Happy Endings - "The Merry Prankster/ Our Best Friend's Wedding" - Review

These two episodes of Happy Endings very well could have been one long, extended episode; there was enough connective tissue between them revolving around Penny’s engagement to extremely normal guy Pete. Whether Penny should be getting married to Pete is another question, but this is a big enough moment and a meaningful enough one that it gives weight to these two episodes in a way the show hasn’t exactly been propitious at.  

The thing I’ve learned writing about this series for the past few episodes is that I really don’t like reviewing it. All the things that make Happy Endings a joy to watch also make it a pain to write about. The show is so flippantly against doing neat, clean things with its structure and characters that from a critical perspective it can be a headache. The series is good because it’s really funny and it’s funny in a particular way where it doesn’t choose to play nice and be even keeled.

So what makes a good Happy Ending episode? One in which it uses all of its characters effectively, doesn’t waste time establishing premises, and having done both of the former goes on to tell as many dirty, bizarre, pop culture ladened jokes as possible. “The Merry Prankster” does this a bit more nicely than “Our Best Friend’s Wedding”, setting up its premise with the cold open and then sparing no expense to indulge in its prank fight concept. “Our Best Friend’s Wedding” is also very funny but less focused and has to manage three storylines rather than two, although it does give amusing things for all the characters to do.

These are both episodes representative of what the series is capable of when it's firing on all cylinders. I like these characters and I like the actors playing them. I also like the type and quantity of jokes. And I like it even more so when the episodes feigns enough of a decent pretext for using these characters as delivery systems for jokes. These two episodes demonstrate that potential and for series trying to pull off such a thing, these are solid examples of how to go about doing that.

Stray Observations:

-“Max is winning the lottery next week. Pass it on”

-“Guns for Sandwiches” - This would have been funny as a throwaway line but it's even funnier for the visual of people laying guns down on the counter of Dave's food truck.

-“Or when he decimated our 401K”

-"Ah! Max don’t hurt me!”

-“Affirmative … action”

-“I picked up and quit smoking four times”

-Of course Alex would be obsessed with Muffin Month.

-“We’re just prawns in his game”

-“My revenge will be like a seventh grade tennis players serve. Slow and out of bounds”

-“I guess I could use an adorable idiot like you”

-The whole couch launching gag had me laughing so hard.

-The proposal scene was everything a proposal from this series should be. Strange and funny, and somehow kind of touching, with explosions going on in the background.

-I approve of that Kaiser Soze ending. Very funny, well-earned spoof.

-“What’s with the lower case b’s”

-“And no you can’t smoke it … I never asked how was rehab?”

-“And who will burn the wedding to the ground if she doesn’t get to plan it?”

-“Why do I have to be coupled with Dave?”

-“Harvey Chocolate Milk” is a brilliant nickname for Brad's fake persona.

-Pete apparently likes reggae. Okay then, why the heck not?

-“It’s a classic Max kneejerk reaction. Followed by a classic Max fake apology.”

-“Manny Petty’s Manny Pedi’s”

-That Trojan Horse fakeout was a great piece of editing.

-“Well, you know what they say ‘It’s not a gang hang unless someone gets close lined’”

Grade: A-

Archer - "Legs" - Review

I had been wondering for a while what the show planned to do with wheelchair bound Ray. There was no feasible way the series could keep having Ray being physically handicapped. Ray in a wheelchair means Ray can’t be a field agent and that in turn means the show is highly limited on the kind of stories it can tell. So it wasn’t all that surprising when the show jumped on the opportunity to get him walking again.

Obviously it decided to do it in manic, absurd fashion as per usual. Krieger offers a surgical solution that would add some robotic parts to Ray to get him back on his feet. This is amusing idea in of itself, but the episode enters into an even more madcapped, entertaining direction when cyborg-phobic Archer learns of Krieger’s plan and in gung ho fashion attempts to shut the surgery down. In turn Lana and Cyril realize they need to prevent Archer from doing something incredibly stupid and destructive (a goal that never thoroughly comes into fruition, seeing as Archer bazookas a blast proof room). 

I would have liked to have seen Cheryl and Malory used less sparingly. But otherwise this is another very good episode from the show this season; a feat that feels all the more impressive for the fact that this is a series in its fourth season. 

Stray Observations:

-“Vehicular hermaphrodite” is a term that ought to be used more often.

-“I piss and shit in a bag” “Me too!”

-“Common enemy” “Hey, that’s how Lana and I started dating”

-“It kind of worries me that you don’t know the real names to these things”

-The newspapers name: “The Paper”

-“He’s making a gay terminator”

-“I think it’s super creepy that you get turned on by physical violence”

-“The thermostat is becoming sentient” – How H. John Benjamin pronounces “sentient” is a thing of beauty.

Grade: B+

The Office - "Junior Salesman/ Vandalism" - Review

I’m a stickler for consistency in a television series. Consistency in storytelling is symptomatic of good writing. When a series like The Office starts to do broader, more unbelievable things, it flies in the face of the very world the series has led us to believe we’re watching. Michael Scott’s antics were childish, and cringe inducing but they came from a believable place. A character like Robert California, on the other hand, could never have ever existed early on in the run. That was a character whose personality appeared to be whatever the writers damn well pleased it to be; you could never pin down who he is was or what he wanted. He was a walking, talking cartoon character, and not a fully realized human being. Similarly, none of Dwight’s friends are plausible human beings or realistically drawn characters. While there’s some amusement to be had here and there, it’s an incredibly bizarre storyline that just doesn’t add up with what earlier seasons have led us to think this world is inhabited with. Even a character like Creed works because his shtick is “I’m the unrealistic person who pops in and does something totally implausible”.  And he works because he was the one guy who was so clearly not realistic that the series was allowed a pass when he did weird stuff or said strange things. You might argue Dwight is like this as well, but the show has done enough groundwork to make it apparent that there’s a real human side to Dwight (remember Season 2’s “The Injury” where he gets a concussion and starts acting very nice to everyone).

The Jim and Pam side of things remains to be very interesting and very true to these characters though, and it almost makes up for when the series is desperately thinking of something for its characters to do. But the series doesn’t seem to have a clue what to do with these characters, who when well utilized are often some of television’s funniest, most memorable individuals.  Pam’s actions in the second of these two episodes in particular don’t have any real logical basis in what we know about her (Why would she go along with pretending that Nate’s mom died?).  Her revenge scheme just doesn’t come from place that’s true for this show, and it feels like a storyline created as an excuse for Brian to swoop in and save the day.

The references to the people behind the camera don’t feel like they’re a good thing. The series pulled out that moment too soon, and it’s now forced to deal with the ramifications of that reveal. The self-awareness of the fact that there is a documentary crew isn’t something the series necessarily wants draw attention to. It’s stretching credulity as is that they would stick at it for nine years.

Stray Observations:

-So, how soon until Brian and Pam kiss?

-“I need you to breathe in my face”

-Clark Duke is often much funnier than the material given to him. He’s so utterly enthusiastic about every piece of acting given to him, even when it’s incredibly pointless or stupid.

-“I was his babysitter. And then his girlfriend”

-“If there’s anything I hate worse than art, it’s crime”

-“I’ll just stay here. By myself. With the money.”

-“I’m saying we should go scorched earth on his face”

-“You’re a terrible person” - Brian Baumgartner is having a great season.
-How pointless did the Jim-Darryl storyline feel? I'd rather they just not show Jim at all, and in stead spend some time with some minor characters. 

Grade: C+

The Vampire Diaries - "A View to Kill" - Review

There are a lot of individual moments I really liked in “A View to Kill” but as a complete narrative it leaves a lot to be desired. It doesn’t pay off the “kill Kol” story arc all that gracefully or imaginatively. It’s a very stop and go episode. Though it has the advantage of a clear end game in getting Kol knocked off and finishing the hunter’s tattoo, it just doesn’t effectively pull this off as well as previous episodes that bring together a number of the characters to stop some baddie or achieve some goal. Season 2’s “Masquerade”, for example, remains to be a series highlight for how a delightfully devious Katherine plays cat and mouse with a number of characters gathered together at a party. Here though, the characters are mainly scattered or ill-used (Matt’s role in it all is an afterthought, especially considering he doesn’t even actually find the dagger). The tension building between Kol and Elena also is very, well, just un-tense. Elena is no longer human so it’s not like she’s in completely dire straits. On the other hand, I’ve never been a huge fan of Kol; he’s been underutilized and never all that interesting when he has appeared.  

Bonnie on the other hand keeps continuing her streak of doing stupid life decisions. All she needs to do now is become a teen mom and she will have completed the transformation into total useless idiocy. The only reason her character exists is because she can use magic. Her story is rarely ever about anything else, and that’s just poor storytelling and character development. And we know the writers are far better at creating sympathetic, dynamic characters. But instead, we get Bonnie being angsty, letting dark magic consume her, and using magic to hurt her mother. None of the type of character traits or actions that will make me view a character kindly.

It’s not all sore spots though. I’m very enthusiastic about the pairing of Rebekah and Stefan. This is a far more interesting and engaging couple than Stefan and Elena. They both know they’re getting played by the other one, but they’re so deeply damaged that they kind of want to get played. As much as Stefan uses Rebekah to get the dagger, he also has feelings for her, and so he takes her to have the 80’s high school dance she never got to have. This leads to them bonding further and realizing that there’s potentially more between them than just sex.

The Klaus-Damon scenes were also well-written. Damon is able to discuss his inkling that Elena might not still feel the same way when she’s cured. Klaus opens up about his weird undying feelings for Caroline (though there’s chemistry between them, I just don’t ever see that pairing working, especially now that Joseph Morgan is going to play Klaus on the spin-off The Originals).

It has its moments, but this is a largely disappointing episode that fails to be very engaging throughout.

Stray Observations:

-Stefan attempts the walk of shame post-coitus, but is caught leaving by Klaus.

-“Looks like my brother took a page from my revenge sex handbook”

-I particularly like the part of Klaus and Damon’s conversation where Damon talks about being bad versus being bad with a purpose.

-Is it just me or does the series seem to be implying that all witches are black? Kol says that he met witches from Haiti and Africa.

-Bonnie’s mom did “chloroform” her but I kind of side with her on this one: Bonnie needs to get her shit together.

-“I don’t foresee happiness for you at the end of the cure rainbow”

-The flame death effect is kind of awesome.

-“I was going to make him suffer on my terms!”

-Klaus wants to the cure so he can destroy it. Anyone see this coming cuz I totally didn't.

-“Did she pledge her allegiance to you while she was naked in your bed?” – Elena’s reaction to this is priceless.

Grade: B-

30 Rock - "Hogcock!/ Last Lunch" - Review

I know you’re probably mourning the loss of 30 Rock, and it’s very good that you are (because 30 Rock was so very good and so very unlike anything else on television). But it was time. Increasingly descending into the caricature-ish, cartoonish and bizarre between its 4^th and 6^th season, if the show had gone on any longer, it may not have remained as indelible, as funny, as rapid fire and as unlike everything else on television as it was.

What set the series apart wasn’t just the level of intricacy and intelligence and pace with which it tossed jokes at you (other series have done this quite well; i.e. Arrested Development, Community, and Happy Endings), but also how oddly touching and heartwarming it could be in the midst of all those jokes. 30 Rock lacked the cynicism of other series that attempt to pack each episode with jokes. It mocked and made fun of television tropes and sitcom scenarios, while simultaneously embracing them. And it told a lot of very traditional sitcom stories (and made a lot of heartfelt references to the history of television and sitcom in particular) that sometimes changed up the formula but never cared to make that the end goal. When the series ended on a St. Elsewhere snow globe jab where the whole show never happened, it was merely the series wearing its sitcom heritage on its sleeves to very wonderful and funny effect. 

The series managed to come back for an awesome final season that paid homage to its entire run and still managed to tell touching, funny, memorable stories. The finale feels like a microcosm of all the best aspects of the series. The series’ best relationships are explored once again including Tracy and Liz, Liz and Jack, and Tracy and Kenneth. Plus we get to see Jenna go off and be crazy one final time. 

Liz is forced to put on one last show (due to a clause in Tracy’s contract where if he doesn’t shoot 150 episodes of TGS he’ll get several million dollars). Meanwhile, Jack continues to contemplate whether he’s actually happy, which brings some incredibly inspired, hilarious moments of soul searching.

There are nice little send offs to all the series regulars. Pete gets a subplot about him trying to fake his death. The writers get a subplot about Lutz ruining their final lunch order. Even Grizz and Dotcom get some very funny scenes. 

Allowing the finale to be an hour long lets this episode breathe and take its sweet time. There are jokes left in that would have been on the cutting room floor in a normal episode (that motherly advice forum Liz goes to is very funny but wouldn’t have gone beyond one scene in a standard episode). The show gets in some of its most memorable jokes to date in (I will include many in the “Stray Observations”). 

The show gets all goofily touching in a few scenes that are simultaneously touching, odd, and funny. Tracy admitting he doesn’t want to say “goodbye” got me surprisingly choked up. Liz and Jack’s farewell is played so well by both Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin, and the whole speech on “love” is filled with great character beats. That scene is all the better for how Liz cuts off Jack with, “I love you too!” Better still is how Jack immediately turns the boat around after having another brilliant idea: “Clear dishwashers”.

What is there to say other than this was a great episode of a very unique show, and one of the better finales a tv comedy as managed in a long time. You will be missed 30 Rock. 

Stray Observations:

-The “Gotham Moms” forum is eerily spot-on about real internet forums.

-“Then we’ll be able to get even better trophy wives. Half Asian ones!”

-TGS is only syndicated in Greece.

-Liz’s Yoda impression sounds like a New Yorker with cigarette induced lung disease.

-Kenneth on adapting a Japanese game show for an American audience: “We thought people could win money instead of penis punches”

-“I hope it’s at NBC because we have hiring quotas”

-Of course after mentioning letting a moment land, the episode cuts causing said moment not to land.

-“It’s like when a pig telepathically communicates with you asking whether it has a soul”

-“If you get hit by a car, they put you in a hospital and you get soup”

-Great return/callback: Julianne Moore and Selma Hayek reprising their roles as Jack’s exes.

-“Dammit why’d I get such a loud pacemaker!”

-“…And I don’t mean those two santas kissing on the subway”

-“I pissed off all my enemies: Pelosi, Maddow, Baldwin”

-“You’re just an alcoholic with a great voice”

-The way the scene is shot where they first learn Lutz gets to choose lunch is a brilliant piece of direction. The zoom ins are perfect.

-Return of Conan: “We were going to lose our virginity together! Now I’m always going to be a virgin!”

-A great piece of meta humor: “I can’t do this anymore. I’ve never met Mickey Rourke”

-Lutz changed his last named to Aardvark to win at getting to choose lunch.

-“I want you to have this bag of my hair”

-Grizz has a deal for a new sitcom: “Grizz and Herz”. It even gets its own banner ad!

-Liz on what she presumes to be Jack committing suicide: “This is like my gynecologist all over again!”

-Tracy and Jenna get to say goodbye to one another dressed up as Hitler.

-1 year later: Tracy’s dad finally comes back from getting cigarettes. 

Grade: A

"The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" - Film Review

“They don’t make ‘em like they used to,” the old saying goes, and far and few between has that sentiment been more apt than for The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. This is filmmaking at its purest; here is a film crafted to be fun, entertaining, and immersive. And yet it still manages to say something meaningful about the human condition and all that good junk us serious film types like to discuss. The film is a French operatic (every single line is sung) story of romance, love, and loss that utilizes its music and its striking atmosphere to perfectly exude the feelings and emotions of its characters.

Think back to the first time you were in love; now consider the devastating heartbreak that accompanied being unable to be with that one person you were so maddeningly, deeply in love with. That’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg in a nutshell. The film manages to remarkably distill that kind of experience and the hold such experiences have over us.  

Carried by it all is the happy-go-lucky, wide eyed visage of Catherine Deneuve as Geneviève Emery. Her popularity blew up in the wake of the film’s release and it’s not entirely surprising. Though Deneuve’s lines were dubbed (by Danielle Licari), it’s the youthful vigor and enthusiasm of Deneuve that makes so many of the great hyperbolic, starry-eyed, love-struck lines work. 

The film is eye-popping with dazzling colors, and it’s hard to decide whether Michel Legrand’s music or the brilliant visuals is more wonderfully infectious. It’s difficult not to be smiling at the utter sincerity and charm of the film. While many modern films have a level of cynicism or a jaded vision, the film, even as it takes darker turns later on, never succumbs to a totally bleak or miserable worldview. 

Director Jacques Demy is one of the lesser known figures of the French New Wave. Not as interested in political or structural concerns as his contemporaries, what makes Umbrellas stand out is how fantastical it feels. Demy chooses every detail (the ties, the wallpaper, etc.) so its colors will visually explode out from the screen. The film resembles a heightened fairytale; only instead it lends this imaginativeness towards describing the events of ordinary, everyday people. 

We’re lucky the film still exists. Almost all the negatives for the film had become faded and unusable. But thankfully the film was restored in the late 90’s, which allows us to still watch this fun, vibrant gem. 

Grade: A

Cougar Town - "I Should Have Known" - Review

Tom is a character Cougar Town has never really taken a stance on. He’s funny in his awkward, kind of sad way, and he works well in small doses. However, the characters keep walking all over him like a doormat and feeling little regret afterwards. This couldn’t keep going on much longer; as selfish as the Cul-de-Sac Crew is, “mean spirited” would not be the appropriate adjective to describe them. They’re deeply clingy and codependent, and they can do mean things to one another, but what pervades it all is a well-intentioned, loving sense of goodwill and affection for one another. So feeling no guilt towards their terrible (escalating) treatment of the misanthrope just could not last.

Though this and other aspects of the episode in theory feel like they’re good ideas, they’re not nearly as well-executed as they could have been. Bobby and Ellie are an underused pairing that I would like to see more of, but their storyline comes off as if it’s just going through the motions. Andy and Grayson are very amusing for how they subvert the “change approved” rule making that Ellie and Jules have monopolized, and providing a new perspective on it, but it’s never really followed through on. 

We haven’t spent enough time with Tom to know him as anything more than this cartoonish oddball who pops in every so often and does peculiar things. So attempting a main plot about him, and how Jules and Laurie (selfishly) protect him from a gold-digger doesn’t have enough stakes. If the series is going to make Tom a larger fixture of the cast, and not just somebody who pops his head through the window every now and again, they need to start humanizing him.    

Stray Observations:

-“That exact moment happened in my dream as well” – The “best friend kiss” isn’t just a funny gag but well-integrated by being made the catalyst for Tom’s anger towards the groups.

-“Cousin stuff can be hot … It’s like they instinctively know what want” – Busy Phillips is having a great season, and the writers have provided her with some great monologues including this episode’s one where Ellie has Laurie let her know when the midway point of the speech is by raising her hand (a nice meta commentary).

-“Did she still not like Ellie?” “Why would you say that?” “Because”

-“Your shirt does seem to come off a lot for no reason” – There was a lot of self-awareness to this episode.

-“That explains the bronze penises in your closet”

-“He’s washing his food pushing pinky”

-Tom’s photo of himself with a sleeping Jules.

-“Laurie thrown wine at her!”

-Great emotional moment: “Do you really think he’d be happy?” “No!”

-Adorbs: Andy and Grayson’s response in unison.

-Laurie climbs into Tom’s house through the roof in heels … and falls.

-I love the hug pact. There was another gag they used for some great emotional effect. 

Title Card of the Week: " Welcome to Cougar Town. Donny made the title cards about him, so he's gone now."

Grade: B-