I think it’s completely cool that Caroll Spinney, the man who plays Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch, continues to voice and puppet these characters at the age of 72. Sesame Street has been airing since 1969. So there must be some kind of record for “Longest Puppeteer” somewhere.

Just saw the second season finale. And I’m just as stunned as Lee Goldberg. Ron Moore has, with his writers, somehow managed to redeem science fiction television, transferring the moral and political subtext quite present in today’s speculative fiction to episodic drama. He has dared to imbue this series with scope and an almost Tolstoyesque range of assorted characters, without sacrificing the hard space opera component.

Even before the audacious subtitle “ONE YEAR LATER,” last night’s episode was dealing with some pretty hefty issues. A rigged presidential election recalling Miami-Dade County and the moral consequences of interferring with democracy, the lingering aftermath of a state presiding over a woman’s uterus, the gloriously incompetent Baltar, and, if politics wasn’t your thing, Starbuck wondering if she was really ready to commit to a boytoy, an utterly shelled out Tyrol trying to find an identity, and Apollo struggling with his new role as a commander.

In other words, not only do we have characters here who are utterly fucked up, but we have a government presented, warts and all, that represents the flawed will of the people.

I’m almost positive that Ron Moore had China Mieville’s New Crobuzon books sitting nearby when he planned this out with his writers. I can’t recall a single American television series that has dared to combine such a mammoth political scope with a dogged determination to explore flawed human beings. And this in a bona-fide serial format. Deep Space Nine, which, incidentally, Moore did write for, came close, but was, alas, hindered by the need to adhere to the antiseptic utopia of the Star Trek universe.

Something like Lost tantalizes us, but has failed in part this season to live up to its bargain that there is some grand masterplan at work. By contrast, Moore’s Battlestar Galactica has remained absolutely consistent in quality since its inception. Battlestar does not torture us with tedious puzzles that, in all likelihood, are meaningless. It takes more chances and has more followthrough, even on minor storylines that appear to have been concluded. It willingly paints itself into a corner again and again and, like a grand Houdini act, still manages to find an escape.

Frankly, I’m not certain how much longer Moore and company can keep this up. But I’ve greatly enjoyed the ride so far. Battlestar isn’t just escapism. It’s great television. I rarely use that modifier with relation to the boob tube. Indeed, I rarely turn the evil Trinitron on. But Battlestar has restored my faith that, every now and then, television can live up to its end of the bargain.

Incredible.

Earlier in the year, I gave the U.S. version of The Office a shot. I had my doubts. To saunter onto the territory of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant was tantamount to sacrilege. But after a shaky start, the U.S. Office proved that it had the heart, irreverence, dedication and continuous storyline that, while not as good as Gervais, was nevertheless laudable.

But last week’s episode, which dealt with sexual harassment meetings and organized labor, finally equaled the Gervais-Merchant blend of discomfiting satire and it may very well have surpassed it. Last week’s episode, with its character development, its underlying subtext of corporations crushing the soul out of humanity and the embarassing image of Michael Scott treating a forklift like a toy and driving it into a stack of shelves, pushed The Office into the oxymoron of, dare I say it, vital television.

What makes The Office so important? When was the last time, for example, that you saw any show dramatizing the way a corporation keeps its workers baited for life with impossible dreams (such as the graphic arts training program or the “human” face of a meeting in which extremely personal questions are asked and it’s really more about reporting these things back to HR)? Of course, in a world where you can be downsized tomorrow, these long-term prospects are lilttle more than prospects.

Americans spend forty hours of their week at a job and perhaps ten of those hours stuck in traffic. Out of a 168 hour week, with 56 hours devoted to eight hours of sleep, that’s about half of a waking life devoted to work. And yet there have been very few films and television that have come along to dramatize this middle-class bloc. The reason why a film like Office Space became so celebrated is because there was frankly nothing else out there which has dared to focus on this.

Until, of course, The Office, in both its UK and US incarnations.

To wit: If you are not watching this show, start from the beginning. You will encounter a show that is not only hilarious but has its finger on the pulse of one of the great American hypocrisies.

[ADDITIONAL NOTE: And speaking of television exploring hypocrisy, I should also note that Battlestar Galactica is also strong in its own ways, if only because any program with the line, “One of the nice things about being President: you don’t have to explain yourself to anybody,” is playing quite rightly with fire.]