Kenny Sage here (Of course). So I've had this blog for about a month now and have a pretty good rhythm for posting regular opinions of shows. But sometimes I just get busy and miss a opinion here or there. (I haven't seen Ringer since Pilot. Don't think that will become regular despite my initial claims.). So I'm experimenting with a few things. The first thing I'm trying is called an opinion quicky. Ir's where I quickly talk about shows that I: A. don't usually talk about all the time B. Just didn't have time to talk about. So this week, I'll be quickly talking bout' Modern Family, Suburgatory, and Survivor: South Pacific.
Modern Family: Door to Door
I really wish I had time to write a full opinion this week because it enjoyed this episode a lot. David Cross showed up for his first episode since getting a recurring role as a city councilman and he was fantastic. Phil and Luke teamed up again. And Cameron and Gloria had a great story involving looking for the dog Stella (Cameron quickly gets caught up in a whirlwind of Streetcar Named Desire references, including an encounter with a little girl named Blanche.). This show is still great and I will talk about it more fully next week, when I'm not doing silly things like practicing for my Learner's test. Grade: Awesome! (Good)
Suburgatory: The Barbeque
I didn't intend to talk about Suburgatory regularly, but if it keeps up the quality, I may talk about it more often this winter. Anyways, this episode has Tessa dealing with an unwelcome attraction to dumb jock neighbor Ryan Shay, while George finds out he has to throw a barbeque, lest he be shunned by the suburbs. This was a quality episode with lots of great jokes, and a couple funny new hopefully recurring characters (including father of Ryan and Lisa Shay, played by the great Chris Parnell and a couple of husbands who are probably closeted). Keep it up, Suburgatory. Grade: Awesome! (Good)
Survivor: South Pacific: Survivalism
In future weeks, I plan to list my five favorite moments each episode of Survivor, because this is turning out to be even better than Redemption Island. Less focus on Brandon Hantz this week, which is welcome because that guy is paranoid. Actually, there was a bunch of focus on people who hadn't had much screen time to date, like Stacy and Dawn. And it was sweet. I was a bit sad when Stacy was voted out this week, but it had to be done. Here's hoping for more awesomeness from this season. Grade: Totally Awesome! (Great)
So that's it for quicky reviews for now. Stay tuned for my NBC Thursday reviews to be up shortly.
Showing posts with label Suburgatory. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Suburgatory. Show all posts
Friday, 7 October 2011
Wednesday, 28 September 2011
Suburgatory: Pilot
Slowly but surely, ABC has been building up a strong comedy night. They started with Modern Family, Cougar Town and The Middle a couple years ago (The latter two shows have improved from their beginnings) and last midseason, found a bit of a surprise hit in Happy Endings. This season, they've got what looks to be another strong addition to their comedy line-up with Suburgatory, a show that I was expecting to watch tonight and review tomorrow (or Friday.), but found the pilot early and can post a review now! Thank you internet.
Suburgatory is a story about children and parents. It's also a fish-out-of-water story. But instead of the typical "small-town-girl in big city set-up", it's about a New York girl, Tessa (played cleverly by Jane Levy, whose new to the acting business, I do believe) who is forced by her protective single father, George to move to the suburbs after he discovers a box of condoms in her room (She insists they don't belong to her and that's probably true). So now they're in what Tessa calls Suburgatory, with lots of cheerful neighbors and plastic moms. The pilot follows Tessa and her dad through the first couple days or so, as they meet the neighbors, and of course have a bit of a falling out before patching things up. All throughout Tessa provides an internal monologue that gives her thoughts on the situation.
This is a solid pilot with a bunch of interesting characters. Besides Tessa and George, there's George's old college friend Noah (played by the great Alan Tudyk) who has embraced the suburban lifestyle, Dallas, one of their moms who takes a liking to George and who George thinks could be a good female figure for Tessa, Dalia, Dallas' mean girl daughter who is Tessa's "buddy" during her first day of school (like a guide. One of the best lines in the pilot is when she informs Tessa: "Buddies are not your friends".), and Lisa, a shy girl who lashes out at Tessa when she initially tries to befriend her, but later is shown to be more stuck in Suburgatory than Tessa (we also glimpse Lisa's ultra-cheery suburban mom and her popular brother). Jane Levvy gets the most to do in the pilot as Tessa and gives a great wit to all her sarcastic asides, and has a good moment at the end when we see her realize that maybe everything's not all bad.
The show of course draws comparisons to Mean Girls and also Juno. This is to be expected and the show has definitely given me enough confidence to think that this'll be more than Mean Girls but on TV (though that wouldn't be the worse thing. That movie was pretty good.). All in all, Suburgatory is off to a pretty good start. If you have the opportunity to check it out tonight, do it. I won't talk about it every week (it's usually harder for me to watch TV on Wednesdays) but I will keep watching and talk about it from time to time. ABC's Wednesday comedy block is just getting more and more promising and I'm excited.
Rating: Awesome! (Good)
Memorable Moments
-My favorite episode came during Tessa's tour when Dalia points out the one international student in school, Malik.
-Everyone in the suburbs thinks Tessa is a lesbian because of her combat boots.
-Good use of the smash-cut. Dallas tells George "Everyone loves Dalia", where we go to Tessa's narration saying "I hated Dalia".
-As far as the supporting cast goes, Noah and Dalia are probably my favorites. Noah is really enthusiastic and kind of over-the-top and Dalia sounds bored and disinterested all the time (plus she's always texting).
Suburgatory is a story about children and parents. It's also a fish-out-of-water story. But instead of the typical "small-town-girl in big city set-up", it's about a New York girl, Tessa (played cleverly by Jane Levy, whose new to the acting business, I do believe) who is forced by her protective single father, George to move to the suburbs after he discovers a box of condoms in her room (She insists they don't belong to her and that's probably true). So now they're in what Tessa calls Suburgatory, with lots of cheerful neighbors and plastic moms. The pilot follows Tessa and her dad through the first couple days or so, as they meet the neighbors, and of course have a bit of a falling out before patching things up. All throughout Tessa provides an internal monologue that gives her thoughts on the situation.
This is a solid pilot with a bunch of interesting characters. Besides Tessa and George, there's George's old college friend Noah (played by the great Alan Tudyk) who has embraced the suburban lifestyle, Dallas, one of their moms who takes a liking to George and who George thinks could be a good female figure for Tessa, Dalia, Dallas' mean girl daughter who is Tessa's "buddy" during her first day of school (like a guide. One of the best lines in the pilot is when she informs Tessa: "Buddies are not your friends".), and Lisa, a shy girl who lashes out at Tessa when she initially tries to befriend her, but later is shown to be more stuck in Suburgatory than Tessa (we also glimpse Lisa's ultra-cheery suburban mom and her popular brother). Jane Levvy gets the most to do in the pilot as Tessa and gives a great wit to all her sarcastic asides, and has a good moment at the end when we see her realize that maybe everything's not all bad.
The show of course draws comparisons to Mean Girls and also Juno. This is to be expected and the show has definitely given me enough confidence to think that this'll be more than Mean Girls but on TV (though that wouldn't be the worse thing. That movie was pretty good.). All in all, Suburgatory is off to a pretty good start. If you have the opportunity to check it out tonight, do it. I won't talk about it every week (it's usually harder for me to watch TV on Wednesdays) but I will keep watching and talk about it from time to time. ABC's Wednesday comedy block is just getting more and more promising and I'm excited.
Rating: Awesome! (Good)
Memorable Moments
-My favorite episode came during Tessa's tour when Dalia points out the one international student in school, Malik.
-Everyone in the suburbs thinks Tessa is a lesbian because of her combat boots.
-Good use of the smash-cut. Dallas tells George "Everyone loves Dalia", where we go to Tessa's narration saying "I hated Dalia".
-As far as the supporting cast goes, Noah and Dalia are probably my favorites. Noah is really enthusiastic and kind of over-the-top and Dalia sounds bored and disinterested all the time (plus she's always texting).
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