Parks and Recreation: ‘Halloween Surprise’

That was really spectacular. It’s episodes like that which show why Parks and Rec is going to go down as one the best sitcoms of all time.  Personally, I’m an unabashed fan of Halloween installments of sitcoms as it is, so then I get something as sweet and unexpected as Ben proposing to Leslie on top of costumed silliness? Then sign me up.

Parks has proven time and time again that they aren’t afraid of changing the status quo in fear of losing the humor we’ve become accustomed to. For instance, we got the great spontaneity of Andy and April’s wedding in season three. Or having characters make career choices that change their environment, such as Andy leaving the shoeshine, Leslie winning for City Council, and Ben going off on location to work a campaign in DC. That type of change is rare to see in your typical workplace comedy show and that’s why when these changes occur the payoff is huge and we get emotionally invested because we start to care about these characters lives.

So Ben very romantically proposes to Leslie in their soon to be first apartment together, but then we get a couple of fun side stories thrown into this one as well. Ron and Andy team up again to take the two little girls trick or treating, and it never gets old watching Andy act as a little kid and Ron being at a completely loss words when it comes to dealing with children. It’s been nice watching Ron pursue a real romantic relationship and hopefully we’ll get a few more fun moments as we watch him try to transition into a family man.

And let us not forget our Jerry. Poor, poor Jerry. After being surprised by Ann and Leslie, Jerry starts to have a heart attack and loses complete control over his, erm, flatulence. And only Jerry would apologize while having a heart attack for making the room smell for those around him. This led to Jerry giving Leslie some sage advice in his hospital room about how important it is to surround yourself with loved ones, making the moment when Ben proposes to Leslie that much sweeter.

Really fun, emotional Halloween episode. Here a few of my other favorite moments:

• “I hope no one minds if I live-tweet this bitch.” –Donna.
• “Tree. Leaves. Night. Sky. Hand. Andy’s hand.” – Andy observing.
• “Neither of us is costume.” – Man who Andy mistakes for a costumed nerd along with his witch wife.
• In ‘Death Canoe 5’ the canoe actually becomes the hero.
• Having a wrist is a pre-existing condition Leslie.
• “If the kids were to come over to my place, I’d have to take an entire week off work just to turn off all the alarms and trip wires.” – Ron explain how kids don’t currently fit in his life.
• “Rent-a-swag.” – Tom’s first good idea? I hope Jean Ralphio isn’t far behind….

What did everyone else think? Comments are always welcome.

30 Rock: ‘Unwindulax’

In ‘Unwindulax’ we see 30 Rock get political all over the place as Liz Lemon fights for the representation of ideas and her support for Barack Obama, and Jack Donaghy tries to prove that money is power and that is why Mitt Romney will win. Seeing that this is a television review and not a political forum, I want to avoid pushing any of my own opinions here when it comes to how I feel about the two characters perspectives and ideals. However, viewing it as more of a satire of political stereotypes, I did enjoy this episode but I thought it was the weakest to date in this the show's final season.

There were two big points in the episode that stood out to me the most. The first was when Liz could no longer stand by and listen to the men at Jack’s Republican fundraiser mock her fellow democrats and she starts a rant that amusingly not very well thought out but it is her best attempt to express her feelings about the ignorance these people in her opinion choose to have. This apparently was Jack’s plan all along as he uses this outburst as evidence to raise more money to keep “people like that” out of the White House.

The second main point was Jack’s own speech about why Liz’s belief that people want to hear good ideas is nonsense: “ Americans don’t want that that. They want their Honey’s Boo Boo and their Sunday Night Feetball, which is the plural of football. Americans don’t want to think, they want men like me to pick their Presidents for them.” This was truly a shot at all of us and it was spot one. Say what you will about either candidate, but the biggest problem …. Sorry …. I don’t want to break my own rule that this is a review and not a political forum. So I’ll just say I thoroughly enjoyed Jack right there.

So this was also a part one of two episode where we find out at the end that one person may indeed make a difference in the election as Jenna is currently the biggest celebrity in the world of the Unwindulaxers that preside in the one truly undecided part of America, Northern Florida.

A few of my favorite moments:

• “You people in New York don’t know what’s going on in the rest of the country. Truck races, swamp parties, mall fires.” – Unwindulaxer man played by the great Gary Cole.
• “What do I do, press a button? No. It’s different from every other camera.” Pete being truly annoyed at the typical tourist.
• “It’s an original Leonard Ni’moy” – Liz’s justification of her semi-nude photograph.
• “Ed Begley Jr. wasn’t available because the sail on his car broke.”- Jack
• Only Pete could sprain his own neck by accidentally closing it in a window.
• TGS has never been the most cutting edge comedy show as proven by the characters of Baseball Mitt Romney and Barack O’llama.
• Florida. The penis of America.

What did everyone else think? Comments are always welcome.

Modern Family: ‘Open House of Horrors’

Last week I had begun to write a review for the new episode of Modern Family, but after the episode was over I realized I had almost nothing positive to say about it and instead decided to skip over the episode instead of criticizing all of its faults. But given that this is the second straight atrocity, and that ‘Open House of Horrors’ is a Halloween episode, usually one the easier and most fun episodes for a sitcom to make in a season, I have to point out the major fallacies.

Although there might have been a salvageable story here if they had gotten some of bugs out, there were three moments that were too cringe inducing for me to get on board with anything else that happened as the episode progressed.

1. The very first joke of the episode, Luke mistakes the giant Halloween decorations  in their front lawn for real lollipops and asks: “Why do they taste like cardboard?” Now I understand that this is a television show and it’s often times humorous to have a character who isn’t all-together there, but this joke crosses the line from oblivious to someone who may have a medical problem. Absolutely no one in their right mind over the age of 5 would make that mistake and it’s simply cheap and lazy writing on the part of the writers.
2. This one also happens in the very beginning of the episode as this has to be the 20^th time the cold open ends with Phil saying something slightly offensive to or about Claire and she gives her “classic” dismissive look at the camera as they roll into the credits. While Phil’s general misunderstanding of what comes out of his mouth is still funny at times, this format has become so formulaic that when it’s presented in this manner we all know that it’s coming and without the surprise it just lacks humor.
3. Speaking of things we've seen way too many times, Gloria gets to be “all Colombian” all over the place in this one. Why can’t the show just let Sofia Vergara be funny with clever jokes and scenes? Why do we have to see her time and time again mispronounce words and get mad at people for not understanding her? Why do we have to see her constantly get upset from being an immigrant and joking about her culture? The writers seem dead-set on keeping this character exactly the same from now until the end of time which is shame because I know there is more there for her.

I’d say that maybe Modern Family has just told all the stories it can tell, similar to The Office, and it’s just time to hang it up. But they haven’t told that many stories, they just keep using the same ones over and over again. On the plus side that means there’s still plenty of potential going forward for a show I once really liked, but with the constant Emmys and good ratings it’s hard to blame the writers much for not trying to fix something that is broken.

What does everyone else think? Am I just being too harsh? Comments are always welcome.

New Girl: ‘Models’

After being put on hold last week due to an MLB postseason rain delay, New Girl returned with another solid effort. While the Jess/Cece story fell flat at times, I loved everything about the story of Nick and Schmidt’s friendship and all the weird little details that circled around it.

First, on the Jess side of things, we saw her do her best to be a part of Cece’s birthday celebration by hanging out with the rest of Cece’s model friends. The best portion of this was that we got to see Cece’s crazy Russian roommate Nadia again and got to hear her plan for the birthday: “We go party tonight. Let dogs out. Catch gypsy.” Also, we got a nice call back to Nadia’s love of Wilmer Valderrama, first introduced when she listed off all the things she liked about America on her date with Schmidt last season. Besides a couple of okay gags mixed in, I could have done without so much time devoted to this plot; however, I’m glad that if the show was required to have blatant product placement for financial reasons that they didn’t try to force into a great overall episode where it didn’t belong.

But over on the guys’ side things? That was really funny and delightful. I loved that the whole questioning of Nick and Schmidt’s friendship was completely sparked by the fact that Schmidt simply brought Nick back a cookie because he was thinking of him. Pure and simple genius. Max Greenfield and Jake Johnson have become so good at expressing every emotion that their characters are going through that they don’t have to be on a big adventure or life changing dramatic moment for us to enjoy their screen time. In fact, it’s gotten to the point where the smaller the scope the better. The evolution of their friendship and the intricacies of their give-and-take relationship were fantastic to watch and moments like that make New Girl a must watch comedy.

Some of my other favorite moments:

• “Oh that’s make-up? I would take that off. You look crazy.” –Nick’s confusion on the shoe polish eye-liner she put on to go out.
• “The only time a man is allowed to think about another man is when that other man is Jay Cutler.” – Nick. Two Chicago Bears quarter back references in one night as Max tried to live out one if fantasies with Jim McMahon over on Happy Endings.
• “It’s official. We’ve got to turtle-proof this loft.” – Nick after he decided he was going after a turtle for a pet.
• “That wasn’t a cookie, damnit. That was a piece of his heart.” – Winston on what the cookie represented for Schmidt.
• “What’s going on? Did you guys watch porn together again?” – Jess on seeing the guys awkwardly sitting around together.
• “You’re the only turtle I want.” – Nick doing his best to describe his love of Schmidt.

What did everyone else think? Comments are always welcome.

Happy Endings: 'Cazsh Dummy Spillionaires'

When Happy Endings premiered back in the spring of 2011, you would have been hard pressed to find many fans of the show, let alone anyone who might predict that it would become one the most fast-paced, perfectly executed comedies on television. But somewhere along the line, that very thing happened and it’s great that it’s and back and we all get to enjoy it.

A few things have changed in the lives of our six friends since we last left them. Penny is dating her new boyfriend whom she met at their friends’ wedding in last season’s finale. Brad is blissfully kind of unemployed and is working on some fantastic ventriloquism skills with his dummy Sin-Brad. And Dave and Alex have begun to casually date, this of course being a much bigger deal in their perspective than it is to the rest of the group.

I think what separates Happy Endings to put it in the current elite crop of sitcoms is how it has effectively taken the best parts from a multitude of shows and is able to balance them. The connection that everyone immediately makes is with Friends (*) because it is a show about six twenty-somethings making their way in the big city while going on goofy adventures. But that’s where the similarities stop. Because this group has much more of a maniacal undertone in their attitudes and sometimes blatant indifference towards the world which is much closer in line to the It’s Always Sunny gang. But they still have enough heart and morals for us to care about them and when you mix in a non-stop barrage of jokes, puns and pop culture references in the vein of what 30 Rock  does, well then you have what Happy Endings has become.

(*) Even Brad high on laughing gas made this connection in an episode last season by referring to Brad as Ross, Alex as Rachel, Penny as Phoebe, Jane as Monica, and Max as fat Joey.

So many great quotes from the premiere, I’ll try my best to limit it:

• “Your Momma’s so fat, she died.”
• “You look like the Olsen twins’ burnt out brother, Larry-Kate Olsen.”
• “Dave is currently getting his goatee highlighted.”
• “Mmmm. That girl’s so whack, her first name should be Nick-Nack Patty.”
• “You sleepy-tea’d me.”
• “The doctor requested you wear bike shorts and a Jim McMahon jersey.”
• “It’s my one-man experimental band ‘Yoko Uno.’”

Also, I can’t get Brad's rendition of ‘Ebony and Ebony’ out of my head. What did everyone think? Comments are always welcome.

The Walking Dead: “Sick”

As of twenty four hours ago I was all but sure that I wouldn’t be able to watch The Walking Dead until Monday when it became available on other platforms because, as a Dish customer, AMC has been blocked out since before Breaking Bad started airing its’ fifth season. But then when all hope appeared to be lost, it turned back on like Hershel getting revived after he had been all but left for dead.

Speaking of which; by my count Lori has now made out with 34 different men since the zombie apocalypse has hit. After getting upset at Carl for being the first Grimes family member besides Rick to something useful when he retrieved medical supplies from the infirmary, Lori was able to channel her jealous rage and concentrate it at saving our now beloved old man Hershel. I’m really glad that they were able to save Hershel in this way because that was a thing about zombie movies that had always bugged me in the past when one of the characters would get bit on the ends of one of their limbs. I’m glad Rick had the common sense to chop off the diseased leg before it had a chance to spread to the rest of his body.

Sorry, I got a little ahead of myself there. Let’s get back to the point of when that leg got the ax. After Rick performs surgery our gang is greeted by five inmates that had been trapped in the prison’s cafeteria for ten months, completely cut off from the outside world. The newcomers are curious to say the least. First about who are these nut jobs that came bursting through their door and cut off this old dude’s leg? Secondly, they have been completely out of touch to what has been going on in the world since the outbreak. Clearly Rick and the gang can’t begin to express in words what the world has become. How civility and understanding no longer exist as they once knew it. So it shouldn’t come as any surprise that Rick doesn’t have the patience or time to deal with attitudes that aren’t along his lines.

And that is why I’m so very proud of the show for the scene where Rick faces off with “new Shane.” In my head I’m already thinking “oh great, Tomas is another bull-headed foe that Rick is going to have to keep at bay for the whole season.” But then they did something so great, something this show has been so hesitant to do in the past. They realized they had a problem and they took care of it. The show runners realized that this kind of character arc didn’t work in the past when we were forced to watch Shane and Rick for an hour 12 times last season. And just like the show runners, Rick too realized this is nonsense so he stared him down, and then he put him down. The zombies are what drew everyone into this show, but scenes like a pissed-off, machete wielding Rick Grimes taking out trouble makers is why we want stick around and watch this story out. Well done The Walking Dead. Well done.

In continuing the new theme of the show having all of its characters do useful things, we see Carol go hunting for some human cadavers to experiment on for when the time comes that Lori needs her C-sections to deliver baby Shane Rick. And when she starts to cut open one her many potential test subjects, we get the view of a something or someone watching her from behind some trees. I won’t speculate too much on this, but based on what I’ve heard from casting news I have strong hunch of what that may be.

What did everyone else think? Comments are always welcome.

Saturday Night Live: “Bruno Mars”

I’m making an attempt to review a Saturday Night Episode so I’m going to preface this, similar to how Bruno Mars did in his monologue, by stating that I’m a little out of my element here. Although SNL is considered a TV show, it’s a whole different ballgame critiquing a structured, scripted show than it is to critique a collaboration of funny sketches and musical performances. So we’ll see how this goes and decide later if this should be a recurring segment.

Tonight we get double duty from Bruno Mars as he is both the host and musical guest. I don’t know a ton about Bruno going into this episode other than I've heard 6 or 7 of his songs and seen a couple of his music videos. Personally I’m not a fan of his but not so much in a way that I oppose everything he does. I’m just hoping SNL has enough wherewithal though to not put someone out there that can’t do anything comically.

Sketch One: Town Hall

We’re leading off, of course, with the town hall debate that took place on Tuesday. And also as predicted the undecided voters of New York are going to be the driving force of most of the jokes. This poor Jeremy kid gets poked at one more time, this time by Fred Armisen playing a 38 year old version of him. We get a great moment when Jay Pharoah’s Barack Obama asks: “Candy is he bothering you?” as Jason Sudekis’ Mitt Romney insists on talking about four more things. This is followed up by Taran Killam standing up and shouting: “Let me at him Dad.” And Mitt responding: “Sit down Tagg. Not now.” Then we get a superb surprise guest appearance from the great Tom Hanks and he asks his deeply profound and well thought out question: “Libya?” The debate escalates as Governor Romney hilariously begins pushing President Obama as he’s trying to speak. All in all I’d say they did a pretty good job with it, but I think there was some more untapped potential they didn't quite hit.
Grade: B

Monologue

Bruno at least makes it clear he doesn't deserve to be the host based on his lack of doing anything comedy or acting related. Make that blatantly clear. He breaks into song and dance about how unsure he is about performing on Saturday Night Live as host and at this point all this opening song is doing for me is reassuring my huge doubts that Bruno Mars should be doing just that. One lyric of the song actually relates this outing to that of Justin Timberlake who has also pulled double duty recently. You’re not even close to that status yet Bruno so stop putting the cart before the horse. Rough start here.
Grade: D-

Brad Pitt Commercials

There ended up being four Brad Pitt commercials for various products but I’m going to sum them all up here. I really love Taran Killam’s Brad Pitt so much and this was a fantastic way to incorporate that character. His first commercial is for Chanel Cologne where he describes it as “Pitt-ilicious.” Next up is the story of how Brad Pitt travelled across a seemingly endless desert to arrive at Taco Bell, home of the eloquent Dorito’s Loco Taco. Thirdly, Pitt is selling us “Dog Condoms” because our pets have every right to be freaky if they want to be. And finally, we see that Brad must be really hard up for some cash because he is now endorsing local tattoo remover: Doctor Zizmor.
Grade: B+

Sketch Two: Haters with Sunny Taylor Tompkins

“Don’t you boo me.” Bobby Moyhinan legitimately gets better every episode he’s on. “They are haters and they don’t know how to process all of this.” Says Moynihan as he’s points to his rump while dressed in drag. From this point on the sketch takes a big nose drive as the spoof of your typical trashy talk show doesn't have enough meat at its core to carry the side jokes. Also lets face it, it’s not much of a stretch having Bruno pull off looking like a woman…

Yikes

Grade: D+

Sketch Three: Pandora Radio

I really like the premise of this sketch. The power has gone down at the Pandora headquarters and some of the specific channels are going out one by one. The only person that can save the day is the intern Devin (Bruno Mars). Sudekis looks square in the eye and states: “Pandora is counting on you right now.” After that though it gets pretty light on humor and relies on Bruno having fun singing the songs for a wide array of different artists. Not the greatest sketch ever but at least they had a lot of fun with it.

Grade: B-

Sad Mouse

This had a very similar feel to it as the Digital Shorts. We see Bruno Mars playing a guy down on his luck and takes a job as a costumed mouse who has to wave at people on the street. I kind of really liked this, a lot. It had a weird, brilliant feel to it and I hope this is the new thing SNL does by making these little indie movie-like shorts. Plus it has a beautiful ending as Sad Mouse gets to find love with Sad Frog. Amazing!

Grade: A+

Music Break Number One

Bruno Mars sings “Locked out of Paradise” from his new album.

Tough to judge because I’m not a very big fan of Bruno so I’m a little biased. I will say that I’m glad he went with a highly upbeat song to keep the audience in it. Too often of late we've seen the musical performers pay a slow or deep song that kind of drains the crowd for the rest of the night.

Grade: C+

Weekend Update

Most of the jokes hit here like they usually do on Weekend Update however I was caught a little off guard by the sketchy joke about candidate’s skin color among rural voters. Something just wasn't right there and you could tell by the audience’s reaction as well. We also got a segment of great “Debate Do’s and Don’ts” which gave way to a rare Ruben Studdard reference. My favorite headline was for a new product that relieves the pain from burning your tongue or the roof of your mouth and as Seth Myers explains it as: “Finally a scientific alternative to WAITING A MINUTE!” And then. Making his first appearance of the season. Our favorite correspondent. Stefon! The gift that keeps on giving. Bill Hader completely lost it this time making the sketch even more hysterical. I’m so very happy. That had to have been the longest Stefon sketch to date and I’m not complaining.

Grade: A

Sketch Four: Merryville Haunted Castle

As a couple gets stuck on a carnival ride they slowly begin to realize that the singing robots may be alive and seeking their lives. Good idea to use Bruno in a sketch where he doesn’t have to talk as he plays one of the Merryville Brothers. And the robotic brothers really do creep me out in these sketches. This one also get the added of bonus Tom Hanks. He’s back. Robot Tom Hanks Trying to feel-up a girl is just hilarious. I don’t care who you are.

Grade: A

Sketch Five: Yeti Point

Too much Bruno here. The dramatic stare at the camera didn’t work from the start. The ending with Hader eventually being serenaded by our Yeti friend was the only salvation in this sketch gone wrong.

Grade: D-

Musical Break Number 2

Bruno Mars sings another new song “Young Girls” (I think that’s the name of the song) as we near the end of the show.

Like I said before, I don’t think he’s an atrocity to the music industry like many of the other big Pop performers of today, but he’s just not my guy.

Grade: C+

Under-underground Records

The final segment of the night is another addition of Under-underground Records, this time the “Donkey Punch the Ballot” edition. We get tons of great references here and funny combination names for people and places associated with politics and hip-hop.

Grade: A

I’d say that ended up being a pretty excellent episode for host Bruno Mars and musical guest Bruno Mars. The addition of Tom Hanks certainly didn't hurt but I wouldn't be opposed to Bruno getting another shot in the future.

First Saturday Night Live review is over! And that took forever. If I’m going to do more of these in the future I’ll have to figure out how to shorten them. Until then, SNL returns November 3 and it could be really great. Louis C.K. is hosting with musical guest Fun.

What did you guys think? Comments are always welcome.