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Well, a week has passed since I posted part 1 of this multi-part post. I spent the weekend in Champaign, and I did not once touch a computer from the time I left my house to the time I returned home. And last week I just didn’t get a chance to write up anything about the TV I did see.

Enough with the excuses for why this is coming about a week later than I had hoped. I’ll start with this: I have not yet seen this week’s episodes of How I Met Your Mother, My Name is Earl, Two and a Half Men or CSI: Miami. I did, however, watch The West Wing and Law & Order: SVU.

I don’t yet know what I think of the early developments of this year’s West Wing. On the one hand, I think that the show made it all too obvious who the next President will be in that universe, but on the other, perhaps that is the intent. I won’t spoil it for those of you who watch, but haven’t figured it out. Just watch the episode again and you’ll figure it out.

As former Chief of Staff, Leo has long been used to being in charge. As candidate for Vice President, he is not accustomed to being told what to do and how to do it, especially not by the White House. Faced with the upcoming election, Leo briefly forgets that Bartlet still has an administration to run, and he has to sieze opportunities when they come regardless of the potentially harmful impact it may have on his party’s candidate.

I find the change in dynamics between the current West Wing staff (Toby and CJ) and the former staff (Josh and Leo) an interesting development. Toby and CJ definitely show a bit of resentment towards Josh and Leo for having left the administration to go for something else. You can also see how Josh and Leo feel slightly betrayed by their former co-workers when they go for an educational reform bill that could eliminate Santos’ major platform for the election. To cap off the animosity felt between characters, Josh lets Donna have it when she comes in to interview for Santos’ Deputy Chief of Staff. Josh recites back Donna’s jabs and barbs at Santos during the primaries. The last time Donna is seen in the episode is when she storms out of Josh’s office without the job she thought she would effortlessly get.

SVU was also an interesting premiere. Tonight’s story centered around a mother-daughter con artist pair that successfully conned millions of dollars from unsuspecting men for two decades. Olivia is the first one conned in the episode, but not the first, nor the last, to be duped by this deceptive duo (good alliteration, eh?). Guest stars in the premiere include Mark McGrath, playing himself, and Linda Carter, playing the mother con.

April Troost, played by guest star Estella Warren, is a pregnant woman threatening to jump off of a hotel balcony because she claimed to have been the victim of rape. DNA tests positively identify a rich scientist as the father of the baby, but he has no recollection of sleeping with Troost. It turns out that Troost drugged her marks with Rohypnol and used an anal probe of sorts to cause electro-ejaculation. There was nothing funnier than Ice-T’s and Richard Belzer’s faces when the medical examiner told them how the con was being accomplished.

I think the greatest part is that tonight’s SVU is the first of a two-part crossover with Law & Order. I’m not quite sure how the stories will be tied together, because SVU ended tonight without a cliffhanger. It was an episode that could stand on its own. Rich had a good point when he mentioned that the worst parts of the other crossover episodes that appear in syndication is that you don’t always get the full story. This episode doesn’t leave you hanging, wondering what’s going to happen next, but yet it does at the same time.

So, yes, this post is NBC-heavy. Sorry, but that’s all I’ve had time to watch so far. I’ll get to watching the rest of the premieres we have on the DVR, as well as the second episodes. Until then, you’ll have to settle for this.