What Did I Watch Today: Quick Thoughts on the Difference Between Averageness and Mediocrity

This is not a formal review, but quick thoughts immediately upon watching.

The Office s08e01 ("The List") – okay-good


Hulu! Wuhu!

The episode started out with me thinking it would be quite a disappointment — the "planking" tag (The Office has never been so good at being au courant (remember all the viral video dances?) (and except for a few 4Chan people, no one actually does this!)); but then proceeded to become, even without Michael Scott, the sort of epitome of an Office episode: the office becomes divided (this time literally) over some non-issue (once again: literally a conflict about nothing, just semantics as to who is in an arbitrary column, later revealed to be the useless designations "winners" and "losers"), and then harmony is regained after some sort of speech in the conference room; this was a nice, comfortable first episode after all the tumultuous changes at the end of last season; felt very The Office, when the show hasn't felt like itself in a while.
-I do like Stanley's "new thing" (though Alan Sepinwall's right that it's out of character)
-"I can always unframe."
-Myles McNutt's review of this episode is as analytically brilliant as ever


Whitney pilot – ugh


She's so tall!! These characters are so bland that I actually got ginger and black-hair confused, and then was unsure as to why in the next scene Whitney was wearing a wig.

How did this get picked up?? I don't even know what the premise is... "like all those shows about middle-aged married couples who hate each other... except this time they're a young, unmarried couple who hates each other!"; these are just the worst people, whose dialogue consists of bad jokes ("If the cave men had been monogamous, there'd be like six people.") and telling each other what other is doing ("You date that photographer girl who's really loud." "You can't wear pants to a wedding."); this episode is the most overused, trite plot (they haven't had sex in a while and so start to be afraid they'll get divorced... except they can't get divorced cos they aren't married!! so hip!!) that I can see this show being on for seasons and seasons, because everyone just assumes it already has been on forever; terrible fake-looking, restrictive sets; the lowest possible form of boring mediocrity, with a few jokes that would have been "edgy" maybe ten years ago, but still told in the corniest possible way ("What're you closing with, blackface?"); I would say I wish I could unsee this, but it's so mediocre that it's pretty much already been forgotten.
-weird that the laughtrack started after the opening montage
-what twenty-something couple has a landline?
-only someone very drunk would think of and think it's amusing to have a "hammer in the underwear drawer" gag
-I didn't post a video so as not to encourage anyone to self-harm by watching

What Did I Watch Today: Quick Thoughts on Fall Premieres and Pilot Season

I watch a lot of television. For the past year and a half, I've been jotting down my immediate opinions about each episode I watch in a word document — as I work my lazy way up to writing actual formal reviews, I'll be posting those quick thoughts here.

How I Met Your Mother s07e01 ("The Best Man") – hm
I mean, of course it will take some time to get into this season, and at least it's good, I guess, that they're at least vaguely going somewhere with the plot (revealing that it's Barney's wedding, and we know Ted meets the Mother at the wedding), but... this really just wasn't a very funny episode; it was a clever-ish device to remind us of Ted's past accomplishments and failures via a montage of "Schmosby" wedding toasts, but that was a bit of an irritating retcon, making it seem as though Ted keeps in contact with all of these high school friends, when before it seemed Punchy was the only one he ever talked to (and due to Punchy's motivation) – makes Ted seem a bit more a commodity than he actually is, this lonely guy with four friends; the plot about Marshall ruining the wedding was just a bit irritating in its fakes and red-herrings, and the final reason (because he drunkenly told about Lily being pregnant, and everyone mistook him taking about the bride, which led to a fathers-in-law fight) was not really enough to make that plot seem worthwhile; Robin still liking Barney is very dragged out, and it was actually rather nice that he had called Norah, and his excitement at talking to her... that dance scene, though? ummmm, sure, I guess it must have been fun to choreograph, but I have no idea whether it was supposed to be a dream sequence of Robin's, and the cinematography was very mockumentary (I would've preferred something even more stylized than usual, as opposed to something that distressingly reminiscent of Dancer in the Dark) and that break of the fourth wall — was this an allusion to something? ; the Lily/Marshall baby bit was good for reminding us of their pregnancy, and at least there were no mushy speeches between them; the cutaways (really only Robin's "truth-voice") was not really funny enough, though chuckle-worthy, I suppose.

How I Met Your Mother s07e02 ("The Naked Truth") – okay
Lolz at Victoria (I did like the music cue) – I totes predicted her coming back!; I did enjoy McPoyle, though his tag being a surgeon was a little racy, as was the "no, the snake is your penis" joke (none of those double-entendres were really all that funny; Martin Short all campy here is such a contrast to his surprisingly toned-down lawyer on Weeds); Ted "choosing between two girls" was a non-conflict that got him back to where he was in, literally, square — or, rather, season — one (wanting to fall in love) (and Victoria is another step backwards; she's obv not going to be the mom; are they yearning for the time when she was on that show? (or the quality of the show at that time? trying to ameliorate any uncertainties we have about the past few seasons with this association?)); Barney at the diner with Norah was cute, I guess; Robin and Lily did not really do anything but cheer Ted and Marshall on; what were they all doing at that diner, anyway? what is this, a sitcom?

2 Broke Girls pilot – hm
It is hard for me to like anything with a laugh track, but some of the one-liners here were undoubtedly snappy (though that old man cashier seemed to have a lot of trouble delivering them, and there is a line between just crass and funny), and Kat Dennings (I love that she has an actually realistic body type) made a likeable, crotchety broke waitress; cliché cliché the plot seems to be (and there wasn't much here), and the sitcom sets are so stifling and fake, but even the former-rich new coworker was not as irritating as she should have been; the sickly sweet ending was a bit too much (and that horse??), but I liked the introduction of an actual goal for this series (for them to make $250,000) — one that leaves room for each episode to be its own individual sitcom plot, but with an overarching focus to the series (sort of like the premise of My Name is Earl, which ended up having a most surprising amount of continuity — is it foolish to hope for something similar here?) (and will this new coworker steal that money once they earn it? is she trustworthy? who knows); the jokes were often a little too pop culture and so will likely not age well (hipters, Jersey Shore, ponzi schemes, Branjelina, twitter), especially in that nannying scene; but nevertheless, I did, for reasons I don't even know, find myself wanting to watch more... I'll give it at least one more episode.

Weeds s07e12 ("Qualitative Spatial Reasoning") – good
I didn't think it would work, but I did end up liking the split-screening, especially the last scene, how even though he was not in the middle frame or really the focus of the episode, it ended up being about Silas, and how he, now being the moral epicenter (I guess), has realized he has done the wrong thing in ratting out this mother; it's nice that they're bringing it back to Stevie and seemingly finally finally finally having Nancy's shit called on her jesus christ how long has this taken; with the funeral inspiring Andy to break away from either side of this conflict (if this ends up having any impact on the show), then this season may have actually been building to something after all; "...all of that was subsumed by the momentum created by finally putting at least some of the pieces together" (Myles McNutt))

QUICK THOUGHTS: Saxondale, Series One

After watching an episode of television, I try to jot down a quick summary of my opinions, which may or may not be later expanded into a more formal review. Here are my thoughts on the first series of Steve Coogan's Saxondale.



S01E01 – actually good! (this is a very different character from what I've seen Coogan do before... but equally pathetic; I really like the lack of the laugh track, though Tommy's accent was a bit hard to follow at times; what a sad man, Tommy Saxondale! I am excited to see the next episode! I like the subdued tone, and the fact that his girlfriend is unattractive)

S01E02 – good! (I am excited to watch more of this show; it is a bit hard to tell, at times, whether Coogan is mocking muscle car aficionados or genuinely loves fast vehicles himself (especially with the lingering/caressing camera movements of the opening credits); I miss the old, shabby van!; Four letter word: "Fool?")

S01E03 – good! (I liked that the addition of someone from Tommy's past does not feel sudden or retconny at all, and just a natural extension of his persona and the little tidbits of history/personality he gives out)

S01E04 – okay-good (with Ben from AP guesting, Tommy Saxondale seems to have reverted into Alan's pattern of saying/assuming something foolish, and then having to stumble about in order to back it up in an attempt to not embarrass himself — felt in character for a dad and his daughter's boyfriend, yes, but also felt very AP; Tommy, though will often challenge people more than Alan, and has learned to take the high road, so with the whole bathroom/drugs/irritable bowel scene, Tommy could have admitted that he thought Matt was taking drugs, and then they could have either laughed about it, or Matt could have just been embarrassed — but they fell into the Ben/Alan relationship, where Ben always ends up on the high ground; the bit with Coogan as the junkie was just awkward and weird — if they keep doing this, with Coogan playing multiple parts, then maybe it will feel less strange, but all I can think about is when they used doubles and how much of a hassle that must have been to shoot, with little pay-off; and is Raymond still living with them? He didn't seem to be in any of the household scenes, as it wasn't... convenient?)

S01E05 – good (I liked the emphasis on Raymond's relationship with Tommy/Mags, which had been sorely lacking in the past few eps; also, how old is he supposed to be??; the "Tommy is feeling old thing" seems a bit abrupt, but at least, y'know, not random as he is in his 50s, but why is he suddenly unable to copulate, when he and Mags seemed to previously smash the system on a daily basis?; oh godddd and his little lip-licks are getting gross to a McCabe level)

S01E06 – good (this one was very plot-driven (Tommy solving the mystery of the big company's repeat flea-visits) which was very different from the other episodes, but kind of nice — it gave the viewer a satisfying conclusion to this mystery within the esoteric world of pest control, and it also let Tommy seem smart, for once (with both his deduction skills, and his intelligent allusions); this new "big enemy" of the other pest control place was a bit of a ret-con, though, and I'm sort of still waiting for there to be any semblance of a series-long arc or connection (which there has yet to be, a la AP), such as delving into why Tommy is currently in anger management — the inciting incident?; some good Raymond bits, like when he brushed off the crisp; and I'm pretty sure Rebecca Front did the voice on Radio 4)

S01E07 – hm (a bit overly sentimental, with the reiteration on the importance of the tin of potatoes, and with the manufactured fight between Tommy and Mags (who otherwise seemed to have a pretty solid relationship), and with all the waxing philosophical on giving life meaning by having impacting relationships with other people, and not dying alone — as though trying to give the series a meaningful conclusion, when this sentiment wasn't really prevalent throughout; there didn't seem to be an overriding sort of theme of fear of dying alone, or getting older, or anything; just sort of a pointless series, almost; Coogan can create the characters, but I really do think he needs someone else there to shape the show and give it some sort of overarching meaning beyond: here is this character, and he's like this, and here's the stuff that he does; his characters are inherently sort of sad, or depressing, in Tommy Saxondale's case, but that really isn't enough; oh! But David Cann as a boring dinner guest = yessss)


What did you guys think?