What Did I Watch Today: Catching Up

Up All Night S01E03 ("Working Late and Working It") - okay


I have ad-block on... which means instead of car commercials, I get two minutes of hulu telling me to turn it off.

This episode unfortunately focused on the two UAN aspects I am so far liking least: saccharine scenes about how relationships change once a baby pops in, and Ava. The former is requisite for this show's premise, so I can take the sappiness (and maybe even be touched by it) as long as there are enough jokes. There were a sufficient number, as Will Arnett attempted to sex it up, though Applegate got a bit too goofy with the "fanciness," and Arnett's scenes with Will Forte felt a little awkward -- as the first episode demonstrated, Will Arnett is a charismatic enough actor that hearing just one side of a conversation with an online friend he met on Wow is really enough, and Forte just felt a little unnecessary. Ava, too, is a superfluous character, promoted to lead after Rudolph's success with Bridesmaids. The show has gotten a lot of flack for this: is it a family comedy or a work comedy? I wouldn't mind UAN having these two incongruous aspects if only the Ava plotlines were a little funnier. Of course Jorma Taccone (who was also a second-unit director on this episode) as a 90s b-boy brings laughs, but the Ava story ended with a lesson about friendship and love, which with Arnett's little concluding speech, was just way too much sentiment for a half hour comedy.
-"I was on Gwyneth Paltrow's website, and she kind of walked me through it."


Community S03E02 ("Geography of Global Conflict") - good!


Community really wants you to watch Party Down.

When not drenched in pastiche or parody, the best Community is that that embraces full-on goofiness, while keeping its characters consistent within their broadly-sketched caricatures. I don't watch Community to "feel something" -- I watch it to laugh, and this episode delivered. The plots: the two Annies battling it out to be the best at Model U.N. (Election-esque stylistically, and MARTIN STARR!!), and Britta and Chang twisting the cop/criminal love story to a Greendale setting (accompanied, of course, by Lionel Richie). There was also a little Annie/Jeff dealing with the creepiness of the relationship. And everybody else mostly just got to make fart jokes. Breezy pacing, a lot of laughs, some audacious cinematographic choices, and a welcome lack of moralizing by Jeff. Yay, Community!
-"If embarrassment were bountiful zinc deposits, I'd be Zambia."


Community S03E03 ("Competitive Ecology") - okay



Chang's sort-of noir parody and the use of voice-over has been done better on other episodes of Community (though I did love the Conversation, Lars and the Real Girl, and Veronica Mars references), as has a mostly-bottle episode consisting of many group arguments about nothing, though David Neher really delivered as outsider-looking-in Todd. Nothing really new or exciting about this episode, but at least it has jokes.
-"And who the hell are you always texting? Everyone you know is here."


How I Met Your Mother S07E03 ("The Stinson Missile Crisis") - alright


The show's been missing something for a while now. Maybe it was cumin.

When was the last time we got a Robin-centric episode? Better yet, when have we ever had a Robin-narrated one? Using Robin telling her court-mandated therapist, instead of Future Ted talking to his future kids, made fresh HIMYM's characteristic storytelling structure. Even the A-plot's twist -- that Robin assaulted a crazed Barney bimbo, and not Norah -- was pleasantly surprising. Having Robin tell it somehow made another Marshall/Lily baby story not unbearable (perhaps because Dr. Kal Penn, Professional Therapist kept interrupting), and Ted actually made some jokes! That were funny! Though I'm still unsure as to where exactly this Robin-arc is going (she marries Barney, right? or do they stop being friends? does she get back with Don?), or whether it will end up working, this episode did.
-so the instructor had no qualms about a male couple attending her lamaze class?

What Did I Watch Today: Alright, But No Parks and Rec

The Office S08E02 ("The Incentive") – painless


Fun fact: Jon Hamm taught Ellie Kemper drama in high school.

Unlike the past few seasons, which begot some horrendously unwatchable television, The Office's eighth year has so far been harmless enough. Like last week, this episode was the most basic, classic Office sort of plot, just with Andy in place of Michael: Dunder Mifflin-Sabre needs to double their sales, and Andy accidentally promises them he'll get an ass tattoo if they succeed.

This isn't bad TV, but it isn't good: it's comedy at its blandest; characters that once became caricatures and have come out the other side as washed-out versions of their former selves. It's innoxious, but it also isn't very funny.

-the opening Kevin tag was an interesting meta-reflection on this (and lets us know they're well aware how terrible the show has been)
-Dwight became such a supervillain in the past few years that I'm not even sure how I feel about his decision to completely reinvent himself around the office, but he was actually pretty funny, if saying things entirely un-Dwightish: "Your friend Neil Patrick Harris really made me laugh the other night." (And his response as everyone else guffawed: "Laughter.")


New Girl S01E02 ("Kryptonite") – alright


Every fiber of my being doesn't want to recommend this but... here you go.

Against my better judgment, I actually found myself enjoying this episode. They nixed the cutaways and instead put all their jokes into dialogue, and you know what, it was actually funny. I still find Zooey Deschanel grating and twee, but I also have no bad associations with the the other cast members -- I actually really like Jake M. Johnson and Max Greenfield, and they and the rest of the cast have good chemistry.

This episode was pretty spare plot-wise: Jess breaks the TV and being broke, is coerced by the guys into getting her flatscreen, fixie bike, and other stuff back from her ex's. Simple, but at least not stupid, and it's dealing with issues set up in the pilot (and Damon Wayans Jr.'s departure), which bodes well for the show's ability to grow.

I wish I hadn't, but I kind of liked it.

-seriously: why are there lockers in their apartment??
-who knew Max Greenfield was so good at playing a borderline-douche: "Rosh Hashanah '06... nothing orthodox about what we did that night."; "It's so nectar." ("It's a volleyball term.")
-I did like the casting of a non, um... Gosling-type to play Jess' ex; "Jess, take your shoes off, we keep an Asian household!"
-true fans own Curly Sue on VHS


How I Met Your Mother S07E03 ("The Ducky Tie") – alright


Ads in old eps of HIMYM that I do not remember!

Good HIMYM-style pacing with interweaving Ted's story in with the goofy Barney/Marshall bet -- which as an A-plot would have been as insufferable as last season's "The Incredible Meatball Sub" -- this kept the episode light and breezy, even with Ted's requisite prolix talks about fate.

After Robin, Victoria is the least-irritating of Ted's exes, and if this whole "you're not over Robin" thing pans out, then using her will seem justified beyond "here's someone who's not Zooey" (which, well, is actually a fairly reasonable excuse). But Robin still pining for Barney, and now Ted mixed up in this relationship-nostalgia seems to only be the opposite of a forward direction for this show -- like Victoria, if it doesn't end up having a larger consequence, it's like HIMYM just wants to remind us of times when it was better, instead of actually being good again. Though at least there was no Zooey.

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))

REVIEW: How I Met Your Mother, S06E01

The first episode of the sixth season of How I Met Your Mother perfectly sums up the boring predictability of the last two seasons (end already!). It takes place almost entirely in one scene at the bar, in one booth, with some lackluster "riddles" that Barney tells as the "highlights," joke-wise.

Basically:

Barney bemoans summer's end, then oggles some girls again.

Robin looks gross eating cheetos, then "hot," titillating Barney's wein-o.

Ted does not meet the mother.

Lily and Marshall love each other... awwwwwww.



(How I miss the Proclaimers references!)