Everyone is talking about Forest Whitaker coming to TV. Actually, I should clarify that statement: By everyone, I mean my colleagues who write about TV or edit sites and magazines about TV. I imagine most of you haven't been racking up your long distance bill comparing Oscar winner Forest Whitaker to Laurence Fishburne.

I'm mainly surprised by how surprised everyone is. This trend -- if you can call it that -- of serious screen actors taking lead roles on procedural dramas is getting kind of long in the tooth. At this point, you can't even launch a legal or crime show without first securing the services of a frequently nominated supporting actor type -- a Sinise, D'Onofrio or Patinkin.

It makes me wish there was some kind of long-term betting site where I could place money on the likelihood of 'Law & Order: Space Station' starring Jeremy Renner debuting in 2035, or 'CSI: Missoula' with special guest star Mark Ruffalo.

(S32E13) I'm not very familiar with Forest Whitaker's work, but I'm well aware of his new-found status as one of the biggest actors in Hollywood. He recently won multiple awards for his performance in The Last King of Scotland, so I knew that he could act. Whitaker didn't do such a spectacular job on SNL. He was good, yeah, but not spectacular.

However, the writing this week was really something else. It was a lot weirder than usual, I thought. For the most part, I liked it. I see that they've cut down on a lot of the more formulaic recurring character sketches, which is a massive improvement. Plus, none of the those recurring sketches are accompanied shitty little theme songs! Remember the days of "Debbie Downer" and "Carol"? Thank goodness those are over.