Monsters of Television

It was a pretty low-key night for the ONLY REASONS TO WATCH NBC night, unless you were one of those outraged by the clip show episode of The Office, to which I offer condolences, but I don’t watch The Office. I do, however, watch Community and 30 Rock. I don’t have a great deal to say about either show this week, so I’m combining both into one post. Hope you don’t mind.

Community

“I am spending a lot of money on break-away clothing.”

This week’s episode wasn’t hilarious like “Introduction to Statistics” and “Debate 109” or engaged in the type of sharp meta-commentary from last week’s “Investigative Journalism” did. It, instead, went for something much quieter, more character-driven which, after last week’s episode, felt like a natural progression.

I was happy to see Donald Glover and Gillian Jacobs get some time together for a plot. Their interplay (“I know it’s tempting to sneak a peek, but I’m going to need you to keep your eyes up here.”) was spot on, and didn’t feel forced for two characters that haven’t spent a great deal of time together.  The fact that it didn’t feel forced actually speaks to how well the show’s ensemble works together as both a group and as individuals. And now that the show is finding its way to consistent tones for everyone (and for itself), I can only hope that NBC gives it a chance to find an audience.

In addition to the dance as a secret plot with Britta and Troy (which, really, is that something to be embarrassed about still?), we get the secret relationship of Jeff and Professor Slater (from “Introduction to Statistics”) coming back. While I was happy to see a return to this plot, the humor never really took off for me. That Greendale ranks its students and teachers on a hotness scale, and has forms if students and teachers get involved is a comedy goldmine that I don’t think was fully exploited, albeit for a reason.

That reason is to give time to Britta’s realization that she kind of has a thing for Jeff. The dance recital is a bizarre thing no matter what show it airs on, and Community is no different with a teapot watering flowers. But it also motivated character development for Britta in realizing that she has feelings for Jeff upon seeing him holding hands with Professor Slater, and for Troy jumping to Britta’s aid when she freezes in the recital. Additionally, it showed Jeff continuing to break out of his cynical shell by giving Britta a bouquet of flowers at the end of the recital. Big moves for all these characters.

The introduction of a love triangle is never my favorite thing to see, but the show’s won me over enough that I hope they play it out in a fun and different way.

FINAL THOUGHTS

• Greendale has the widest variety of courses I’ve ever seen. Seriously. I’m starting to think that Dean Pelton is trying to get accreditation as a 4-year college. (They have a boating class, for pete’s sake!)
• I think that there’s nothing Danny Pudi can’t do. His tap at the end of the episode was nice. Plus his delivery of “Sounds like a porno with Kate Winslet!” was the perfect mixof brilliant fanboy idea and answering a game show question.
• The fact that reruns of the much maligned (at least on this blog) The Big Bang Theory beat Community (as well as Parks and Recreations) in the ratings last night is appalling. While I don’t particularly care for Parks and Recreations, it is better than the Othering humor of The Big Bang Theory. I just don’t get it.

30 Rock after the jump! Read more »

“Image is everything.”

White Collar has been a frustrating show. With each passing episode, the show lost a little bit of its charm, its energy, and general pizazz that really turned me on during the pilot. Neal and Peter’s relationship, what should be the driving force behind the show, felt ill-defined, as Peter goes between trusting Neal and thinking’s he’s a total crook to asking the guy for advice on how to improve his marriage. And Peter’s a remarkably competent agent and man, so these little bouts seem forced, to create some tension that never fully surfaces.

Neal, on the other hand, is held down by the elusive Kate, a plot that was DOA because I didn’t have a reason to give a damn about Kate except that Neal does (and I need a bit more than that, as likable as Matt Bomer is). And the shadowy “Man With The Ring” aspect didn’t help matters any. It led to a wide guessing game of who it could be, enhanced by notion that it was someone at the FBI. I jokingly tweeted that the show wasn’t dark enough for it be Peter.

But then the mini-break episode came and we find Kate entering a hotel room. In front of her, sitting in a chair, is “Man With The Ring” and *GASP* it’s Peter! Craziness ensues. I snark that the ring is making Peter evil (he never has the ring on otherwise!) and it’s up to Neal and Mozzie to bring the damn thing to Mount Doom. I had already put the show on a fairly short leash with the decline in interesting stories, but with this (alleged) reveal, I was hooked for at least one more episode to see how/if the show figured out way to get itself out of this corner. Read more »

“I guess she caught some of the Big Fudge Fever.“

So after a mythology episode, the show settles into a easy breezy episode that is low on Barney. (Harris was busy directing the episode, and with a show like this, I imagine trying to be in front of the camera while you’re behind it would be a night-waitforit-mare! Nightmare!) The missing Barney did throw the episode’s dynamics off a bit (maybe he and Jenkins had sex in the copy room?), and in a noticeable way (unlike, say, when Lily was gone for the tail end of last season). All awesome things in moderation, but to go without is just silly. (Though, I’m sure Pamela Fryman enjoyed the week off.)

To keep things balanced, the episode pairs off the remaining characters and stories. First up is Marshall regaling the group with stories of the wild Jenkins, a new member of the GNB team. As we see the stories through Ted’s imagination, Jenkins is a fat fellow, willing to chug a jar of cherries, gyrate behind the CFO, and strip at a bar. Turns out that Jenkins is Amanda Peet (remember her?). Marshall realizes he’s never told Lily that Jenkins is a woman (like Ted, Lily thinks Jenkins is a man), and suddenly feels very self-conscious about the stories he’s been telling.

These feelings lead Ted and Robin (though clearly this should’ve been Barney) explaining the idea of the Reacher and the Settler in the relationship. The Reacher is someone who aims for a partner out of their league, and the Settler is, well, someone who settles for someone less hot than themselves. Marshall is the Reacher, of course, and Lily is the Settler. When Lily meets Jenkins and is nonplussed by Jenkins’ hotness because, well, she doesn’t have to worry about Marshall cheating on her because she’s the Settler (though, I would worry, given that he’s a Reacher, he’d reach for someone hotter…).

The problem with Lily and Marshall is also the reason I like their relationship: It’s realistic. They’re the happy couple you know that has always persevered through fights and overcome differences to be stronger for it. They’re stable, and that makes them different than most relationships you see on television. Even relationships that are supposedly stable are prone to one member of the couple freaking out about something every other episode (I’m thinking of Monica and Chandler here). Narratively this makes it difficult for Marshall and Lily to have a believable conflict, and I never really bought the conflict here. It’s still amusing, but I feel something meatier might be necessary to really get a solid comedic conflict between them.

The B-plot wasn’t riveting either, but it has given rise to me working on creating a drinking game for the show. Ted, dismayed to realize his students don’t think he’s cool, but they all seem to know Robin because they all watch her awful show. They’ve even developed a fairly limited drinking game. Each time Robin says “But, um”, the students take a shot. It’s a funny but not totally worthwhile plot that leads to Robin attempting to give the students alcohol poisoning by purposefully repeating the drink phrase over and over again.

It’s a funny enough episode, and a nice breather after the mythology heaviness of “Girls Vs. Suits.” Next week sounds like a Barney-heavy episode, while the next two seem Ted-centric. I won’t lie about being excited by the prospect.

FINAL THOGUHTS

• My HIMYM Drinking Game
  • Take a sip for each flashback
  • Do a shot for each flashback within a flashback (you thought I was letting you off easy with the first one, didn’t you?)
  • Do 2 shots for a Mother fake-out
  • Do 2 shot when someone explains dating/social rules (like Settlers and Reachers)
  • Do 2 shots whenever Barney disparages Canada
  • Do a shot when Robin is oblivious
  • Do a shot when Ted tries to be cool (wearing spectacles totally counts)
  • Do a shot when Lily disapproves of something
  • Do a shot when Marshall references his family or Minnesota
  • Finish your drink any time someone says “Awesome.”

I’ll take other recommendations. Leave ’em in the comments!

As opposed to a long-winded ranted by me about the Golden Globes (geeze were they dull), there’s a more thoughtful and interesting roundtable discussion feature me, Myles McNutt, Lindsay H. Garrison, Kelli Marshall, and Kristen. We were all hosted by the welcoming, charming, and brilliant Anne Petersen. I thank everyone for a great discussion (and Anne for bringing us together), and I also thank this group of very smart people for letting me participate. Goodness know I’m the least profound person in the bunch, so hopefully I look smarter by association. But I doubt even I could manage that feat!

“You’re here because you’re my family. I love you guys.”

Watching Dollhouse the last couple of weeks has been like watching a show in fast forward. It’s both frustrating and exciting to see a show that (supposedly) had a plan for this season and then have to rush it to provide narrative resolution in light of cancellation. Whedon and his crew have done a yeoman’s job of balancing the need to hit all the necessary beats but still make the show feel like it’s heading toward a season finale and not a series one.

And I say that it feels like a season finale because even though I know that some characters end up okay (well, not okay in the sense that they’re sane or even happy, but okay in the sense that they’re alive), and because I still feel like there are a number of ways the show could continue to go from here to reach its narrative conclusion.  The show’s narrative ending, so present during some portions of the show (mainly whenever they talk about the tech), eludes me when I’m thinking about a character’s fate, showing just how invested I’ve come in their stories. Read more »

“Would a mother be planning a sex tour of Vietnam this spring?”

People have been cooling on 30 Rock in recent seasons (aside from award givers), but I still find it enjoyable and often times very funny, but sometimes it offers a little bit more. While I found “Klaus and Greta” to the funnier of the two episodes this week, “Black Light Attack!” give that something a little more, and that’s learning to grow up. A little bit, anyway.

This week has the cast (specifically Jenna and Tracy) trying to grow up. I really appreciate the show carrying through on Tracy’s quest for a daughter (especially after dropping Jefferson from the plot), and I was happy to see him going about in the only way he could figure out how to do that: bring in one of the two female writers from TGS to be the female member of the entourage. His exchange with her during board game night, while nothing incredibly new even from a satirical standpoint, does allow his character to have another epiphany moment like at the end of “Klaus and Greta.” It’s nice seeing wacky Tracy remain wacky but also acknowledging that he’s getting older and wanting to fill his life with more than just success, money, and extramarital affairs.

Jenna, on the other hand, doesn’t want to acknowledge she’s getting any older (of course, she never has). But I’m hoping that her own experiences will pave the way for her story to compliment Tracy’s. She’s still looking for her idea of success, and hopefully, based on the applause she got at the taping of the Gossip Girl episode, she’ll realize that she can still achieve that success. My hope would be for her to try and land a role on Damages as a rival to to Glenn Close’s character. I’d still like for her character to remain somewhat intact (insecure, neurotic), but develop her character a bit more.

As Myles McNutt noted, this week’s episodes have made Liz fairly sexual. While she’s certainly been more aggressive (and let’s see if that holds up when Jon Hamm’s oblivious Dr. Baird returns next month) the show at least provides a bit of a reason in Sanjay Gupta’s idea of the “Dirty 30s.” Her affair with Danny wasn’t terribly interesting, and Jack’s reasons for wanting her to shut it down didn’t really work for me. The downside to it is, of course, Jack’s confession of love for Liz. This will no doubt drive the Liz/Jack shippers crazy (What’s the name for that pairing? Lack? Lick? Probably Lick. Damn shippers.) with hopes of the two finally getting together. Only in the last episode, folks. And as a dream. Patrick Duffy will be the in the shower.

FINAL THOUGHTS

• To quickly bounce off Nick’s point about the show needing to address NBC’s current plights, I very much agree, but I also think the show needs to remember that next season, Kenneth has to either take over NBC or kill everyone on the show, as per Jack’s prediction in “Blind Date” from way back in season 1.
• First Matt Lauer and now Sanjay Gupta. Maybe someone from Fox and Friends would like to play…?
• Of course Jack wears a suit to a hockey game. (What is he, a farmer?)
• Since she hasn’t responded to a single one of my texts, I appreciate any joke that takes Carla Bruni down a peg.
• Kudos for the Tron reference. As if I needed another reason to go and watch the trailer for Tron Legacy. Again.
• How old is Kenneth? My money is on 65.

“When you’ve earned it.”

I did the first two years of my undergraduate at a private, residential, 2-year liberal arts Methodist-affiliated college in the mountains. It was a great experience, but after I finished my Associate’s, I had to leave. I transferred to a public, urban, major research university in the middle of a city. In my previous institution, it was 600 students living on campus and everyone knew everyone (more or less). In the second one, it was over 20,000 undergrads, almost all of whom commuted to the campus. It was hard to make friends that lasted longer than the semester you were in class with them. I didn’t manage to make any until, ironically, my last semester of undergrad.

I’ve told you all of that because this episode of Community, while certainly not their funniest, was easily the one I related to most, and felt the most like my college experience (both undergraduate and graduate).  More importantly though, I think it feels like a fairly universal experience, not only in college, but in any situation where you’re tossed into a place that you don’t feel like you really fit in, but desperately want to. Read more »

“My name is Conan O’Brien, and I may soon be available for children’s parties.”

Nick and I were drafting a post about Conan’s options. It wasn’t coming together for me, so Nick took a crack at it, and it sat in the drafts folder of the blog for most of the day yesterday. I get back from class, futz around on Twitter, and then I shout at Alisa, “He’s quitting!” (he’s really not (yet)). And the next 30 minutes involve reading reactions and thoughts about what will happen next (making our original post kind of pointless). Conan’s statement is him forcing NBC’s hand, making the issue of his and The Tonight Show‘s future one of semantics (is it still The Tonight Show if it starts tomorrow?), and with rumors about guest hosts circulating, no one could really guess what would happen on last night’s episode.

Conan looked tired. (Well, tireder than usual for a tall albino with that amazing hair.) Which isn’t surprising, considering he was supposedly up until the early morning, drafting his statement. In contrast, Jay Leno looked positively energized on his show tonight. (Yes, I watched it, Sandra Bullock eating BBQ and all.)  And Conan seemed to be expecting, and frankly ready, to go.

Read more »

“I’m sorry. I couldn’t make it work.”

I’ve been having problems with HIMYM this season. The Barney/Robin debacle was not an major issue for me in regards to how the show’s writers dealt with the break-up (though they did handle it fairly poorly). Indeed, the Barney/Robin issue was only a symptom of a larger issue that has been be plaguing this season: Where the hell is Ted?

I understand the need to highlight other stories, and I do enjoy them, but for someone telling a story about himself, Future Ted sure is happy to ignore his own story for the sake of his friends’ stories (in which he may only tangentially involved). HIMYM excels at delaying their narrative (Bays and Thomas should’ve been writing for Lost) in any number of ways, but still rewarding the audience (be it a goat, how clothes got dirty, etc.). The story of meeting the mother, however, has been less successful, I think, in large part, because we can’t properly formalize an idea behind who she will be or when she and Ted will actually meet.

Yes, we’ve gotten the yellow umbrella and the fact that she was in the economics class Ted thought was his architecture class (among a couple of more, I think), but there’s not enough to fully engage in, nothing that gives me a reason to become invested again. I understand that, like Lost, HIMYM is at the disposal of a network that isn’t particular interested in letting a successful show end (again, like Lost, HIMYM would benefit immensely from an announced end date). So, needless to say, I was excited about this, the 100th episode of the show. The musical number is something to be excited about it, but I was more eager about  the “serious mother action” promised by Craig Thomas.

And it was largely more of the same. Read more »

“With your life.”

One can’t help but think think that this week’s episode title is a little meta.  Echo and her gang (Oh, how I wish the show would be around long enough for us to give them a group name!) think they’re getting closer to bringing down Rossum, while we all know that they’re just getting closer to the future seen in last season’s “Epitaph One” and that the show is getting closer to finishing its run (just as it was getting its legs…again).

I was none too keen at the end of “The Attic” when Echo announces she wants to meet Caroline. Having met Caroline in “Echoes” last season, and seeing the, as Adelle noted in this week’s episode, seemingly pampered and innocent girl, who is actually an idealist (and as Caroline self-identifies at the start of the episode, also a terrorist), I was actually fairly relieved that we never revisited Caroline. The episode only reinforced that relief, but in all good ways.

Caroline is a driven person, much like how Echo has become in the later portions of this season (you know, after painful/pointless reintroduction episodes), but Caroline’s personality and motivation were always just a bit off, but I suppose they’re supposed to be. Caroline’s that protest happy college student whose reasons are, probably, that she’s in college. With “Getting Closer”, that personality develops a bit more, as does pretty much everything else. As a result, there’ll be spoilers below the jump. I’d advise not reading on if you haven’t seen the episode.

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