It's been a long day for me, as I've spent, oh, some twelve hours with my ass parked in front of my laptop on a fading-by-the-day, back-crippling IKEA desk chair that I paid maybe $25 for. Still, and this despite how my spine currently feels, I can't say I really minded all that much since I just finished the first draft of a new screenplay and, considering I just scored some very impressive representation a few weeks back, I've got my fingers crossed that it'll be finding its ways into producers' hands sometime in the next month.

To celebrate my little accomplishment, my girlfriend and whipped ourselves up some matza pizzas, cracked open the last of our Sam Adams White Ale, and watched the two best sitcoms on the telly these days -- The Office and 30 Rock. Imagine my surprise when these usually hilarious half-hour vacations from reality turned out to be pretty unfunny.

Take The Office, which decided to channel Seinfeld this week by being about absolutely nothing. It had so little substantive content, in fact, you could skip it all together and not even know you missed the episode since, in case you didn't catch it, it was about absolutely nothing. Perhaps this was intentional, considering how many episodes this season have been spent dealing with melodrama surrounding Michael and Jan's slowly imploding relationship and the bizarre Dwight/Angela/Andy love triangle that started off amusing and has turned out to have no legs at all.

Michael, still desperate to get laid, "It's not about the horniness. It's about the loneliness", takes off for Manhattan with Dwight to go clubbing with his boss, Ryan, except it turns out that Ryan has developed a bit of a coke problem. When he "cries out for help," Michael and Dwight are too oblivious to offer a hand. Oh, and Jim, as a side effect of trying to be a good leader, gets the office crew locked onto the building property after hours and Toby tries to feel Pam up. Hilarity does not ensue.

Over at 30 Rock, Tina Fey and the gang celebrated getting booted to 9:30 by NBC, a timeslot sure to torpedo their ratings, by delivering this season's weakest episode. Jack has finally been selected by Don Geiss to replace him as chairman of NBC Universal, while Jack in turn chooses Liz to climb into the corporate vacancy his promotion will leave, but, when Liz fails to get diabetic Don something to eat, Don goes into a diabetic coma that allows Devon Banks, Jack's arch nemesis, to seize the position through his probably ridiculous fiancée, Cathy Geiss, Don Geiss's daughter. Meanwhile, Tracy tries to leave a legacy his children will be proud of by marrying the two things he loves most together, video games and porn. The results are mildly amusing, but the episode lacked the zing and crisp, quotable dialogue the show is known for.

Long story short: while looking to celebrate my minor screenwriting accomplishment, I turned to two of my favorite shows on television for a few laughs and was unexpectedly and stupendously let down. Oh well, there's always next week.

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