Hi, guys/girls/no one! The long, cold Sochi Olympics are finally over, meaning we get the warm embrace of television back into our lives. I thought I'd post a few quick thoughts about the shows that have returned over the past few days.
Hey, let's talk about Archer! Archer is having a really strong season and I'm impressed by how it continues to scope out new territories with its characters this far in its run. This weeks' episode was close with the last pre-Olympics one as my favorite so far this season, all thanks to the comedic stylings of the new, skinny Pam. The great thing about Pam is that, with all of her ridiculous antics (and there's a lot!), she really is the optimistic center of an often cynical show. That makes her a crucial part of the ensemble, and it also makes her such a delightfully unique mix of the "crazy one" and the emotional center. Pam/Archer has proved to be a surprisingly excellent pairing in the past, and they really shined in this episode, with Pam's earnest incompetence managing to both a) cut through Archer's cold, cold heart and b) cause the gang to lose 100 more pounds of cocaine. I am pretty sure they are not going to sell any cocaine this season, and that's fucking amazing. Archer Vice has been such a refreshing experiment, and while it hasn't been 100% perfect, it's been so much fun to watch that I'm willing to forgive all of its weaknesses. (Though I'd like some Lana development soon, please).
What's next? How about...New Girl? New Girl has widened its increasingly huge ensemble for a few episodes to make room for Jess's sister Abby, played by Linda Cardinelli, who possesses the strange ability to change ages depending on what show she's starring on. I didn't love the first episode she was appeared on (mostly because of an incredibly weak B-story that she had no part in, to be fair) but I thought tonight's was much better, even if it still felt a bit too busy. I enjoy the way Abby brings out some of Jess's less admirable qualities - it's a dynamic that brings back fond memories of the early standout episode "Jess and Julia" - but I feel like I need to see a bit more of it to make the impact the show wants it to make. What I really liked about this episode, though, was the dramatic stakes it raised for Winston. The show has quietly been putting together a really compelling arc for Winston this season (even if it's been a little hidden among all of the Jess/Nick and Coach going-ons) and it feels like it's starting to come to a head. New Girl is often at its best when its characters are at their worst, so having Winston truly hit rock bottom may prove to be really fruitful for the character. Even when New Girl isn't getting everything right, I appreciate the way it manages to dig into the emotional root of its characters.
That's a good segway into Brooklyn Nine-Nine, a very good show that is showing signs of becoming a great one. Brooklyn Nine-Nine roared out of the gate as a fully formed and immediately hilarious show, but as the shows' acclaim accumulated, I noticed that the show started to coast a little bit. It was never bad, but it sort of just let its characters be, not pushing them forward as you expect a comedy at this stage would. Luckily, the past few episodes (starting with the excellent episode surrounding around Holt's birthday) have started to change this, and tonights' episode was one of the strongest examples of this thus far, simply because it introduced some interesting new concepts about its characters. The most interesting choice the show made was pairing Jake and Gina together - as the two more outlandish members of the precinct, you'd expect their story to be grating and over-the-top, but instead it wound up bringing out some of the better qualities of both of them, and introduced new directions for both characters to go in. Showing Jake's desperate financial situation gives his character a weakness we haven't seen before (and one a lot stronger than the shows' constant reminders that hey, Jake was a little sad as a kid!), and I really love the way the show is allowing Gina to be weird but also be a functioning human being. I hope we get more stories from these two in the future, especially since APPARENTLY THEY WERE CHILDHOOD FRIENDS. (Has the show ever mentioned this before?!). The other stories were also fairly excellent - Santiago admitting she cares too much about what Holt thinks of her was something we've all known, but having her admit it was kind of an interesting character move. (But not as interesting as her SHAME CIGARETTES!) And I like that the show seems to already be moving on from the Rosa/Boyle romance with no looking back. Let's keep that, please. It's refreshing.
And finally, I need to give a shout out to two new shows that have really been killing it lately - Broad City and Rick and Morty. Broad City is a legimiate contender for the funniest show on TV right now, and it's made my life a lot brighter by introducing me to Ilana Glazer and Abi Jacobbson. I cannot properly express how hilarious they are, and the show itself is a really interesting and unique look at what it's like to be broke in New York in a way that is much better than 2 Broke Girls (obviously) and a bit more endearing than Girls. The show takes a Louie-style approach to the "two girls trying to make it in the big city" style, and it ends up with a constant feed of weird, hilarious, and even occasionally poignant (though usually through perfectly surrealist gags) commentary on getting through daily life when you're young and broke and a little bit lost. As for Rick and Morty, while I haven't seen all of it yet, what I have seen is a pretty fucking crazy spin on the old Back to the Future formula. It manages to make me laugh while blowing my mind with its legitimately intriguing sci-fci concepts. In the most recent episode, the show actually reset its own reality by suggesting that it was now taking place in a new, but parallel, universe - because its protagonist died in his previous one. ALSO, ONE EPISODE HAD A DOG AND IT WAS GREAT.
That's all for now. Oh, also, I watched About a Boy and it wasn't that good. That's all!
