And the “Fringe” formula keeps going strong. While the opening appears to be ripping off The Birds, the episode soon takes an interesting turn. Yes, I just used the term “interesting” to refer to something that happened on “Fringe.” This show might very well be improving.

Essentially, a businessman in his skyscraper office is attacked by a bunch of butterflies with very sharp wings, and eventually they chase him right out the window. Given that he’s fairly high up on the skyscraper, this turns out to be fatal. (Does anybody actually inhabit the offices at the bottom of skyscrapers? You never see them on T.V.) Olivia gets called in to investigate, which interrupts her party plans. What a shame.

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Ah, Christmas specials. We’ve all seen them - somewhere deep in my childhood memory I hold a vague recollection of ’70s Christmas specials being re-run every year, along with Rudolph, Frosty, the Little Drummer Boy, and Home Alone. Somewhere along the line, celebrities decided that “Christmas” meant “corny” and just ran with it. Those things are horrible.

And in the grand tradition of Christmas specials of yore, Stephen Colbert favored his fans last Sunday with an hour-long extravaganza of songs, celebrity guests, and his trademark fear of bears. The plot revolved around Colbert attempting to reach New York to film his Christmas special, but being unable to because of a bear outside his cabin. But it was his Christmas special. Very meta.

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We, the buying public, have almost forgotten about the writer’s strike. We had a patch of boredom, then we got our shows back and it was all okay. Sure, some stuff got delayed, but we’ve mostly forgotten about it. And many of us have forgotten about the shows that used to captivate our interest. Different programs have different ways of reminding us that they still exist, and this past Sunday, “24″ brought us all back into Jack’s world with the T.V. movie “Redemption.”

I mostly lost interest in “24″ after the second season, when I realized it was going to be the same thing over and over again. The best parts of “Redemption” were the same as the best parts of the show; Jack stabs a guy as he runs around a corner, Jack jumps down from a tree onto three guys and gets beaten into a bloody pulp, but he goes down swinging. Jack tries to deactivate a landmine while his friend is standing on it.

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I figured it out: “True Blood” is just a ploy by HBO to get people to subscribe. When next summer comes around, I know I am going to be…at least seriously considering a subscription to HBO. And so will every other “True Blood” fan who wasn’t already subscribed. I might be alone in this boat, although I imagine there are some other folks who just happened to get a three-month subscription for free because DirecTV, or someone acting on their behalf, tricked them into signing up for an extremely expensive football package that cost 200% more than they admitted at the time.

Anyway, my point is that they ended the series on a massive cliffhanger. I hate that. Each season of a show should stand alone. I don’t want to wait months to find out what happens with the crazy horse/pig/flickering lady, and whoever was stashed in the annoying sheriff’s car. All right, this will be a bit spoilery from hereon out.

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I have utmost faith in Jimmy Smits. He can really pull off a role, especially a difficult and complicated one like Miguel Prado. Even so, as I read the scanty episode summaries that have been floating around for some of “Dexter’s” upcoming episodes, I began to seriously doubt the direction the show was going. They seemed to be implying that Miguel would somehow get close to Rita in a way that made Dexter uncomfortable, which I just couldn’t picture.

Well, they finally started going in that direction on tonight’s episode, and I get it! I totally get it! I should never have doubted anything involving Jimmy Smits. He’s started to get all charming with Rita and it’s just ugh because we all know he’s a secret killer. Oh, by the way, he killed that DA Ellen Wolf. Of course. As if they could have been implying anything else.

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Well, I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t play very close attention to last night’s SNL, mostly because I did a full recap last week and quickly realized how painful it is to analyze a bunch of ridiculous skits for an hour. However, I did have it on, and I must say: Tim McGraw. You’re all right.

He hosted tonight, with T-Pain and Ludacris as musical guests. Which was basically a built-in joke that he made great use of in his opening monologue, in which he described how country music and rap share a lot of common themes (like your woman sleeping with another man and killing him, and/or killing her).

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My husband tells me that “30 Rock” is becoming exactly like “Arrested Development.” I tried to watch “Arrested Development” once, and it just didn’t appeal to me. Which might explain why my enjoyment of “30 Rock” seems to be steadily declining. But don’t take my word for it:

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Hey TV viewers!!

Are you fat, balding, favor sweatpants and a wifebeater with a horribly anachronistic gold chain and have more body hair than certain kinds of wildlife? Do you resent your neighbors and have no visible source of income?  Have you been held hostage by weightlifting equipment with ambitions of global domination?

If you have, well, you probably have a lot more fun on your weekends than you should, but you also may be able to land yourself a TV gig being none other than Carl in a live-action episode of Adult Swim’s food-based show with a title that has almost nothing to do with the show, Aqua Teen Hunger Force.

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This, the season finale of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” works better if you remember the Season 3 episode “Sweet Dee’s Dating a Retarded Person.” In it, Charlie composes a song about a character called the Night Man who sneaks into people’s bedrooms and “fills them up with his spirit” so that they “become the Night Man.” (Inevitably, the rest of the gang interprets this as rape.) After the song is poorly received, Charlie sits in a dark depression in his room, unable to find inspiration until Dennis throws open his curtains.

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Well, things in “The Office” are pretty much back to normal. Pam is behind the desk, Ryan is being the evasive temp, and Toby is back in HR. That last bit is giving Michael some difficulty; he’s still in denial about Holly leaving, and he refuses to even enter the part of the office that houses her now-filled desk.

Meanwhile, Jim’s plan to buy his parents’ house has come to fruition. Somehow, the whole office is aware of his plan (except for Pam). Upon visiting the house, Jim realizes for the first time how…hideous it is. Shag carpeting, faux wood paneling, and a scary painting of a clown that is, judging by his inability to detatch it from the wall, crucial to the structural integrity of the house. But Jim is determined to charm his lady with a home, so he bravely soldiers on.

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