Community
Last night was an episode that I thought was funny, but not as funny as some of their better efforts this season. There were a lot of funny bits that were better than than the whole I think.
I think my favorite part of the episode is how they took a tired, cliched sitcom staple - texting someone pretending to be someone else (before cell phones they were still doing this type of story with phone calls or letters, so it has been around a while) and having it blow up in the character's face, and made it work by taking it into such disturbing territory (having Britta's nephew lust after her and sending her an "emoti-penis" in one of his texts) that it is hilarious in spite of how tired that plot has become.
Not one of the best episodes of Community, but still funnier than most of what is on television.
Favorite Scenes: Pierce managing to turn an anti-drug play into a pro-drug rally where the children all shout "We Want Drugs!", Troy wanting a front stinger on his bee costume (and the Dean of course actually having one on his unrelated bee costume), the look Abed gave Jeff when Jeff tried to get Abed to help him resolve the texting fiasco, the fact that Annie lives above a store called "Dildopolis".
Grade: B
The Office
Like Community, an episode where I liked various bits of the episode more than I liked the whole, although I liked Community much more overall than I liked The Office.
Michael and Holly's whole plot (Michael's accent reminded me of Sebulba from The Phantom Menace - ugh, bad memories) just didn't do anything for me. I almost forgot about them for long stretches of the episode, and afterward I really had to think hard to remember what exactly they did, other than Michael;s awkward kiss attempt at the end. Also, Gabe came off as a real jerk in this episode. I know that they are trying to set up Andy and Erin again, so Gabe has to be the "bad guy", but I thought last night was too much (although Gabe is correct - Suspiria IS a fantastic horror movie).
Favorite Scenes: Kevin and "Crazy Train", Kelly's various titles for herself, Creed (as always) and his Lock Ness Monster speech, Jim getting zinged by a wronged childhood friend with one of the lines of the night - "Where's your jetpack, Zuckerberg?", and, of course, THIS:
Grade: C
Parks & Recreation
Another fantastic episode that gave almost everyone in the cast a chance to shine (even Jerry, who made the most of his 3 lines he had). The rampant flu allowed for some great interactions and let things get a little crazy, with hilarious results. Rob Lowe in particular was fantastic. I like where his character's relationship is going with Ann, and I also like how Leslie has finally won over Ben by showing him exactly why the rest of her co-workers like and respect her. And of course, the best relationship building of all was between Ron and Andy. That was comedy gold right there.
Favorite scenes:" You spent over 1000 dollars on waffles alone last year", Ron's idea of stuff to cheer up April - "magazines and lipstick - women's stuff", Pretty much anything out of Ron's mouth - "I'm not interested in caring about people", "You had me at 'meat tornado", "Its a whole new meat delivery mechanism", Leslie's delirium walk after she thought the floor and ceiling traded places, and finally - "STOP. POOPING."
Grade: A
30 Rock
While the subplot with the writers and their disaster plan didn't do much for me, it didn't take up much time so it didn't really drag down the rest of the show. That's good, because the 2 main plots were fantastic. Tracy and Liz battling back and forth and eventually trying to out crazy each other was incredibly funny. Tracy Jordan has been used really well as a character this season, mostly due to the added wrinkle of his quest for respectability by winning an Oscar. I think that has pumped new life into a character that was starting to become stale. Jack's attempt to pre-stage a telethon in advance of any natural disaster hummed along well enough throughout the episode, but the payoff of the actual disaster at the end involving Mel Gibson's island is what really made it work. Alec Baldwin was great in panic mode, as he always is when his character is forced into that situation
Favorite Scenes: Liz' repeated use of the term "snart" (and actually doing it), another in a long line of great fake NBC shows, "The Real Transvestite Hoarders of Orange County Penitentiary", while Robert De Niro's British accent didn't do anything for me, I did love his reading of the potential disasters (especially "these super-intelligent sharks"), all the Mel Gibson pictures during the telethon (the one where he was lighting Jon Gosselin's cigarette was the best of all)
Grade: A-
Archer -
Archer is back! One of my favorite new shows of last year returned last night with a particularly funny episode involving an assassination attempt on an underage European heiress who won't leave Archer alone. As with most Archer episodes, the plot really only exists to deliver rapid fire jokes and last night's was pretty damn funny. If you are a fan of anything on Adult Swim or just want to laugh at a lot of crude sex jokes, make sure you check out this show.
Favorite Scenes: Countess Von Fingerbang, "What is it, the Alabama of Europe?", "Afterward was all gendarmes and dick stitches?"
Grade: B+
Friday, January 28, 2011
Friday, January 21, 2011
Thursday Night TV Round-Up 1/20/11
( I am going to try and make this a regular feature. We'll see how long that lasts...)
Community
Community has 2 types of episodes - crazy pop-culture parodies (the zombie episode, the spaceship episode) and down to earth episodes that explore the relationships between the characters. Throughout Community's season and a half, it has shown that it can do both types equally well and make them equally funny. Last night was one of the latter types, and it was pretty good. It touched on a lot of the relationships that had been building over time - Pierce and Troy, Jeff and Annie, and Chang with the study group as a whole. It also finally introduced a relationship that had only been talked about until now - Shirley and her ex-husband (Malcolm Jamaal-Warner sporting a FANTASTIC Cosby sweater). Another funny episode from the 2nd funniest show on TV.
Favorite scenes: Troy interrogating Shirley's ex-husband to see if he gets horny post-Halloween, Jeff bringing the woman to the mixer who spelled her name (Kendra) with a Q-U, the interrogation of Annie at the beginning to find out who her crush is ("Black Michael Chiklis"? "White George Foreman"? - both the same person).
Grade: B+
The Office
The Office continues its slide downwards in quality from its once lofty heights of comedy. However, it still has its funny moments (pretty much anything with Creed, and I like the fact that there is more Darryl). Steve Carell leaving after this season will either re-invigorate the show or be the final nail in its coffin, and at this point, I am fine with either outcome.
Favorite scenes: Dwight rollerskating across the road to go to the strip club, Michael and Erin dividing up supplies into Micheal's happy and sad boxes (Erin: "Gummy bears and gummy worms?" Michael: "Bears sad, worms happy—c’mon Erin”).
Grade: B-
Parks & Recreation
IT'S BACK, BABY! And it style too. It was a really funny episode, and it also acted as a good jumping on point for the (hopefully) new viewers that stuck around to watch after The Office. It did a good job of introducing what is great about the characters - Leslie's devotion to her job, Ron's manliness and lack of devotion to his job ("I'm not usually one for speeches, so… goodbye."), Andy's sweet-natured cluelessness, etc. It also sets up the rest of the season with a nice story arc - the "Harvest Festival", upon which the entire future of the Parks Dept. rests. Hopefully, it was enough of a set up to convince people to stick around the rest of the season.
Favorite scenes: Ron dressed as, and eventually acting like, Bobby Knight, Leslie throwing Jerry's painting in the water, Ann's spot-on impression of Chris, Tom as referee.
Grade: A
30 Rock
30 Rock has been having a very strong season so far, but this episode was a slight step back. It had some extremely funny moments (pretty much everything involving Jack and Liz), but the whole subplot with Jenna and Danny and their pretend "marriage" just didn't work for me and dragged the episode down whenever they switched to it. Still, the Jack-Liz dynamic saved the rest of the show for me.
Favorite Scenes: the cut-aways to Liz' behavior/appearance at the wedding, the final counseling scene with Mr. Weinerslav (a GREAT name), Angie's reality show (and Liz' inability to hide her excitement for watching it).
Grade: B
Community
Community has 2 types of episodes - crazy pop-culture parodies (the zombie episode, the spaceship episode) and down to earth episodes that explore the relationships between the characters. Throughout Community's season and a half, it has shown that it can do both types equally well and make them equally funny. Last night was one of the latter types, and it was pretty good. It touched on a lot of the relationships that had been building over time - Pierce and Troy, Jeff and Annie, and Chang with the study group as a whole. It also finally introduced a relationship that had only been talked about until now - Shirley and her ex-husband (Malcolm Jamaal-Warner sporting a FANTASTIC Cosby sweater). Another funny episode from the 2nd funniest show on TV.
Favorite scenes: Troy interrogating Shirley's ex-husband to see if he gets horny post-Halloween, Jeff bringing the woman to the mixer who spelled her name (Kendra) with a Q-U, the interrogation of Annie at the beginning to find out who her crush is ("Black Michael Chiklis"? "White George Foreman"? - both the same person).
Grade: B+
The Office
The Office continues its slide downwards in quality from its once lofty heights of comedy. However, it still has its funny moments (pretty much anything with Creed, and I like the fact that there is more Darryl). Steve Carell leaving after this season will either re-invigorate the show or be the final nail in its coffin, and at this point, I am fine with either outcome.
Favorite scenes: Dwight rollerskating across the road to go to the strip club, Michael and Erin dividing up supplies into Micheal's happy and sad boxes (Erin: "Gummy bears and gummy worms?" Michael: "Bears sad, worms happy—c’mon Erin”).
Grade: B-
Parks & Recreation
IT'S BACK, BABY! And it style too. It was a really funny episode, and it also acted as a good jumping on point for the (hopefully) new viewers that stuck around to watch after The Office. It did a good job of introducing what is great about the characters - Leslie's devotion to her job, Ron's manliness and lack of devotion to his job ("I'm not usually one for speeches, so… goodbye."), Andy's sweet-natured cluelessness, etc. It also sets up the rest of the season with a nice story arc - the "Harvest Festival", upon which the entire future of the Parks Dept. rests. Hopefully, it was enough of a set up to convince people to stick around the rest of the season.
Favorite scenes: Ron dressed as, and eventually acting like, Bobby Knight, Leslie throwing Jerry's painting in the water, Ann's spot-on impression of Chris, Tom as referee.
Grade: A
30 Rock
30 Rock has been having a very strong season so far, but this episode was a slight step back. It had some extremely funny moments (pretty much everything involving Jack and Liz), but the whole subplot with Jenna and Danny and their pretend "marriage" just didn't work for me and dragged the episode down whenever they switched to it. Still, the Jack-Liz dynamic saved the rest of the show for me.
Favorite Scenes: the cut-aways to Liz' behavior/appearance at the wedding, the final counseling scene with Mr. Weinerslav (a GREAT name), Angie's reality show (and Liz' inability to hide her excitement for watching it).
Grade: B
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
1972: Movies Pt. 1
Here are the previous installments in my trip through 1970's Cinema:
1970 - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.
The Getaway
This is an action film starring the quintessential 60's and 70's cool guy, Steve McQueen. McQueen was the perfect tough guy for a generation that no longer looked up to older icons like John Wayne. He was an avid racer, and sometimes performed his own stunts. He was also a massive smoker, drinker and drug user. He was the perfect tough guy for that era.
Since he died in 1980, he was one of those actors that I was aware of as a kid, and knew his name was synonymous with cool, but never I never saw any of his films when I was growing up. In fact, that wasn't rectified until I finally got around to watching The Magnificent Seven a few years ago. It was instantly apparent why he had that reputation - all you had to do was look at that gaze of his and know that this was one guy that you didn't want to fuck with. The same was true with The Getaway.
The Getaway is the quintessential caper film - a crime that is supposed to run smoothly, doesn't. From the time the back robbery goes awry, the movie is a roller coaster ride of double-crosses, car chases and shootouts that doesn't let up until the end. You don't really need to know much more about the plot than that. Throughout the whole film, no matter what happens, McQueen is still the same - exuding a steely, calculated resolve that seems to day, "No matter what happens, I got this", without any of the sly smirking that seemed to be a quality of a lot of the action stars that came after him.
The Poseidon Adventure
Now, this was much more along the lines of what I was expecting when it comes to 70's Disaster films. The Poseidon Adventure doesn't take nearly as long to set up the disaster as Airport did. Hell, the first seen of the movie launches right into the "I warned you!" confrontation between the captain of the ship and the corporate suit that are typical for these types of films (the captain is played by Leslie Nielsen, although he doesn't stick around long enough to make much of a mark on this film past the opening scene). Once the disaster hits, and its a much better one than a combination of too much snow and a bomb on a plane (check out the trailer below), the film is a non-stop progression of the survivors being faced with peril after peril as they make their way to the bottom (now the top) of the ship. Some are more tension filled than others - the scene where they are climbing the ladder in the narrow tunnel was particularly good - and there is just enough stupidity among the survivors to cause friction (Ernest Borgnine's character seems solely to exist to fight with everyone, even a small kid). Overall, it works. Throw in the typical cast of has-beens (Borgnine, Shelly Winters, Red Buttons), and you have great example of the type of movie that was everywhere, both in the theaters and on TV, back in the 70's.
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex - Coming Soon
Aguirre, the Wrath of God - Coming Soon
Last Tango in Paris - Coming Soon
Pink Flamingos - Coming Soon
What's up Doc? - Coming Soon
Other notable films that I have already seen -Godfather (although, I might add this one on for a re-watching, since I have been wanting to view it ever since I watched the recent documentary on John Cazale), Deliverance, Last House on the Left.
Notable films I am skipping - Cabaret (much like Love Story for 1970, I know its famous, but I really have no desire to watch this - if I want to see something with Liza Minnelli, I'll watch her episodes of Arrested Development)
1970 - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.
The Getaway
This is an action film starring the quintessential 60's and 70's cool guy, Steve McQueen. McQueen was the perfect tough guy for a generation that no longer looked up to older icons like John Wayne. He was an avid racer, and sometimes performed his own stunts. He was also a massive smoker, drinker and drug user. He was the perfect tough guy for that era.
Since he died in 1980, he was one of those actors that I was aware of as a kid, and knew his name was synonymous with cool, but never I never saw any of his films when I was growing up. In fact, that wasn't rectified until I finally got around to watching The Magnificent Seven a few years ago. It was instantly apparent why he had that reputation - all you had to do was look at that gaze of his and know that this was one guy that you didn't want to fuck with. The same was true with The Getaway.
The Getaway is the quintessential caper film - a crime that is supposed to run smoothly, doesn't. From the time the back robbery goes awry, the movie is a roller coaster ride of double-crosses, car chases and shootouts that doesn't let up until the end. You don't really need to know much more about the plot than that. Throughout the whole film, no matter what happens, McQueen is still the same - exuding a steely, calculated resolve that seems to day, "No matter what happens, I got this", without any of the sly smirking that seemed to be a quality of a lot of the action stars that came after him.
The Poseidon Adventure
Now, this was much more along the lines of what I was expecting when it comes to 70's Disaster films. The Poseidon Adventure doesn't take nearly as long to set up the disaster as Airport did. Hell, the first seen of the movie launches right into the "I warned you!" confrontation between the captain of the ship and the corporate suit that are typical for these types of films (the captain is played by Leslie Nielsen, although he doesn't stick around long enough to make much of a mark on this film past the opening scene). Once the disaster hits, and its a much better one than a combination of too much snow and a bomb on a plane (check out the trailer below), the film is a non-stop progression of the survivors being faced with peril after peril as they make their way to the bottom (now the top) of the ship. Some are more tension filled than others - the scene where they are climbing the ladder in the narrow tunnel was particularly good - and there is just enough stupidity among the survivors to cause friction (Ernest Borgnine's character seems solely to exist to fight with everyone, even a small kid). Overall, it works. Throw in the typical cast of has-beens (Borgnine, Shelly Winters, Red Buttons), and you have great example of the type of movie that was everywhere, both in the theaters and on TV, back in the 70's.
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex - Coming Soon
Aguirre, the Wrath of God - Coming Soon
Last Tango in Paris - Coming Soon
Pink Flamingos - Coming Soon
What's up Doc? - Coming Soon
Other notable films that I have already seen -Godfather (although, I might add this one on for a re-watching, since I have been wanting to view it ever since I watched the recent documentary on John Cazale), Deliverance, Last House on the Left.
Notable films I am skipping - Cabaret (much like Love Story for 1970, I know its famous, but I really have no desire to watch this - if I want to see something with Liza Minnelli, I'll watch her episodes of Arrested Development)
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