Hey, I Remember That Show?!: Grey's Anatomy

Is there such a thing as April Sweeps? Because, for at least 2008, there should be. April is the busiest month of the year. Baseball begins. College Basketball ends. The Masters happens. And every single major scripted television show will return to air with new episodes.

The problem? We haven't seen new episodes of those shows since forever. Characters that we spend every week with for months have been largely forgotten about; cliffhangers and set-ups are distant memories.

Well, don't worry. I'm making it my business to remind you of what's happened. Allow me to present to you Hey, I Remember That Show?! Earlier this week, I took a look at The Office. Now it's time for another Thursday night extravaganza: Grey's Anatomy.

Head like a Hole: Prison Break Brings Sarah Wayne Calles Back from Decapitation

When I signed into my Facebook account tonight, I didn't expect to see an article on the news feed, linked by E! Online's Michael Ausiello, titled: "Prison Break Stunner: Sarah Wayne Calles Returns!"

But then, I also can't say I'm entirely surprised. Actually let me amend that. I'm not at all surprised. I knew it was coming. There were so many signs sprinkled throughout the season, that the only thing missing was a chyron on the screen saying that Dr. Sara Tancredi wasn't really dead. In fact, here's what I wrote in January:

Hey, I Remember That Show?!: The Office

Here's a good idea: let's have a blog about television during the Winter of our discontent known as the WGA Strike.

Holy cow. Who thought this was a good idea?

If I have to write about Prison Break or LOST for another week, I might snap.

I love LOST, don't get me wrong, but enough is enough. Thank God it's on hiatus. How many times can I write the same thing about the same show?

It's awesome, the end.

There is not ONE program on television right now that I watch. I guess I could have watched the Britney Spears edition of How I Met Your Mother, the current title holder for "the best show you're not watching on a regular basis," but the spectre of Ms. Spears didn't draw my interest. Plus, How I Met Your Mother is going to be one of those shows that I pick up on after it's canceled and realize ten years too late that yes, indeed, it is like Friends, only better!

Clearly, even though the WGA Strike ended a month ago, it's repercussions are still being felt on my DVR. I've been reduced to watching whatever Mike Nichols movie is running on HDNet (Postcards from the Edge being tonight's qualifier and being surprisingly good. Meryl Streep, marry me.)

But fear not! In the next few weeks, all of your (and my) favorite shows will come back with a vengeance. Your DVR will be so full, you won't even know what to do with yourself. And I know what you're thinking:

"What the hell even happened on [insert show here]?"

Well, that's why I'm here. To catch you up and give you an idea on what to expect for the rest of the 2007-2008 television season. Allow me to present to you Hey, I Remember That Show?!

Tonight's edition: The Office.

March Madness: Lost Recapped

The best part about tonight's episode of LOST is that there's another one a month from now. If the WGA Strike had it's way, this would have been the final episode of LOST's truncated fourth season. And if that was the case, I probably would have smashed a glass in my apartment while simultaneously vomiting.

Thankfully though, we don't have to worry about that. Well more accurately, I don't have to worry about it, since cleaning up broken glass mixed with vomit probably would be a less than ideal way to spend the rest of this Thursday night.

I had high hopes for this episode. Michael was back, and this was going to be the episode that explained how the hell he got on the Charles Widmore owned "rescue" boat. And as an added bonus, the ABC promo ominously told us that someone was going to die!!!!

(For those keeping score at home, I guessed Claire.)

How could this not be terrific?

Well, pretty easily apparently.

Karma Police: Lost Recapped

Let's flashback to last week, shall we? Here's what I wrote about the craptastic Juliet episode:

It just felt like the episode that you burn through on the DVD to get to the infinitely cooler next episode when you find out that Michael, in a twist that everyone has seen coming for weeks, is the Ben's man on the boat!!!!

And make no mistakes, that's who is on the boat. I'd bet a lot on that. The way they set it up tonight, with Ben telling Locke to "sit down," combined with the ABC promo at the end of the show proclaiming that the man on the boat is a person "you never thought you'd see again," all but clinches it. I can't wait to see Harold Perrineau pop up with a new haircut next week just before the trombone crashes into the LOST title card at the end of the episode. It won't be particularly surprising, but it will guarantee to be positively awesome.

Okay, so I was wrong about the timing. It didn't happen at the very end of the episode. Instead, it actually happened right before the last commercial break of the hour. Sue me.

Steal this Movie!: Should TV Shows Turn Into Feature Films?

There are few things in life I like more than being able to say "I told you so." It's true. And I know that makes me sound like a real dick. But I also know that secretly, you are sitting there nodding and thinking the same thing.

I bring this up because of the final season of The Wire, a show which I admittedly don't watch, ended on Sunday. Earlier in the year, I tried watching The Wire and to put it bluntly, what I saw, sucked.

It really sucked.

Love Story: Lost Recapped

The last episode of LOST, you know, the one with Desmond jockeying through time and consciousness like Billy Pilgrim in a Robert Zemeckis directed adaptation of Slaughterhouse Five, was so dense and ridiculous that I actually had to take a week off from writing anything just to try to get over it. And after all that time off, I still don't know if I even liked the episode.

I think I did. But I can't be sure.