The main question I’ve been asking myself since starting my blog a whole whopping day ago is how to arrange things. Should there be some sort of order to the posts, like should all the posts follow the same sort of rules, or should each week have its own flavor based on my mood? I’m leaning towards the latter, but in case I change my mind, please forgive me for trying to make things more organized than they need to be. Also, should I cover every single show I watch each week or just focus on a few that stand out? Again, I think the latter wins, so this week, I’m only going to write about the stand-outs and then give a few of my thoughts on the other shows. With that said, let’s get started.
** Oh, and this should be really effing obvious, but spoilers ahead for every show I talk about. If you haven’t seen the show, don’t read the paragraph about it. **
Cougar Town:
At this point, I assume that all the people reading this blog are people I know personally. If that’s not the case, then hello, welcome, nice to meet you, new person. To everyone else, you probably already know that I have an undying love for Cougar Town. (It’s actually an undying love of everything Bill Lawrence, but since Scrubs isn’t on anymore, Cougar Town is now the object of my affection) So that’s where I’m going to start this week.
I have to say, even though it was delayed to midseason and has only aired one other episode (the pitch-perfect proposal episode on Valentine’s Day), I think Cougar Town is really kicking ass and taking names. They have finally figured out what makes the show special and focused in on that, letting go of the eponymous cougaring long ago. What makes the show special, you ask? My personal opinion is that it’s grown-up people doing stupid things to each other. Isn’t that what we do every day? Yes, we also do other things, like go to work, which the cul-de-sac crew doesn’t seem to do, but, to be honest, most of my day is spent trying to make my friends and co-workers enjoy themselves, and that’s something I really recognize in Cougar Town.
To break it down story by story, we have Jules prepping for her wedding while still trying to please everyone, Grayson asking Jules’s father for his blessing for the marriage, and Bobby trying to show his acceptance of Jules and Grayson’s engagement by doing the most ridiculous thing possible.
My least favorite story line was Grayson and Travis’s trip to see Chick, not because I don’t love Ken Jenkins (because I really, really do) but because it was just a little too ridiculous. You always knew that Grayson was never going to kill the horse, so a lot of the time spent watching the scenes was me trying to figure out if the writers were going to do something interesting or if it was going to be a simple resolution like we’ve seen on countless other shows. In the end, it was a simple resolution (Grayson didn’t shoot the horse, but by even attempting, proved to Chick that he loved Jules) and I lost interest. Nice try, writers, but we’ve been there, done that.
Now for Bobby, Laurie and Andy. I like it when the writers group these three together because, with no voice of reason, we get some pretty ridiculous things. The zip-line was one of these and it was quite fun to see all three characters fly between the two houses. As a logical person, I’m not sure how Bobby assumed that the zip line would prove to Jules that he was okay with her remarrying, but that’s sort of the beauty of Bobby. He never does the expected, and more often than not, it makes me burst out laughing. (Which I did several times this episode). And I really liked that by the end of the episode, even though the zip-line was a disaster, Jules understood her ex-husband so much that she thanked him for his effort. It was just one of those things that makes me trust the writers of this show. They know their characters so well, and the characters know each other so well. It’s really a whole world that they created, so when crazy things happen, it all seems to work.
Finally, there was Jules and her co-mohs. (For the uninformed, that stands for co-maids of honors). I’m not sure I have much to say about this story-line except that I found it funny. It’s a very sitcomy thing to have people fight over who is going to be the maid of honor/best man. We’ve seen it on Friends and How I Met Your Mother. I do like what they did here, with it being more about Jules trying to please everyone than either Ellie or Laurie fighting for top billing. And I like the end where Ellie gets to fake kill Jules. Otherwise, the story was to me more about funny lines (“Prince Charles”) than anything else. And I enjoy me some funny lines. “Oh just say ‘co-moh.’ It’s a new abbreve I came up with. Total t saver!”
We’ll see if they keep up their streak next week.
Happy Endings:
Wow, I spent a lot of time on Cougar Town. If you’re still here reading, thanks, you deserve a cookie right now. But instead, I’m going to continue blathering on, in hopefully an abbreviated form.
So, let’s talk about Happy Endings and the episode “The Butterfly Effect Effect.” Or, let’s talk about it in a second. First I’m going to take on the show as a whole. I have to say that at the beginning, I wasn’t a fan. It seemed like everyone was trying too hard and the premise of a guy being left at the alter but then having to be friends with his ex wasn’t thrilling to me. And then the show changed (kind of like Cougar Town… Seeing a pattern here?) Happy Endings is now, for me, the love child of Scrubs and Commumity. Bold statement, you say? Well, here me out. It has the fantastical elements of Scrubs and the snarky humor of Community. It also has the sort of meta-humor that I loved on both Scrubs and Community.
“The Butterfly Effect Effect” is a perfect example of this. The basic premise is that every year Jane and Brad have a fight that cures the groups winter blues. But then this year, when no fight occurs naturally, the rest of the group, namely Dave, Penny and Alex (Max has gone “bear” so he doesn’t participate), try to force the fight because they are bored. What ensues is a loop of fake fighting leading to real fighting leading to a real cure for their SAD (Seasonal Anxiety Disorder).
The great thing about this show is that no matter how ridiculous the premise, it has great laughs throughout. No other show right now, with the exception of maybe Community, has a the same minute-to-laugh ratio. Nearly every line is a zinger, and yet it doesn’t grow tiring. My favorite bits from this episode were the fake fight between Brad and Jane, as they scream loving things at each other while acting irate, the flashbacks to Jane and Brad’s previous fights, and the sight gag of Max as a bear. For the last one, I hope the writers wanted Adam Pally to look like Joachim Phoenix because the whole time I thought they were making fun of Phoenix’s “I’m Still Here” fiasco, and I enjoyed every minute of it.
Now more people need to watch the show, so I can talk about it and also so it can stay on the air.
How I Met Your Mother:
I think I’ve been associating too much with How I Met Your Mother lately. It’s both a good thing (Aren’t you supposed to relate to the stories?) but also a little unsettling (Are they trying to mirror my life because it’s kind of like they’ve been watching me and writing things down.)
Maybe this dichotomy is the reason I’m absolutely loving this season. It’s hitting all the right notes for me, and I’m really connecting with it. This episode, “No Pressure,” where Ted confesses his love to Robin only to have her turn him down, is no exception. Everything about this episode was well done, and I was impressed by how well everything connected with Barney’s sex tape search leading to the discovery of Lily and Marshall’s bets leading to the reveal that Lily thinks Ted and Robin will never work. I also loved how the tag, with Marshall saying “Not yet,” perfectly capped the episode but left things open. Some might argue that the writers are always delaying gratification, but over the past seven years, I’ve come to trust the writers, so I’m willing to delay).
Now back to Ted and Robin. That conversation was heartbreaking and played so well by the actors. It’s a horrible thing to have the person you love tell you they don’t feel the same way, and it really came across. And then to have Marshall cap it off by telling Robin she needs to move out? Brilliant. Oh, and the shot at the end with all the yellow umbrellas? Awesome. (And also the best use of music this week with Florence and the Machine’s “Shake It Out”)
I just hope the rest of the season is as good as the first half has been.
Smash:
It wasn’t a particularly “smashing” episode this week (sorry, I had to do the pun). In fact, it was probably the weakest so far. But I want people to watch the show, so I figured I’d give it some coverage. To anybody (most-bodys) who haven’t checked out the show, it’s like Glee but for adults and with consistent characters and solid writing. Intrigued? You should be. The musical numbers are really well done, and they keep adding complexity to the characters, which I enjoy.
I especially liked this week’s reveal that Julia, Debra Messing’s character, had an affair with the now star of her show, Mr. Joe Dimaggio. It makes the dynamic of Julia’s marriage much more interesting and I’m excited to see how it plays out over this season. Also, I’m really loving Jack Davenport’s Derek Wills. He’s both totally charming and beguiling, but also a little off-putting and smarmy. I can’t make my mind up about it and I love that fact.
Less successful this week for me was Katherine McKee’s storyline. We get it, you’re from Iowa. You’re an ingenue. You’re a breath of fresh air from the cornfields. Stop hitting me over the head with it. Also, the assistant, Ellis, is super-annoying and better get his comeuppance soon.
The Rest:
Fringe – I wanted to write more about Fringe, but I ran out of time, and it’s my first week, so sue me for not getting to everything. I love that Fringe is coming full circle this season by redoing some things from first season but taking a different view of them. The light box made its comeback here, and I like how it made Peter realize that his Olivia and the current Olivia are not the same and never will be. I also loved the way they visualized the mind of the Observer (though I thought it was kind of a let down to learn that the Observer is simply from the future – a little boring, in my opinion). But the way they had the mind be the cosmos was very cool. Oh, and did anybody else forget about Henry? Because I kind of did. Oops.
Parks and Recreation – I don’t like the Anne/Tom relationship (Tanne or Haverkins, for those who like abbrevs) Tom is wonderful as a character, but super annoying when he is trying to woo Anne. I want this story line to end soon, or it’s really going to bug me. Also, I’ve noticed lately that April is having more talking heads which I’m not a fan of. Wasn’t she supposed to be the affected observer? I liked her better as that. Otherwise, I liked this episode; I always like it when Leslie tries to do too much (see “The Telethon” and “The Flu”) Overall, a decent episode.
30 Rock – Alls I can say about this is that I plan to wear yellow and blue on Leap Day so that I don’t grow gills.
Raising Hope – A very funny episode, not only because I have the fear of a spider crawling in my ear when I’m asleep or because I shave my feet sometimes. I really think that this show doesn’t get enough credit for how great the writing is, but man, this episode made me laugh more than anything else that night.
The Office – The AVClub said in a recent review that the writers no longer know how to break an episode. I would go one further and say that they no longer know how to make me care about the characters. I don’t care about the Scranton people or Dwight trying to get promoted. And I abhor the storyline with Cathy trying to sleep with Jim. Horrible. I’ll keep watching but it will be for habit’s sake more than anything else.
Alcatraz – A friend of mine complained that the characters on this show have yet to develop, and I agree. However, I see hints that make me interested enough to continue watching. But I had one major problem with this week’s ep: If the prisoner is using poison gas to kill an entire subway car of passengers, why the hell would you open the doors? True you save the people, but don’t you also release the gas? I yelled at my screen when that happened, and I didn’t care much about the rest of the episode.
Modern Family – Why do I still watch this show? A thoroughly boring episode. Also, I see that this next episode is about Cameron being born on Leap Day. I bet the writers peed themselves a little when they watched Parks and Rec.
I know I left some shows out, but as I said earlier, this is my first weekly review, so I have to leave some room for improvement. (Suggestions would be welcome in the comments, all three readers that I have)
Until next time,
Mary
Mary the TV Maven 