Thanks to Thursday night football, tonight was the last we get to see of Superstore until January. That's a shame because Superstore has really come into it's own over the course of this second season so far, becoming one of the funniest shows on television right now and I'm going to miss it while it's on hiatus. Thankfully, we got not one but two episodes tonight that were packed to the brim with comedy, good character moments, and a couple of major developments that left me excited to see what happens next.
The biggest development in these episodes belongs to Amy, who finds herself having to finally confront the problems in her marriage. This starts in Seasonal Help when Adam gets hired as a temporary employee. Right off the bat there's issues as Adam embarrasses Amy at the staff meeting by calling her by her pet name "bean" and revealing that she used to sleep naked. This frustrates Amy and the frustration only continues when they're on the floor and Adam takes Amy's suggestions on how to do things better as criticism.We haven't seen a lot of Adam over the course of the show, but what we do see speaks volumes. He's a nice guy, but he would rather work on his constant stream of projects and dreams than actually help support his family and he's very defensive. His and Amy's marriage isn't a good one, but when Glenn has the audacity to imply that and it becomes clear that everyone else thinks that too, Amy sets out to prove them all wrong by becoming very affectionate towards her bumbling husband. This leads to the two hooking up in the photo lab, though not before Adam tries to start another fight when he learns Amy lied about Cloud Nine having a Large-Format printer back when he was trying to get his travel agency off the ground. They still hook up but it becomes clear that putting up appearances isn't going to fix the problems in Amy's marriage or bring the spark back and Amy is forced to deal with this truth when she gets sick on Black Friday and becomes concerned she's pregnant.
The smartest thing Seasonal Help/Black Friday does is not make Amy's marriage woes about her relationship with Jonah. He's the one that suggests Adam get a seasonal job at Cloud Nine and he becomes a support during her scare when he inadvertently overhears Amy trying to get a pregnancy test but he's not an active player in Amy's story. Amy's marriage woes aren't because she's pining for Jonah or because Jonah helps her realize that Adam isn't right for her but are because of problems that existed long before Jonah came into her life at the show's beginning. It makes the story of Amy coming to terms with her unhappiness her story, not one that's shared by anyone else and her unhappiness is something that she gets to discover on her own. When she realizes she isn't pregnant, she becomes relieved even though she always saw herself having two or three kids. She stops herself from saying maybe she just doesn't want them with Adam, but when she finally gets the chance to tell him she's not pregnant and blurts "I'm not happy" instead. She corrects herself quickly but there's no hiding her problems anymore.
The Amy storyline that runs through Seasonal Help/Black Friday is weighty and heavier subject matter than the show typically deals with and the show maximizes it's effectiveness by sandwiching the stories between bigger comedy stories. Seasonal Help has Jonah turn a friendly wager over which of the terrible temp workers will quit first into a serious competition that has everyone going to extreme lengths to get their chosen temp to quit first. This leads to a very funny montage of the staff going all out to win the bet using tactics that range from Dina making her temp scrub the parking lot to Mateo and Cheyenne sexually harassing the book-reading temp they both hate to Mertle trying to knock her pick Opal off a ladder (Opal is the oldest person at the store at 90 years old, which Mertle is not happy about.). It's much more extreme than Jonah had expected, but since he upped the stakes of the wager and actively encouraged Isaac (played by a very welcome Steve Agee) to quit kicking it into overdrive, he can't complain. It turns out Jonah has a bit of a gambling problem, a welcome detail that helps expand his character beyond the "privileged white boy hipster" box he's usually put in. The dark comic twist of the plot though is when Jonah wins the bet and learns that the majority of the seasonal workers were hired from a "Last Chance" program at Glenn's church. These are troubled people trying to turn their lives around and Jonah and the rest have been messing with that. This leads Jonah to do the right thing and give Isaac the 200 dollars from the pot he's won but the heartwarming sentimentality of the moment is severely undercut when Isaac immediately makes a deal to go buy meth. There are lots of shows out there that try to tack on a feel-good ending when there's not one to be had, but Superstore is not one of them. You will not find false sentiment here.
As out-of-control as the bet in Seasonal Help is, it has nothing on Black Friday. The opening sequence of a massive line-up outside the store at 3AM and still-green Jonah being the only one excited about the day help establish what hell this holiday is for retail workers. Then after setting up Amy's pregnancy scare, everyone's hatred of this day and Glenn being on Xanax to relax, the doors open and we get a taste of merciless deal-hunting customers running amok. Almost every scene becomes packed with frantic motion from something or another. Cloud Nine essentially becomes a warzone and just when you think you know where things are going, the real cause of Amy's sickness is revealed when the entire staff comes down with food poisoning from something at the pre-opening potluck. The mass food poisoning takes an already fraught event to even greater comedic heights as over half the staff has to go home and the rest are all sick and miserable. Eventually they all wind up in the break room as customers run wild, sniping at each other. Jonah tries to rally the troops but a Xanax-taking Glenn cusses him and everyone else out in the episode's funniest moment. Eventually Garrett suggests they bail and everyone agrees, even Dina.
The thing about Superstore is that it isn't a very sentimental show. It's a cutting look at the stresses and disappointments of working retail and it tends to undercut the nice moments when they pop up, as demonstrated in Seasonal Help. This is to the show's benefit though because when they do go the sentimental road, it feels earned. Garrett spends most of Black Friday trying to avoid working on a register by stretching the announcements out as long as possible (His trick? Recounting the plots of every Tom Hanks movie.) mostly to spite Dina. He's also the one that suggests they all just bail and go home. When everyone moves to leave though, he's the one who gives the pep talk that Jonah with his generic "all in this together" sentiments couldn't give. The thing about Garrett is that he hates his job but it's his job so he does it, even if it's only the bare minimum (which it usually is). He's not going to stop doing his job even if it is Black Friday and even if no one else is with him. So as Busy Earnin' plays in the background, Garrett goes on the floor alone, gets behind the register he said he wouldn't work and gets to work, inspiring everyone to finish out the day. It's a strong character moment for Garrett, adding new depth to a character that has been happy to stay the same up to this point in the show. It's also the most moving scene that the show has done since the season 1 finale and watching the characters push back against the chaos that their lives have become on this day feels cathartic. The triumph of the moment and the relief when the store finally closes can only last so long though. Amy's confession of not being happy to Adam is a stark reminder of that.
That confession alone is enough to make the wait for January hard but then the show throws another twist. Dina and Garrett hooking up is a twist that isn't super surprising but feels like a natural development that the show's been building to since as early as the Olympic Special. Garrett's attraction to Dina during Halloween was played as mostly related to her costume, but you just knew the idea of something happening between them was too good for the writers to pass off. Given that the relationship between the two is prickly at best, I'm curious to see how this will play out come the New Year. It's a terrific capper for a terrific mid-season finale and combined with Amy's compelling marital drama, it leaves you wanting more. We'll have to be patient though. After all the Black Friday havoc, I think they need time to restock.
Memorable Moments
-Best Interstitial(s): For Seasonal Help, a short woman struggles to reach an item. A tall man seemingly grabs it for her, but then takes it for himself. For Black Friday, a brawl between two grown men in a aisle that seems aimed at young girls.
-Glenn spends Seasonal Help auditioning for someone to play Santa Claus. When it turns out the job doesn't pay money though, he's left with warehouse worker Cody who promises to be the "best BLEEP-ing Santa".
-After a simple but grueling Megan's Law search, Glenn narrows the candidate field from over 12 to 6. Then he gets a text and it becomes 5. It's a super dark joke, but a very funny one.
-Jonah's elaborate betting system gets simplified to "pick one". "It's a pari-mutual betting pool with live odds, no rake, and I'm open to exotic bets, okay? You know, exactas, trifectas, quadrellas, or 'quaddies.'"
-Amy and Adam rehash an old fight. "No, Adam, your business failed because nobody uses travel agencies anymore due to a little thing called the Internet". "Oh, here we go with the Internet again, huh? Yeah, because it exists."
-No one gets prescriptions filled on Black Friday so Tate spends the day working on his screenplay. "It's about a pharmacist, obviously, who invents a pill that allows you to use all of your brain". "Oh, like 'Limitless.'" "Not like "Limitless"! All right. Why do people keep saying it's like "Limitless"? It's inspired by 'Limitless.'"
-Brett continues to be one of the best minor characters without saying a word. Here he simply throws Jonah's video camera that he's documenting Black Friday with in the garbage.
-Cheyenne and Mateo have a lot of fun little moments together in these episodes with the best being when Mateo learns Cheyenne is "war profiteering" the store's Pepto Bismo supply.
-Garrett's speech in full: "Yo, I don't like working here. But it's my job. I do the bare minimum, but I don't do less than that. And I'm not about to let a bunch of deal-hungry rubes trash our store and make me feel bad for Dina, which I did not think was possible. So I'ma get out there, and I'ma finish my shift. And yeah, I'ma cut corners, and I'ma phone it in, but it'll never be said that Garrett McNeill did not do just enough to not get fired."
-Cheyenne brings Black Friday home. "Attention, shoppers, the store is now closed. Not, like, "Bring your items to the front" closed. I mean, like, "Get the hell out." Thank you. Oh, also, if anyone happens to find a little green hair thing, it's mine".
Saturday, 12 November 2016
Friday, 11 November 2016
I Got Thoughts On Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: When Will Josh and His Friend Leave Me Alone?
I Got Thoughts is a point-form collection of my thoughts on episodes of television, when a normal recap just won't do.
-Just when you think Rebecca can't sink any lower than she has, she sets her house on fire and a 911 call of her freaking out about Greg and Josh while pooping in her backyard gets put online, quickly going viral. Ouch.
-So apparently Santino Fontana is leaving Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, though they're not ruling out a possible return guest appearance some day. That's a bit disappointing as he was always terrific on the show, bringing all kinds of depth to what could have been a one-note character. It's also the right decision. The end of Greg's arc was always him finally getting out of West Covina and pursuing his own happiness. It was also clear that prolonged exposure to Rebecca would be detrimental to his recovery. Keeping him around, especially after last week's episode would've felt disingenuous. So it's sad to see him go, but it feels right. Greg was never meant to be a big part of Rebecca's story, even if she wound up being a big part of his.
-If this is the last we ever see of Greg, at least he got to go out on a (figurative) high note with the Frank Sinatra-esque "It Was A Shitshow" (or BLEEPshow if you're trying to be network friendly.). It's a brutal but perfect summation of Rebecca and Greg's relationship. As much as Greg loves Rebecca and he does love her, this thing between them was never healthy for either of them and pursuing it was never going to end well. He doesn't regret it and he would never change that it happened but that doesn't mean he should stay in West Covina. It's a beautiful, tragic number and one of the best the show's ever done.
-The other striking thing about "Shitshow" is that it's one of the few musical numbers on this show that isn't presented as heightened or in a fantasy. There's no dancing or elaborate change of scenery, just Greg and Rebecca in the airport as they share one last moment before Greg ascends to the next part of his life. It's incredibly effective.
-Real Greg makes his exit early but a "memory spirit" ( Definitely not to be confused with a dream ghost.) of him pops up a couple times to remind Becca of Greg and what she's lost before she's finally able to say goodbye to Greg at the episode's end and move on. A memory spirit of Josh also appears so the two can do a merry, hilarious tap number called "We Tapped That Ass" about all the times they had sex with Rebecca all over her house. It's a strong number about how hard it can be to get over a break-up when you have constant reminders of what you had in your face all the time. It also provides a good impetus for Rebecca accidentally setting her house on fire when she decides to burn all the reminders of Greg and Josh that she has.
-Sometimes being brought to your lowest low is what it takes to make you snap out of denial, take a good hard look at yourself, who you are, and to figure out the first step to being OK again. Other times, it sends you spinning even deeper into denial and causes you to do something drastic to try and project the idea that you're doing OK. Guess which one of those things Rebecca does?
-Yael Grobglas popped over from Jane The Virgin tonight as Trina, the CEO of Miss Douche, a feminine hygiene product company that's trying to take back the word "douche" as an empowering thing and reinvent themselves. Trina also clearly has some issues that need working out which Grobglas plays subtly and beautifully. It's a good parallel for what Rebecca's going through and the contest serves as a catalyst for her big makeover.
-The thing is there's a huge difference between reinventing your image as a company and reinventing your image as a person. Rebecca's post make-over blonde hair and extensions is horrifying and hilarious, but it also takes one run-in with Josh to expose it how desperate and fake the whole thing really is. Even Rebecca's making it to the finals of the contest is only because she spent $5000 on bots to buy the likes she needed. You can put a fresh coat of paint on a house with a rotten foundation, but it doesn't fix the fact that the foundation is rotten. Rebecca spends the whole episode trying to convince people that she's OK, but the one person she can't convince is herself and when she's finally confronted with the question of "Who Are You?" at the contest after an episode of running away from it, she has the breakthrough she needs to get past her denial.
-Trying to figure out who you are outside of other people is tough and scary but it looks like Rebecca will have some great help with that. After being in the far corners of Rebecca's world for much of the show's run, it looks like Heather is being brought right into it's centre. That's great news because Vella Lowell has always been great on the show and her detached cynicism and common sense is a much needed counterbalance to Rebecca's desperate optimism. The show also makes fun of how little we actually know about Heather after all this time by revealing that she still lives with her parents and that her last name is Davis, but Rebecca has apparently never noticed, despite having met her parents plenty of times before.
-Mr. and Mrs. Heather (As Rebecca calls them) are a delight and it's fun watching them be hyper-supportive of Rebecca as she spirals. The episode is also smart to point out why this hyper-supportiveness isn't actually good for Rebecca or Heather (Who just might be the support system Rebecca actually needs). Mr. and Mrs. Heather provide unconditional support but they don't push back or encourage follow-through or improvement. They enable Rebecca on her quest to become Miss Douche, but when she wants to give up, they accept it. They've let Heather quit everything she's ever tried which is why she still lives at home. They're good, loving people, but Heather and Rebecca need more than that in their lives if they're ever going to succeed.
-That being said, I do want to see more of Heather's parents. Hopefully they'll be popping over to Rebecca and Heather's new place often.
-Rebecca never found out about Paula's pregnancy, but she wound up playing a big part in Paula's ultimate decision by forcing Paula to essentially handled a whole case by herself, revealing that it will be impossible for her to both have a baby and do law school by showing how much her and Scott struggle with what they already have, but also by showing how good at legal work Paula is.
-Smart decision: We don't actually see Paula change her mind about going through with the pregnancy. We simply see her recovering from the procedure, before her blunt son explicitly states what's happening (Also the first time someone actually says the word "abortion"), which feels like a network note from someone worried viewers wouldn't piece it together but was funny enough to work.
-I thought the show was signalling trouble for Paula's marriage when she turned out to be pregnant, but Scott turned out to be loving and supportive of her dreams and the first one to bring up that Paula had "options". It was a very welcome turn of events. Far too many shows would make this about how Paula getting an abortion would affect Scott, but this isn't about Scott and he knows it. He just wants Paula to be happy.
-What does look to be in trouble though is Rebecca and Paula's friendship. That Paula couldn't bring herself to tell Rebecca about what she was going through, even after Rebecca was ready to open and pushing her to open up exposes how one-sided this friendship is in places. Becca can trust Paula with everything in her life, but Paula can't do the same because she doesn't trust Becca to be able to handle it. The show has collapsed Rebecca's relationships with Josh and Greg. How long until it collapses her relationship with Paula as well?
-Mrs. Heather trying her own version of a makeover song before "Makey Make-Over" was adorable though. And as for the actual song, I'm going to have "It's a Make-Over. Makey make-over" in my head for days so thanks show.
-This show is on such a roll right now and moving so much faster than I thought it would.
-Next week: Valencia is back after being kept offstage for the first few episodes. And she's eating doughnuts. That should be fun.
-Just when you think Rebecca can't sink any lower than she has, she sets her house on fire and a 911 call of her freaking out about Greg and Josh while pooping in her backyard gets put online, quickly going viral. Ouch.
-So apparently Santino Fontana is leaving Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, though they're not ruling out a possible return guest appearance some day. That's a bit disappointing as he was always terrific on the show, bringing all kinds of depth to what could have been a one-note character. It's also the right decision. The end of Greg's arc was always him finally getting out of West Covina and pursuing his own happiness. It was also clear that prolonged exposure to Rebecca would be detrimental to his recovery. Keeping him around, especially after last week's episode would've felt disingenuous. So it's sad to see him go, but it feels right. Greg was never meant to be a big part of Rebecca's story, even if she wound up being a big part of his.
-If this is the last we ever see of Greg, at least he got to go out on a (figurative) high note with the Frank Sinatra-esque "It Was A Shitshow" (or BLEEPshow if you're trying to be network friendly.). It's a brutal but perfect summation of Rebecca and Greg's relationship. As much as Greg loves Rebecca and he does love her, this thing between them was never healthy for either of them and pursuing it was never going to end well. He doesn't regret it and he would never change that it happened but that doesn't mean he should stay in West Covina. It's a beautiful, tragic number and one of the best the show's ever done.
-The other striking thing about "Shitshow" is that it's one of the few musical numbers on this show that isn't presented as heightened or in a fantasy. There's no dancing or elaborate change of scenery, just Greg and Rebecca in the airport as they share one last moment before Greg ascends to the next part of his life. It's incredibly effective.
-Real Greg makes his exit early but a "memory spirit" ( Definitely not to be confused with a dream ghost.) of him pops up a couple times to remind Becca of Greg and what she's lost before she's finally able to say goodbye to Greg at the episode's end and move on. A memory spirit of Josh also appears so the two can do a merry, hilarious tap number called "We Tapped That Ass" about all the times they had sex with Rebecca all over her house. It's a strong number about how hard it can be to get over a break-up when you have constant reminders of what you had in your face all the time. It also provides a good impetus for Rebecca accidentally setting her house on fire when she decides to burn all the reminders of Greg and Josh that she has.
-Sometimes being brought to your lowest low is what it takes to make you snap out of denial, take a good hard look at yourself, who you are, and to figure out the first step to being OK again. Other times, it sends you spinning even deeper into denial and causes you to do something drastic to try and project the idea that you're doing OK. Guess which one of those things Rebecca does?
-Yael Grobglas popped over from Jane The Virgin tonight as Trina, the CEO of Miss Douche, a feminine hygiene product company that's trying to take back the word "douche" as an empowering thing and reinvent themselves. Trina also clearly has some issues that need working out which Grobglas plays subtly and beautifully. It's a good parallel for what Rebecca's going through and the contest serves as a catalyst for her big makeover.
-The thing is there's a huge difference between reinventing your image as a company and reinventing your image as a person. Rebecca's post make-over blonde hair and extensions is horrifying and hilarious, but it also takes one run-in with Josh to expose it how desperate and fake the whole thing really is. Even Rebecca's making it to the finals of the contest is only because she spent $5000 on bots to buy the likes she needed. You can put a fresh coat of paint on a house with a rotten foundation, but it doesn't fix the fact that the foundation is rotten. Rebecca spends the whole episode trying to convince people that she's OK, but the one person she can't convince is herself and when she's finally confronted with the question of "Who Are You?" at the contest after an episode of running away from it, she has the breakthrough she needs to get past her denial.
-Trying to figure out who you are outside of other people is tough and scary but it looks like Rebecca will have some great help with that. After being in the far corners of Rebecca's world for much of the show's run, it looks like Heather is being brought right into it's centre. That's great news because Vella Lowell has always been great on the show and her detached cynicism and common sense is a much needed counterbalance to Rebecca's desperate optimism. The show also makes fun of how little we actually know about Heather after all this time by revealing that she still lives with her parents and that her last name is Davis, but Rebecca has apparently never noticed, despite having met her parents plenty of times before.
-Mr. and Mrs. Heather (As Rebecca calls them) are a delight and it's fun watching them be hyper-supportive of Rebecca as she spirals. The episode is also smart to point out why this hyper-supportiveness isn't actually good for Rebecca or Heather (Who just might be the support system Rebecca actually needs). Mr. and Mrs. Heather provide unconditional support but they don't push back or encourage follow-through or improvement. They enable Rebecca on her quest to become Miss Douche, but when she wants to give up, they accept it. They've let Heather quit everything she's ever tried which is why she still lives at home. They're good, loving people, but Heather and Rebecca need more than that in their lives if they're ever going to succeed.
-That being said, I do want to see more of Heather's parents. Hopefully they'll be popping over to Rebecca and Heather's new place often.
-Rebecca never found out about Paula's pregnancy, but she wound up playing a big part in Paula's ultimate decision by forcing Paula to essentially handled a whole case by herself, revealing that it will be impossible for her to both have a baby and do law school by showing how much her and Scott struggle with what they already have, but also by showing how good at legal work Paula is.
-Smart decision: We don't actually see Paula change her mind about going through with the pregnancy. We simply see her recovering from the procedure, before her blunt son explicitly states what's happening (Also the first time someone actually says the word "abortion"), which feels like a network note from someone worried viewers wouldn't piece it together but was funny enough to work.
-I thought the show was signalling trouble for Paula's marriage when she turned out to be pregnant, but Scott turned out to be loving and supportive of her dreams and the first one to bring up that Paula had "options". It was a very welcome turn of events. Far too many shows would make this about how Paula getting an abortion would affect Scott, but this isn't about Scott and he knows it. He just wants Paula to be happy.
-What does look to be in trouble though is Rebecca and Paula's friendship. That Paula couldn't bring herself to tell Rebecca about what she was going through, even after Rebecca was ready to open and pushing her to open up exposes how one-sided this friendship is in places. Becca can trust Paula with everything in her life, but Paula can't do the same because she doesn't trust Becca to be able to handle it. The show has collapsed Rebecca's relationships with Josh and Greg. How long until it collapses her relationship with Paula as well?
-Mrs. Heather trying her own version of a makeover song before "Makey Make-Over" was adorable though. And as for the actual song, I'm going to have "It's a Make-Over. Makey make-over" in my head for days so thanks show.
-This show is on such a roll right now and moving so much faster than I thought it would.
-Next week: Valencia is back after being kept offstage for the first few episodes. And she's eating doughnuts. That should be fun.
Monday, 7 November 2016
I Got Thoughts On Jane The Virgin: Chapter 48
I Got Thoughts is a point-form collection of my thoughts on an episode of television for when a normal recap just isn't enough to express everything I want to express.
-Well it's official. Good-bye Jane The Virgin, hello JaneThe Virgin. I'll keep using Jane The Virgin in the title of these posts though for convenience sake and "Jane" in the posts for when I'm talking about the show and not the character.
-Chapter 48 was a bit of a comedown episode for "Jane" after the big emotional highs of last week, serving more as set-up for future episodes than anything else. That's to be expected though. Jane can't lose her virginity every week. And "Jane" is still very good at making set-up episodes entertaining in their own right.
-Now that Jane's finally had sex, she really likes having it whenever she can. That sounds like her.
-With all that went down at the end of last season and the beginning of this one, I totally forgot Petra secretly leasing Jane's house and paying half the rent was a plot point until it suddenly resurfaced tonight.
-Watching Jane and Michael get into a fight over budgeting was hard, but it felt true to life and exactly like the kind of fight those two would have. Television marriages can be tricky because plenty of shows don't seem to know how to have a strong, happy marriage still be dramatic and interesting. "Jane" seems to get that Jane and Michael can be married and happy but still have fights sometimes and deal with challenges though and that's cool.
-If this whole storyline turns out to be a ploy to get Jane and Michael back in the Villaneuva household for a bit longer while they look for a smaller house, I'll be slightly annoyed but only slightly. I already miss Jane not being in that house.
-Alba imagining a young Jane as a guide to help her navigate her dealings with Xo this episode was a nice device. The opening flashbacks of all the times Jane almost left the Villaneuva show also highlighted the not always easy relationship between the two and it's good to see the two trying not to go back to that now that Jane is gone.
-A thing I like about Xo trying to find a career for herself outside of singer is that it gives Xo a substantial storyline that revolves around her for once and not her relationship with Rogelio or Jane or Alba (Though of course they're involved because why wouldn't they be).
-I figured Alba would find out about Xo quitting her bank job before the episode was over but didn't think it would happen as quickly as it did. That was welcome.
-Rogelio's storyline with Rafael seemed like goofy filler at first until it turned into Rogelio "babysitting" Luisa and took a turn for the poignant as Rogelio used acting techniques to get to the bottom of Luisa's desire to drink. Luisa is often treated as a walking trainwreck and a joke by this show so it's heartening to see her plight be taken seriously. Hopefully her decision to go to rehab signals a positive turn for the character.
-That being said, already calling that Rose is going to be working at the rehab facility. Also I'm still not convinced that Luisa really ended things with her.
-Also I very much want to see more of Rogelio's old telenovella Addicted to Love, which was mainly used to telegraph the Jane/Anezka catfight. And him using his telenovella experience to try to relate to Luisa's real experiences is such a Rogelio move.
-Also I'm on board with Rafael and Rogelio finally bonding and becoming friends now that Rafael's no longer in love with Jane. And if this leads to a new bromantic triangle between Rogelio, Michael, and Rafael, all the better!
-The Anezka as Petra storyline is starting to run out of steam, and Jane's constant declarations of being done with Petra are starting to get tired. To the show's credit though, it seems to recognize this and is pushing it along to it's conclusion which is welcome.
-The dinner scene with Anezka and Scott at Jane and Michael's was as delightfully uncomfortable as the show wanted it to be. Also the pay-off of Anezka immediately knowing what Jane met by "Milos situation" after having to fake knowing what Jane was talking about for much of the episode was good. The way Anezka's earlier slip-ups come back again in the end when Jane starts piecing things together was even better.
-Scott is much more interesting as a #dicktator than the early days when he was just another hotel employee for Jane to bounce off of.
-The possible hotel walkout storyline only seemed to exist to create a slight conflict between Jane (Who refused Scott's bribe) and Lina (Who took it) that was immediately squashed, but I did like how it came around to inform the Jane/Michael budgeting story as Jane realizes she does want her and Michael to make it on their own without stressing about living beyond their means.
-The double subversion with whether or not the catfight was actually happening or not was clever.
-Hey Dot-Marie Jones! I haven't seen her since she was elevating Glee through sheer force of will. She doesn't get a lot to do as the enforcer Magda sends to keep an eye on Anezka beyond be imposing, but she does it well. Hopefully there's more in store for her.
-Also Jane Seymour was back! Her character hasn't been around since late season 1 (As demonstrated when she identified Rafael as Jane's boyfriend, which he hasn't been since around the last time she was on the show). She wound up being there to mostly be a plot device on the way to Rogelio and Rafael bonding, but watching her throw herself at Rafael was amusing.
-So we finally find out what Alba does for a living just so she can quit for a different job two episodes later? Typical. I wish we had gotten to see a bit more of her working situation beyond "mean boss" so we had more of a sense of what it means for her to suddenly quit her job after all this time. Sure when she tells Xo she didn't want her to be miserable at a job she hates, we can infer she was projecting but it feels a bit empty. That being said, her working at the hotel gift shop gives her the chance to be involved more with the Marbella stuff, which could be promising. I'm hopeful about her new love interest at the gift shop as well.
-Mutter's last message hidden in the bible she was holding when she was found was "Angels guard the son" (Or is it sun?). The crime stuff is still the weakest part of the show, but that's cryptic enough to be possibly promising.
-So Rafael's big secret that Scott gives to Anezka is that he covered up illegal doings by his father after his death. Not the most exciting revelation, but a fairly logical one that tracks with what we know about Rafael so it works.
-Jane's onto Anezka now so hopefully that means we get Petra back next week. To borrow a phrase from the Narrator, "it's about damn time".
-Well it's official. Good-bye Jane The Virgin, hello Jane
-Chapter 48 was a bit of a comedown episode for "Jane" after the big emotional highs of last week, serving more as set-up for future episodes than anything else. That's to be expected though. Jane can't lose her virginity every week. And "Jane" is still very good at making set-up episodes entertaining in their own right.
-Now that Jane's finally had sex, she really likes having it whenever she can. That sounds like her.
-With all that went down at the end of last season and the beginning of this one, I totally forgot Petra secretly leasing Jane's house and paying half the rent was a plot point until it suddenly resurfaced tonight.
-Watching Jane and Michael get into a fight over budgeting was hard, but it felt true to life and exactly like the kind of fight those two would have. Television marriages can be tricky because plenty of shows don't seem to know how to have a strong, happy marriage still be dramatic and interesting. "Jane" seems to get that Jane and Michael can be married and happy but still have fights sometimes and deal with challenges though and that's cool.
-If this whole storyline turns out to be a ploy to get Jane and Michael back in the Villaneuva household for a bit longer while they look for a smaller house, I'll be slightly annoyed but only slightly. I already miss Jane not being in that house.
-Alba imagining a young Jane as a guide to help her navigate her dealings with Xo this episode was a nice device. The opening flashbacks of all the times Jane almost left the Villaneuva show also highlighted the not always easy relationship between the two and it's good to see the two trying not to go back to that now that Jane is gone.
-A thing I like about Xo trying to find a career for herself outside of singer is that it gives Xo a substantial storyline that revolves around her for once and not her relationship with Rogelio or Jane or Alba (Though of course they're involved because why wouldn't they be).
-I figured Alba would find out about Xo quitting her bank job before the episode was over but didn't think it would happen as quickly as it did. That was welcome.
-Rogelio's storyline with Rafael seemed like goofy filler at first until it turned into Rogelio "babysitting" Luisa and took a turn for the poignant as Rogelio used acting techniques to get to the bottom of Luisa's desire to drink. Luisa is often treated as a walking trainwreck and a joke by this show so it's heartening to see her plight be taken seriously. Hopefully her decision to go to rehab signals a positive turn for the character.
-That being said, already calling that Rose is going to be working at the rehab facility. Also I'm still not convinced that Luisa really ended things with her.
-Also I very much want to see more of Rogelio's old telenovella Addicted to Love, which was mainly used to telegraph the Jane/Anezka catfight. And him using his telenovella experience to try to relate to Luisa's real experiences is such a Rogelio move.
-Also I'm on board with Rafael and Rogelio finally bonding and becoming friends now that Rafael's no longer in love with Jane. And if this leads to a new bromantic triangle between Rogelio, Michael, and Rafael, all the better!
-The Anezka as Petra storyline is starting to run out of steam, and Jane's constant declarations of being done with Petra are starting to get tired. To the show's credit though, it seems to recognize this and is pushing it along to it's conclusion which is welcome.
-The dinner scene with Anezka and Scott at Jane and Michael's was as delightfully uncomfortable as the show wanted it to be. Also the pay-off of Anezka immediately knowing what Jane met by "Milos situation" after having to fake knowing what Jane was talking about for much of the episode was good. The way Anezka's earlier slip-ups come back again in the end when Jane starts piecing things together was even better.
-Scott is much more interesting as a #dicktator than the early days when he was just another hotel employee for Jane to bounce off of.
-The possible hotel walkout storyline only seemed to exist to create a slight conflict between Jane (Who refused Scott's bribe) and Lina (Who took it) that was immediately squashed, but I did like how it came around to inform the Jane/Michael budgeting story as Jane realizes she does want her and Michael to make it on their own without stressing about living beyond their means.
-The double subversion with whether or not the catfight was actually happening or not was clever.
-Hey Dot-Marie Jones! I haven't seen her since she was elevating Glee through sheer force of will. She doesn't get a lot to do as the enforcer Magda sends to keep an eye on Anezka beyond be imposing, but she does it well. Hopefully there's more in store for her.
-Also Jane Seymour was back! Her character hasn't been around since late season 1 (As demonstrated when she identified Rafael as Jane's boyfriend, which he hasn't been since around the last time she was on the show). She wound up being there to mostly be a plot device on the way to Rogelio and Rafael bonding, but watching her throw herself at Rafael was amusing.
-So we finally find out what Alba does for a living just so she can quit for a different job two episodes later? Typical. I wish we had gotten to see a bit more of her working situation beyond "mean boss" so we had more of a sense of what it means for her to suddenly quit her job after all this time. Sure when she tells Xo she didn't want her to be miserable at a job she hates, we can infer she was projecting but it feels a bit empty. That being said, her working at the hotel gift shop gives her the chance to be involved more with the Marbella stuff, which could be promising. I'm hopeful about her new love interest at the gift shop as well.
-Mutter's last message hidden in the bible she was holding when she was found was "Angels guard the son" (Or is it sun?). The crime stuff is still the weakest part of the show, but that's cryptic enough to be possibly promising.
-So Rafael's big secret that Scott gives to Anezka is that he covered up illegal doings by his father after his death. Not the most exciting revelation, but a fairly logical one that tracks with what we know about Rafael so it works.
-Jane's onto Anezka now so hopefully that means we get Petra back next week. To borrow a phrase from the Narrator, "it's about damn time".
Friday, 4 November 2016
I Got Thoughts On Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: All Signs Point To Josh... Or Is It Josh's Friend?
I Got Thoughts is a point-form collection of my thoughts on episodes of television. When a normal recap just won't properly allow me to express what I want to say or when I just don't want to organize my thoughts in a cohesive format, that's when I Got Thoughts comes in.
-Wow, it did not take long into the season for everything to blow up now, did it?
-Towards the end of All Signs Point To Josh... Or Is It Josh's Friend?, Rebecca lays down a summary of what the romantic comedy version of her and Greg's story would be to Dr. Akopian (A wonderful Michael Hyatt). "So I move to West Covina in love with someone else, and he's the sarcastic messed-up bartender who calls me out on my stuff, and I ignore him but we have undeniable chemistry, and now Josh and I break up, and it's about me and Greg". In the lesser romantic comedy version of this show, this would be more or less accurate. In fact, it's what it seemed like the show was going to inevitably set up in the early going, but Crazy Ex-Girlfriend has turned out to be more ambitious with more to say than that version of the show.
-The ideal end point for Rebecca's journey isn't that she winds up with Josh or Greg, it's that she winds up alone and OK with herself. The right guy can come after that. The problem with Rebecca is she refuses to accepts this and would rather interpret coincidence as signs from the universe. She keeps trying to work events that happen in her life as part of some grand narrative, but narrative isn't real and trying to turn life and random events into narrative the way Rebecca does is only going to lead to havoc for her and for the people in her life.
-"All Signs" not only deconstructs the idea of love triangles and looking for signs from the universe, it completely blows up the triangle Rebecca believes herself to be in because she was looking for signs. She may have been able to explain away her "I moved her for you" confession to Josh, but telling him she's pregnant, immediately getting her period right after, and then trying to sweep it all under the rug with a rousing song about period sex? It's going to be hard to come back from that one. And Greg sees the only sign that matters, the danger sign next to the incredibly romantic bridge Rebecca is waiting for him on and decides to do the healthy thing and get out of West Covina.
-Is Greg actually moving to Atlanta? Don't get me wrong. He really should get the hell out of West Covina, but as much as it loves to deconstructs tropes and challenge narrative conventions, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is still a TV show and Santino Fontana is a regular. He could still leave but it seems early in the season for the show to be done with Greg as a character. Still though, I doubt whatever Rebecca is going to tell him at the airport is going to change his mind. Hmm.
-Also the "run to the airport" is another classic romcom convention that the show plays with tonight. It's a beautiful gesture in the movies (and in the last episode of Friends). In real life? Very over dramatic and creepy. We'll see how this plays out next week.
-We only got 20 seconds of "Period Sex", but that's about all we'll ever need. The brevity is what keeps it funny. Josh suddenly stopping her also sets up that the people in her life aren't going to just go with the narrative she's trying to create anymore.
-The Math of Love Triangles was the only real song in the episode tonight, but it was a great one. A pitch-perfect parody of Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend that shows Rebecca getting carried away with the idea that she's at the centre of some great love triangle (The song also reminds us that a proper triangle has multiple centres). The chorus of men actually being there to teach Rebecca's baby-voiced Marilyn Monroe impression about literal triangles was terrific. As was this exchange: "Is this a triangle?" "No, that's a shoe". "Is this a triangle?" "No, that's you." "So I'm a triangle?" "What?! No." "One two three six eight three, go!"
-There are a lot of scenes in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend that are hard to watch but Rebecca convincing herself that she's pregnant and then telling Josh she's pregnant was the hardest one yet. I couldn't stop wincing. Vincent Rodriguez III was great in that scene though, playing Josh's fugue state, followed by him breaking up with Rebecca perfectly.
-Also great was the farewell between Josh and Greg at the airport when Josh admitted that he hasn't been a great friend to Greg the last few months. It'll be interesting to see if this marks the start of a more self-aware Josh Chan.
-Chris' goodbye scene to Greg was sweet and set up the joke of Hector also having his mom waiting for him in the red zone well.
-While looking for signs on who she should be with, Rebecca stumbles upon an ad for Signs 4 and wonders how she missed the last two Signs. It's a dumb, silly joke and I loved it so much.
-Rebecca and Greg totally ship White Josh and Daryl. As we all should.
-More Guardrail tonight. Yay! If Greg actually goes to Atlanta and we follow him there, I hope we get to meet Barry (Who is an actuary, not a biker. Way to stereotype, Greg).
-A lot of the score in the show is instrumental reworkings of the various songs that have been in the show. It's a neat trick for underlining or establishing the inner thoughts of the characters during scenes and it was especially effective at a couple key moments tonight. First was when "You Stupid Bitch" started playing after Josh breaks up with Rebecca, underscoring how much she hates herself in this moment. Second was when "Settle For Me" started playing as Greg considers meeting Rebecca at the bridge, underscoring the mistake he'd be making by settling now instead of going to Atlanta.
-The show acknowledging the fact that Rebecca and Paula will often leave work for no reason and Rebecca should probably be fired at this point was appreciated.
-Oh Daryl. One day Paula will realize that you're the best friend she deserves, even if your grand gesture this episode only exacerbated her crisis this episode.
-Rebecca's fake pregnancy scare leading to Paula actually being pregnant was very well done and devastating. The scene where Daryl surprises her with the early admission to law school he's arranged for her is bittersweet and devastating, and Donna Lynne Champlin does some of her finest work on the show yet as Paula realizes the impossible position she may be in and that she can't put off not knowing any longer.
-Now I realize that those previous scenes of how well Paula's marriage is doing was quietly setting up what could be an incredibly rocky period if not it's ultimate destruction if this leads to Paula choosing to get an abortion.
-If Paula gets an abortion, she'll be the 3rd character on a show I watch to get one in a month. Abortion's a real hot topic right now apparently. That's good though. It's a part of life and it deserves to be explored honestly.
-It's telling that the show chose to end on the Paula pregnancy cliffhanger and the serious drama in her life instead of the false drama of Rebecca confronting Greg at the airport.
-Frick, this was a good episode of television. Next week is going to apparently take on the classic romcom trope of "the makeover" so that should be fun.
-Rachel Bloom also did this today. You should watch it. It's funny AND important.
-Wow, it did not take long into the season for everything to blow up now, did it?
-Towards the end of All Signs Point To Josh... Or Is It Josh's Friend?, Rebecca lays down a summary of what the romantic comedy version of her and Greg's story would be to Dr. Akopian (A wonderful Michael Hyatt). "So I move to West Covina in love with someone else, and he's the sarcastic messed-up bartender who calls me out on my stuff, and I ignore him but we have undeniable chemistry, and now Josh and I break up, and it's about me and Greg". In the lesser romantic comedy version of this show, this would be more or less accurate. In fact, it's what it seemed like the show was going to inevitably set up in the early going, but Crazy Ex-Girlfriend has turned out to be more ambitious with more to say than that version of the show.
-The ideal end point for Rebecca's journey isn't that she winds up with Josh or Greg, it's that she winds up alone and OK with herself. The right guy can come after that. The problem with Rebecca is she refuses to accepts this and would rather interpret coincidence as signs from the universe. She keeps trying to work events that happen in her life as part of some grand narrative, but narrative isn't real and trying to turn life and random events into narrative the way Rebecca does is only going to lead to havoc for her and for the people in her life.
-"All Signs" not only deconstructs the idea of love triangles and looking for signs from the universe, it completely blows up the triangle Rebecca believes herself to be in because she was looking for signs. She may have been able to explain away her "I moved her for you" confession to Josh, but telling him she's pregnant, immediately getting her period right after, and then trying to sweep it all under the rug with a rousing song about period sex? It's going to be hard to come back from that one. And Greg sees the only sign that matters, the danger sign next to the incredibly romantic bridge Rebecca is waiting for him on and decides to do the healthy thing and get out of West Covina.
-Is Greg actually moving to Atlanta? Don't get me wrong. He really should get the hell out of West Covina, but as much as it loves to deconstructs tropes and challenge narrative conventions, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is still a TV show and Santino Fontana is a regular. He could still leave but it seems early in the season for the show to be done with Greg as a character. Still though, I doubt whatever Rebecca is going to tell him at the airport is going to change his mind. Hmm.
-Also the "run to the airport" is another classic romcom convention that the show plays with tonight. It's a beautiful gesture in the movies (and in the last episode of Friends). In real life? Very over dramatic and creepy. We'll see how this plays out next week.
-We only got 20 seconds of "Period Sex", but that's about all we'll ever need. The brevity is what keeps it funny. Josh suddenly stopping her also sets up that the people in her life aren't going to just go with the narrative she's trying to create anymore.
-The Math of Love Triangles was the only real song in the episode tonight, but it was a great one. A pitch-perfect parody of Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend that shows Rebecca getting carried away with the idea that she's at the centre of some great love triangle (The song also reminds us that a proper triangle has multiple centres). The chorus of men actually being there to teach Rebecca's baby-voiced Marilyn Monroe impression about literal triangles was terrific. As was this exchange: "Is this a triangle?" "No, that's a shoe". "Is this a triangle?" "No, that's you." "So I'm a triangle?" "What?! No." "One two three six eight three, go!"
-There are a lot of scenes in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend that are hard to watch but Rebecca convincing herself that she's pregnant and then telling Josh she's pregnant was the hardest one yet. I couldn't stop wincing. Vincent Rodriguez III was great in that scene though, playing Josh's fugue state, followed by him breaking up with Rebecca perfectly.
-Also great was the farewell between Josh and Greg at the airport when Josh admitted that he hasn't been a great friend to Greg the last few months. It'll be interesting to see if this marks the start of a more self-aware Josh Chan.
-Chris' goodbye scene to Greg was sweet and set up the joke of Hector also having his mom waiting for him in the red zone well.
-While looking for signs on who she should be with, Rebecca stumbles upon an ad for Signs 4 and wonders how she missed the last two Signs. It's a dumb, silly joke and I loved it so much.
-Rebecca and Greg totally ship White Josh and Daryl. As we all should.
-More Guardrail tonight. Yay! If Greg actually goes to Atlanta and we follow him there, I hope we get to meet Barry (Who is an actuary, not a biker. Way to stereotype, Greg).
-A lot of the score in the show is instrumental reworkings of the various songs that have been in the show. It's a neat trick for underlining or establishing the inner thoughts of the characters during scenes and it was especially effective at a couple key moments tonight. First was when "You Stupid Bitch" started playing after Josh breaks up with Rebecca, underscoring how much she hates herself in this moment. Second was when "Settle For Me" started playing as Greg considers meeting Rebecca at the bridge, underscoring the mistake he'd be making by settling now instead of going to Atlanta.
-The show acknowledging the fact that Rebecca and Paula will often leave work for no reason and Rebecca should probably be fired at this point was appreciated.
-Oh Daryl. One day Paula will realize that you're the best friend she deserves, even if your grand gesture this episode only exacerbated her crisis this episode.
-Rebecca's fake pregnancy scare leading to Paula actually being pregnant was very well done and devastating. The scene where Daryl surprises her with the early admission to law school he's arranged for her is bittersweet and devastating, and Donna Lynne Champlin does some of her finest work on the show yet as Paula realizes the impossible position she may be in and that she can't put off not knowing any longer.
-Now I realize that those previous scenes of how well Paula's marriage is doing was quietly setting up what could be an incredibly rocky period if not it's ultimate destruction if this leads to Paula choosing to get an abortion.
-If Paula gets an abortion, she'll be the 3rd character on a show I watch to get one in a month. Abortion's a real hot topic right now apparently. That's good though. It's a part of life and it deserves to be explored honestly.
-It's telling that the show chose to end on the Paula pregnancy cliffhanger and the serious drama in her life instead of the false drama of Rebecca confronting Greg at the airport.
-Frick, this was a good episode of television. Next week is going to apparently take on the classic romcom trope of "the makeover" so that should be fun.
The Good Place Clashes With The Bad In "...Someone Like Me as a Member"
Nine episodes into The Good Place and I'm running out of ways to talk about how good this show is every week. It feels like every week I talk about how the show has delivered it's best episode yet or continued it's hot streak and I could say both of those things again about "...Someone Like Me As A Member", which gave us a lot more of the bad place, told a satisfying story that felt like the culmination of eight episodes worth of build-up, and was super funny to boot. So instead of just talking about all the things I liked about this episode while recapping it as I typically do, I'm going to list them in no particular order (And then talk about them.). Thrilling, I know. So let's get to it.
1. Adam Scott is Still Great at Being Awful: After being introduced to Adam Scott's smarmy demon bro Trevor briefly in last weeks episode, we get a lot more of him here and he's just as hilariously awful as ever. In a show full of perfect people The Good Place hasn't really had much in the way of antagonistic jerks and Trevor fills that role nicely. From endlessly hitting on Eleanor to clipping his toenails and ordering wine just to send it back without tasting it at dinner, Scott really throws himself into the character, making him funny but also giving him the hint of menace he needs to be an effective villain and despite being all about being bad, he doesn't feel one-dimensional either. When he talks to Eleanor about how she'll probably be happier in the bad place, even though she'll be totally miserable because she won't have to pretend like she belongs, he has a valid point. He's someone who's totally comfortable with who he is and that makes him more nuanced than he might be otherwise.
2. Real Eleanor is Here and She's Delightful: She was briefly shown at the end of last week's episode, but "...Someone Like Me As A Member" gives us our proper introduction to Tiya Sircar as the real Eleanor (A great running gag through the episode has people keep referring to our Eleanor as "Fake Eleanor"). Sircar is great in the role, making Real Eleanor feel authentic and believable. She immediately feels like the saint we've been told she was everytime she's been brought up and has none of the condescending haughtiness that Tahani has. She has no grudge or illwill about the mishap that caused her to spend weeks in Fake Eleanor's personal hell (An endless baby shower for a woman she didn't know that she also had to organize and got an electric shock if she couldn't remember names) and her endless kindness is both amusing and refreshing. She also has immediate chemistry with Chidi. They seem like they could be soulmates (Which makes sense, seeing as they're supposed to be soulmates.).
3. We Finally Get Some Answers: Why did Fake Eleanor wind up in the good place instead of Real Eleanor? Well it turns out that besides having the same name, they both died in the same thousandth of a second in the same place in the same accident (Real Eleanor was attempting to push our Eleanor out of the way of the truck. She feels very bad that she failed) and the good/bad place people don't have access to faces so there was a mix-up. After all that mystery, it's a simple solution but it's funny enough to work and the continuing presence of Jason suggests there still might be more to this mix-up than we know. Additionally we learn more about how the bad place works. It seems that just as each resident of the good place is put in a house that's perfect for them, the bad place residents are put in their own perfect nightmare. Plus there's flying pirahana's, lava monsters, college improv and constant Jazz music (At least that's what Real Eleanor experienced). They even have a bad Janet (Also D'arcy Carden) who doesn't answer questions and just texts while insulting people. This helps us get a good picture of what the bad place is like without us actually having to go there (Though that seems like something that'll happen at some point) and helps to flesh out the greater universe of the show. Nine episodes in, this is very welcome.
4. Eleanor Finds A Group She Wants To Belong To: The title of the episode refers to that famous Rodney Dangerfield line of not wanting to belong to any club that would accept someone like him as a member and the flashbacks show that sentiment is something that Eleanor has been practicing her whole life. She refuses to join in with any groups in high school, would rather buy her own ticket to Spider-Man 2 in a terrible section then buy tickets as a group with her roommate and declines a position at a friendly-seeming company because she doesn't want to be part of a team environment (A big part of the reason she takes her job at the fake job company). For whatever reason, she has always been resistant to letting people in, possibly because deep down she's never felt like she's belonged. In the good place, watching Chidi bond with his actual soulmate and seeing how perfect Real Eleanor is and it starts to get to her, She's better than she used to be but she still doesn't belong. She even gets to the point where she's willing to go to the bad place, and Kristen Bell's resigned "aight'" to Trevor's pitch is some of her best acting yet.
Luckily before she can finalize that decision, Chidi pushes back when she tells him he doesn't have to go to the negotiation, letting her know that he's still going to be there for her even with Real Eleanor around. They're a team. That refusal to give up on her after she pushes him away is what gets Eleanor to change her mind about going to the bad place. She doesn't belong in the good place but for the first time, she's found somewhere she wants to belong. It's a good direction for Eleanor's arc to go and very illustrative of how far she's come. She started out wanting to stay because the alternative was an eternity of torture. Now she wants to stay because she actually cares for these people and she's part of the team. And she's willing to fight for that.
5. Michael Stands Up For Himself (Eventually): Michael spends the episode trying to stand up to a delegation from the bad place and failing. As the bad place crew snorts powdered time and does karaoke to famous hate speech, Michael sits there and goes with it while Tahani tries to get him to stand up for himself. It's a funny story, but where it really gets good is the pay-off. Eleanor's speech inspires Michael to make a stand at the negotiations when Trevor asks for something good. He tells them they get nothing and no matter what they throw at them, he believes Fake Eleanor belongs in the good place and he's not going to give her up. Then he tells them to "Get the fork out of my neighborhood", using the kind of covered expletive that typically only Eleanor uses. It's a strong moment for Michael, crystalizing once and for all where he stands when it comes to his people and it makes the wait for the next episode that much harder.
6. Tahani Wises Up: Also making the wait for the next episode hard is where this one ends. Jason, who up to this point hasn't done much in the episode beyond bond with a still recovering Janet, walks into his "bud hole" to discover Tahani waiting for him. She's finally pieced together his secret and knows he isn't actually a buddhist monk. This complicates things a lot now as The Good Place moves into it's third act in January. We now know why Eleanor wound up in the good place, but why did Jason? Will Michael be willing to protect two people who don't belong? How will Tahani react when she realizes Eleanor and Chidi knew this whole time? Like most of the twists on this show, this one opens up a whole bunch of interesting directions for the story to take. Only time will tell which one they land on.
7. There's An All Powerful Judge Out There. And His Name Is Sean: Ok, lastly this episode had maybe my favourite joke of the series yet that doubles as brilliant world building. During negotiations, Trevor threatens to bring Sean into all of this much to Michael's horror and everyone else's confusion. Who is Sean? As Michael puts it, "He's the wise, eternal Judge who sits on high, has the final say on all disputes between our two realms." Tahani and Chidi are still perplexed. "And his names... Sean?" It's absurdist jokes like these that make me love this show. Of course the all powerful judge in The Good Place universe has a mundane, ordinary name like Sean. Of course he does. The best part is now it seems inevitable Sean will show up to mediate this dispute. Who will play him? If I was a betting man, I'd say Nick Offerman or Jon Hamm. I'm willing to be surprised though. Because the surprises on The Good Place are always the best kind.
Memorable Moments
-Besides Sean, my other favourite joke in this episode was Eleanor's reaction to being asked to see Spider-Man 2. "They made a second "Spider-Man"? What is there left to say?"
-Trevor compares the Eleanors. "She's like a perfect ball of light, and you're like a... wet pile of mulch."
-Fake Eleanor was a child of divorce. Real Eleanor? She was abandoned at a train station in Bangladesh, adopted by a nice couple who died of bird flu when she was 4, had her orphanage burn down, and then made her way to America, learned English watching Seinfeld and put herself through law school. So both have had tough lives.
-There's a sweet moment during Eleanor's speech when she says she wants to be like the people there, Real Eleanor says "You can, Eleanor", and Eleanor simply says "Thanks, Real Eleanor".
-Apparently the bad place has a four-headed flying bear. Now I kind of want to see that before the season ends.
1. Adam Scott is Still Great at Being Awful: After being introduced to Adam Scott's smarmy demon bro Trevor briefly in last weeks episode, we get a lot more of him here and he's just as hilariously awful as ever. In a show full of perfect people The Good Place hasn't really had much in the way of antagonistic jerks and Trevor fills that role nicely. From endlessly hitting on Eleanor to clipping his toenails and ordering wine just to send it back without tasting it at dinner, Scott really throws himself into the character, making him funny but also giving him the hint of menace he needs to be an effective villain and despite being all about being bad, he doesn't feel one-dimensional either. When he talks to Eleanor about how she'll probably be happier in the bad place, even though she'll be totally miserable because she won't have to pretend like she belongs, he has a valid point. He's someone who's totally comfortable with who he is and that makes him more nuanced than he might be otherwise.
2. Real Eleanor is Here and She's Delightful: She was briefly shown at the end of last week's episode, but "...Someone Like Me As A Member" gives us our proper introduction to Tiya Sircar as the real Eleanor (A great running gag through the episode has people keep referring to our Eleanor as "Fake Eleanor"). Sircar is great in the role, making Real Eleanor feel authentic and believable. She immediately feels like the saint we've been told she was everytime she's been brought up and has none of the condescending haughtiness that Tahani has. She has no grudge or illwill about the mishap that caused her to spend weeks in Fake Eleanor's personal hell (An endless baby shower for a woman she didn't know that she also had to organize and got an electric shock if she couldn't remember names) and her endless kindness is both amusing and refreshing. She also has immediate chemistry with Chidi. They seem like they could be soulmates (Which makes sense, seeing as they're supposed to be soulmates.).
3. We Finally Get Some Answers: Why did Fake Eleanor wind up in the good place instead of Real Eleanor? Well it turns out that besides having the same name, they both died in the same thousandth of a second in the same place in the same accident (Real Eleanor was attempting to push our Eleanor out of the way of the truck. She feels very bad that she failed) and the good/bad place people don't have access to faces so there was a mix-up. After all that mystery, it's a simple solution but it's funny enough to work and the continuing presence of Jason suggests there still might be more to this mix-up than we know. Additionally we learn more about how the bad place works. It seems that just as each resident of the good place is put in a house that's perfect for them, the bad place residents are put in their own perfect nightmare. Plus there's flying pirahana's, lava monsters, college improv and constant Jazz music (At least that's what Real Eleanor experienced). They even have a bad Janet (Also D'arcy Carden) who doesn't answer questions and just texts while insulting people. This helps us get a good picture of what the bad place is like without us actually having to go there (Though that seems like something that'll happen at some point) and helps to flesh out the greater universe of the show. Nine episodes in, this is very welcome.
4. Eleanor Finds A Group She Wants To Belong To: The title of the episode refers to that famous Rodney Dangerfield line of not wanting to belong to any club that would accept someone like him as a member and the flashbacks show that sentiment is something that Eleanor has been practicing her whole life. She refuses to join in with any groups in high school, would rather buy her own ticket to Spider-Man 2 in a terrible section then buy tickets as a group with her roommate and declines a position at a friendly-seeming company because she doesn't want to be part of a team environment (A big part of the reason she takes her job at the fake job company). For whatever reason, she has always been resistant to letting people in, possibly because deep down she's never felt like she's belonged. In the good place, watching Chidi bond with his actual soulmate and seeing how perfect Real Eleanor is and it starts to get to her, She's better than she used to be but she still doesn't belong. She even gets to the point where she's willing to go to the bad place, and Kristen Bell's resigned "aight'" to Trevor's pitch is some of her best acting yet.
Luckily before she can finalize that decision, Chidi pushes back when she tells him he doesn't have to go to the negotiation, letting her know that he's still going to be there for her even with Real Eleanor around. They're a team. That refusal to give up on her after she pushes him away is what gets Eleanor to change her mind about going to the bad place. She doesn't belong in the good place but for the first time, she's found somewhere she wants to belong. It's a good direction for Eleanor's arc to go and very illustrative of how far she's come. She started out wanting to stay because the alternative was an eternity of torture. Now she wants to stay because she actually cares for these people and she's part of the team. And she's willing to fight for that.
5. Michael Stands Up For Himself (Eventually): Michael spends the episode trying to stand up to a delegation from the bad place and failing. As the bad place crew snorts powdered time and does karaoke to famous hate speech, Michael sits there and goes with it while Tahani tries to get him to stand up for himself. It's a funny story, but where it really gets good is the pay-off. Eleanor's speech inspires Michael to make a stand at the negotiations when Trevor asks for something good. He tells them they get nothing and no matter what they throw at them, he believes Fake Eleanor belongs in the good place and he's not going to give her up. Then he tells them to "Get the fork out of my neighborhood", using the kind of covered expletive that typically only Eleanor uses. It's a strong moment for Michael, crystalizing once and for all where he stands when it comes to his people and it makes the wait for the next episode that much harder.
6. Tahani Wises Up: Also making the wait for the next episode hard is where this one ends. Jason, who up to this point hasn't done much in the episode beyond bond with a still recovering Janet, walks into his "bud hole" to discover Tahani waiting for him. She's finally pieced together his secret and knows he isn't actually a buddhist monk. This complicates things a lot now as The Good Place moves into it's third act in January. We now know why Eleanor wound up in the good place, but why did Jason? Will Michael be willing to protect two people who don't belong? How will Tahani react when she realizes Eleanor and Chidi knew this whole time? Like most of the twists on this show, this one opens up a whole bunch of interesting directions for the story to take. Only time will tell which one they land on.
7. There's An All Powerful Judge Out There. And His Name Is Sean: Ok, lastly this episode had maybe my favourite joke of the series yet that doubles as brilliant world building. During negotiations, Trevor threatens to bring Sean into all of this much to Michael's horror and everyone else's confusion. Who is Sean? As Michael puts it, "He's the wise, eternal Judge who sits on high, has the final say on all disputes between our two realms." Tahani and Chidi are still perplexed. "And his names... Sean?" It's absurdist jokes like these that make me love this show. Of course the all powerful judge in The Good Place universe has a mundane, ordinary name like Sean. Of course he does. The best part is now it seems inevitable Sean will show up to mediate this dispute. Who will play him? If I was a betting man, I'd say Nick Offerman or Jon Hamm. I'm willing to be surprised though. Because the surprises on The Good Place are always the best kind.
Memorable Moments
-Besides Sean, my other favourite joke in this episode was Eleanor's reaction to being asked to see Spider-Man 2. "They made a second "Spider-Man"? What is there left to say?"
-Trevor compares the Eleanors. "She's like a perfect ball of light, and you're like a... wet pile of mulch."
-Fake Eleanor was a child of divorce. Real Eleanor? She was abandoned at a train station in Bangladesh, adopted by a nice couple who died of bird flu when she was 4, had her orphanage burn down, and then made her way to America, learned English watching Seinfeld and put herself through law school. So both have had tough lives.
-There's a sweet moment during Eleanor's speech when she says she wants to be like the people there, Real Eleanor says "You can, Eleanor", and Eleanor simply says "Thanks, Real Eleanor".
-Apparently the bad place has a four-headed flying bear. Now I kind of want to see that before the season ends.
Superstore Is All About The Drama On Election Day
I'll have to admit I wasn't looking forward to this episode of Superstore. Though I'm Canadian, I've been following the U.S. election very closely for the last year and have gotten pretty exhausted over the whole thing, which has become a toxic, depressing mess. So the prospect of watching Superstore do an election-themed episode wasn't super appealing. Thankfully, Election Day wound up being being worth it as the show avoided trying to engage with the actual election and the Donald Trump of it all. Instead, it used the election as a backdrop to tell a bunch of stories that moved along the various character arcs and storylines of the season in a funny way. Outside of a throwaway joke from Mateo, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump didn't even come up by name once.
What did come up was the in-universe race for State Senator, as Cloud 9 Corporate sent out a voting guide that serves to not-so-subtly promote the incumbent Senator who supports the "right to work" (anti-union), while also not-so-subtly demonizing his opponent (who has never gone on record as being Pro-America). It's a clear case of Corporate trying to promote their own interests and agenda, which naturally doesn't sit well with Amy and Jonah, continuing their quest to push back against Corporate for worker's rights that the start of the season set up. Despite the fact that no one else cares or finds the voting guide a big deal and no one really reads work memos anyways, Amy and Jonah decide to make their own pamphlet and start going around convincing people to vote for the pro-labour candidate. This leads to a montage that's mostly inconsequential but does lead to the return of Jonah's "working class" voice, which is always funny, especially when it works on the warehouse guy Jonah talks to. Just when the story seems to be running out of steam though, it takes an unexpected turn when Naomi, a girl Jonah's been seeing shows up much to the surprise of Amy.
Because I never miss a chance to compare Superstore to The Office, Naomi as a character reminds me of Katie, the girl Jim briefly dates in season 2 (Who was played by Amy Adams of all people, right before she became a big deal.). Katie was someone Jim dated so we as viewers knew that he had a dating life outside of pining for Pam. She also made Pam jealous a bit for reasons Pam couldn't dare say. Naomi seems to be serving the same function on Superstore. Since Amy is married, it doesn't look good for Jonah to be pining for Amy so Naomi serves as a way for us to know that that isn't the case. Maybe my initial impression is wrong and Naomi will become an interesting character in her own right with a purpose beyond "Jonah's throwaway girlfriend" (which is what Katie became for Jim), but for now she's mainly there to turn this story from a "Amy and Jonah fight corporate story" to a "the state of Amy and Jonah's connection" story, as Amy finds herself pushing away from Jonah once Naomi comes in and recruiting a rethumbed and dull as ever Marcus to help her instead, while Jonah clocks out and goes home. In the end, Amy and Jonah's candidate wins the election and Amy is elated at the little victory, but only has Marcus to celebrate it with. Things feel off and Amy knows it, even before Marcus misreads things and tries to kiss her twice ending things on a funny but poignant note. Jonah having a girlfriend has triggered feelings Amy didn't realize were there and now she has to start to reckon with them and what they mean. It's a good development to end the story on and I look forward to seeing how it plays out as we head into the mid-season finale episodes next week.
Meanwhile, the spectre of voter fraud comes up for Dina and Glenn in the funniest possible way. After pushing back against Dina last week, Glenn is continuing to clash with her as he asserts his authority as manager. Seeing Glenn stand up for himself was the best part of last week's episode and it's good to know that that wasn't a one-time deal. Of course, Dina isn't going to take Glenn's new attitude lying down and when she gets in the way of his attempt to bring the poll workers (One named Sid in particular) some coffee, the coffee winds up spilling all over a ballot box, wrecking 53 ballots. Glenn and Dina try to dry the ballots to fix them, but Glenn winds up sending them all to the wind when he tries to speed things up with a fan and both of them panic over having accidentally tampered with the election. The whole story is delightfully absurd as they go from trying to hide the evidence of what they've done (Especially when they learn the penalty for voter fraud is a $10000 fine and 5 years in prison, not prism as Glenn thinks Sid said) to trying to catch each other confessing on tape (as advised by Marcus, who wound up in prison briefly when his mom did that to him for a lesser sentence) when they worry Cheyenne has overheard them talking about it. This leads to a beautiful scene of them both trying to have a "casual conversation" that eventually devolves to them trying to mimic the other's voices. Meanwhile the poll workers notice 53 ballots missing and laugh because that's way less missing than last time. All of Glenn and Dina's scheming and fretting has been for nothing but they're too caught up in their own struggle to even realize it. It's a clever note to end the story on, and a good reminder of how rare and irrelevant actual voter fraud is in the grand scheme of things.
Mateo also gets caught up in a struggle that winds up being for nothing, as he becomes concerned Dina will figure out he's undocumented if he doesn't have an "I Voted" sticker, something he can't get because he can't vote. After introducing the idea of Mateo being undocumented in the Olympics Special last August, it's good to see it return here, especially with undocumented citizens also being a pretty big issue in the election right now. The episode winds up handling it pretty well too, not making a big deal out of it or an "issues episode", but just having it as something to motivate Mateo through the episode. Mateo winds up confiding in Cheyenne, which also allows her to reveal she knows about him and Jeff in a natural way, setting Cheyenne up as a confidante for Mateo. Mateo/Cheyenne is one of the show's better character pairings so an opportunity for more of that is very welcome. What we get here is delightful, from Cheyenne's misunderstanding of what an "illegal alien" is to the "I Votted" sticker Cheyenne makes for Mateo and his reaction to it. His quest to get an "I Voted" sticker from the poll worker who's fiercely guarding them only becomes heightened when Cheyenne mistakes Dina trying to see if she knows about illegal activity as a hint that Dina's onto Mateo. Ultimately Mateo buys a sticker from a disinterested Garrett but by this point, Glenn and Dina are much too concerned with their own drama to care about who voted or not. It's a clever way of tying in the two stories, having Mateo's fretting be for naught, but also showing why it's something Mateo is rightfully concerned about. A character being an undocumented citizen is something you don't see on TV that much and it's nice to see it being explored here.
Ultimately Election Day was just the palate cleanser that the actual election cycle needed, telling a smart funny episode that managed to avoid getting entrenched in complicated or toxic politics. It's just another reason to love Superstore and another reason that I will miss it dearly when it goes on hiatus after next week. We're getting two episodes next week though, so here's hoping we go off on another high note.
Memorable Moments
-Best Interstitial: Nascar driver Jimmie Johnson cameos as he outraces a child through the aisles to the Muzak croning "Surrender".
-Glenn tries to top Dina for having his head in the game. "I've been here since 4:00 a.m. I've already had three meals". "It's not even 7:00. That's too many meals."
-Marcus gets a lot of play this week and he's delightful. His desire to be part of the gang with Jonah, Amy and Garrett and trying to make drink plans is terrific. "Hey, are we still on for drinks tonight?" "Please stop asking us." "No." "We never were." "Ah, cool. Well, we'll figure it out later."
-Also terrific: Marcus literally picking up Mertle to try to get her to the polls.
-Mateo's indignation at no one knowing who James Brolin is is probably the episode's best Mateo moment.
-Dina tries to make her and Glenn's alibi more specific. "Okay, we were in your office because you were telling me about the affair you've been having with your dental hygienist. She likes when you dance for her." "I do not want to be having an affair!" "Do you want to go to jail?" "No!" "Then you've been dancing for Shelley!"
-Glenn asks Marcus about his chances in prison. "Baby face. Kind eyes. Soft skin. Cute tummy. You'd be very popular." "Oh. Well, that's good." "No, that's bad. That's very bad."
What did come up was the in-universe race for State Senator, as Cloud 9 Corporate sent out a voting guide that serves to not-so-subtly promote the incumbent Senator who supports the "right to work" (anti-union), while also not-so-subtly demonizing his opponent (who has never gone on record as being Pro-America). It's a clear case of Corporate trying to promote their own interests and agenda, which naturally doesn't sit well with Amy and Jonah, continuing their quest to push back against Corporate for worker's rights that the start of the season set up. Despite the fact that no one else cares or finds the voting guide a big deal and no one really reads work memos anyways, Amy and Jonah decide to make their own pamphlet and start going around convincing people to vote for the pro-labour candidate. This leads to a montage that's mostly inconsequential but does lead to the return of Jonah's "working class" voice, which is always funny, especially when it works on the warehouse guy Jonah talks to. Just when the story seems to be running out of steam though, it takes an unexpected turn when Naomi, a girl Jonah's been seeing shows up much to the surprise of Amy.
Because I never miss a chance to compare Superstore to The Office, Naomi as a character reminds me of Katie, the girl Jim briefly dates in season 2 (Who was played by Amy Adams of all people, right before she became a big deal.). Katie was someone Jim dated so we as viewers knew that he had a dating life outside of pining for Pam. She also made Pam jealous a bit for reasons Pam couldn't dare say. Naomi seems to be serving the same function on Superstore. Since Amy is married, it doesn't look good for Jonah to be pining for Amy so Naomi serves as a way for us to know that that isn't the case. Maybe my initial impression is wrong and Naomi will become an interesting character in her own right with a purpose beyond "Jonah's throwaway girlfriend" (which is what Katie became for Jim), but for now she's mainly there to turn this story from a "Amy and Jonah fight corporate story" to a "the state of Amy and Jonah's connection" story, as Amy finds herself pushing away from Jonah once Naomi comes in and recruiting a rethumbed and dull as ever Marcus to help her instead, while Jonah clocks out and goes home. In the end, Amy and Jonah's candidate wins the election and Amy is elated at the little victory, but only has Marcus to celebrate it with. Things feel off and Amy knows it, even before Marcus misreads things and tries to kiss her twice ending things on a funny but poignant note. Jonah having a girlfriend has triggered feelings Amy didn't realize were there and now she has to start to reckon with them and what they mean. It's a good development to end the story on and I look forward to seeing how it plays out as we head into the mid-season finale episodes next week.
Meanwhile, the spectre of voter fraud comes up for Dina and Glenn in the funniest possible way. After pushing back against Dina last week, Glenn is continuing to clash with her as he asserts his authority as manager. Seeing Glenn stand up for himself was the best part of last week's episode and it's good to know that that wasn't a one-time deal. Of course, Dina isn't going to take Glenn's new attitude lying down and when she gets in the way of his attempt to bring the poll workers (One named Sid in particular) some coffee, the coffee winds up spilling all over a ballot box, wrecking 53 ballots. Glenn and Dina try to dry the ballots to fix them, but Glenn winds up sending them all to the wind when he tries to speed things up with a fan and both of them panic over having accidentally tampered with the election. The whole story is delightfully absurd as they go from trying to hide the evidence of what they've done (Especially when they learn the penalty for voter fraud is a $10000 fine and 5 years in prison, not prism as Glenn thinks Sid said) to trying to catch each other confessing on tape (as advised by Marcus, who wound up in prison briefly when his mom did that to him for a lesser sentence) when they worry Cheyenne has overheard them talking about it. This leads to a beautiful scene of them both trying to have a "casual conversation" that eventually devolves to them trying to mimic the other's voices. Meanwhile the poll workers notice 53 ballots missing and laugh because that's way less missing than last time. All of Glenn and Dina's scheming and fretting has been for nothing but they're too caught up in their own struggle to even realize it. It's a clever note to end the story on, and a good reminder of how rare and irrelevant actual voter fraud is in the grand scheme of things.
Mateo also gets caught up in a struggle that winds up being for nothing, as he becomes concerned Dina will figure out he's undocumented if he doesn't have an "I Voted" sticker, something he can't get because he can't vote. After introducing the idea of Mateo being undocumented in the Olympics Special last August, it's good to see it return here, especially with undocumented citizens also being a pretty big issue in the election right now. The episode winds up handling it pretty well too, not making a big deal out of it or an "issues episode", but just having it as something to motivate Mateo through the episode. Mateo winds up confiding in Cheyenne, which also allows her to reveal she knows about him and Jeff in a natural way, setting Cheyenne up as a confidante for Mateo. Mateo/Cheyenne is one of the show's better character pairings so an opportunity for more of that is very welcome. What we get here is delightful, from Cheyenne's misunderstanding of what an "illegal alien" is to the "I Votted" sticker Cheyenne makes for Mateo and his reaction to it. His quest to get an "I Voted" sticker from the poll worker who's fiercely guarding them only becomes heightened when Cheyenne mistakes Dina trying to see if she knows about illegal activity as a hint that Dina's onto Mateo. Ultimately Mateo buys a sticker from a disinterested Garrett but by this point, Glenn and Dina are much too concerned with their own drama to care about who voted or not. It's a clever way of tying in the two stories, having Mateo's fretting be for naught, but also showing why it's something Mateo is rightfully concerned about. A character being an undocumented citizen is something you don't see on TV that much and it's nice to see it being explored here.
Ultimately Election Day was just the palate cleanser that the actual election cycle needed, telling a smart funny episode that managed to avoid getting entrenched in complicated or toxic politics. It's just another reason to love Superstore and another reason that I will miss it dearly when it goes on hiatus after next week. We're getting two episodes next week though, so here's hoping we go off on another high note.
Memorable Moments
-Best Interstitial: Nascar driver Jimmie Johnson cameos as he outraces a child through the aisles to the Muzak croning "Surrender".
-Glenn tries to top Dina for having his head in the game. "I've been here since 4:00 a.m. I've already had three meals". "It's not even 7:00. That's too many meals."
-Marcus gets a lot of play this week and he's delightful. His desire to be part of the gang with Jonah, Amy and Garrett and trying to make drink plans is terrific. "Hey, are we still on for drinks tonight?" "Please stop asking us." "No." "We never were." "Ah, cool. Well, we'll figure it out later."
-Also terrific: Marcus literally picking up Mertle to try to get her to the polls.
-Mateo's indignation at no one knowing who James Brolin is is probably the episode's best Mateo moment.
-Dina tries to make her and Glenn's alibi more specific. "Okay, we were in your office because you were telling me about the affair you've been having with your dental hygienist. She likes when you dance for her." "I do not want to be having an affair!" "Do you want to go to jail?" "No!" "Then you've been dancing for Shelley!"
-Glenn asks Marcus about his chances in prison. "Baby face. Kind eyes. Soft skin. Cute tummy. You'd be very popular." "Oh. Well, that's good." "No, that's bad. That's very bad."
Wednesday, 2 November 2016
The Official Everything Kenny Watches List (As Of Nov. 2nd 2016)
I watch much, much, much more TV than I write about. How much? Well I did the math on everything I've been watching so far this fall (excluding streaming service watches like Luke Cage or Black Mirror) and came up with 30 shows that I watch a week. 30. Now, not every show is on every week and one of the shows actually just wrapped up it's season so as of next week it'll be 29 but that's still a ton of television. So what do I actually watch? That's what this list is for. It's a list of everything I watch plus sorted by airdate (Sunday-Friday.) with a brief blurb of my thoughts on the show. So if you're looking for something to watch, feel free to find something off this list. And if you have any suggestions for new shows I could watch, feel free to suggest them but understand it'll be a while before I ever get to them. So here we go!
-The Last Man On Earth: Will Forte's inventive comedy about a handful of people in a world where everyone else has died continues to surprise and delight with a strong cast and top-notch comedic setpieces (A recent episode featured a hallway of Billy Bass endlessly singing 'Jeremiah Was A Bullfrog' and it's incredible). Will Forte's Phil "Tandy" Miller can still be very hard to take at times, but he rarely crosses over into the "unlikeable jerk" territory he spent most of season 1 in, being more of a well-meaning nuisance than anything else.
-Once Upon A Time: Once Upon A Time has never been a great show, but it's reimagination of an endless number of classic fairy tales and stories, Disney and otherwise is typically entertaining so I keep watching it. The 6th season is full of some of the show's favourite themes like second chances, the duality of good and evil, and whether you can change destiny. Plus Aladdin and Jasmine are there now so that's cool.
-Westworld: It's hard to say what HBO's new drama about a futuristic theme park full of robots who exist to serve the whims and desires of the park's guests is about. The fact that some of the robots seem to becoming aware of the nature of their existence and getting access to their (constantly erased) memories of death and rape is part of it. Ed Harris as a mysterious guest in search of a mysterious maze is part of it too I think. Anthony Hopkin's Park Founder is definitely up to something too. But while the point of Westworld is kind of oblique at this point, it's a compelling and fascinating show with Evan Rachel Wood giving a stand-out performance as one of the park's robot "hosts", Delores who seems to slowly be getting agency.
-Supergirl: Supergirl struggled in it's first CBS season, but the move to The CW has benefited it greatly. Melissa Benoist is perfectly cast as Kara Danvers, the girl of steel. The Season 2 premiere also debuted Tyler Hoechlin as one of the best takes on Superman in media that I've seen in a long time (Though his presence is secondary to Kara's story as it should be). Add in an exploration of Aliens as a prejudiced class X-Men style this season and there's plenty to love about Supergirl.
-Timeless: When Timeless debuted, I called it dumb fun and I stand by that, but Timeless has quickly become confident and comfortable with itself with great results. Watching the central trio try and protect various points in history is a blast and Matt Lanter's Wyatt has quickly gone from a generic bore to an interesting character in his own right. The conspiracy stuff is still ill-defined and dumb, but there's plenty of time for that to be fixed too.
-New Girl: What started as an alright Zooey Deschanel vehicle has evolved into a stellar ensemble comedy to the point where Zooey sitting several episodes out last season did nothing to affect the show's quality. New Girl even made great use of Megan Fox of all people to the point where I'm excited for the upcoming return of her character this season. Season 6 has featured Schmidt and Cece adjusting to married life, while Jess deals with her re-emerging feels for a somewhat more stable, definitely unavailable Nick and Winston keeps being Winston. It's not as good as it's season 2 peak, but it's still a lot of fun.
-Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Brooklyn Nine-Nine started out strong and has kept on being strong for going on 4 seasons now. Five episodes into the 4th season, Brooklyn has been packed with a 3-part storyline about Jake and Holt in witness projection in Florida, a "crossover" with New Girl, and their annual Halloween episode. The result is a season that hasn't really had time to settle down yet, but is still as funny as it ever was.
-Fresh Off The Boat: A family comedy about an Asian-American family living in Florida in the 90's, Fresh Off The Boat no longer resembles the memoir it was based on (And it parted ways with Eddie Huang at the beginning of the 2nd season), but it's become all the better for it, telling lots of funny, heartfelt stories that feel specific and unique, even when they're taking on classic sitcom plots. Plus the season 3 premiere became the first American TV Production to film in Taipei, Taiwan so that's pretty cool.
-Marvel's Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D is never going to be as interesting or as good as some of the Marvel Netflix shows can get, but it's become a pretty solid show over the years with Clark Gregg's Coulson and Chloe Bennet's Daisy heading up a strong ensemble. Season 4 has brought in Ghost Rider too and the results have been entertaining so far.
-No Tomorrow: No Tomorrow, a new romantic dramedy has quite a hook. Evie (Tori Anderson) is an orderly, uptight woman who strikes up a romance with free-spirited Xavier (Joshua Sasse) who encourages her to seize the day because he believes an asteroid is going to destroy the world in eight months. While not without it's flaws, No Tomorrow (which has it's new episodes put on Netflix Canada every week) is fun and quirky, and has built a compelling world in a short amount of time.
-Atlanta: Created by Donald Glover, Atlanta just wrapped up a stellar first season Tuesday night. An exploration of what it's like to be black and the Atlanta hip-hop scene, it's an incredibly surreal show that doesn't fit neatly into comedy or drama boxes and is all the better for it. Moments of sudden violence come and go as quickly and suddenly as jokes about invisible cars or Justin Bieber (who is black in the show's universe because of course.). Typical television structure goes out the window with Atlanta so you never quite know what you're gonna get when you flip it on. All you know is whatever happens, it'll be interesting.
-Survivor: 33 seasons in, Survivor is still as enjoyable as ever. This season, they've been doing Gen X Vs. Millennials, and the parts of the show where they play into that theme are exactly as annoying as you think they'd be. Luckily, a good mix of strong players and some cool challenges make the whole thing enjoyable.
-Designated Survivor: Kiefer Sutherland plays the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development who suddenly becomes President when a terrorist attack takes out everyone else of the chain of succession. That alone should explain the appeal of Designated Survivor. The show is still figuring itself out, and the non-Kiefer Sutherland characters and storylines aren't as interesting as the Kiefer Sutherland stuff, but the Kiefer Sutherland stuff alone makes the show fun to watch. Kiefer is an amazing actor who gave an iconic performance for years in 24, and his President Tom Kirkland just might wind up being equally iconic if Designated Survivor survives long enough.
-You're The Worst: FXX's twisted romantic comedy about two damaged, awful people who fall for each other is another one of my favourite show's on television. As the couple at it's centre, Chris Geere and Aya Cash are both terrific as Jimmy and Gretchen, making the two likeable and compelling, despite their myriad of flaws. As their friends who are damaged in their own ways Edgar and Lindsay, Desmin Borges and Kether Donohue are also terrific, with Borges in particular a standout as the PTSD-addled Edgar. You're The Worst is hilarious, tragic, crude and dark in equal measure with an honest exploration of relationships and growing up that's often poignant. Season 3 isn't quite as good as season 2, which featured an incredible story arc about Gretchen's struggles with depression, but it's been interesting in it's own right as it explores ideas of family and happiness.
-South Park: South Park has been slowly getting more serialized the past couple seasons and that serialization has been taken to Netflix levels for season 20 as every episode so far has been part of one large story about trolling and harassment on the internet, a building gender war between the boys and girls at South Park Elementary, the U.S. Presidential election, and the way nostalgia and 'membering the glory days leads to not caring about problems in the present and recycled Star Wars sequels. Also J.J. Abrams might be behind everything. 6 episodes into the 10 episode season, everything is starting to come together and I'm excited to see how this all turns out and what the ultimate point winds up being.
-Modern Family: Eight seasons in, I'm watching Modern Family out of habit more than anything else at this point. That being said I still enjoy it and it can still pull off a great episode every so often. It's weird watching Luke and Manny be high school seniors though.
-Speechless: I was impressed by Speechless' pilot and I continue to be impressed five episodes in as it becomes more confident with every episode. Though Minnie Driver's Maya is still the most dominant character on the show, the rest of the DiMeo family has come into their own as well, with John Ross Bowie's Jimmy and Kyla Kenedy's Dylan quickly becoming the stealth MVP's for hilarious moments. Micah Fowler's J.J continues to impress to as he gives a very nuanced, very funny performance.
-Rectify: A beautiful, moving drama about a man who finds himself released from death row when new DNA evidence overturns his conviction after 20 years and his family who find their lives upended with his return, Rectify (which also gets new episodes released weekly to Netflix Canada) is a stunning portrait of life, empathy, and redemption in the American South. As Daniel Holden, the man suddenly thrown back into a world he never thought he'd see again, Aden Young gives a powerful, overwhelming performance that draws you into Daniel's headspace as he grapples with how to be in the world. The rest of the cast from Abigail Spencer as Daniel's devoted sister Amantha to Clayne Crawford as Daniel's abrasive but human stepbrother Teddy is just as good. Now on it's 4th and final season, it's still unclear to everyone (including Daniel) if Daniel actually committed the crime he was convicted of or not but the mystery is beside the point. Rectify is about everything great and terrible about humanity and that focus on humanity is what makes it great.
-Superstore: I write about Superstore a lot. And for good reason! It's really good! It reminds me of The Office in a lot of ways. Season 1 started out solid and got more confident and funny as it went along and that has carried into an even more confident and funny season 2. Season 2 so far has featured everything from strikes, theft, and gun sales to serial killing spokesmen, loose crows, and puppy adoption. Definitely worth your time
-The Good Place: I write about The Good Place a lot too! Probably my favourite new comedy of the fall, this show about a woman who dies and is accidentally sent to The Good Place where she tries to learn to be a better person is a constant delight with lots of twists and turns. With great performances from Kristen Bell, Ted Danson, William Jackson-Harper and basically everyone in the ensemble, plus a fascinating look at what it means to be a good person, I hope The Good Place sticks around for a long time.
-Legends of Tomorrow: The 4th of The CW's DC superhero shows, Legends of Tomorrow is probably the messiest and least consistent, but when it works, it really works. The first season sent it's large ensemble of Arrow and Flash supporting characters across time to fight Vandal Savage with mixed results, due to Savage not being that compelling. The second season has dropped a few characters who didn't work and added a couple promising ones with a simpler focus of "protect the time stream" and it's been much better so far. Hoping for good things this season.
-How To Get Away With Murder: How To Get Away With Murder (Or HTGAWM for short) constantly swings for the fences with it's wild plotting and over-the-top twists and character turns. It doesn't always work, but when it does, it's impossible to look away. And though the quality varies from episode to episode, you can always count on Viola Davis' Annalise Keating to give a powerhouse performance.
-Better Things: Pamela Adlon stars in this semi-autobiographical comedy she created with Louis C.K. as Sam Fox, who makes her living as an actress while being a single mother to her 3 girls. It's an honest, funny, winning look at motherhood that's cut from the same cloth as Louie (Which makes sense considering who's behind it), but manages to feel like it's own distinct thing. The kids are also perfectly cast and are just as whiny and annoying as real kids are, but also funny like real kids can be.
-Pitch: This drama about a pitcher who becomes the first female player in MLB history is flawed, but always interesting, providing an insider look into all the different aspects of baseball, while examining the pressure that comes with being a trailblazer. I'm not a Baseball fan, but I enjoy Pitch a lot.
Phew. So there you have it. A list of everything I watch on television. I could and should probably cut a couple things loose but I doubt that'll happen. This list is definitely going to be updated every several weeks or so as shows end their seasons or I start watching new shows. Will the number of what I watch go past 30? I hope not but it seems like something that'll happen sooner or later. So stay tuned.
Sunday
-Bob's Burgers: The best of Fox's animated offerings for a while now, the adventures of the Belcher clan and the beach town they live in continue to be one of the best ways to spend 30 minutes on a Sunday night. Full of heart, humour, and an endless supply of catchy songs with no signs of slowing down, Bob's Burgers is a delight.-The Last Man On Earth: Will Forte's inventive comedy about a handful of people in a world where everyone else has died continues to surprise and delight with a strong cast and top-notch comedic setpieces (A recent episode featured a hallway of Billy Bass endlessly singing 'Jeremiah Was A Bullfrog' and it's incredible). Will Forte's Phil "Tandy" Miller can still be very hard to take at times, but he rarely crosses over into the "unlikeable jerk" territory he spent most of season 1 in, being more of a well-meaning nuisance than anything else.
-Once Upon A Time: Once Upon A Time has never been a great show, but it's reimagination of an endless number of classic fairy tales and stories, Disney and otherwise is typically entertaining so I keep watching it. The 6th season is full of some of the show's favourite themes like second chances, the duality of good and evil, and whether you can change destiny. Plus Aladdin and Jasmine are there now so that's cool.
-Westworld: It's hard to say what HBO's new drama about a futuristic theme park full of robots who exist to serve the whims and desires of the park's guests is about. The fact that some of the robots seem to becoming aware of the nature of their existence and getting access to their (constantly erased) memories of death and rape is part of it. Ed Harris as a mysterious guest in search of a mysterious maze is part of it too I think. Anthony Hopkin's Park Founder is definitely up to something too. But while the point of Westworld is kind of oblique at this point, it's a compelling and fascinating show with Evan Rachel Wood giving a stand-out performance as one of the park's robot "hosts", Delores who seems to slowly be getting agency.
Monday
-Jane The Virgin: One of my favourite shows on television, the ongoing saga of Jane Villaneuva is a delight week in and week out. Packed full of crazy twists and turns, but grounded in well-developed characters and a sense of whimsy, Jane is definitely worth your time.-Supergirl: Supergirl struggled in it's first CBS season, but the move to The CW has benefited it greatly. Melissa Benoist is perfectly cast as Kara Danvers, the girl of steel. The Season 2 premiere also debuted Tyler Hoechlin as one of the best takes on Superman in media that I've seen in a long time (Though his presence is secondary to Kara's story as it should be). Add in an exploration of Aliens as a prejudiced class X-Men style this season and there's plenty to love about Supergirl.
-Timeless: When Timeless debuted, I called it dumb fun and I stand by that, but Timeless has quickly become confident and comfortable with itself with great results. Watching the central trio try and protect various points in history is a blast and Matt Lanter's Wyatt has quickly gone from a generic bore to an interesting character in his own right. The conspiracy stuff is still ill-defined and dumb, but there's plenty of time for that to be fixed too.
Tuesday
-The Flash: After a stellar first season of Silver Age-style comic book fun, The Flash struggled a bit in season 2 with a villain that felt like a less-compelling rehash of season 1's Reverse-Flash. Season 3 has been promising so far though, as Barry's screwing with the timeline at the end of last season leading to various interesting changes. Grant Gustin also continues to be great in the role to the point where I've almost forgotten how furious he made me back when he was on Glee.-New Girl: What started as an alright Zooey Deschanel vehicle has evolved into a stellar ensemble comedy to the point where Zooey sitting several episodes out last season did nothing to affect the show's quality. New Girl even made great use of Megan Fox of all people to the point where I'm excited for the upcoming return of her character this season. Season 6 has featured Schmidt and Cece adjusting to married life, while Jess deals with her re-emerging feels for a somewhat more stable, definitely unavailable Nick and Winston keeps being Winston. It's not as good as it's season 2 peak, but it's still a lot of fun.
-Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Brooklyn Nine-Nine started out strong and has kept on being strong for going on 4 seasons now. Five episodes into the 4th season, Brooklyn has been packed with a 3-part storyline about Jake and Holt in witness projection in Florida, a "crossover" with New Girl, and their annual Halloween episode. The result is a season that hasn't really had time to settle down yet, but is still as funny as it ever was.
-Fresh Off The Boat: A family comedy about an Asian-American family living in Florida in the 90's, Fresh Off The Boat no longer resembles the memoir it was based on (And it parted ways with Eddie Huang at the beginning of the 2nd season), but it's become all the better for it, telling lots of funny, heartfelt stories that feel specific and unique, even when they're taking on classic sitcom plots. Plus the season 3 premiere became the first American TV Production to film in Taipei, Taiwan so that's pretty cool.
-Marvel's Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D is never going to be as interesting or as good as some of the Marvel Netflix shows can get, but it's become a pretty solid show over the years with Clark Gregg's Coulson and Chloe Bennet's Daisy heading up a strong ensemble. Season 4 has brought in Ghost Rider too and the results have been entertaining so far.
-No Tomorrow: No Tomorrow, a new romantic dramedy has quite a hook. Evie (Tori Anderson) is an orderly, uptight woman who strikes up a romance with free-spirited Xavier (Joshua Sasse) who encourages her to seize the day because he believes an asteroid is going to destroy the world in eight months. While not without it's flaws, No Tomorrow (which has it's new episodes put on Netflix Canada every week) is fun and quirky, and has built a compelling world in a short amount of time.
-Atlanta: Created by Donald Glover, Atlanta just wrapped up a stellar first season Tuesday night. An exploration of what it's like to be black and the Atlanta hip-hop scene, it's an incredibly surreal show that doesn't fit neatly into comedy or drama boxes and is all the better for it. Moments of sudden violence come and go as quickly and suddenly as jokes about invisible cars or Justin Bieber (who is black in the show's universe because of course.). Typical television structure goes out the window with Atlanta so you never quite know what you're gonna get when you flip it on. All you know is whatever happens, it'll be interesting.
Wednesday
-Arrow: The first of The CW's new wave of superhero shows, the 5th season of Arrow is shaping up to possibly be the best season since the 2nd one. Stephen Arnell is still pretty broody as Oliver Queen, but he's training a new team now while also serving as the mayor of Star City and that's a lot of fun. The flashbacks are also more interesting than they've been in years, as we've finally gotten to the Russia part of Oliver's story.-Survivor: 33 seasons in, Survivor is still as enjoyable as ever. This season, they've been doing Gen X Vs. Millennials, and the parts of the show where they play into that theme are exactly as annoying as you think they'd be. Luckily, a good mix of strong players and some cool challenges make the whole thing enjoyable.
-Designated Survivor: Kiefer Sutherland plays the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development who suddenly becomes President when a terrorist attack takes out everyone else of the chain of succession. That alone should explain the appeal of Designated Survivor. The show is still figuring itself out, and the non-Kiefer Sutherland characters and storylines aren't as interesting as the Kiefer Sutherland stuff, but the Kiefer Sutherland stuff alone makes the show fun to watch. Kiefer is an amazing actor who gave an iconic performance for years in 24, and his President Tom Kirkland just might wind up being equally iconic if Designated Survivor survives long enough.
-You're The Worst: FXX's twisted romantic comedy about two damaged, awful people who fall for each other is another one of my favourite show's on television. As the couple at it's centre, Chris Geere and Aya Cash are both terrific as Jimmy and Gretchen, making the two likeable and compelling, despite their myriad of flaws. As their friends who are damaged in their own ways Edgar and Lindsay, Desmin Borges and Kether Donohue are also terrific, with Borges in particular a standout as the PTSD-addled Edgar. You're The Worst is hilarious, tragic, crude and dark in equal measure with an honest exploration of relationships and growing up that's often poignant. Season 3 isn't quite as good as season 2, which featured an incredible story arc about Gretchen's struggles with depression, but it's been interesting in it's own right as it explores ideas of family and happiness.
-South Park: South Park has been slowly getting more serialized the past couple seasons and that serialization has been taken to Netflix levels for season 20 as every episode so far has been part of one large story about trolling and harassment on the internet, a building gender war between the boys and girls at South Park Elementary, the U.S. Presidential election, and the way nostalgia and 'membering the glory days leads to not caring about problems in the present and recycled Star Wars sequels. Also J.J. Abrams might be behind everything. 6 episodes into the 10 episode season, everything is starting to come together and I'm excited to see how this all turns out and what the ultimate point winds up being.
-Modern Family: Eight seasons in, I'm watching Modern Family out of habit more than anything else at this point. That being said I still enjoy it and it can still pull off a great episode every so often. It's weird watching Luke and Manny be high school seniors though.
-Speechless: I was impressed by Speechless' pilot and I continue to be impressed five episodes in as it becomes more confident with every episode. Though Minnie Driver's Maya is still the most dominant character on the show, the rest of the DiMeo family has come into their own as well, with John Ross Bowie's Jimmy and Kyla Kenedy's Dylan quickly becoming the stealth MVP's for hilarious moments. Micah Fowler's J.J continues to impress to as he gives a very nuanced, very funny performance.
-Rectify: A beautiful, moving drama about a man who finds himself released from death row when new DNA evidence overturns his conviction after 20 years and his family who find their lives upended with his return, Rectify (which also gets new episodes released weekly to Netflix Canada) is a stunning portrait of life, empathy, and redemption in the American South. As Daniel Holden, the man suddenly thrown back into a world he never thought he'd see again, Aden Young gives a powerful, overwhelming performance that draws you into Daniel's headspace as he grapples with how to be in the world. The rest of the cast from Abigail Spencer as Daniel's devoted sister Amantha to Clayne Crawford as Daniel's abrasive but human stepbrother Teddy is just as good. Now on it's 4th and final season, it's still unclear to everyone (including Daniel) if Daniel actually committed the crime he was convicted of or not but the mystery is beside the point. Rectify is about everything great and terrible about humanity and that focus on humanity is what makes it great.
Thursday
-Grey's Anatomy: I was introduced to Grey's a couple years ago and was immediately hooked on it's irresistible mixture of soapy personal drama and medical stories. 13 seasons in and with much cast changeover through the years, the saga of Meredith Grey shows no signs of slowing down. It's less outrageous than it's used to be, but still interesting and compelling and it's long history gives it a lot of emotional heft to draw on. I wouldn't have thought when the show began that Alex Karev would become one of the most compelling characters, but here we are.-Superstore: I write about Superstore a lot. And for good reason! It's really good! It reminds me of The Office in a lot of ways. Season 1 started out solid and got more confident and funny as it went along and that has carried into an even more confident and funny season 2. Season 2 so far has featured everything from strikes, theft, and gun sales to serial killing spokesmen, loose crows, and puppy adoption. Definitely worth your time
-The Good Place: I write about The Good Place a lot too! Probably my favourite new comedy of the fall, this show about a woman who dies and is accidentally sent to The Good Place where she tries to learn to be a better person is a constant delight with lots of twists and turns. With great performances from Kristen Bell, Ted Danson, William Jackson-Harper and basically everyone in the ensemble, plus a fascinating look at what it means to be a good person, I hope The Good Place sticks around for a long time.
-Legends of Tomorrow: The 4th of The CW's DC superhero shows, Legends of Tomorrow is probably the messiest and least consistent, but when it works, it really works. The first season sent it's large ensemble of Arrow and Flash supporting characters across time to fight Vandal Savage with mixed results, due to Savage not being that compelling. The second season has dropped a few characters who didn't work and added a couple promising ones with a simpler focus of "protect the time stream" and it's been much better so far. Hoping for good things this season.
-How To Get Away With Murder: How To Get Away With Murder (Or HTGAWM for short) constantly swings for the fences with it's wild plotting and over-the-top twists and character turns. It doesn't always work, but when it does, it's impossible to look away. And though the quality varies from episode to episode, you can always count on Viola Davis' Annalise Keating to give a powerhouse performance.
-Better Things: Pamela Adlon stars in this semi-autobiographical comedy she created with Louis C.K. as Sam Fox, who makes her living as an actress while being a single mother to her 3 girls. It's an honest, funny, winning look at motherhood that's cut from the same cloth as Louie (Which makes sense considering who's behind it), but manages to feel like it's own distinct thing. The kids are also perfectly cast and are just as whiny and annoying as real kids are, but also funny like real kids can be.
-Pitch: This drama about a pitcher who becomes the first female player in MLB history is flawed, but always interesting, providing an insider look into all the different aspects of baseball, while examining the pressure that comes with being a trailblazer. I'm not a Baseball fan, but I enjoy Pitch a lot.
Friday
-Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: The only thing I watch on Fridays and the first thing I wrote about when I relaunched this blog, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is a delightful musical comedy with a lot to say about love, addiction, mental health, how we treat women, and the things we do to be happy. Rachel Bloom gives a delightful lead performance as Rebecca, who's an anti-hero but a very sympathetic one. The songs are top-notch too and just add to making Crazy Ex-Girlfriend a unique and compelling viewing experience.Phew. So there you have it. A list of everything I watch on television. I could and should probably cut a couple things loose but I doubt that'll happen. This list is definitely going to be updated every several weeks or so as shows end their seasons or I start watching new shows. Will the number of what I watch go past 30? I hope not but it seems like something that'll happen sooner or later. So stay tuned.
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