“Snakehead” was hands-down one of the most disgusting episodes we’ve seen and Fringe has had some disturbing episodes. These squid-like parasitic worms were really a sight to see as they moved about in the bodies of their hosts.

While Peter and company tried to get to the bottom of the worms, Walter was going through a new phase which I rather liked. Having been out of the institution for a year now, Walter is attempting to be more independent and he hasn’t won the trust of his son, Peter, yet. Peter still wants to follow him around and it’s clearly got under Walter’s skin.

I don’t think John Noble (Walter Bishop) gets nearly as much credit for his acting as he deserves. The breakdown scene in Chinatown was terrific. You could see a man sad, frightened, and upset with himself. He couldn’t find anyone he knew and for all his efforts, he just couldn’t remember his son’s phone number.

Walter’s decision to “chip” himself was bizarre. I’m sure it’ll be used at some point, but was just silly if you ask me.

As for the mystery of the week, the gang managed to tie the worms to a Chinese gang known for trafficking street drugs like heroin. Their involvement in parasitic worms was an interesting change. The FBI was able to determine that these worms could be used to treat humans with low white blood cells and other health problems.

Personally, I found this story a little week. The episode wasn’t helped by Peter’s decision to get involved and be a hero. It was pretty clear he would need rescuing in the end. Peter isn’t an action hero; I don’t see the need to put him in a role that just doesn’t work for him.

Rating: 7

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

Last week’s “Part 1″ ended with a cliffhanger, promising more details about what really happened to Trudy and when tonight’s episode began, we started right back at that moment, with Trudy’s confession. I have to admit it was quite a confession. Before she and Adrian met, she had an affair with a professor, who turned out to be the big-shot judge.

While it was clear that the judge was the guy last week, this pretty much cemented the case. Things only ended up getting better when Monk discovered more information. The biggest revelation was that Trudy had a child with the judge and that the judge lied about its survival. Trudy was told her daughter died nine minutes after being born.

I loved how the midwife played into the story. Some time after the birth of the girl, the midwife threatened to tell everyone about the judge’s fathering of a child out of wedlock and he put an end to that as it would have ruined his career advancement.

Regarding the poison used to try to kill Adrian, I wasn’t surprised by the way it was introduced: through his wipes. I suspected this after watching last week’s episode. He strangely carried wipes more often than usual.

If Adrian had died in the series finale, I would have been okay with it because he would have been able to be with Trudy again. However, after seeing how the writers did the finale, I’m glad he lived. Connecting with the daughter of Trudy was quite touching to see. Molly isn’t Adrian’s daughter, but she might as well be. He’s treating her like one and I absolutely love it.

The fact that Randy was moving on from San Francisco wasn’t much of a surprise, but his new position was. Police Chief. While I’m sure Randy can handle it, I have to admit he’s a little goofy to be getting such a high ranking position if you ask me. It wasn’t the job I assumed he’d get.

There was only one disappointing aspect of this episode: there weren’t enough guest stars. I appreciated the highlights of some of the characters like Sharona and Julie, I would have preferred to have seen them in the episode, in addition to the highlight package.

Monk has been a real treat to watch over these eight seasons. Not all of them were great, but I have a lot of fond memories. It was one of the shows which got USA to where it is now as a channel known for great characters. We may not have gotten the likes of PSYCH, Burn Notice, Royal Pains, and In Plain Sight if it weren’t for the success of Monk.

Tony Shalhoub deserves to take home another Best Actor award for his work. He’s one of the best actors on all of television or in film.

Rating: 10

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

“August” centered on a group of people we know relatively little about: The Observers. We really only knew of one coming into this episode, but “August” let it be known that there are several of them, each tasked with observing people and events.

One thing that I found interesting is they talked about something big happening soon. This was not only hinted at towards the end of the episode, but one of the people Olivia talked to indicated that The Observers have been seen at more events of late than during any other period of time, indicating that something’s coming.

What that event is isn’t known. I wonder how much Walter really knows about these men, however. He seemed to be able to decipher some of the bizarre language that the men use. That doesn’t necessarily mean that he can understand all of it, on the other hand.

One of the more touching sides of the characters came through during a car ride when Olivia told Peter about her niece. They had the whole day planned, but that had to be put on hold due to her having to work. Olivia’s a wonderful person and I’m glad we get to see the softer side of the character from time to time. The FBI agent side gets a little old every now and then.

I’m eager to find out what’s going to happen on Fringe. The hints dropped at the end of the episode were very interesting. I hope the writers get their butts in gear. The show’s sinking ratings don’t bode well for the series. I suspect they won’t have very much time to turn things around and keep viewers hooked. I think it’s time to knock it off with the standalone episodes and keep the mythology coming. Keep the diehard fans happy and finish out the story. Serialized shows don’t have the lifespan of a procedural. It is time for the writers to wake up and get the show’s story going because I’m not convinced there will be a season three to drag the story out any further.

Rating: 7.4

There wasn’t a whole lot of mystery behind it. Every time something crazy happened Tyler was right there. It was clear that the supposed kidnappers were just there for the ride, so to speak.

Perhaps my favorite part of this episode was witnessing Walter’s reactions to the thought of not seeing Peter again. Another hint of Peter being the Peter from an alternate universe was dropped again. I can’t help but wonder when Walter will tell Peter about what he did and why. It’s going to be a heck of a conversation.

For the second time in recent memory, Fringe threw in a little surprise at the end. Nina Sharp’s earlier description of the drug trial seems to have been inaccurate. She in fact knew all about Tyler and the others. I’m glad they threw that in, but the episode was still fairly mediocre anyway.

Rating: 6.5

The episode started off with a fairly ominous vision of Trudy. Adrian was awoken by the sight of his beloved wife who told him that they’d soon be seeing one another. To me, this meant that Adrian would soon be dead.

I enjoyed the scene which followed this. It was a flashback scene to twelve years ago, to the last day of Trudy’s life. Adrian joined Captain Stottlemeyer on a case when they received word of the car bomb.

Coincidentally enough, twelve years later the two men found themselves in the same location. Unbeknownst to them, this would lead to an attempt on Adrian’s life. Thankfully, it wasn’t through the use of a firearm, but rather a poison, a ricin poison of some sort.

The fact that Adrian’s death was going to be drawn out over a few days is making this two-part finale all the better. A quick death via gunshot or stabbing wouldn’t have the impact that this is having.

I think the editors went wrong when they showed the person who killed Trudy fairly early in the episode. Sure he was somewhat disguised, but I think it’s fairly easy to figure out that it was the judge who killed Trudy and had another man take out Adrian.

I give credit to Ted Levine and really all of those at Monk for that incredible footchase scene towards the end of the episode. Mixed with some brilliant comedy, that segment of the show was one of my favorite of all time. Police chases these days are always done in police cars. Rarely outside of reality cop shows like Cops do you see good police chases on foot and the one this week on Monk had me really excited, all the way through it.

Next week is set up for one hell of an episode. This is going to be must-see TV for every Monk viewer in my opinion. Even if you stopped watching the series a few years ago, it’s time to tune in. A deathly Adrian is going to finally solve his wife’s murder and put this emotional chapter of his life to an end. While I hope Adrian doesn’t die, I’m okay with it if he does. I’ll expound next week after the finale.

Rating: 9.1

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