It's November so let's go ahead and make judgements on TV shows

 

We're right at the start of November sweeps, a period of time where networks apparently are supposed to try to draw in big ratings for their affiliates but mostly don't bother and just keep churning out the same ol' shit, except for maybe taking that embarrassing low-rated sitcom off the schedule.  But November sweeps is also about the time where you can start to make some judgements about the shows you decided to pick up this fall and decide just what, if anything, you're getting out of them. So let's jump right in!

Black-ish - Black-ish was basically the only new comedy this fall I had any faith in, and it hasn't disappointed me whatsoever. In fact, it's actually exceeded my expectations and fears - I had some worries that the show would water itself down after its surprisingly pointed pilot and become Just Another Family Sitcom, but over the past few weeks it's managed to nicely balance its fresh voice with the burdens of being a family sitcom on ABC. Similar to The Middle, Black-ish keeps its network television audience comfortable by never veering too far away from sitcom convention, but also keeps itself relevant and interesting by peppering in some unique jokes and gags that you wouldn't necessarily expect from a wholesome family comedy, such as the horror movie framework the show used for its Halloween episode,. The show has also managed to present us with some welcome twists on cookie-cutter family sitcom characters - while the pilot mostly presented Rainbow and Andre's marriage as your typical "crazy father and down-to-earth wife" pairing, the show has given Rainbow a unique personality of her own, making her off-beat and strange in ways that differ from what makes Andre off-beat and strange. She's no longer side-eying Andre and saving him from making a fool of himself - she's joining right in on on his ridiculous displays herself. (The best example of this is when Rainbow learns that Andre has put a camera in every room, including the fridge - at first she's a little perplexed, then seconds later she inquires: 'do we have any grapes?') Even the kids on Black-ish, often a weak point on family sitcoms, are coming into their own, developing personalities that allow them to exist as more than just plot devices and ways to make viewers marvel at their cuteness. Black-ish is not quite a perfect show yet (the show could still resist sitcom convention more than it does) but it's surprisingly fully-formed for a show this early in its run, and is one of the shows I most look forward to watching every week.

Marry Me - Marry Me still hasn't really figured out what it wants to be outside of "Happy Endings but without most of the cast", and that comes down to the fact that it has yet to establish a presence for anyone in the cast other than its two lead characters. That's not really unexpected for a show four episodes into its run, but the problem is that Marry Me is already sort of functioning like it's in its third season - it's not really giving us plots that get us to know any of the characters better, and leaves the work to its jokes to make us connect with these people. While those jokes are generally quite good (there's usually at least one line that makes me laugh uncontrollably each week), jokes alone aren't really enough to get me to understand who a character is. Marry Me desperately wants to be the kind of show you watch because you love the characters and will watch them do anything, but it's not doing the work it needs to get to that point. I'll keep watching because the show is genuinely funny most of the time, but it's not at the level of funniness it needs to be if it's going to completely disregard character work altogether. (Also, less Gil, please. He's playing the same character he does on Broad City, except everyone on Broad City realizes he's terrible).

Benched - Speaking of Happy Endings alumni, Eliza Coupe is starring in this new USA comedy, and although there have only been two episodes so far, it's shaping up to be one of my favorite comedies of the fall. That's not saying much at all, but there's some real promise here, with a killer cast (Maria Bamford! Oscar Nunez! Jay Harrigan!), a fairly good premise, and....well, you heard the Eliza Coupe part, right? Benched feels, in many ways, a lot like a network sitcom - it doesn't have the heir of experimentation that have aided many of the years' great cable comedies like Broad City, Review and You're the Worst, but it feels like a good network sitcom, the kind networks were making 4 or 5 years ago but now just make Bad Judge and think it's enough. Benched could stand to be a little funnier (it feels like it's requiring its actors to do most of the legwork right now, which isn't a terrible decision when you have actors as hilarious as these ones, but they'd be better served with really great writing) and its premise comes with a lot of cliches that the show doesn't do enough to subvert, but that's all basic early sitcom stuff. This has the makings of a show that could be something special, and I'm really hoping it realizes that potential, because a great sitcom with this team behind it would be mind-blowing. The biggest thing holding Benched back might be its network, which strangely announced it was abandoning comedy a few months ago (despite renewing its comedy Sirens) but promises this show has its full support. It better, USA. What else are you going to air, some procedural about beautiful and boring cops? (Yes, that's exactly what we're going to air, USA would probably reply).

Mulaney - Mulaney has actually significantly improved upon its pilot, attempting to give itself at least a bit more direction and experimenting with the idea of actually having a plot rather than just being bits of recycled stand-up pieces. Unfortunately, it hasn't really improved to the point where I feel sadness about the fact that it's pretty much doomed to cancellation at this point (its order has been cut and it fell to a 0.7 rating this week, AKA the number that got Manhattan Love Story and A to Z cancelled). The show has bits and pieces that work (I really enjoyed Nasim Pedrad's character doing a Little Shop of Horrors homage about a potential new apartment in the shows' third episode) but it still fails to make any sort of an impact on the whole, feeling at times like a collection of scenes that are supposed to parody the idea of a sitcom rather than being, you know, an actual sitcom. Part of me wonders if Mulaney would've been better off on a cable network like FX or Comedy Central, where it would be free to play with the form without having to worry about being a multi-camera sitcom on a major broadcast network. As of now, it feels like an unsuccessful compromise of being a mainstream show and an experimental analysis of the form of a sitcom. It's a tricky balance to pull off - Community, which more or less attempted the same thing, managed to pull it off successfully by just being both being really good at both sides of the equation and understanding when it was time to get weird and when it was time to ground itself. Mulaney seems like it's always attempting to do both at the same time - its scenes are generic and unimaginative but they're delivered like they're tongue-in-cheek, which doesn't satisfy the need of being a good experiment or a good sitcom. So I can't say I expect much more out of Mulaney, but hopefully it can at least send John Mulaney and the rest of this talented cast to a place that does a better job of complimenting their skills.

And now, while we're here, we may as well check in on some returning shows, right?!

New Girl  - New Girl has been having a surprisingly excellent rebound season, managing to dust off the messiness of last year and start fresh by basically just simplifying itself to being a show about five funny people. This "back-to-basics" approach is one that plenty of shows that flame out attempt to regain their composure, but most wind up just giving everyone a sense of whiplash as they veer from messy and complicated territory into a show that's basically just the same show it was in its second episode. New Girl has managed to avoid that by never keeping its characters more complicated emotions far away, even when the show itself travels into silly, go-for-broke farce territory. The shows' most recent episode, "Background Check", was a great example of this - a bottle episode that stranded the entire cast in the loft for 20 minutes in basically real time, it brought out both the most wild and the most sincere in all of its characters. The show may not be hitting the heights it was in its first two seasons, but it's arguably more consistent then ever, and seems to finally be on solid ground.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - Brooklyn Nine-Nine has become sort of a "turn off your brain" show for me, which is not all meant to be insulting - in fact, it's a compliment that I've given some shows I seriously loved in the past, shows like Archer and Happy Endings. What I mean by this is that it's a show that is almost entirely focused on its comedy, allowing me to just sit back and get myself immersed in its ridiculous world, then simply enjoy the ride. Every episode has me laughing more consistently than nearly anything else on TV, and when the show does attempt to raise the stakes and analyze its characters' psyches a bit, it does so surprisingly eloquently - proven especially by the Gina/Boyle affair, which was both some really hilarious absurdity and surprising advancements for both of their characters (who arguably got the least progression in Season 1, other than like, Hitchcock and Scully...who I still can't tell apart). So while a show like Brooklyn seems like one that would be a nightmare to closely analyze week in and week out, it's a show that I really love just sitting back and hanging out with.

Doctor Who - I'm going to do a post about the full season after it wraps up next week, but I would like to take this time to say how much I am really, really enjoying this season. Peter Capaldi is fantastic. Jenna Coleman is fantastic, and the show has done the near impossible task of turning Clara into a legitimately interesting companion. Having a female Master is fantastic. Doctor Who has the tendency to totally fuck up its finales so I'm not going to make any definitive statements just yet, but this is shaping up to be a contender for the best season of new Doctor Who yet.

With that, let me end with the news that you were probably reading this post for, because you read every post on the internet hoping it will give you the answer - Galavant has a premiere date, and it is January 4. Life finally has meaning again.

TV Roundup - 9/23 to 9/28

So I've experimented in the past with doing episode-by-episode reviews, and while I enjoy doing episodic reviews sometimes, the truth is that I don't always have a lot to say about every episode of every show. But I still feel like I should write a little something about where I stand with a bunch of the shows that aired in the past week. So here's a thing: each week I'll attempt to do a quick summary of some of the highlight episodes of the past week that I didn't get around to doing a full-length review for. Let's see what happens!

New Girl - New Girl's second episode was not as strong as its premiere, but it was still a pretty fun episode of television, with two storylines that found a good way to utilize everyone in the ensemble. One of the weaknesses of Season 3 was that the strong Jess/Nick focus often left other characters in the dust, so it's refreshing to see an episode where everyone in the main cast gets at least one moment to shine. And this episode also did well by mixing up the pairings a bit: Schmidt/Jess is a combo we haven't gotten in quite some time, and running CeCe loose with the guys rather than keeping her as Jess's sidekick was a good way to dig into her character a bit more deeply than the show typically does. New Girl may not be the world beater it once was, but it feels like it's on solid ground right now, so let's hope it stays that way.

The Middle - The Middle returned for another year in much the same way it has in previous years, which is not a bad thing. This is one of the most consistent shows on television, always delivering the right note in a way that's familiar but still continuously endearing. The show can get away with some of the "more of the same" feel in a way that say, Modern Family can't because it actually does take the effort to gradually change and mature its characters, and that was well on display in this week's premiere, where Sue simultaneously gets her braces off and seems a little bit more weary of the world and Axl begins to confront the fact that his dad is aging and he's not quite sure how to handle it. This is pretty heavy stuff for an 8:00 family sitcom, and that The Middle handles it with the warmth and strength that it does demonstrates why it's still the go-to family show on television.

Doctor Who - I'm actually two episodes behind on my Doctor Who reviews, but that's mostly because I didn't have all that much to say about last week's episode, which was a perfectly solid Doctor Who story that felt a bit inessential to the shows' central themes but still managed to be a good time overall. I have a lot more to say about the most recent episode, though, which was right up there with "Listen" as my favorite episode of this season so far. Sending the Doctor off into Muggle World is almost always a guaranteed good time, but this episode went even further than that and analyzed just what it means to be a companion of the Doctor. It also contained some surprisingly deep-rooted analysis of some of the Doctor's flaws and prejudices, including his apparent distaste for soldiers and his current hesitance to accept anyone that isn't Clara. We're about halfway through this Doctor Who season, and I have to say that I'm surprised at how successful it's been in terms of being an intricate analysis of just who the Doctor is - really is.

Saturday Night Live - SNL kicked off its 40th season in mostly uninspired fashion. There were some decent sketches - the Good Neighbor team continues to bring forth some of the most delightfully weird material SNL has ever seen, the show's skewers of the NFL were pretty damn solid overall, and new cast member Pete Davidson has some real skills that I'm ashamed to admit to because he's younger than me, but overall it was not the strongest of season openers, and it mostly wasted the extremely likable and game host it had in Chris Pratt. The new Weekend Update team in particular was a little bit painful - I'll give Michael Che some time to settle because he's had success on The Daily Show, but man, Colin Jost is just...not suited for this role, is he? Still, SNL premieres often feel like they're shaking off the cobwebs, so hope isn't nearly lost yet. Last season was a pretty rough one, but there's enough talent in this cast and writing staff that they should be able to pull it together.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - Over the course of the year, I had sort of forgotten about Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which ended its run seemingly ages ago. I really enjoyed the shows' first season, but it never quite wowed me in the way that some of the excellent cable comedies that premiered this year did almost immediately. And yet, this premiere reminded me of just what a solid, funny and overall incredibly entertaining show Brooklyn really is. The cast is truly a hit list of some of the finest actors working in comedy today, and the shows' go-for-broke attitude leads to some of the fastest and smartest comedy currently on network television. This wasn't a perfect episode - the main plot with the mobster sort of just petered out, and a lot of the romance stuff felt shoehorned in (although I'm actually a fan of the totally absurd Gina/Boyle pairing), but it felt fresh and funny enough that it gave me hope Brooklyn could go on to not just become the best comedy on network television (though it'll have to battle it out pretty hard with Bob's Burgers, which returns next week) but could hopefully duke it out with some of those cable comedies to become a contender for TV's funniest show. It's not there yet, but it's so close.

Oh, and there was also a Family Guy/Simpsons crossover. I won't comment on that, because that way, I can go on pretending like nothing happened at all. Trust me, the healing process will be better this way.

Episode Reviews: New Girl - "Fired Up" and Brooklyn Nine-Nine - "Fancy Brugdom"

New Girl - "Fired Up"

Now that the trilogy of Abby Day has concluded, New Girl is back to basics, and "Fired Up" feels like a very basic episode of New Girl. Not in a bad way. But in its third season, New Girl spends much of its time posing some complex questions about its characters that it doesn't always feel like the simple hang-out sitcom it started out as. This is, perhaps, why the show has sort of fallen out of flavor with a lot of people (as its ratings would reflect), but I think I've made it clear how much I appreciate the work that New Girl puts into digging into its characters. It isn't always completely successful - I didn't really think the Sister three-parter worked as the examination of Jess the show wanted it to be - but the fact that it is willing to examine its characters so closely gives it some depth that isn't necessarily needed for a hang-out sitcom to work. 

Fired Up, though, felt like an episode the show could've done back in Season 1, when it was mostly just a fun show with occasional glimmers of depth. It was light, simple, and funny. It centered around two clear, basic plotlines that had plenty of gags and were well-executed overall. It didn't get too deep with its character work, but it was rooted in the heart of these characters enough to have some impact. And it re-discovered the surprisingly successful comic pairing of Jess and Coach, which worked so well in "Basketball" (one of the shows' all-time funniest episodes) and continues to work well here. I haven't always felt New Girl is using Damon Wayans Jr. to his full potential (certainly not as well as Happy Endings did - miss you every day), but pairing him with Zooey Deschanel seems to be a really great match. I think it's because they're both high-energy performers, and they tend to bring out the craziest in each other. I don't know that I could tolerate an entire show about just Jess and Coach, but when they're given a plotline together, it's seemingly guaranteed to be golden.

The truth is that New Girl could be a show this simple every week and still be good. It might even be more consistent, because the shows' soul-searching has led it to some questionable territory this season. In my opinion, it would be a far less interesting show. But it's still nice for a sitcom to sit down and relax every so often, especially one like New Girl, which has had a lot to prove this season. And if it's going to give us scenes like Nick Miller forgetting how to ride a bike, or Winston Furgason, then hey, I'm not complaining.

* * * * (4 stars out of 5)

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - "Fancy Brugdom"

I like nearly everything about Brooklyn Nine-Nine at this point, but if there is one quibble I consistently have with this show, it's the plotting. I don't expect every sitcom to have intricate, story-circle plotting like Community or anything, but I find that Brooklyn too often relies on overly-familiar beats to tell its stories, to the point where I can almost pinpoint everything that's going to happen. It also is incredibly reliant on the typical A/B/C plot format, which is sometimes a necessity but is always one of my least favorite ways for an ensemble sitcom to function. Obviously, a show with a cast as large as this one cannot always have everyone in the same story, but if you're going to to split everyone up into 3 different plots, I would prefer that the characters still interact with each other at some point, or at the very least, that the plots have some sort of thematic connections. Telling 3 completely separate stories is a way to ensure that none of the stories will have the time to make the impact they're intended to.

"Fancy Brugdom" didn't suffer too much from this problem, actually. There are 3 different plots at play here, true, but they all seem to be about these characters being honest with themselves and trying to use that honesty to better themselves, which has subtly been the shows' thesis all season. Honestly, I don't think Brooklyn is *all* that interested in character development, but it's interested enough that it's clearly pushing its characters to some sort of season endgame, and "Fancy Brugdom" was a nice step in that direction. Rosa learning to apologize is simplistic, but it's earned because we've been moving towards Rosa learning how to deal with people all season. Terry struggling to stay on a diet that he's on to help out of his wife is sweet and consistent with his character. Boyle being pushed to be honest with his wife is a nice push for his character. None of this is world-beating stuff, but it's just enough that we get a sense that we're supposed to care about these peoples' growth, and we do. Of these three, the one the show wants us to care about the most is Boyle, who is forced to be honest with his wife-to-be for the first time, otherwise he could risk losing everything he has in Brooklyn. And I thought most of this was quite well-executed. Using Jake as a catalyst for Boyle to be honest with himself was especially great, because it allowed a more mature side of Jake to shine through, a side of his character that's more than welcome. (I criticized Jake a lot in my earlier reviews of this show, but I think the show has been increasingly discovering how to use him properly. I don't think he'll ever be my favorite sitcom lead, but he's turning into a pretty good character). 

The only part of "Fancy Brugdom" that really left me cold was the ending, which completely cuts away from the moment where Boyle faces his fiance and tells her the truth and instead hastily informs us that it went okay but there's "more to talk about". I'm assuming this plotline will be back next week, but it feels like a cop-out to spend the entire episode building up to a big character moment for Boyle and then to not show it. In the end, that's my biggest problem with Brooklyn Nine-Nine's plotting - it often feels too scared to hit on the really interesting points about its characters, and instead goes for easier and more conventional endings. The reason why I thought last week's "Tactical Village" was the shows' best thus far is it gave us a sort of ambiguous, melancholy ending where none of the characters really got what they want. That sort of risk is what separates a good show from a great one. Brooklyn Nine-Nine is currently a very good show that is very close to being great, and I'm hoping it'll take that leap soon.

* * * * (4 stars out of 5)

RANDOM NOTE: Okay, I didn't know where to put this in the review, but I was impressed by a lot of the jokes and the editing in this episode. A lot of the jokes were fairly dark for a light-hearted network sitcom (Boyle/Jake's suicide pact and Santiago hoping Scully would die), and there were some very creative editing choices, particularly when Santiago dropped her almond on the floor. I like that the show is starting to take some risks in those departments. 

The Olympics are over and so is my social life

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!

Best TV of 2013

Hello, everyone! Due to some "oh no I never watched Breaking Bad let me binge through it so I don't look like an asshole when I make my top TV of 2013 list" related issues, my Best of 2013 post is a bit delayed. But that's okay! It's here now, and that's all that matters, right?

2013 was a pretty fantastic year for television, and it was an interesting year for my personal television habits. I've expanded my taste a lot this past year - previously I had mostly contained myself to the comedy genre, but that wasn't the case this year. There are plenty of shows on this list that I would've never dreamed could be on there in previous years. Why did I decide to finally expand my TV mind? Maybe it was because this was the year we lost 30 Rock and I needed something to vill the void. Maybe it's because Community was off and I needed something to fullfill THAT void. Maybe it's just because I was bored. I don't know! But I'm glad it happened. It lets me see TV in a broader and more interesting light.

Alright! Let's get down to it. But before we get there, I wanted to give a shout-out to....

30 Rock
30 Rock aired only four episodes in 2013, so it wasn't eligible for my list. But if it was? It would be a strong contender for the #1 slot. There wasn't a single episode of TV this year I enjoyed more than the final 3 episodes of the shows' run, which brought each of its characters to a perfect, well-earned conclusion. And all the while, it never stopped being the funniest show on TV. Farewell, sweet 30 Rock. We'll miss you. Well, we'll miss making new episodes. We're still going to watch you obsessively on Netflix, obviously.

Alright! And now for the...

Honorable Mentions

These shows didn't quite make my top 10, but they came very close. Therefore, they deserve mentions!

Parks and Recreation
2013 saw Parks & Rec comfortably settling into its middle age. Many times, the show felt like it was running around in circles, rehashing plots it had done better in its peak years. It also lost its usuallysharp focus, often seeming unsure of what left it could do with its characters (and particularly its protagonist, who seemed halted in her growth). But even though the storytelling left something to be desired, Parks remained a show that I was happy to spend a half-hour with every week. And at the end of the year, the show made the curious decision to recall Leslie from her City Council position and send her off on an unknown path. It was the most interesting narrative choice the show made in several seasons, and it provides some hope that Parks can re-emerge as a vibrant and compelling show once again. But even if it doesn't, spending time in Pawnee is sure to remain a simple pleasure for as long as the show airs.
Highlight Episodes: "Leslie and Ben", "London", "Recall Vote"

Archer
Archer remained an incredibly funny show in its fourth season. The cast was still aces, and the writing was still sharper than just about every other comedy on TV. But one important competent was missing - the element of surprise that always drove the show at its best. This is pretty natural - as a show ages, there's no way it can continue to bring the same thrills it did at its peak. But it was still incredibly funny and entertaining, which likely would've been enough to give the show a long and fulfilling future - even if it meant a little bit of coasting. Of course, as we all know now, that wasn't enough for Archer. They hit the reset button this year, sending us on an insane journey that recalls the fast-and-loose experimentation that drives the show at its best. I'm glad Archer wasn't content to settle into a groove, but Season 4 proves that Archer coasting still made for a pretty great time.
Highlight Episodes: "Live and Let Dine", "The Papal Chase", "Sea Tunt"

Happy Endings
Happy Endings spent most of 2013 in burn-off mode on ABC, which caused many people - including myself - to sort of forget about it come the end of the year. But when VH1 marathoned all of Happy Endings on New Years' Day, it reminded me how much of a perfectly crafted joke machine it was. Few shows on TV make me laugh as loudly and consistently as this one did, and I'm going to miss its delightfully insane characters and jokes that are fucking poetic in how perfectly hilarious they are. The marathon also reminded that Happy Endings closed out with a fairly strong set of episodes. They were just as hilarious as the show had always been, and for the first time, they successful rang some pathos out of situations like the end of Penny's engagement with Piece and Alex and Dave deciding to call it quits. I'll really miss Happy Endings, but at least it went out on a high note.
Highlight Episodes: "The Ex Factor", "The Marry Prankster", "She Got Game Night"

Arrested Development
Arrested Development's long-awaited fourth season was sort of a beautiful mess. On one hand, the excitement of seeing the Bluths back in action was matched by very little else on TV this year. On the other hand, the confusion of the shows' downright strange narrative style was also matched by anything on TV this year. Since the original recipe of Arrested Development was heralded for its innovation to the TV sitcom, the Netflix revival seemed to feel like it had to follow in its footsteps - but that caused the show to often forget about what made it work so well in the first place. Luckily, this wasn't always the case. Even though the narrative was convulted, the humor on AD remained mostly sharp, and the fourth season succeeded in providing a new wave of classic Arrested Development quotes. It may not have completely lived up to the shows' original run, but what could? At its best, AD Season 4 was still an incredibly funny and entertaining show, with some intriguing character work. That's more than enough to keep me hoping we don't have to wait another seven years to see the Bluths again.
Highlight Episodes: "Colony Collapse", "Senioritis", "Off the Hook"

Alright. That's that. Now let's get on to the Top 10!

10. Veep

Veep is one of those shows that could've simply repeated its first season for its entire run, and a good portion of its audience (possibly including me) would've been content. I mean, it's a bunch of hilarious people dressing up as politicians and cursing, and that's awesome. But I was impressed by the narrative choices the show made in its second season - rather than continuing to hammer the "Selina is useless" shtick, Veep made her an integral part of her administration in Season 2 after her nameless party received a particularly harsh setback in the midterm elections. This raised the dramatic stakes in ways that helped keep the show fresh and interesting. The season ended with an even more intriguing twist, suggesting that POTUS will not be seeking re-election and that Selena will attempt to fill his seat. That paves the way for a third season that could be quite interesting indeed, and will certainly continue to give us the classic, profanity-laced exchanges we've all come to crave.
Highlight Episodes: "Hostages", "First Response", "D.C"

9. Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Brooklyn Nine-Nine is the most promising new network comedy in several seasons (perhaps since Community?), and the reason why it's been so delightful can be boiled down to a few simple components: it has a killer ensemble cast, it has top-notch talent behind it, and it has an interesting set of characters that it's willing to dig into. Oh, and it's really, really funny - far funnier than any sitcom halfway through its first season has any right to be. The shows' only real blind spot is its protagonist - Andy Samburg does a fine job with Jake Peralta, but the show has yet to give us a reason why we should be rooting for such a self-absorbed, obnoxious character. But other than that? Just about everything on this show is fire right now, and I'm incredibly excited to see where it's going to go.

Highlight Episodes: "The Vulture", "Halloween", "Thanksgiving"

8. The Middle

It's rare that I get overly excited about a family sitcom, but The Middle is just that good. And unlike most aging comedies, it's only getting better. As the Heck kids grow up and begin dealing with things like graduation, college, and part-time jobs, The Middle is able to renew its comic energy by digging into these rites of passages and putting its own unique spin on them. But change isn't limited to the kids - the show made the wise decision to give matriarch Frankie a career change last year, and it's resulted in a surprisingly interesting story about people trying to re-invent themselves in their middle age. The way The Middle manages to consistently find fresh new challenges for the Heck clan is the key to its success, and it's what makes it continue to be the quietest great show on television.

Highlight Episodes: "Wheel of Pain", "Change is in the Air", "The Potato"

7. Mad Men

After a dynamic 5th season that experimented with the shows' form in incredibly interesting ways, Mad Men's 6th season first appeared to be a bit of a cooldown. It was still thought-provoking and genre-pushing, sure, but it didn't quite have the spark of the 5th season. And then, about halfway through, everything changed, and the season arc became clear: this is the beginning of the end for Don Draper. The season suddenly became the story of a broken mans' downfall, as we saw Don sink to depths we had never seen him reach before. Add this to a sudden status quo change that merged Sterling-Cooper-Draper-Pryce with one of its rival firms, and you have another great, intriguing season of television.

Highlight Episodes: "For Immediate Release", "The Crash", "In Care Of"

6. Orange is the New Black

The most surprising new show of the season may have been Orange is the New Black, a Netflix original series that came seemingly out of nowhere and blew us all away with its intriguing premise, refreshing characters, intricate character work, and unique storytelling structure. Of all of the things to love about the show - from all of the reasons I just listed along with its amazingly diverse cast and subtly effective social commentary - the single element that made the show work may be the way it challenged the way we view characters on television. The way it was able to take characters that started off looking like villians - such as Alex or Red - and turn them into truly sympathetic individuals was an amazing feat, as was their ability to do the opposite with a character like Healy. Of course, the best example of this may be Crazy Eyes (or Suzanne), who starts off the series as a terrifying wildcard and ends it as perhaps the most lovable character on the entire show. The show even achieves this goal with its protagonist, who goes from poor, helpless soul to dangerous anti-hero in a surprisingly natural way. After a year where it made such a splash, there's few shows I'm looking forward to in 2014 more than Orange is the New Black.

Highlight Episodes: "Lesbian Request Denied", "Fucksgiving", "Tall Men With Feelings"

5. New Girl

New Girl continued its momentum in 2013 by giving us one of the most compelling will they/won't they arcs on TV in a long time - the epic romance of Jessica Day and Nick Miller. I was originally completely against a Jess/Nick pairing, but the show did an excellent job turning me by basically just forcing me to accept it. In "Cooler" - quite possibly the shows' best episode to date - the series simply throws the characters together for a passionate kiss and refuses to give the audience time to process it all. And it worked! That episode kicked off New Girl's best run of episodes yet, fueled by the perfectly constructed Jess/Nick romance. But Jess and Nick aren't the only factors that made New Girl so compelling in 2013 - the show continued to dig deep into its characters and ask them tough questions about who they really were and what they wanted. This was perhaps most obvious with Schmidt, who was forced to hold a bit of a mirror up to himself and question how good of a person he really was. It didn't always work, and the show had a few rocky episodes this fall, but when it did, there wasn't much else on TV that could match its mix of top-notch humor and deep-rooted characterization.

Highlight Episodes: "Cooler", "Parking Spot", "Menus"

4. Breaking Bad

Breaking Bad's final eight episodes were some of the most upsetting and emotionally disturbing things to air on TV this year, but that only cemented just how fantastic the story they were closing out was. All of the characters we've grown to care about (except Walt, because he's a terrible, terrible human being) were put in the desperate, grim situations we've known were coming for them since Season 1 - and it was every bit as terrifying and emotionally draining as we knew it would be. The best example of the beautiful misery of Breaking Bad's final stretch episodes was the breathtaking "Ozymandias", a nauseatingly tense episode of television in which everything we spent the past five seasons fearing was going to happen, happened - in the span of about 10 minutes. While the finale was a mild disappointment that never engaged with the psychological questions that the show was able to at its best, the build-up to it was perfect enough that Breaking Bad's curtain call will certainly be remembered for years to come.

Highlight Episodes: "Blood Money", "Confessions", "Ozymandias"

3. Enlightened

(The picture represents Amy and Tyler's reactions to ranking above Breaking Bad).

Enlightened is gone too soon, but what a beautiful story it told while it was here. After a strong first season that created a compelling protagonist in Amy Jellicoe, the second season of Enlightened put things into the highest gear possible and told a no-frills story about realizing what you're capable of. It was one of the most powerful shows on TV, and it was also one of the most unique - very few shows ever wear their heart on their sleeves as much as Enlightened did, which is perhaps why it wasn't a show for everyone. But if you could get on the shows' wavelength, you were lucky enough to experience some truly powerful messages about human connection, all done with some of the most lovable misfits this side of Community. It's a shame that we aren't getting anymore Enlightened, but part of me thinks we don't even need any more. What we got is such a beautiful, self-contained story that articulated its message so well, I'm just glad it existed in the first place.

Highlight Episodes: "Higher Power", "Follow Me", "The Ghost is Seen"

2. Doctor Who

On a purely subjective level, Doctor Who is probably not the #2 show of 2013. The second half of the shows' seventh season wasn't its all-time best, hurt a bit by the decision to split the season into two separate parts (although the two specials - the 50th anniversary and the Christmas special - were fantastic). But damn it, I'm putting it here anyway, because I don't know if there's a show that aired on TV this year that made me as purely happy as this one. 2013 was the first time I watched Doctor Who, and I binged through all seven seasons of the modern incarnation of the show pretty fast. What I love about Doctor Who is how, despite its seemingly complex nature, its really incredibly simple: it's about a time traveler and his companion, traveling all through space and time. Sure, there's plenty of other mythology to it, but that one sentiment sums up the child-like glee that you get when you immerse yourself in the shows' world. It's fun. It's campy. It's often funny, it's often heartbreaking. It's Doctor Who, and while it sometimes slips up a bit, there's nothing remotely like it on television.

Highlight Episodes: "The Rings of Akhaten", "The Day of the Doctor", "The Time of the Doctor"

1. Bob's Burgers

Oh, Bob's Burgers. Is there any show on TV that accepts people from all corners of the Earth as much as this one does? Is there any show with characters as downright lovable as the Belchers? Is there any show that could come up with a line as brilliant as "they'll say aw, topsy at my autopsy?". No. No, there is not. Bob's Burgers has such a refreshingly warm comic tone that brings a much-needed change of pace not just to the Fox animation family, but to television comedy in general. The way it manages to take characters that would easily be the butt of the joke on any other show and turn them into sympathetic and beloved figures is what truly sets it apart. That and its wonderfully weird and consistently hilarious sense of humor, of course. Sure, other shows might have kept me on my toes more, but no show made me as excited to spend time in its universe this year than Bob's Burgers. The way it accepts its completely weird, off-beat characters with such open arms is the kind of thing that really melts the heart of internet losers like me all over the world. Here's to another great year with the Belchers.

Highlight Episodes: "Mother Daughter Laser Razor", "Topsy", "Christmas in the Car"

So there's 2013. It was a great year, but with the re-emergence of Community and Archer, the return of Louie, and a whole slew of promising new shows, I wonder if 2014 could somehow be even better. I guess we'll just have to wait and see! How FUN!

THINGS ARE HAPPENING

It has been a very busy week for television. This was originally going to be a post about Community and Parks and Recreation's most recent episodes. But then I put it off and like, eight more things happened. So let's get to it. We'll start with Community and Parks:

Community - "Basic Integluetal Numistatics"



I had no idea what to make of this episode at first. I wasn't thrilled that the show was already doing a genre parody only two weeks into the new season. I wanted to re-establish the characters! And the setting! But the episode slowly won me over by committing so damn well to its concept (which seemed to be a parody of David Fincher movies mixed with some crime procedural spoofing) that I ultimately didn't mind. The visuals were excellent, and the music was even better - Ass Crack Bandit is totally my new jam. I also thought the episode was quite funny, with a rapid-fire joke setting reminiscent of Community's early seasons. Community occasionally forgets to be funny with its concept episodes, and while it really doesn't matter because the show is capable of being excellent without being hilarious, it certainly made this episode much more enjoyable (and helped to bounce off the darkness of the source material). Where the episode didn't land for me initially was character-wise. I'm just really tired of the Jeff/Annie pairing - at least romantically (last week's Introduction to Teaching managed to rediscover how fun the pairing can be without the weird love story angle) and I didn't feel this episode added anything new to it. I also was not a big fan of how Pierce's death was handled. It was...sudden, and I got that it was kind of the point, but the death of a major character should really have more importance than it did in this episode. But after re-watching it about 4 times, and after seeing next weeks' episode (LET ME HAVE THIS) which deals with Pierce's demise in a really excellent way, I'm more convinced that...well, that was the point. The sudden, ambiguous nature of the ending was meant to point out how in real life, death isn't just another thing that happens. It has real life consequences. And although I didn't think the episode landed this concept as well as it could have (it probably shouldn't take 4 watches to get it, you know?) I applaud what they were going for, and it gave me a lot to think about it. So overall, this was another promising step for Community's fifth season, which has been seriously impressive so far.

Parks and Recreation - "Second Chunce"

Parks celebrated its 100th episode this week, but it didn't really make a big deal about it, choosing instead to have a quieter episode that analyzed the fate of its characters going forward. This was probably its greatest strength. I liked Leslie realizing that she's destined for more than Pawnee - it wasn't exactly new, because it's been a running thread of the season, but it was sort of nice to see it solidified, and it pushes the show in a new direction it desperately needs. I'm hoping that this allows the show to try some new things with its protagonist rather than just giving her the "Leslie has obstacles, but she's so great so she manages to get through them!" cycle that she's spent the last two seasons running around in. I especially liked the return of Jen Barkley, giving Leslie the push in the right direction that she needed, because a) she's an interesting foil for Leslie and b) she delivered the best joke of the night, discussing her mothers' 19 year old boyfriend. The rest of the episode was...fine, I guess. It sort of demonstrated why my love for Parks has dwindled over the past year, though - it just felt like a retread. We've seen Tom question his direction in life before. Then he started Rent-A-Swag. Then the show took it away for him, because they always have to return everything to the status quo eventually. Oh, and there was a boring plot with Ann and Chris, and yet another nauseatingly cheesy Ben/Leslie end scene (yay they go to Paris they're so perfect yay). Just...do something different, Parks! Take Community and Archer's lead. You have the potential to with this Leslie story. Now let's see it out.

That seems like a good segway to Archer, but I would be remissed if I didn't at least touch on my best show of 2013 (full list coming soon, btw!)...

Bob's Burgers - "Presta Tina-o"

This was Bob's Burgers at its weirdest, and therefore, its finest. Of course, that sort of goes without saying with a Tina episode. Tina is just such a fan-fucking-tastic character. She's a confused teenage girl, sure. There's lots of those on TV. But there's no confused teenage girls who are as proud of being a confused teenage girl, and that's what makes her unique. And let's be honest. There's a little bit of a confused teenage girl inside all of us, isn't there? Tina Belcher shows us that it's okay to be insecure and weird and unsure of yourself. In fact, it's that insecurity that might lead you to sabotage a magician competition, only to un-sabotage it and earn yourself an honorable mention for on-stage chemistry, which isn't really real but makes your family proud anyway. The fact that I could just type all of that and have it make sense to at least 4 million people out there is a rock solid example of why I love Bob's Burgers as much as I do.

Alright. Let's get to....

Archer - "White Elephant"

Holy crap, you guys.

I liked Archer's fourth season, but I didn't love it. It was still hilarious, sure, but it just felt like a lot of plots that were rehashes of things the show had done in the past. The show probably could've comfortably carried itself to 7 or 8 seasons off of that, although it likely would've sacrificed its place as a boundary-pushing critical darling in the process. But nope. Adam Reed didn't want to do that. He got bored, and he didn't want to see his show circling the drain. So this season of Archer is no longer about ISIS and is now about the gang selling cocaine.

What's amazing about this episode is that it makes all of this feel totally organic. To be fair, Archer is always a show that has played fast and loose with its foundation, having no qualms about giving its protagonist cancer, or a baby, or turning major characters into cyborgs. So it's more likely to pull off such a massive change than a lot of other shows are - and in a way, the giant revelation that ISIS was never actually a government agency and that all of its work was completely illegal actually makes sense. Since Archer is a show where we have to suspend most of our ideas of what's "normal" on a television show anyway, it's able to pull off a trick like this pretty easily. I guess that's what Season 4 missed for me. It just didn't have that "I legitimately have no idea what the fuck is going to happen" feel that the show did at its best. So to see that return in such a huge way is a big relief.

Of course, part of what makes it work, too, is that the cast and characters are still the same cast and characters. And, really, that's always what made Archer what it was. Or at least, I assumed it was. This season will be ultimate test of that - but if that kick-ass preview of the upcoming season is to be believed, we have nothing to worry about.
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Aaaaand I just wanted to take a minute to talk about the Golden Globes. I generally have very little use for awards shows, but the Golden Globes are kind of a boozy trainwreck, so they're a little more fun than say...the Oscars. And with Tina & Amy hosting, there was no I wasn't watching at least a little bit - and I'm glad I did, because I was really happy with how things turned out. No, I'm not talking about Jacqueline Bisset's acceptance speech, although that was definitely a highlight! I'm talking about the awards themselves. Well, mainly just the TV comedy awards. Amy Poehler FINALLY winning for Leslie Knope is about three years too late but made me incredibly happy. And Brooklyn Nine-Nine winning Best Comedy was a huge shock, and while I wouldn't give it that distinction yet, I'm incredibly happy that the show will now likely have a chance to get there. We all like to say awards shows are useless. And they mostly are! Tastes are subjective, and who cares what a bunch of old rich Hollywood dumbasses and whoever the Hollywood Foreign Press have to say? But awards can be beneficial for a show like Brooklyn Nine-Nine. They certainly helped 30 Rock and Arrested Development earn recognition, and all of the "WHAT IS BROOKLYN NINE NINE SHOULD WE BE WATCHING IT" type of responses that circulated the internet today prove that it just may give that show the boost it needs right now.

TELEVISION UPDATE

HI! I have not written here in a while, because of life and because I'm terrible and stuff. So, since we're about halfway through November sweeps and coming close to the halfway point of the TV season (!!!), I thought I'd give a few updates on where a few shows are standing with me right now.

Let's start with Bob's Burgers. Bob's has only had 4 episodes so far this year, thanks to FOX's stupid dedication to SPORTS (gross!), but they've all ranged from decent ("A River Runs Through Bob") to fantastic ("Fort Night", which is, in my opinion, is already Bob's Burgers' Halloween classic). Bob's Burgers is one of those shows that's in such a great groove right now that it's hard to imagine it doing much of anything wrong. Other shows may be more ambitious, sure, but I still look forward to my half-hour with the Belchers every week more than anything else on television. Other than "Fort Night", nothing this season has quite hit the dizzying heights of episodes like "Mother Daughter Laser Razor" or "Topsy", but since the first half of this season will all be episodes made under the Season 3 production schedule (thanks to scheduling weirdness, now a staple of Fox's animation block), I'm fairly certain there's more classics waiting for us in the bunch. The thing that continues to impress me the most about Bob's Burgers is the way it just accepts everyone's flaws and quirks and does so in a way that is lovingly hilarious. It's such a refreshing tone, and it's certainly been present in all of the episodes this year. I really can't say enough good things about this show. It's a strong contender for my favorite show on television right now.

Let's get onto Brooklyn Nine-Nine, easily the seasons' best new comedy and probably the best freshman comedy since Community back in 2009. It's amazed me just how quickly this show found its comic tone - by the second or third episode, I was already consistently laughing out loud when I watched it, which is pretty rare for a comedy that young. The show has also done a great job crafting strong, relatable comic characters, from Captian Holt to Terry to Amy. And of course, it features the hilarious Chelsea Peretti, who was absent in this weeks' episode but is always there to bring her special touch of enderaring weirdness to everything she touches. My biggest issue with the show has been the way its lead character, Jake Peralta, can delve into douchebag territory far too quickly and never quite get the moments of redemption a character like that needs to in order for us to root for them. But the show actually remedied that a bit this week, with a stellar plot where Jake puts himself on the line after someone insults Captain Holt's sexuality. He's still not a perfect lead character, but I can see now that the show is working to make him better, and given Mike Schur & Dan Goor's track record with that subject on Parks & Recreation, I'm confident they'll be able to do so. One thing I find interesting about Brooklyn Nine-Nine is how old-school it feels - not so much in its humor, which feels very much like modern comedy, but in its relatively simplistic plotting and subtle character development. It's an interesting vibe that I'm wondering if the show will keep. I think it could stand to push its characters just a bit more, but other than that, I'm enjoying the bit of a throwback vibe its giving off, and I'm certainly enjoying the misfit ensemble they're crafting through solid writing and mostly pretty fantastic performances.

Then there's New Girl, which got off to a bit of a slow start this year but has really picked up its game in the last few episodes. I loved this weeks' episode, "Menus" - it was my favorite of the season so far, and probably one of my favorite episodes of the show of all-time. It wasn't anything particularly fancy, but the way it took the characters' seperate insecurities and blended them into one meaningful and thematically strong storyline was some really excellent writing. I think the show is also being aided a lot by the re-addition of Coach, who has already freshened up the dynamic a lot in the two episodes he's been around. I am hoping that Coach's return will spark something in Winston, rather than having him pushed to the sidelines even more. Winston's been having a great season comedically, constantly providing the show with some of its funniest moments, but I do think it's about time we got a real, full-fledged Winston arc (and not just a half-assed romance one like the one he had with Brenda Song). I know some people are frustrated with the show this season, but I really don't understand why, other than the usual third season backlash narrative. New Girl has never been a perfect show, but that's sort of what I like about it. It doesn't settle into a groove and continue to coast. It's constantly pushing and re-inventing itself to get to the emotional truth of its characters. That makes for a show that isn't always consistent but, when it hits, it really hits, and it's still hitting enough of the time that I continue to find it one of the best shows on TV.

That seems like a good way to segway us into Parks and Recreation, which has spent much of the last several years in "coasting" territory. Parks & Rec has an incredibly strong core, so when it coasts, it's still pretty damn great a lot of the time - but it can still get kind of same-y and boring after a while, as it did for much of Season 5 and portions of this season so far. Luckily, the show came back roaring this week in its return from its random hiatus/not hiatus, and it did so by doing what it used to do well in its earlier seasons but hasn't done in a while (arguably since Leslie got Ben back in Season 4) - it let Leslie Knope lose. I know, tragic. Just tragic. It was! The scene where it was announced that Leslie was recalled was a gut punch, and millions of Leslie Knope fans on Tumblr all cried out in sorrow at the same time. But that's a good thing! These things make us feel more connected to the characters. What was missing with Parks over the past few years was that it didn't let Leslie fail anymore. It gave her everything she wanted, mostly without even trying. All she had to do was defeat a bumbling moron for City Council or go through ridiculous, cartoonish townspeople to get what she wanted. So I'm really happy to see the show actually testing her again. It's sad! But this is Parks, so you know something good is coming for her soon, and that something is going to be even more powerful now that she's been through a bit of a struggle. This season has been inconsistent so far, but I'm enjoying it more than the last because it feels like its slowly poking out of the narrative rut it was in for all of last year and even a lot of Season 4. Let's hope it keeps pushing itself as the season progresses.

And finally, The Michael J. Fox Show, which I have nothing to say about. Because I dropped it. Because that shit is boring. I love you, MJF, but please, get a better show.

So, there's the basics. There are other shows that I'm consistently entertained by - like The Middle, which is the best family sitcom in ages - and other shows that I've been consistently let down by - like South Park, which is showing more cracks than ever this season, but those are the shows that have been consuming my mind the most lately. And Doctor Who. Oh, do I need to make a post about Doctor Who. But that's for another time.

"No hard feelings but I hate you, not joking" - Tuesday (and beyond!) TV Roundup 10/1/2013

Hi everyone! It's been a few days. Not that much has happened since I last checked in, except for the government collapsing and shutting down or whatever. But let's talk about television instead! Tonight featured some very good episodes of Brooklyn Nine-Nine and New Girl that I'd like to get to. But then I thought - hey, why not talk about this weekends' new shows, too? Namely, Saturday Night Live and Bob's Burgers. No, not Breaking Bad. I haven't caught up with it yet, so everyone just shut the fuck up.


Alright, well, what's there to say about Saturday Night Live? This is probably going to be a very transitional season for the show, which is probably good, because the show's been getting a little stale these past few seasons. As much as I'll miss Bill and Jason and Fred, SNL thrives on change - it's what keeps the show interesting. So even though this season may be a rough transition, I'm sure it'll ultimately prove to be a good thing in the end. Besides, the season premiere was actually a pretty solid outing, led by Tina Fey, who can do no wrong (except Admission, let's just all pretend that didn't happen). There was a lot of really great sketches, my favorite being the Girls parody, but with "E-Meth" and the always charming Drunk Uncle not being too far behind. I'm also excited to see what Cecily Strong can do with Update - I liked her last season, though I was a bit taken back by her sudden promotion to Update anchor. Her first night at the desk was pretty smooth. Her jokes were a bit broad, but her delivery was solid and her segment with Tina was really great.

So I guess this is the part where I address the shows' obvious diversity problem. I find it very disappointing, especially considering two of the shows' only non-white cast members (Jay and Nasim) were sidelined for most of the show last night. That said, I don't think Lorne Michaels actively hates everyone who's not white or anything. I just think that there's such a bulit-in homogeneity to the show that's holding it back from being as diverse as it could be. It's a bit of a bummer, and hopefully the backlash will let the show get it sorted out sooner than later.

Now let's move on to Bob's Burgers, which started its 4th season on Sunday, even though technically the episodes we'll be seeing between now and February or so are going to be from the Season 3 production line, thanks to Fox only airing 9 episodes of the show back in 2011-12 after ordering a full season. That means there's no need to panic about the shows' quality until then, internet, since the episodes airing now are in the same production line as the ones that aired in the spring. That's a relief, since the premiere was actually one of the shows' weakest episodes in recent memory. It wasn't a terrible episode of television or anything - there were still plenty of great lines, I laughed a ton, there was a fun song and any time with the Belchers is quality time, in my mind. But I thought the choice to kick off the season with an episode set in the woods was a bit of an odd choice. I missed the restaurant. I missed the great world of characters the show slowly built over the course of the first 3 seasons. I wanted to catch up with them in this episode, not be transported into the woods for a funny but overly wacky story that didn't let the truly unique personas of the Belcher family shine through completely. All in all, it wasn't a bad episode, but it was kind of a bad premiere. That's fine, because this is still Bob's Burgers. It's still one of my favorite shows on TV, and it's still great, even when it's not at its best.

And now onto actual Tuesday TV! I was very impressed by this weeks' Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which might be my choice for the funniest episode of the television season so far. The show already has such a tight grasp on its characters, and those characters are already just so much fun to hang out with. The plots still aren't terribly original - it's yet another episode centered around Captain Holt teaching Jake a lesson - but, geez, the jokes are. Chelsea Peretti has already established herself as a primetime sitcom treasure, and her interpretive dance to Christina Aguileria was one of the most beautiful moments on TV so far this season. The show is so close to greatness right now that I can't wait to see what it looks like when it gains a bit more confidence and starts taking some risks with its plots, which I feel probably isn't far off at all.

And now onto New Girl, which aired what was probably my favorite episode of its season so far tonight. Granted, we're only 3 episodes in, so that's not life-changing or anything, but I really loved a lot of things about this episode. The most important is Nick Miller, who just fucking knocks it out of the park every week, but his dancing and his reaction when Schmidt told him about his dilemma and his yelling about the valet and his helmet and just...his everything, was fucking perfect this week. And this episode also beautifully captured everything I love about Nick and Jess, particularly that last scene. Their awkward, weird, stupid, possibly lethal but kind of irresistible energy is so fun to watch, and the show is playing it perfectly so far. I also loved Winston's storyline - yeah, it sucks he's always getting sent off to his own plotlines away from the main cast, but I thought it was played perfectly this week. In fact, the writers kind of seemed to know that they have the tendency to do that to the character, and they sort of turned it into an emotional plotpoint. I have a feeling that we're building to something here - possibly something that intersects with the Coach arc, which should provide plenty of interesting fodder for Winston.

And that brings up Schmidt. There's been a lot of divisive reactions to his storyline around the internet - but honestly? I don't have a huge problem with it. Yes, he's being a total douche right now, but I thought he got what he deserved this week. Did that turn him into an ever bigger douche? Well...yes, but I sort of see this playing out similarly to the Pierce arc in Season 2 of Community. I think the show realizing what they're doing here, and I think they're doing it to send Schmidt on the same kind of path, where he really questions his own self, his actions and what he brings to this group. It's a bit of a darker tone for this show, so I understand what makes it jarring. And maybe I'm totally wrong and they're not building to anything. But this show has gained my trust, and it's given me no reason to believe I shouldn't trust it'll make something of all of this.

Last thing! I reviewed Super Fun Night for Sitcoms Online. I didn't like it very much. Read why!

http://blog.sitcomsonline.com/2013/10/abc-fall-pilot-review-super-fun-night.html

Alright, that's enough for tonight. Happy television! Or something! I don't even know anymore.

Tuesday TV Roundup: Brooklyn Nine-Nine, New Girl & Trophy Wife

Hello, everyone! It's another wonderful Tuesday here in the land of television, so let's break down all of the comedies that have graciously been given to us tonight (except for all of the ones that suck):

Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Everyone knows comedy pilots are hard to get right, but second episodes are arguably just as hard. You have to retain what people liked about the pilot, while progressing your world and characters in a way that allows the audience to see that your characters aren't static - and yet not doing it too much, in fear of going too far too soon. Brooklyn Nine-Nine's second episode is certainly a repeat of the pilot in several ways, but it repeats and adds to the pilots' strongest element - the mentor relationship between Jake and Captain Holt. We don't necessarily learn anything new about either of them in this episode, but their relationship is deepened and progressed in smart but subtle ways. I thought the mirroring that the relationship between the police captain and his delinquent son and Jake and Captian Holt's relationship was fairly well-done, if slightly on-the-nose, and the two continued to demonstrate the solid comic energy that they delivered so well in the pilot. The rest of the ensemble was contained to the episodes' B-plot, which involved Joe becoming nervous after Gina's fortune teller friend informed him that Rosa would never love him and he'd spend his life alone. The plot itself was pretty standard sitcom fare, but I liked the way it brought out the personalities of the rest of the ensemble - particularly Chelsea Peretti's Gina, who is really coming onto her own. Brooklyn Nine-Nine isn't completely there yet - the humor feels shoehorned at times, and the ensemble, while strong, hasn't completely gelled just yet - but it's already making great strides to get there.

New Girl: Tonight's New Girl felt like the first time since the start of the Nick/Jess arc that the show was able to just take a breath and relax a bit. The better part of Season 2's back half was spent carefully plotting Nick and Jess's relationship, and the premiere had to do the dirty work of actually dealing with the conclusion of that plotting. So it's probably natural that tonight'd "Nerd" felt like a bit of a filler episode. Even the central Jess/Nick plot- a place where the show usually does its heavy lifting - didn't have all that much to say outside of "hey, these people are dating now, and they're cute". As for Winston and Schmidt's stories - Winston got perhaps the funniest material of the episode, but the show never made Daisy enough of a thing to make his plot pack any emotional weight whatsoever. And Schmidt's plot continues to get more and more irritating the longer the show drags it on. Schmidt is often allowed to get away with terrible behavior, because he's the kind of character we expect it from (I mean, hello, douchebag jar). But his douchebaggery is entering new heights here - and, worst of all, it's being presented as some sort of wacky comic scenario, instead of the alarming example of insecurity that it really is. I have enough faith in New Girl to give Schmidt what he deserves and to find the emotional weight of this eventually, but I wish it would happen sooner. Anyway, I feel like I'm coming down hard on an episode of television that made me laugh a lot and prominently featured the entire cast singing "I Believe I Can Fly". The laidback vibe of this episode wasn't always a bad thing - it made the episodes' comedy come fast and effortless, and it was overall a reliably good time. But after some of the truly excellent half-hours the show produced last season, an amusing but lightweight outing can't help but feel like a bit of a letdown. Still, if an episode as funny and entertaining as this one now qualifies as a "letdown" for New Girl, then it's in pretty good hands at the start of this third season.

Trophy Wife: I don't have a lot to say about the pilot of Trophy Wife, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's a highly competent pilot episode, one that nails a lot of the beats that comedy pilots often miss, and lets is strong ensemble cast do most of the heavy lifting. The premise of the show is kind of uninteresting at its core, but the show puts a certain earnestness into it that allows it to actually be pulled off. There's a lot of great gags, its tightly-written and handsomely directed. The only place where the show falls a bit flat for me is in one of the most important quadrants - its characters. I didn't really connect to any character at the end of this pilot, which is a bit of an issue, because I like to have at least someone I can hold onto in a comedy pilot. Because of that, I'm not sure Trophy Wife is the type of show I'll be running to catch every week, but its strong writing and great cast is enough to hold my interest for a while.

I did not watch Dads because I value my time and sanity. I did not watch The Goldbergs because I get enough yelling and dated pop culture references from my own family. And I did not watch The Mindy Project because it's never going to get better and it's time I accepted that. But everything else was pretty good! Yay, network TV season! We love you,  network TV season!

Also, I have no interest in a weekly Marvel procedural. Sorry, ABC/Joss Whedon!

Things I am looking forward to on the television this year

Hello again, dedicated readers! I thought I would take this rainy Saturday night before what remains of the traditional network TV season to run through a list of what I am looking forward to this season. Why? Because, well, this is my life, and it's time I accepted it. So let's go! In no particular order, here are my most anticipated shows, both old and new, for the upcoming TV season:

• The return of New Girl and Bob's Burgers, aka the two best comedies on television right now. Seriously, if you're a comedy fan and you're not watching these shows, you are depriving yourself of a great source of joy, and that's just sad. True, both of these shows got off to a somewhat rocky start, but they've really come into their own. They both were far ahead of the rest of the comedy competition last season, churning out endless streaks of near-perfect episodes. Both shows benefit from having a deep understanding of their brilliantly defined characters - the kind of understanding that only shows that take the definition of the sitcom and elevate it to new heights can achieve. While following up seasons that were as good as New Girl Season 2 and Bob's Burgers Season 3 is a tough act, I'm still incredibly excited to see where these shows take us next, and I'm pretty confident that wherever it is, it's going to be all kinds of awesome. 

• Brooklyn Nine-Nine. I've already talked about my enjoyment of the pilot on here a lot, so I'm not going to go into too much detail - but I really feel like this is the safest bet for a great new comedy in quite a while. The creators are great, the cast is possibly even better, and the characters are already proving to be pretty interesting. Now, to be fair, my most anticipated comedies of the past 2 seasons both turned into shows I didn't care for (The Mindy Project and Up All Night, if you were wondering), but I have higher hopes for this one, which is already starting with tighter characters and stronger promise than either of those shows had at their start.

• The Michael J. Fox Show. I haven't seen the pilot for this one yet, and my anticipation for it can best be described as "cautiously optimistic". Like any self-respected human being, I like Michael J. Fox a lot and am excited at the prospect of him returning to television. Plus, the premise of the show sounds like something that could make for genuinely interesting and powerful television. My fear is that NBC is pushing so hard for this to be their new flagship comedy that I fear it will be sunk in the process. That's why Go On ended up as such a miserable failure, and I'd hate it to see that happen here, because I could see this being a really excellent show if it's given the chance.

• The triumphant(?) returns of Community and Parks and Recreation. I love both of these shows. That's no secret. I would strongly consider naming Community my favorite show of all-time (only 30 Rock might stand in its way), and the first 3 seasons of it are basically as perfectly tuned to my interests as a television should could be. Of course, it's no secret that Season 4 of Community was a mess, and I don't think there's anyone left in the fanbase that would deny that. But Dan Harmon is back! The darkness is over! Sure, Chevy Chase is gone and so is Donald Glover after 5 episodes. But I have strangely high hopes for this season. I think everyone involved in committed to really giving its fans the return to form they deserve, and we've all seen what can happen when a show really buckles down and commits itself to turning itself around and making an impact again (again, see: 30 Rock). Re-watching the earlier seasons of this show has reminded me of just how amazing it used to be, and I really think it can be that again. As for Parks - well, this will be far less popular, but I also felt that show sort of fell off the wagon a little bit last season. Its season wasn't the disaster that Community's was, but it was kind of a bore, with a few stand-outs but mostly a lot of repeated character beats and half-assed plotlines (Chris and Ann having a baby, anyone?). And yet, those few stand-out moments - like the genuinely touching "Leslie and Ben" - proved there's still spark left to Parks - and I'm hoping Season 6 will expose those sparks once again.

• Orange is the New Black Season 2. The biggest TV surprise of the year for me was Orange is the New Black. Not only was its release trapped in the dead of summer - a time of year generally reserved for B-list reality shows and Suits -  I show had no interest in until I heard the unanimous critical acclaim. As it turns out, Orange was one of the best shows of the entire year, a thoughtful and gripping look into a womens' prison that had the most diverse cast I've ever seen on television - not only in terms of ethnicity, but also in just in terms of different types of female characters. It was a show that really opened our minds in terms of what a television show could do, both with its unique flashback structure and its hoards of completely original characters. It's the best defense of the Netflix model of programming yet, and I'm incredibly curious to see what it can do in Season 2. Part of me fears it will go all Weeds on us, but the more logical side of me trusts that a show this special can't be soured so easily.

So there you go. There are my 5 things I am looking forward to most on TV this year. Or, more accurately: here are a bunch of TV shows I felt like talking about and this seemed like the most convenient outlet to do so. Hope you enjoy my opinions!

Television is back! I'm back! LIFE IS BACK!

Hi, no one! Or someone, maybe! I'm not going to assume you don't exist, because if you do exist, that'd be rude. Anyway, a new year of television is upon us, and this year I am going to attempt to actually utilize this thing in some meaningful ways, because it's getting crowded in my dumb, confused brain so I need some place to let my TV feelings roam free.

Although the official start of the TV season isn't until next week, Fox has decided that it likes us enough to treat us to all of their shows a week before the other networks. Also, they had a pretty shitty year last season, and are hoping that maybe they'll at least get a week to win by default. So far, it might be working, considering Sleepy Hollow surprised us all last night and became the highest-rated drama premiere on Fox in 6 years. So hey! Let's see what they had in store for us tonight.

Fox is trying once again to launch a two-hour comedy block this year, after last year's unsuccessful attempt that left poor Ben and Kate out to dry. New Girl and The Mindy Project remain in the 9:00 hour, but Fox is hoping the Seth MacFarlane live-action sitcom Dads (a sentence that sounds like it's trying to turn you away from television forever) and ensemble cop comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine can help tighten up the ship. Can they? It's not up to me! I'm not a superfluous ratings measurement system that becomes less and less relevant with time. But I can tell you if these shows are worth you while.

Dads

I don't have much to say about this one. Okay, mostly because I didn't watch it. Look, I have some standards, alright? But really, if you've spent any time on the internet this summer, you should know exactly what to expect from this show. It's bad. Of course it's bad. Did you think it wasn't going to be bad? Well, it's bad. Okay? Now let's never speak of it again.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

I wrote a bunch about this show for SitcomsOnline today! So you should go read that. If, for some reason, you don't, here's a summary - this is the an incredibly promising new show from an excellent bunch of cast and creators. For that alone, this seems like the best bet for a great new sitcom in quite a while. The pilot isn't amazing, but so few pilots are. The biggest problem with  it is that it isn't especially funny. But again - what pilots are? People often forget that their most beloved comedies didn't get off the ground running. The 30 Rock pilot had basically no laughs, the Parks & Rec pilot was a mess, the New Girl pilot was more or less "Zooey Deschanel being crazy for 22 minutes"...sure, once in a while you'll get an Arrested Development that kicks ass right from the start, but it's pretty rare. So while Brooklyn Nine-Nine's pilot isn't perfect, it's well-structured with plenty of great characterization. With a cast this good, that's enough to keep me very excited to see where it'll go next.

New Girl

I do not envy New Girl this season. Coming off of a highly acclaimed, universally beloved season is perhaps the hardest thing for a television show to do - the weight of expectations is almost impossible to match. Shows faced with this dilemma typically either choose to coast at the same speed and hope its supporters continue along for the ride (hello, Parks & Rec post-Season 3) or dial things up to 100 in an attempt to keep surprising its audience (that's you, Community Season 3!). Either of these methods is perfectly acceptable and can prevent the show from crashing and burning, but I personally prefer to watch the latter method, simply because I think it makes things a little more interesting. And while it's too soon to tell which road New Girl would take, all signs point to the second option after tonight's premiere. In a way, it has to take this route - the show changed its status quo so drastically by throwing Nick and Jess together at the end of Season 2 that there's no time for coasting. This is kind of an exciting prospect to me. New Girl could totally crash and burn this year, or it could balance everything perfectly and turn in another classic season of television. The fact that I have no idea which one it's going to be is a little scary, but it makes me incredibly excited to see what's in store for us in Apartment 4D this season. I will say that I thought this premiere was a step in the right direction - it made me laugh a lot, the Nick and Jess stuff was handled incredibly well, and I love that the show has made it clear that it's not going to sideline everyone else just to make room for their star couple. The only part of the premiere that I had problems with was Schmidt's storyline - love triangles are really just never interesting, and this one is no exception, particularly when that love triangle brings out the most irredeemable qualities in Schmidt. I hope that storyline wraps up sooner than later, whether it means Schmidt choosing CeCe or Elizabeth or the three of them forming the first polygamist relationship on network TV. Other than that, I'm all in.

The Mindy Project

The Mindy Project has gone through about four retools at this point, which is why it's weird that its biggest problems are the exact same problems that have been holding it back since it began. The show still has no likable or relatable characters, it's a strange mix of half-assed workplace sitcom and generic romantic comedy, and it has absolutely no point of view to speak of. In short, it's a total mess of a television program, one that has no consistent tone and seemingly no purpose, other than to be the internet's new favorite show and to book a bunch of cute boys for Mindy Kaling to kiss. What's worse is that the show is now seemingly content with this. There was a point in Season 1 where the show noticeably improved, and there was a wave of "look, it's gotten better!" support from critics and fans alike. While I never felt it improved into anything worthwhile, it was around this time that the show garnered a modest following and a bit more critical support (though not much). I guess it's decided to take that lukewarm reception and run with it, because at the start of its second season, the show seems perfectly content with its vapid mediocrity. There's a handful of decent jokes in tonight's premiere, and the writing itself remains somewhat clever. But there's absolutely no attempt to say anything remotely interesting or to progress its characters whatsoever. It's just a bunch of faceless characters exchanging snarky insults and occasionally kissing each other. That's enough for some people, I guess - but it's something I have absolutely no interest in, so I think this is where Mindy and I officially part ways. I maintain that there was a great show somewhere in that pilot last fall, but at this point, I have zero faith that great show is ever going to be discovered. 

So Fox's comedy block can best be described as a sandwich where the bread is really crumbly and gross, but the meat is delicious and some of the best around. That does not sound like a particularly good sandwich, but you can always take the meat out and just enjoy it by itself. Because you are a hard worker, and you deserve it.