A guide to the best Christmas TV episodes

The Christmas season is here, and you know what that means: TELEVISION. Because that's what everything means!

Seriously, Christmas specials are one of the key components of the Christmas season for me. There's something about the characters from my favorite shows indulging in yuletide cheer and getting festive that just...gets to me. So I've compiled a list of some of my favorite TV Christmas episodes. These are the episodes I typically have on repeat this time of year, so please enjoy them and do not shatter my soul by saying they suck.

Community - "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas"

Community might be the show with the best track record for Christmas episodes - gas leak year aside, every Christmas episode the show produced was a classic, from Season 1's heartfelt and down-to-earth "Comparative Religion" to Season 3's nightmare-inducing Glee parody "Regional Holiday Music". But I have a special place in my heart for "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas", which is not only my favorite Community Christmas episode but one of my favorite pieces of Christmas pop culture in general. "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas" is simultaneously exploding with cheer and deeply depressing - which, to my mind, are the only two emotions that should ever be used when depicting the Christmas season. It follows Abed as he has a serious psychological breakdown after his mother tells him she won't be visiting him for Christmas anymore - he begins seeing his entire life as if it's a stop motion Christmas special where his only task is to find the true meaning of Christmas. The way his perplexed and worried friends put aside their hesitations and join him in his Christmas wonderland of delusion is completely heartwarming in a way that makes me tear up every time I watch this episode, and it also delivers perhaps the best "meaning of Christmas" I've ever been given: "the meaning of Christmas is the idea that Christmas has meaning." "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas" is basically all of my tender, cynical, and painfully nostalgic about Christmas all wrapped up into a funny, heartwarming, slightly devastating and just all around beautiful half-hour of television. 

30 Rock - "Christmas Special"

30 Rock's approach to holiday cheer is to cynically expose some of the darker aspects of the holiday while mixing in few doses of the genuine pathos and comfort that the season can bring, which is exemplified well in plotlines like Colleen ruining Liz's Christmas to prove to Jack that she's not so screwed up after all, or a montage of Jenna and Paul dressed up as 2 "black Swans" singing O Holy Night. But the episode that nails this balance best is Season 3's "Christmas Special", which finds Jack accidentally running over his mother with his car and having to care for her through the holiday season. The entire episode is about people whose Christmases aren't lining up how they wanted them to and the ways they deal with it - Liz being left in the dust by her family this year results in her overcompensating with a Letters to Santa program, and Jack's unexpected holiday with his mother leads to him forcing the TGS crew to put together a live Christmas Eve special where he can make up for all of the Christmas Eves spent playing piano as his mother went to town on a random dude in their living room. But it's this haphazard special that leads to Liz helping Jack realize that the reason her mother spent Christmas Eve putting out was so that him and his siblings could afford presents that year. It's the mix of sick, sweet, disturbing and heartwarming that 30 Rock portrayed so well in its Christmas episodes.

Parks & Recreation - "Citizen Knope"

"Citizen Knope" is more of a Christmas-adjacent episode than a full out Christmas episode, centering around Leslie's adventures as she deals with her suspension from city hall after the fallout of her relationship with Ben. But it still uses the season of giving to build a seriously heartwarming plotline in which the entire Parks departments gets together to show their support for Leslie and offer to take over her terminated City Council campaign, doing so in the form of an elaborate Gingerbread house. That's the entire spirit of Christmas distilled in one plotline right there, and it's also the spirit of Parks & Rec, whose shiny optimism that comes out of even the most unfortunate circumstances is a perfect fit for the Christmas season.

Bob's Burgers - "Christmas in the Car"

Bob's Burgers is a show that often puts our beloved Belcher clan in dire circumstances and than uses off-beat humor and surprising acceptance to get them out of it, and "Christmas in the Car" does that with a little Christmas sprinkle. The Belchers set out on Christmas Eve to find a new tree after their old one dies and wind up on a seemingly life-threatening chase by a giant Candy Cane truck. Of course, in typical Bob's fashion, everything gets a warm and mushy ending when Bob and the truck driver come to an understand and exchange dutch babies. Don't worry, it'll all make sense if you're a Bob's Burgers fan.

American Dad - "Rapture's Delight"

American Dad is sometimes unfairly accused of being a rip-off of Family Guy, which is totally unfair because it's way better than Family Guy has ever been. While Family Guy has devolved into a lazy conveyor belt of shock humor, American Dad at its best is a completely surreal, absurdist animated comedy that goes to weirder depths than nearly any non-Adult Swim show I've ever seen. "Rapture's Delight" is the perfect example of that, as it takes what seems like a normal Christmas episode and turns it into a story about the rapture, the antichrist, and Armaggedon. The extent the show commits to this is impressive enough, but the way they managed to interject the typical Christmas show sentiment without losing a touch of the extreme absurdity and darkness of the rapture is what makes this a true Christmas classic to be enjoyed through the ages.

Doctor Who - "A Christmas Carol"

Doctor Who airs a Christmas special on Christmas Day every year, but none of them are really true Christmas classics - if they're not dealing with a regeneration (as many of them do) then they're typically bland and watered down byproducts of the show itself, often placing easily marketable concepts and guest stars over anything resembling actual quality. (Remember the one where Kylie Minogue rode the Titanic?) But the one exception to this is 2010's "A Christmas Carol", the best Christmas special the show has ever produced by a long shot, and an episode that truly does feel like the holiday classic a Doctor Who Christmas special should aspire to be. The episode is a takeoff of, yes, A Christmas Carol, centering around the Doctor trying to change the childhood Christmases of an evil and powerful man named Kazran Sardick who is tasked with saving Amy and Rory's lives by releasing them from the cloud they're trapped on but refuse to do it. Doctor Who is at its best when it's able to mix its ambitious sci-fi concepts with deep-rooted human emotion, and this special truly shines in that regard, as the Doctor's travels through Sardick's past tap into some really heartbreaking and heavily nostalgic Christmas feelings for pretty much anyone who's ever been a child on Christmas before. Not every Doctor Who Christmas special meets the mark, but this one is so good it makes up for all of the other ones.

South Park - "Woodland Critter Christmas"

You know what this is. It is the most beautiful, fucked up, disturbing, horrifying Christmas special to ever air. Yes, I love Mr. Hanky too, but this is a work of dark art and it needs to be seen by all. 

In honor of NBC Thursdays

 

Earlier today, NBC announced that it would be burning off the final 13 episodes of Parks and Recreation over the course of two weeks this winter, essentially dumping it off as fast as it possibly could so it could move onto something else. This is not particularly surprising. Parks and Rec has always been a low-rated show, and the fact that it made it to seven seasons is something of a miracle in and of itself.  But it's still not hard to feel a twinge of sadness at this news. Parks and Rec is the last of a very particular brand of comedy on NBC (or at least, the last left on NBC: Community now lives on the internet, where it has always truly belonged), and its unceremonious dumping signals a hard end to an era that sparked some of the greatest, most original comedies to ever air on television. Of course, it's an end that's been in the works for some time: since 2012, to be exact, when network head Bob Greenblatt announced that it would be phasing out its "narrow, sophisticated comedies" in favor of more "broad, wide audience" shows. That move hasn't really worked out: since then, only one NBC freshman comedy has made it to a second season (About a Boy), and that show looks likely to be cancelled before it sees a third. But the networks' direction is clear. Between the cancellation of Community in the spring, the punt of Tina Fey and Robert Carlock's Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt to Netflix, and the race through the final season of Parks & Rec, NBC is obviously ready to close the chapter on that era in their history. It's cool - all eras have to come to an end, right? But it still seems take a moment to reflect back on just what a truly strange, unique, and all-around fantastic era this was for the network. It was an era that arguably shifted the direction of TV comedy in subtle but major ways, and most importantly, it was an era that gave us some truly fantastic comedy.

It all started in the mid-00s, when NBC was still recovering from losing Friends, Fraiser and Will & Grace, therefore sacrificing most of its cultural identity. TV comedy in general was going through a transitional period - this was the era of Arrested Development, the era where TV comedy was ready to go in strange new directions but the public wasn't yet willing to follow it. But in 2006, The Office started to experience a surprising sophomore surge (it had barely made it past its first season), as both critics and viewers became attached to the shows' mix of conventional and unconventional humor twisted with a fairly sizable helping of pathos. In many ways, The Office seems like the first show that used the off-beat, single-cam vibe and actually saw success with it, paving the way for nearly every beloved comedy that followed it. The success of The Office led to NBC picking up 30 Rock in the spring of 2006, hailed by SNL scribe Tina Fey and boasting a similarly "off-beat workplace sitcom" vibe. 30 Rock wound up pushing the format even further as it totally abandoned any idea of reality, constantly digging up the most bizarre, surreal, and outrageously hilarious jokes it could, pushing past traditional sitcom boundaries to become something that felt different. Then in 2009,
the line-up completed itself with the addition of Parks and Recreation and Community. As Parks and Rec settled into a bravely optimistic show that rejected cynicism and instead looked to build up its characters rather than tear them down, Community experimented with the very idea of what it meant to be a sitcom, constantly questioning itself and everything else on television as it told a strong emotional story about a bunch of unlikely friends sharing a bond. These four shows represented a mindset that both stuck to the tried and true sitcom formula while simultaneously tearing it down, analyzing what it was, and rejected the artificiality of it all. It was perhaps the most experimental night of comedy to ever air on network television, and it was exciting.

There was just one problem: other than The Office, none of these shows ever managed to become actual ratings hits. 30 Rock barely made it past its initial 13-episode order and continued to be low-rated through-out its run. Community and Parks and Recreation were nearly cancelled so many times that each show had at least four different episodes meant to serve as series finales. In any other era, none of these shows likely would've even seen a second season, nevermind a sixth or seventh season. But they were lucky enough to be on NBC in the late '00s/early '10s, a network in such disarray that a bunch of low-rated comedies seemed like a win compared to fiascos like The Jay Leno Show and The Cape and fuckin' Smash. So because of NBC's total failure, we got an era of network comedies that got to push the boundaries of what a network comedy could be - and we got shows that were able to do that for seasons and seasons.

So yes, that era is now over. But is it, really? The sensibilities of those NBC Thursday shows can be found today in cable comedies like Broad City, Review, Rick and Morty, and You're the Worst  - shows that continue to push the boundaries of where a television comedy can go. Who knows if these shows would've happened without the influence of 30 Rock and The Office and Community and Parks and Rec? These shows might not be on NBC anymore, but they live on. They live on in other shows, as well as on Netflix and Hulu and Yahoo and what have you. So we shouldn't cry when this era officially ends in February - instead, we should celebrate what it's accomplished. That's what Leslie Knope, Liz Lemon, Michael Scott, and Abed Nadir would want us to do, right?

Season Review: Parks and Recreation - Season 6

Considering Parks & Rec is a show that spent most of its life perpetually on the bubble, it's sort of a miracle that it has lived long enough to feel like it's overstayed it's welcome. But that's how it felt for large parts of its sixth season, a season that felt a little bit like glorified fan fiction in parts. Parks has naturally wrapped up its story so many times at this point - from the Harvest Festival, to Leslie winning the City Council election, to Leslie and Ben's wedding - that it's increasingly feeling like the writers of Parks & Rec are spinning in circles trying to figure out what more they can say about these characters. This became incredibly obvious throughout this season as the show relied on several weary old sitcom chestnuts for its plot developments. The show had three pregnancy plots this year, plus countless plots that felt like a rehash of the "Leslie gets passionate about something, people turn her down, she steamrolls over them but wins them over with her charm" plot structure that the show has done countless times since its conception. There were some highlights over the course of the year - such as the genuinely great season opener in London, and the really sweet farewell to Ann and Chris - but for the most part, Parks Season 6 felt like a show that was around only because it had to be, not because it had anything left to say.

Then, in the last few minutes of the season, everything changed. And now, for the first time, I have no idea where we're going to go next.

I've seen a lot of people take issue with the show jumping ahead three years in the finale. I get it. Time jumps are something I'm always a little uneasy with, for the very reasons that people have pointed out. Yes, it's strange that, after tracking these people so closely over the past 5 years, we're now skipping right over 3 entire years of their lives - lives that include milestone events like new jobs and pregnancies and children. And yes, the show went through some strange hula hoops to get to its desired endpoint. (Having Leslie demand that the National Parks Department set headquarters right up in Pawnee simply because she doesn't feel like moving is just too much, and it feels unnecessary considering they went ahead and rebooted the shows' entire premise anyway). But I kind of love that the show is brave enough to just go ahead and restart its entire premise, and it follows an interesting trend this year of middle-aged sitcoms realizing they need to shake things up and taking bigger-than-usual experiments with their status quo to do so. Parks Season 7 could be a disaster, quite frankly. It has a lot to juggle, and it could just outright fail to do so, in the way that something like Scrubs' final season did. But it could also take the lead of Community and Archer and be a serious breath of fresh air after a season of diminishing returns. And even if it's not, I'd rather see a season that tried and failed than another year that recycled old plots and sitcom tropes over and over again, like the show would likely do if it kept its status quo for another year. Sure, it means we miss out on a few aspects of the characters' lives, but it's a small sacrifice to make for what I think will be ultimately a much more interesting show. (Also, if your idea of a good season is one that includes a Leslie Knope pregnancy plotline, we may have very different views of what a good season of television is). This finale gave was a very nice way to end Parks & Rec as we know it, a show that was once one of the best things on television. But this season has proved that the story of that Parks & Rec is over, and while I'll always treasure the memories I had with that show, I'm excited to see what's next.

Final Grade: B

Episode Reviews: Broad City - "Destination Wedding", Community - "VCR Maintenance and Educational Publishing", Parks & Recreation - "New Slogan"

Whoa! Three episode reviews in one! I really am trying to take this thing seriously, aren't I?!


Broad City - "Destination Wedding"

Due to its beginnings as a web series, Broad City came out more fully formed than most shows do. Right from the first episode, it had an incredibly clear sense of what it wanted to be, and its characters were fully realized people pretty much from the first time they appeared on screen. And yet, Broad City continues to impress me more and more each week. The past few episodes, in particular, have seen the show starting to make a lot of interesting experiments with its direction and editing. Add that to the experimentally hilarious humor that solidified the shows' status in the first place, and you have one of the freshest and most unique shows on television. All of that coalesced incredibly well in "Destination Wedding" - the shows' strongest episode yet, and one of my favorite episodes of television so far this year.

"Destination Wedding" was great for many reasons, but what made it such a stand-out was that it hit so well on all of the aspects that Broad City is best at. The show works so well as a twisted love letter to New York City, lovingly exploiting everything that makes the city such a unique place to live - both the good and the bad. "Destination Wedding" got much of its best material from doing just that, whether it be the dignified rush of Grand Central Station, or the deeply unpleasant establishment that is Penn Station, or the unique traveling method that is Citibiking, or the horror of a Chinatown bus...whatever it is, Broad City knows exactly how to take it and turn it into something unique to its own comic voice, whether it be by having Abbi's boyfriend break up with her when she tries to take him to Penn Station, or having Abbi get drenched in a bunch of rancid fish on the Chinatown bus, or whatever twisted and beautiful comic scenario Broad City comes up with that manages to sum up city life in the most weirdly perfect way possible. But the best part of the show - and what elevates the show to "truly great" status, I think - is the bond it forms between Ilana and Abbi. Broad City is full of so much purely comic material that the show could work just fine without it, but the genuine friendship that its leads share adds a layer of vulnerability to the shows' zany humor, and those two aspects conjoining makes for some really compelling television. I don't know if any moment highlights this better than when Ilana finds out about Abbi and Darcy made out. It's funny, sure, but the sound dropping out managed to add to the humor and make us feel Ilana's hurt in the situation. That the show then led that into a scene that made the dumping of rancid fish both funny and emotionally upsetting is a testament to the unique, hilarious and weird that makes watching Broad City such a special experience.

* * * * * (5 stars out of 5)

Community - "VCR Maintenance and Educational Publishing" 

The scene pictured here is one of the funniest scenes Community has ever done, and one of the hardest I've laughed all year. Seriously. Any doubts that Community is still funny should be eliminated by that scene. I could not stop laughing. If you haven't seen it, do it. You owe it to yourself. YouTube "Dean rap" or something. It was so funny that the rest of the episode could've been...I don't know, the puppet episode, and I could've still liked it a little bit.

Luckily, the rest of the episode was pretty good, too! I especially liked the Abed/Rachel material - Rachel is such a perfect match for Abed and Brie Larson is such a great match for Community that it bums me out that she has to go film movies and can't just be a permanent member of the study group (or you know, Save Greendale committee, or whatever). Ever since "Herstory of Dance" (pretty much the only S4 episode I can integrate with the rest of the show), I've been impressed with how the show uses Rachel to challenge Abed and force him to more carefully consider the feelings of others. That worked incredibly well here and also tied into how Abed is being forced to confront himself now that Troy is gone. Troy connected with him despite his difficulties connecting back, but he can't get as lucky with Rachel, and the results are proving to be interesting. I'm hoping we can get Rachel back for at least a few more episodes next season (assuming/hoping there is one), because it's a really fascinating dynamic.

I was slightly less sure of the rest of the episode. I liked Annie attempting to reconcile with her brother, but I wanted more of it. That's a plot that deserves its own episode - Annie being separated from her family is quite a sad story, and I've always wanted to hear more about it. I wasn't really a huge fan of the textbook plot, although it had plenty of funny moments and lots of great Shirley lines. It just never quite made an impact the way I like my Community plots to. It didn't have enough time to get to the bottom of the character work it was trying to, and the result was a fitfully funny plot that seemingly existed just to full some time and so we didn't spend the entire thing in Annie and Abed's apartment. Still, the Annie/Abed material - and the Dean in the cold open! - were more than enough to make this another solid addition to a very enjoyable season.

* * * * (4 stars out of 5)

Parks and Recreation - "New Slogan"

"New Slogan" had a lot of little moments that I really enjoyed - from the pictured cold open where the Parks department discovered the joys of Ben's new site for the city, to Andy's discovery of Duke Silver, to some sweet material with April, Donna, and Tom, but it felt like yet another episode of Parks that was just biding time. It regretfully followed the "Leslie faces a silly problem that she has to try to make right" formula that has been repeated ad nauseam on this show lately, and this time it seemed to realize that it was treading no new ground here, treating the entire "oh no, the slogan everyone's voting for is a joke written in by a radio show!" crisis as more of a ridiculous joke than a serious plot (and not a particularly funny ridiculous joke). The show tried to tie it into the overarching plot of Leslie considering leaving Pawnee for the National Parks Department, but it didn't really feel natural, and the episode itself didn't do much to advance that plot forward at all.

I still get some joy from watching these characters, and I'm genuinely interested to see where Leslie goes next, so I'm not going to stop watching this show or anything. But the more time goes on, the more it becomes obvious that Parks is just waiting around until it can start setting up its endgame here. Honestly, I wish the show would just start it already. I would love to have Leslie decide to take the job and have the next (and likely last) season follow her to Chicago (perhaps taking the Parks department with her). It would give the show a much needed refreshment.

Still, an episode like this does prove that there's fun left to be had with these characters. The cold open and Andy's rant were the hardest I've laughed at this show in quite a long time, and a visit from Duke Silver is never a bad thing. I wish there was a little more to Parks than light fun right now, but light fun isn't always the worst thing in the world.

* * * 1/2 (3 1/2 stars out of 5)

This blog gets two MeowMeowBeanz

Hi! What's up? Cool! Awesome! Here's some NBC Thursday night thoughts:



Community

For the most part, Community is not a show that's all that interested in making overt social statements. Sure, you could argue that its whole thesis statement is about the importance of community and it frequently touches on ideas about leadership and group mentality and what have you, but generally, it's a very character-based show that gets most of its plot materials from digging into and exploring the dynamics between its characters, not any grand political statements. I don't think it's a stretch to say that App Development and Condiments is the most the show has ever delved into social satire, and it delves into it with incredible skill. Sure, a lot of the satire in this episode was through a pop-culture-referencing lense, but underneath it all, this was an episode that dealt with how we present ourselves in the digital age and how we'll change ourselves for approval. And I was really, really impressed with how the show put a spin on this that felt both original and unique to itself, while still being an incredibly fun time. What I liked the most was how the show actually appointed Britta to show just how ridiculous everyone was being, giving her the most power she has in ages. This has been a great season for Britta, to the point where I very well might call her the MVP of the season (though we still have five episodes to go).

The show did attempt to give this episode a more typically Community story about character growth, with Jeff and Shirley learning how both of them have a similar thirst for power. Jeff and Shirley is perhaps the shows' most quietly great character pairing - they're similar in so many ways they don't realize. The show doesn't go to them for stories as much as it should, but the few times they've done so have generally been incredibly rewarding. The gold standard for Jeff/Shirley episodes remains Season 3's "Foosball and Nocturnal Vigilantism", which revealed that both of them have a dark past with the game of foosball. It's hard not to compare any Jeff/Shirley story to that episode, and honestly, this one wasn't quite up to snuff. It very much felt like the show putting together a character story for this episode simply because it felt like it had to, and it all felt rushed. "Foosball" and even Season 1's "Social Psychology" dealt with this concept much better. So in a rare instance, tonight's Community worked for me very well on a more general, social commentary level and less well on a character level. But after last week's stand-out and completely character-focused episode, I didn't mind the lessened character work too much, especially when it leads to material that's as great as the rest of this episode was. I give it four MeowMeowBeanz.

Parks and Recreation

Tonight's Parks & Rec did a respectable job of explaining the completely inexplicable idea that Leslie Knope, after spending the better part of the past year being tormented and disrespected by the town of Pawnee, would actually continue to work in Pawnee. The best parts of this fairly unspectacular season have been the ones that legitimately question Leslie's career choices, from the great season premiere to the effectively surprising recall vote to Jen Barkley's advice to her in the 100th episode. Leslie is clearly on the cusp of moving on from the small town she started in, and that's confirmed when two members from the National Parks Department offer her a position in Chicago during this episode. She temporarily turns them down, saying that she can't leave her town until she knows that it's in good hands.

Honestly, I don't really buy it. Even someone as passionate and dedicated as Leslie would seize the opportunity at getting actual recognition somewhere. The reason that Leslie doesn't take the job yet is because the show is not over yet, and this is a show about Leslie and Pawnee. This has been a big part of what's holding both the show and the character back recently - we're simply at a point where most of these characters are going to be past the Parks department and even past Pawnee, but because the show keeps marching on, they have to unrealistically stay where they are. All of that said, I like that we seem to be building towards career movement for Leslie (and I do expect her to take the new job by seasons' end). It gives the season a clearer sense of focus, particularly for the Leslie Knope character. The reason why I do think this season has been slightly better than last for the show (although it still is kind of just 'there' too much of the time) is because there's an underlying momentum of Leslie realizing she deserves better than what she has. The show has been making Pawnee far too comically awful to show us that, but it's interesting character movement, and it gives a show that's clearly showing its age some forward momentum.

The rest of the episode was basically your typical Parks Season 6 fare. Ron continues to be Flanderized, and I'm not entirely sure what the point of giving him a wife and kid was when he mostly just does the same stuff anyway only now with a wife and kid. Tom's storyline was marginally better, but this is Tom's third business now, right? It's hard to get too excited at this point. The characters of Parks continue to run around the same circles, waiting for the clock to tick out. Hopefully the show starts pushing them towards and endgame soon.

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.
------

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.

"That's exactly what I'm going to say when I put them in a home" - Thursday TV Roundup 10/3/13

Here are some quick thoughts about Parks & Rec and The Michael J. Fox Show. Honestly, I don't really have a lot to say about them, so it will be quick. Oh, and bonus Welcome to the Family hatred!

Parks & Recreation - This episode felt like a whole lot of set-up, so I'm not quite sure how to feel about it. The Pawnee/Eagleton merge should make for some entertaining stuff, but it never quite escalated into anything particularly funny in this episode. Kristen Bell was good in her role, but I wanted to see even more of her, which I'm guessing we will in the next few weeks. And after really liking her in the season premiere, Leslie was just...too much here. The show kind of lost their handle on Leslie in Season 5, and this episode continued that unfortunate streak. I didn't really care for either of the subplots - Ron trying to erase all trace of his existence was just way too cartoony, even for Ron Swanson, and the shows' attempt to ground it with the tie to his marriage to Diane felt very forced. The Ann & April plot was...strange. Ann is moving to Bloomingtown because they have a nice baby store? And it all came at the expense of what could've been an interesting April plotline? All in all, this was definitely a disappointment after last weeks' stellar premiere, but maybe it'll look better once we get more from these storylines.

The Michael J. Fox Show - The quote in the title made me laugh a LOT. Actually, a bunch of stuff in this episode made me laugh a lot. But I'm still sort of getting a generic family sitcom vibe from the plot and characters. Since this show doesn't look like it's going to be the mass-appeal hit NBC wanted it to be, maybe they'll let the show break out of the tired Modern Family storylines they're trapped in and start getting a bit more experimental. I'm not holding my breath, but it'd be nice. Still, there's a lot of other appealing elements to the show. MJF continues to impress, and Betsy Brandt is also pretty awesome here. It just feels like it's playing it a lot safer than it wants to right now. The writing and the humor is pretty great, but everything else feels a few steps behind. Still, it's only episode 3 - here's to hoping they get everything figured out soon.

I also, unfortunately, watched the Welcome to the Family pilot. It was maybe the blandest thing I have ever seen, and strangely completely devoid of laughs. I bashed it more here, if you want to read!

http://blog.sitcomsonline.com/2013/10/cbs-fall-pilot-review-millers-premieres.html

I will end this by saying the complete blandification of NBC's Thursday line-up, complete with obnoxious tiny Sean Hayes running around the bottom of the screen, makes me very sad and nostalgic for days past. Come save us, Community! (I'm tagging Community in this because I only have 2 posts tagged Community and that is just wrong).

"I'm having so many thoughts and feelings that I'm paralyzed right now" - Thursday premiere round-up 9/26/13

Hello, dear reader(s). It's NBC Thursday, and you know what that mea...oh, wait. 30 Rock and The Office are gone? And Community is on hiatus yet again? And there's a bunch of generic, boring shows moving in next week to take their place? Oh. Well.

Hey, at least we still have Parks & Rec! And The Michael J. Fox Show, which is not quite up to the levels of the aforementioned NBC Thursday sitcoms but looks like it could get there eventually! So let's talk about those. Just...please, let's not talk about those horrible Sean Saves the World promos. Please, let's talk about anything but those.




Parks & Recreation 

I consider myself a fairly big fan of Parks & Rec - particularly Seasons 2 & 3, which was some of the most perfect comedic television made in the past 20 years. But I had some significant issues with the show last season - it seemed to lose all sense of direction after Leslie won the City Council seat, and spent most of the year sending its characters through rehashed, cartoony plots that provided some mild amusement but mostly failed to make any sort of impact. This was incredibly disappointing coming from a show that once knew how to pack every single episode with tons of great comedy and even stronger emotional punches. There were some high points - Leslie and Ben's wedding could easily stand with the best of the show, if you pretend Councilman Jamm wasn't there - but the most part, it felt like the show was kind of coasting on its former glory.

I'm happy to say that tonight's hour-long premiere, "London", doesn't share those same issues. It's not perfect - the Chris/Ann baby plot still can't help but feeling like a last resort for those characters, even if it's sort of worth it for the reaction from the rest of the Parks department - but it's an episode that has stakes that feel real, emotion that feels earned, and a lot of good old-fashioned Pawnee humor. (In London!) It's an episode that made me excited for the rest of the season, something that I feared wasn't possible after a string of highly unsatisfying episodes last spring.

There's a whole lot going on in "London", but we'll start with the episodes' central story, the Leslie "recall" plot. I had some issues with the way this plot was introduced in last seasons' finale - mainly that it happened so suddenly and wasn't grounded in anything that had actually happened on the show while Leslie was in the City Council seat. But I actually liked what the show did with it here, showcasing Leslie's growing annoyance at Pawnee and its ungrateful citizens, and - most promisingly - setting up some actual stakes for her going forward. I don't want Parks to ever lose its sunny disposition, because that's part of what makes it stand out from the rest of TV comedies - but in recent seasons, the show has sometimes used its optimism spirit as a way to avoid actual conflict, which comedy (and really, television in general), tends to thrive off of. The thing that made Parks' optimism so appealing in its earlier days was that it often came as a shining light to times of great turmoil. The Harvest Festival arc - perhaps the shows' best run of episodes - was so powerful because Leslie's determination and optimism led to her saving the entire Parks department. The show raised the stakes to huge degrees, and it made the end result all the more satisfying. Leslie's campaign arc, while filled with some all-time classic episodes and moments, wasn't as successful on the whole because we never had any real doubt that Leslie Knope wasn't going to win that election. Her opponent was a moron, and this was Parks & Rec, where everyone always gets what they want. That vibe continued in Season 5, which washed, rinsed, and repeated the "Leslie faces a ridiculous opponent -> Leslie defeats the opponent with her charm and optimism" over and over again. It was pleasant to watch, but the strong emotions that Leslie's accomplishments once brought were gone, because she wasn't really being tested anymore. So I guess that's why I like what the show is doing here. I have no doubt that this is somehow going to end up well for Leslie, but I don't mind because the show is going to throw her around a little bit and test her patience. She's going to get angry, and she's going to feel defeated, and we're going to feel for her, and that's good, because it's going to let us connect to her and root for her again, which makes for much better and, ultimately, more uplifting television. That's why the end of this episode worked so much better for me than any of the similarly sweet endings to Season 5 episodes. April's letter about Leslie was sweet, but it was even sweeter knowing it's coming at a time when Leslie truly, honestly needs it.

I also really liked the Andy plotline, even if it seemed like a bit of an excuse to explain why Chris Pratt isn't going to be around for a few months. Andy and April have been two of the shows' most interesting characters in its later years, as they've both grown leaps and bounds from where they were at the start of the show - and done it completely naturally. This felt like a continuation of that - Season 5 actually had some pretty good development for Andy, with him finally deciding it's time to get on his feet and do something with himself. So seeing him finally being able to do that - with full support from his wife and while still allowing to be...well, Andy...is really nice to see. Plus, Chris Pratt is still one of the best comedic actors on television, and can sell the hell about just about anything he is given. It's too bad that the show has to go on without him for a little while, but I'm confident that there will be plenty of great material for him upon his return.

Oh! And I haven't even talked about Ron fucking Swanson! Ron's "look at this closed off guys' heart opening" arc was a little trite last year, but I also found it pretty effective - effective enough that I thought the cold open was genuinely sweet and earned. I also loved how the show chose to completely forgo any kind of hoopla over Ron and Diane's wedding and just pushed these two together. Just how Ron Swanson would want it, indeed. And even better was Leslie showing her enthusiasm but not doing so in a way that went against Ron's desire for a non-event. The entire cold open was just pretty fantastic and a great way to start off the season.

This is getting ridiculously long, so I'll wrap it up by saying the Tom storyline wasn't anything special, but was very funny and put guest star Henry Winkler to great use. I'm really happy I have so much to say about this show again, because too many of last seasons' episodes would've added up to little more than "eh, it was okay I guess" if I were writing about them. I really hope this continues for the rest of the season.

The Michael J. Fox Show

This was both one of my most anticipated and feared pilots of the season. Like any reasonable human being (*cough* Taylor Swift *cough*), I like Michael J. Fox a lot and want to see him succeed. I also like a lot of the other talent on this show, both on-screen and off, and I think the idea of a comedy about a man struggling with Parkinsons is pretty risky and interesting and could be something really special if it works out. At the same time, it also easily seemed like this show could be bogged down in NBC's desperate attempt for a broad-reaching hit and become something cloying, manipulative, and little more than a Modern Family rip-off (so, basically The New Normal). Luckily, it is not that. It's not that at all - except for maybe the Modern Family rip-off part, right down to the wholly unnecessary mockumentary set-up. But this is looking like it has all of the potential to be a great and even somewhat powerful show, even if it's not quite all there yet.

Unsurprisingly, the show's stongest aspect is Michael J. Fox himself, who continues to be a masterful comic actor, Parkinsons be damned. Betsy Brandt also deserves some major credit as his wife - the two already have really great chemistry and a well-drawn and believable relationship, even when their relationship is left to deal with some pretty by-the-numbers sitcom schlock, as it was in the second episode tonight. If absolutely nothing else, this show should be a nice showcase for both of them, who are pretty fantastic and feel right at home in these roles.

But I don't expect that to be the only thing the show has going for it. Even if the plots too often border on typical family sitcom territory, the writing itself is sharp and nuanced, following the snappy pace of edgier single-camera fare. (Not surprising for a writing staff with a handful of 30 Rock, Happy Endings, and Community alumni). If it plays its cards exactly right, I could maybe even see this becoming the rare show to become both a critical darling and a mainstream ratings hit, something that often seems almost impossible these days.

At the end of the day, though, this show is mostly interested in being a family sitcom, which is something fans of the NBC line-up of the old will want to keep in mind before skyrocketing their hopes up to unreachable levels. It's not attempting to push the sitcom formula to new dimensions like 30 Rock and Community, or even trying the ambitious character work of shows like Parks & Rec and New Girl. And that's fine! If everything works out, this show could easily become a wonderfully written and acted family sitcom with some serious emotional impact. That's more than enough for me, and as long as it gets a bit more ambitious than the stock family sitcoms that it displayed in its second episode tonight, it shouldn't have too much of a problem reaching those levels.