What a difference a week makes. We hereby disavow any reservations we might have had about Arrested Development’s third season, and hastily re-apply as many caveats as possible about the second year of LOST.

Episode 2 of AD (”British Bombshell”) reminded us, repeatedly, why this show is so good:
- Michael’s rhetorical question upon learning of his mom and dad’s “all kinds of freaky stuff”: “Why do I have breakfast before I come here?”
- “Free Chicken”
- Buster, upon retrieving and sniffing his prosthetic hand: “I’m going to run this through again on ‘Pots and Pans’.”
- Michael giving Lindsey the truck-hauled cabin (”It’s more like a Lincoln”): “Watch out for live-ins. You will get some live-ins.”
- Michael, to his dad George Sr. (Supporting Actor Emmy nominee Jeffrey Tambor): “It’s a wonderful performance, Dad. You’re a regular [Supporting Actor Emmy winner] Brad Garrett.”
- TV news footage of Michael getting hit by the Poppins: “Courtesy of WeeBBC.”
- The narrator (Andy Griffith Show alumnus Ron Howard): “No one is making of Andy Griffith. I can’t emphasize that enough.”
- Tobias (”I’m ‘Buy’ curious”) and his bloody hair plugs.
- Harry Hamlin: “I love my trailer.”

We used to snicker that kids spend $200,000 of their parents’ money going to Harvard, then fight for jobs writing for TV comedies. But with this show, it’s actually a worthwhile investment. At least until it gets canceled because it’s barely beating reruns of Diagnosis Murder on PAX in the ratings.

And then on the other end of the spectrum, there’s the (this week) aptly-titled Lost. In last week’s premiere, each flashback incrementally altered your understanding of the real-time action, propelling it forward. This time, however, there was one long, incrementally-progressing flashback that labored to tell you something you already knew: Michael loves his son Walt (shocking!), and doesn’t like it so much when Walt is taken from him (also shocking!). But wait, there’s more! Lest you think this was a mere 15 minutes or so of new footage, stretched out into an hour… you’re more right than you think! There’s also a complete rehash of last week’s hatch-entering escapades, this time told from very slightly different perspectives! At least after Locke and Kate go in, anyway.

Essentially, all the interesting footage in the show was helpfully compressed down to 30 seconds… in the preview for Episode 3. Just ABC’s way of thanking those 33 million premiere watchers for tuning in again. Hey, ABC: You’re welcome!