So Wednesdays are a pretty long day for me at school, meaning I usually do not feel like doing shit when I get home. Therefore, I'm just getting around to writing about last night's ABC comedies now. Sorry! I think you'll survive! Especially since you probably don't actually exist! Anyway, here they are. By the way, I should specify that by ABC comedies, I really only mean The Middle and Suburgatory, because Modern Family lost my interest a while ago and I don't watch The Neighbors because...well, what do I look like to you?
The Middle is kind of a weird show for me, in that I rarely really look forward to watching it like I do with my favorite shows, and I usually don't bother with watching it live and wait until later in the night or the next day to watch it on my DVR. (Which I realize is how most people watch TV these days, but I'm a fucking old-fashioned kind of guy with this stuff, okay? I like pretending it's still 1996 and we're all watching everything together). And yet, when I am watching it, I enjoy it more consistently than most shows on TV right now. It's never going to be most ambitious or interesting show out there, but it's a show that has an excellent grasp on its characters, knows exactly what it wants to do, and does it very, very well. Last night's Christmas episode was a fine example of the show functioning at its best - it centered around the Hecks struggling to make ends meet for Christmas and trying to give their kids the best Christmas possible regardless. That may not be an overly original plot when you're looking at TV as a whole - hell, that's basically the exact plot of the first episode of The Simpsons - but there aren't many shows on TV dealing with economic turmoil as head-on as this show is right now. It doesn't sugarcoat the fact that these people are struggling and really, you can see their struggle. Their house isn't big and pretty like so many other supposedly "poor" TV families - it's small and sort of dumpy, and they don't spend too much money on extravagant things (okay, maybe Sue's 1,000 cookies were more pricey than what would've been realistic, but eh, I can cut the show some slack). On a night where the Modern Family gang is crashing an extravagant car every week and thinking nothing of it, this really sticks out. And yet, through it all, the show manages to show that these people - as flawed as they are, and as many problems as they have - still share a bond that unites them together. Oh, and also, the lines are funny! Not just "funny for a family sitcom". Frankie's "maybe I can fake my own death and then show up on Christmas - surprise! I'm alive!" line was one of my biggest laughs on TV this week. I think The Middle is a seriously excellent portrayal of the modern American family and I kind of wish more people were talking about it. It's quietly having a bit of an all-star season.
As for Suburgatory, that's another weird show in that it can have one of my favorite TV episodes of the year one week and one of my least favorites the next week. The previous two episodes - "The Wishbone" and "Friendship Fish", were so different that it's hard to believe the same show was responsible for both episodes. The former was a gut-wrenching Thanksgiving episode about Tessa finally meeting her estranged mother that really dug into the concept of family and how it shapes our identities. The latter was mostly an infomercial for the Microsoft Tablet that centered around a talking fish. Luckily, this week's Christmas episode resembled the former much more than the latter. It still retained some of the show's cartoonishness - which is a good thing. Suburgatory being a live-action cartoon while simultaneously being a pretty interesting family drama makes it one of the most ambitious and interesting comedies on TV. As great as the meaty family stuff is, it wouldn't be the same show if it didn't have Dalia making a viral video asking for her maid back that inexplicably takes place on an airplane or Ryan Shay running around town shirtless like a wild animal. "Krampus" struck that balance exactly right by balancing all of that with some seriously thoughtful scenes where Tessa realizes that, while her mother is her mother, she isn't her mom. Suburgatory is an inconsistent show, but - Microsoft Tablet infomercials aside - it has been increasingly playing to what works for it this season and eliminating what doesn't aside. If it can continue to churn out episodes like this one and "The Wishbone" (which was genuinely one of my favorite episodes of TV this year), it'll pretty easily join my ranks of the absolute best comedies on the air right now.
Both of these shows are ending in a pretty good place for me this fall, and I'm excited to see what they'll have in store for us after the holidays.
No comments:
Post a Comment