TV's favorite topic: Itself! (Episodes)

One thing Hollywood and television generally get right is how to make a show about the making of a show - this goes back as far as the great Dick Van Dyke Show (of course it wasn't entirely about the making of a TV show, but was one of the first to give us any sense of the life of a TV writer) and more recently to such varies shows as Entourage and Extras, about the lives of stars and not-such-stars. Of course the studios and networks do this well - start with write about what you know, the old adage, and then add that we are insatiably interested in looking behind the scenes at the making of a show. It's amazing there aren't more self-reflective shows and amazing that any of them are bad (some are). "Episodes," which debuted this year on Showtime, is one of the really good ones - it's about the making of what's obviously a really crappy show, Pucks!, starring Matt LeBlanc (hysterical) as a hockey coach. Unlike some others about obviously crappy shows and stars playing themselves trying to make a comeback (like that other one with Lisa Kudrow, pretty much total garbage), Episodes has a great twist, in the that bad show is an Americanization of a British success, and the British writer-producers come to Hollywood to develop the new show. Much of the comedy focuses on their interaction with each other and, more important, with the narcissistic LeBlanc and with the (somewhat stereotyped and over the top) American producers - the clash of Brit and American cultures gives Episodes its edge and panache.