far though Scrubs has started off on a good foot.

Rating: 8.0

Michael Scott made a promise to a bunch of 3^rd graders that he would pay for their college tuition when it was time. It’s now been 10 years and Michael is not a millionaire and is unable to pay for anybody’s tuition. Michael had been dreading going down to the school and rightfully so; it was another cring-worthy moment to watch the school do all these different things in Michael’s honor and to see that there’s a library named after him. Then when Michael gets on stage and has to tell them, it was sort of sad. Michael’s the master at the uncomfortable moment and I was literally holding my breath as he went up to the podium to explain. I thought it was cute though that he remembered their names and had been keeping tabs on the kids. I also agree with Erin that had Michael not made that promise that those kids would never have even graduated or wanted to go to college.

Erin made some strides in this episode in integrating herself into Michael’s life a little because they really haven’t had much playful interaction and we got to see a little of that between the two. Sure they don’t have the chemistry that him and Pam do, but it’s something.

Back at the office we had Dwight try to get Jim fired. This was fun to watch as Dwight managed to silently implement an employee of the month program and make it so Jim ended up awarding himself the award along with the money. I thought it was a great plan that ended up unfolding perfectly.  It was a bit disappointing though to see how it ended up backfiring in Dwight’s face. It wasn’t that Jim got away with it, but David Wallace eventually just looked it over. I find it odd that he would totally overlook the whole office complaining about Jim taking their money. It was interesting to know that Jim and David are a lot closer than we thought with Jim and David agreeing to have dinner. I liked the ending that saw Ryan and Dwight form a partnership to oust Jim from his job. I look forward to see what comes from this team. I’m actually hoping that Dwight succeeds in taking Jim out; I think Jim has become fairly unlikable since becoming co-manager.

I thought this was a good episode and I like when The Office doesn’t try to fit a lot into an episode, this episode might have suffered a bit from splitting Michael and Erin from the rest of the Office. While this episode was pleasant, there’s nothing totally memorable about it. I liked this episode, but we’ll have to see what The Office plans on throwing at us next.

Rating: 7.5

Dexter is still stalking Trinity and on one night he sees Trinity follow a family and take a child. This was surprising because taking children had been part of Trinity’s pattern, or so we thought. It seems Lundy’s detective work was incomplete and he failed to find the part of the pattern, where Trinity kidnaps a child days before he starts his cycle again. The children always represent Arthur. It was quite creepy watching Arthur alone with the boy and calling him Arthur. Some of the dialogue was tricky because due to Trinity saying he would preserve the boy’s innocence, I thought that he actually wouldn’t kill the boy. Once I saw Trinity poison the boy’s ice cream, there was a sense of urgency of Dexter trying to find Trinity.

Dexter looked like crap this episode and it was funny that Debra seemed to be the only person who noticed that Dexter looked kind of dirty. This season has been hardest on Dexter, who really seems to be trying to fit everything around trying to find Trinity. I liked the fact that Jonah was in this episode again and it would be interesting to see Jonah next season, or at least hopefully see what happens to him by the end of the season.

Dexter ended up getting to the child just in time, but somehow Trinity got away again. It’s kind of funny that Trinity has escaped Dexter this many times, especially considering how Trinity isn’t very fast and is pretty old.

I also liked how Debra used her interview with Christine to get more information on what she knew about the Lundy’s shooter. It was a great set-up. I also liked how Quinn wasn’t totally mad at Deb for probing Christine; even though he did still seem pissed off at the end when they escorted her out in handcuffs.

I liked that we got to see Christine’s relationship with her father also. She seems to be treated like the black sheep of the family. It was kind of sad how much attention she wants from her father and how she doesn’t get it.

There was a little scene there where Deb gets more information about who her dad was seeing and this all might pop up by the end of the season again.

I liked this episode because it kept the La Guerta/Batista relationship to a minimum also. Masuka trying to confess what he saw at Thanksgiving was kind of lame because it doesn’t feel all that important. In fact, once Dexter finds out, he might not even have that big of a reaction to it.

Aside from that, this was a pretty good episode and it was great seeing Dexter’s pursuit of Trinity. This was another solid episode and with the police getting closer to catching Trinity, I’m looking forward to seeing how all of this plays out by the end.

Rating: 9.4

I still find it hard to believe that Arthur hasn’t found out that Dexter is following him. Dexter has sat outside a several times this season with Arthur unaware, but that’s besides the point. This week Dexter infiltrates the family and realizes that Trinity’s family doesn’t like him very much. We meet Jonah, who’s probably the most normal family member. It was nice to see Dexter kind of bond with Jonah and want to protect him. After Jonah damages the car, Dexter stays over at Arthur’s a lot longer than necessary because of worry about what Trinity would do to Jonah.

Some of the scenes in the Trinity household were sad. Watching Arthur break Jonah’s fingers or finding out that he locks his daughter in her room or that the wife is terrified of what he’ll do was sad. Things got even worse in the household when Jonah destroys Trinity’s sacred vase. We finally see Trinity unleash his beast.  This in turn leads to a good scene where Dexter unleashes his beast and we see him drag Trinity into his kitchen. It was a terrifying scene where it looked like Dexter was going to kill Trinity right there. There was also a weird reaction from the family who actually seemed to want Arthur to live.

Harry showed up in this episode and there were a lot of comparisons between Dexter and Trinity and the fear that Dexter could end up turning out like Trinity. As the audience, we somewhat scoff at the idea of Dexter turning out like Trinity, but there is a possibility that after so many years, Dexter could end up like Trinity.

Debra continued to come closer to finding Trinity and is showing that she’s a really good detective. I have to say I thought Jonah was going to be the one who shot Debra, but I didn’t think that it would end up being Quinn’s reporter girlfriend, who’s apparently his daughter. It was definitely an interesting turn events and it’s looking like a race to see whether Debra will catch Trinity and her shooter before Dexter gets to him.

We also had the side story with Batista catching a criminal from a case a long time ago. The Batista/LaGuerta relation is still boring, but it’s kind of cute to see the two in love. I also could do without Debra possibly falling for the next door neighbor Elliot.

The ending was great with everyone seated at a table hiding some kind of secret or knowing something. It’s odd that Masuka ends up being the one knowing about Debra’s indiscretion, so I wonder what he plans on doing.

This episode really kicked it up and I’m eagerly looking forward to what happens next with Dexter, Trinity Killer, and Debra. We also get to see whether Trinity will run into Dexter again and how Dexter plans on recovering from showing himself to Trinity’s family.

Rating: 8.5

I’m having trouble figuring out if I like this storyline very much. Sure it’s realistic and very relevant to what’s going on today, but when have you ever heard someone say that they like The Office for its realistic storylines?

This week’s episode had Michael thinking that he was being honored at a Dunder-Mifflin shareholder meeting. Of course things don’t end up being as Michael envisioned and it turns out that he’s going to a meeting where the heads of company are confronted by people on their financial situation.  This led to Michael making some very awkward and quite uncomfortable decisions. One had him telling the media that Dunder-Mifflin would solve their financial problem in forty-five days when Dunder-Mifflin doesn’t even have a plan.

There was also one big awkward move where Michael calls one of the owners a moron. I think these moments were supposed to be played off as comedic, but it really just came off as awkward and it was quite uncomfortable to watch him almost talk himself out of his job, even though you would think that after he went off and started his company that there would be a “do not fire” clause in his contract.

Back at the office, Jim’s position is being challenged when Ryan leads everyone to believe that Jim doesn’t have the power to really fire anyone and that Michael is still over him when it comes to management. This was one of those Jim pranks or whatever you want to call it that didn’t come off very well. It needed more time possibly, but the ending just wasn’t satisfying enough which had Ryan in a small closet space with no Internet doing work. In fact, the ending of the prank left me feeling bad for Ryan because I started to think that maybe he’s claustrophobic.

I am interested to see where this storyline leads, because The Office really isn’t The Office if there isn’t an office setting to go off of. So I have to assume that this is going to be resolved somehow; I just hope that the road to resolve is a more comedic one.

Rating: 6.0

I’m definitely glad that everything is back to normal in the office. Pam seems like she’s back to her old self after a couple of bad episodes for her.  The office is alerted of Dunder-Mifflin facing hard economic times, which could mean that everybody might be losing their jobs. Michael doesn’t want to scare the employees so he tries to distract them by having them all participate in a murder mystery game. This gave us some funny moments, which included Creed having one of the funniest scenes of the whole episode. We also got to hear some fake southern accents as everyone pretended to be the characters they were given.

This actually seemed to work as everyone really did start to take their mind off of losing their jobs. Jim didn’t think it was a good idea and thought it was a waste when they could be doing work. Jim has become slightly unlikable since taking this co-managing job and while getting back to work is actually a really good idea, it’s starting to make him look like he doesn’t care.

It was funny watching Dwight go around and interrogate people like he was in an episode of CSI. We even had a nice romantic storyline involving Andy and Erin who have been edging closer together gradually since she started working together. Andy asked her out, but did it in character, and he thought Erin thought he was just asking, because it was part of the game. This all played out in a rather sad tone as we find out that Erin thought it was a real date, but Andy backed out at the last minute when he was asked. While not as fun as watching Jim and Pam, this is a rather cute storyline to watch and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens with it. I’m also wondering if this might make Angela a bit angry when she sees Andy pursuing Erin.

The interesting part came at the end when we discover that Dunder-Mifflin really is in trouble and that by the end of the year they could be bankrupt. There are a couple of shows that have already put a “bad economy” storyline. The Office doesn’t do too much different; in fact, I don’t think it rolls as well as other shows. I don’t get how they’re just now finding out that they’re running out of money. I also wonder how long corporate has known this, especially considering how they came close to buying out Michael for a large sum for his company or having the big family business party. Then again that is realistic with corporate tycoons spending money they don’t have.  This could still turn out to be good. I look forward to seeing how the characters react to this and seeing how this plays out for the company this season.

Rating: 7.5

Dexter and Trinity end up on a trip of sorts after Dexter tells him that he just wants to get away for a bit. The trip itself only had one interesting scene which had Trinity hit a deer. Dexter thought Trinity would be happy to put the deer out of his misery, but instead what he got was a frightened child who couldn’t go through with it. The rest of the episode showed Trinity in clips of him making something, which turned out to be a coffin. I could have done without these though, because they felt more like an interruptions or just ways of showing Trinity.

Debra continued to dig into her father’s past, but after meeting a lady who painted a rather bad picture of Harry, Debra realized that she couldn’t go through with it anymore. This was a good thing for Dexter because Debra was coming really close to discovering Dexter’s mother was the one she was looking for, which would have led her to the Ice Truck Killer and a bunch of other things that Dexter would have had to answer to. Debra now seems to be set on finding Trinity and she’s already gotten the go-ahead to investigate, so it should be interesting to see if this will lead her to running into Dexter while Dexter is also working on Trinity.

Michael C. Hall as Dexter Morgan and John Lithgow as Arthur Mitchell

The target for Dexter’s dark passenger was a suspect in the murder of a model whose visa had expired. I have to say that from the beginning, something seemed fishy to me. There just didn’t seem like there was enough evidence to justify Dexter killing this guy. I did however think he was guilty, despite this, so it was a surprise when we find out that Dexter killed the wrong guy. I thought it was interesting that the last moment of the episode saw Harry far away when it seemed like Dexter needed him the most. Of course this was probably due to Dexter wanting to be left alone because after all Harry is just a figment of his mind. It should be interesting to see what impact this will have on Dexter, who now looks to be focused on Trinity again.

We had more La Guerta and Batista relationship stuff, but all we got was glances and a talk reaffirming that their relationship is over. This all was actually boring and it’s becoming one of my least liked storylines ever. I’ve always wanted to see La Guerta with her own storyline, but this isn’t working well. The relationship is just hard to get into with so many up and downs for the couple.

I did love Quinn becoming the new Doakes and he now really seems to think that there is something more to Dexter then meets the eye. I am starting to wonder if Quinn will ever up getting led to Doakes’ obsession with Dexter, we’ll have to see, but this has potential to turn into something pretty cool. I also loved how Dexter was able to shake off Quinn with no problem when he realized he was being followed.

I did like this episode, but it wasn’t one of the stronger episodes of the season. I’m hoping the pace picks up quite a bit next episode and some things really start to happen.

Rating: 7.7

We did see Daniel in this episode. His moments with Molly were really good. He proposed to Molly and by episode’s end he was married to her. It was heartbreaking to see them married though, and then for Molly to collapse in the bathroom, which btw was weird, because you would think she would make a sound or something falling.

Betty, Marc, and Matt get teamed up for their final YETI assignment and they have to ace it because only the winning team will get interviews due to the hiring freeze in the fashion industry. I liked the three working together; it was quite entertaining and a bit odd that Matt and Amanda actually get along well. I like when Betty and Marc are in work mode and it’s these moments where we know that Marc works just as hard as Betty does when it comes to his job. The performance reviews were funny how Daniel was upbeat and giving nothing but praise while Wilhelmina’s way of praising Mark was saying that he was adequate, which Mark was joyous about.

The three working on the project wasn’t going so well because Matt found himself distracted. He just wasn’t into it, and when confronted by Betty, he gives an excuse about not having a passion for it anymore and that he now wants to act. I have to say that I was freaked out a bit too and when his mom showed the slideshow. I have to say that I agreed with his mom.  Matt is still interesting though; he’s very good at getting mad at Betty. It feels like he’s walked off on her a couple of times, but he can look like biggest goof sometimes.  Bernadette Peters had shining moments also with the scenes where she’s hitting on Marc and I kind of hope that they find some way to make her stick around.

The Ignacio/Elena relationship is over and that’s sad. The thing is I figured she wouldn’t be on their long due to Lauren Velez appearing on Dexter, but to be honest I never thought Elena fit in well with the show anyway. I liked the character, but having her in the Suarez house just made it feel cramped.

Claire and Wilhelmina’s feud was another highlight and the insults they were hurtling at each other were some pretty harsh ones. I like that we’re going to be seeing more Claire on this show because her and Wilhelmina make a great pairing to watch.  It should be interesting in the episodes to come to see how Claire being vice president will affect Wilhelmina now that she has to answer to Claire. I am still unclear where Wilhelmina stands though with the company. Does she own a part of it like she did before or does she just have her job back…that’s confusing. Anyway, I like that Wilhelmina now has to answer to someone. I like that Claire is in a position of power, which should make things interesting again.

I liked this episode. I thought it was a good one. The season finale is next week and I’m looking forward to seeing how everything resolves. There have been a lot of things that have happened this season, so I’m looking forward to seeing if there’s something that can possibly top any of what we’ve already seen this season.

Rating: 8.0

The intro had me laughing hard and I do love when we get an intro that is just catches you off guard instantly. So yeah it was surprising to see Dwight walking around the office giving bagels to everyone. Now, of course, we all know Dwight never does anything good without some kind of ulterior motive, so it wasn’t surprising to learn that this is all part of his plan to get Jim fired. I’m really hoping that Dwight getting Jim fired might actually come to fruition, but what Dwight starts even more is something that not even we anticipated… a war.

I can’t tell you how funny it was watching Dwight and Andy go back and forth doing favors for each other. Andy has to always return a favor and Dwight was hell bent on being owed favors so he could use them to get Jim fired. I never thought that I’d be so scared of people being nice to each other. The two were doing things for each other left and right. The whole situation actually became hostile, where the two actually started to resort to tricking the other into letting them do a favor. My favorite nice thing that was done was where Andy tricks Dwight into helping him get something and it ends up being tickets to some game. I thought this was hilarious and honestly could have watched a whole episode of just this.

Outside the office, we had Pam and Jim double dating with Michael and Pam’s mom. This started off funny with Pam trying to pretend like she got a call, only for Jim to pretend that everything ended up fine (this also resorted in an awesome response from Creed). It was sweet when Michael surprised Pam’s mom with her own section at the restaurant. It got to a point where Pam actually seemed really happy for the two and was coming around. As their talks went on though, Michael started to realize how old Pam’s mom actually was (58) and while it wasn’t the age that necessarily started to get to him, it was the fact that Pam’s mom had been their done that and no longer desired to do anything exciting, Michael realized that it couldn’t work out. This is the point in which he decides to break it off, and it got hard to watch because first Pam’s mom opens up all these presents and they were very sweet. This ultimately all leads up to Michael breaking up with Pam’s mom due to Pam being unhappy with the relationship. This ends up not going so well, as Pam is actually okay with it. This leads into Michael breaking up with Pam’s mom a second time.

This review doesn’t even begin to articulate how nerve wrecking this scene was, just picture in your mind, your boss breaking up with your mom on her birthday in a restaurant in front of you… Yeah, it’s not a pretty sight. Things weren’t over though yet because Michael and Pam are still at odds and in an effort to try to resolve things Michael gives Pam an option of hitting him, which she too happily takes him up on. The end when Pam actually does hit him wasn’t as great as the build up, but the build-up was great.

I’m not sure if Pam’s attitude is due to pregnancy or if the writers just want to give her some backbone, but Pam is becoming an unlikable character since her wedding. I thought she really was unlikable towards the end when she wanted to hit Michael. Michael, on the other hand, hasn’t done too much wrong in my eyes; he dated and had a very good reason for breaking up with Pam’s mom. Sure, he probably shouldn’t have done it on her birthday, over dinner, in front of her daughter, but other than that I don’t think he’s made a wrong step.

While giving Pam this mean streak might add to learning more about her, it’s really sad to see her like this and I hope with this thing between her and Michael resolved that we get back to the funny and sweet Pam that we fell in love with.

Michael mentioned Holly again and I’m hoping that we’ll see her again before the end of the season. It was a great episode though and I’m waiting to see what the next big storyline is going to be for the characters of The Office.

Rating: 7.8

This episode actually surprised me because when Wilhelmina’s baby went missing, I actually thought that it wasn’t Christina. So it was surprising to see Betty get into the car and realize that baby William was in the car. Betty really pushed the limit to show how far she’s willing to go for a friend; sure we knew the baby was most likely Christina’s but what about if it hadn’t?

Wilhelmina’s determination to find Christina before she ran a DNA test was in full run and thanks to Marc’s help, it actually works and she would have been able to pass of the child as her own. There was a great scene though where when Wilhelmina had won, she and Marc have an exchange where it looked like Marc was going to quit or tell Wilhelmina that she had crossed the line. He didn’t do that, but the look on his face was definitely one of disappointment. It was a memorable moment because in the end Marc ended up saying nothing.

Betty trying to trick Wilhelmina into confessing was blown to pieces because you just can’t get one over Wilhelmina that easily, but Betty’s plan did make Wilhelmina think, which is that she would have to lie about this pregnancy for the rest of her life and god knows that Wilhelmina doesn’t really want to take care of a child. I thought it was a pretty brilliant move to divulge what she had really done to Cal Hartley. This could have been risky, especially with the fact that Cal Hartley supposedly loves kids, but the plan works and when Claire and Daniel try to fire her, Cal ends up giving them the ultimatum of keeping Wilhelmina or losing him. With the company in a downfall, Daniel makes the choice to keep Wilhelmina.

I’m not mad about this because really we need Wilhelmina to stay at Mode. She’s talented and it just wouldn’t be the same without her. It is disappointing though that not only did she keep her job, but she also kept her stake in the company, which somewhat makes the baby William storyline seem obsolete.

Christina gets back the child that she knew was her all along. I have to say that I didn’t expect to be as sad as I was seeing Christina exit the show. Christina hasn’t been seen much this season up until the last episode, but her goodbye did bring back memories of how she was the first person to meet Betty and help her fit in Mode. I’ve heard that she will be back in a recurring stint next season, so I’m eagerly waiting to see her again.

There were a lot of funny moments in this episode, a lot of them by Suzuki St. Pierre and his use of technology to figure out how a child would look in the future. I thought this was hilarious; there were also some funny Amanda moments, but it was weird that she just totally disappeared in the last half of the episode. I also thought the little innuendos where Cal would refer to Daniel in the bunny costume were funny, but really shows that Cal might be more deadly than we’ve seen

I thought this was a great episode and I’m definitely interesting in seeing how the rest of the season is going to turn out. I’m very interested to see how silent of a partner Cal Hartley really is going to be because it’s obvious that he can be a lot more evil then he portrays himself to be. With the baby William drama settled, I can’t wait to see what the next one is going to be.

Rating: 9.0