Tuesday TV Rap

MERRY CHRISTMAS, CHARLIE BROWN!
Last night on ABC at 8pm, Charlie Brown celebrated his 40th Christmas. It wasn't a "holiday party;" it was most certainly a Christmas celebration. And it was wonderful.

I love Christmas. It's really the only day of the year I was positive my family wouldn't fight. It had little to do with the presents (though I'm sure it didn't hurt). We didn't really do anything special. We went to church, but we did this every Sunday and all those Sundays typically still included a fight or two thrown in along with God's word. But Christmas was special, in a way I never thought to question or analyze, which I believe to be a miracle in and of itself. This is what I believe to be faith.

9pm My Name Is Earl, NBC
Not a total 180-degree swing from Charlie Brown, Earl (Jason Lee) celebrated Christmas in his own special way: by pretending to still be married to his ex-wife (Jaime Pressley) because they wouldn't approve of her real new husband, who's black. Turns out, no one was being racist; they're all just a little bit nuts. I'll give this episode a big LOL. Line of the night goes to Ms. Pressley in her exclamation after having her real husband wander out of the bedroom in the middle of the night in front of her parents, whom she thought were inexplicably racist: "It's a negro! Oh my God, we're being robbed!"

930pm The Office, NBC
I didn't used to like this show, but it's growing on me. The humor here is very dry and specified to a certain type of person, I think. Anyway, Steve Carell is really funny.


10pm Law & Order: SVU, NBC
Oh my goodness, this show just sucked any cheer, holiday or otherwise, right out of my soul. They threw about 10 different controversial issues into a single unbelievable hour. I use the word "unbelievable" here because it lacked believability, not because it was unbelievably good.

p.s. I know. I watch too much television. But I'm willing to be the guinea pig in finding out exactly how much really is TOO much.