Alcatraz is an engaging show that I've been enjoying so far. However, I'm just not sure that I'll be able to come up with interesting things to say about the show every week. So I decided that in lieu of an actual opinion (Though those still may happen from time to time), I'm going to list all the questions I have following the episode (and sometimes, I'll list answers. When that happens.) So let's kick this off with some questions I have about last night's episode Cal Sweeney!
1. Who's Running The Show?: Let's start with the last scene. The warden leads Sweeney's cell mate (By the way, the twist that his cell mate was behind the stealing of his box was a great one) to a mysterious room in the prison that takes three special keys (more on that in a second) to open. He tells him that his future is about to get a whole lot better before sending him in to meet a mysterious figure. Hmm... Of course, we don't know that this figure is connected to the return of the 63's, but even if he (She? It?) isn't, something is going on in the past and it's interesting. And that last scene raises another question.
2. How Involved Is The Warden?: From what we know about the warden, he can be a very cruel man. He's also rather corrupt and E.B Tiller mentioned last night that the warden lets a lot of things get past him in the prison, like Sweeney's trading operation. And if the mystery person (?) running things is in league with the warden, does the warden know the full extent of what's going on? Of course, we know the warden died years ago (right?) but he could still be involved. Again, it should be interesting to see.
3. What's with the Laser Cut Keys?: This is a curious one. So far, two of the Alcatraz prisoners have been found with laser-cut keys. However, as Hauser's think tank has pointed out, keys weren't cut that way until long after Alcatraz was closed. So is this just a strange anomaly? Or is there a higher reason? Mysteries, mysteries.
4. What Does Hauser Really Know?: I liked the way that Hauser tells Rebecca he'll tell her what the key opens, only to just tell her "some other time" after he got the key. I also liked the way it was revealed that Hauser has no clue what the key opens or why it's significant. Which raises the question: what does Hauser actually know? Is he aware that Lucy and Dr. Beauregard are from the past? Obviously he knows a few things, but maybe the head of the operation is only a couple steps ahead of our characters. Maybe, there's a lot he doesn't know. Or maybe I'm just over-analyzing this whole thing. Either way, colour me intrigued.
5. Memory Experiments?: At the dinner party, Lucy talks about her plans to remove memories from inmates to see what effect it would have on their behaviour (On an unrelated note, I am liking that her character is still comatose from that serious injury she suffered in episode 2. It's realistic.). I don't think that those experiments are connected to what's going on, but I can't help but feel that we'll hear more about this down the road. It seems too curious to just be a throwaway line used to anger the eavesdropping inmates.
And that's it for now. Next week should be interesting as the person returning is one of the guards. We'll talk about it then.
Tuesday, 31 January 2012
Saturday, 28 January 2012
Quicky Opinion Time: 30 Rock Edition
Double 30 Rock Night last Thursday. They were both funny and I don't have much more to say about them this week so I'm busting out the old quicky opinion format for this double header. There will be memorable moments after though.
Idiots Are People Three!: Idiots Are People Three! was a solid conclusion to the two-parter started last week. I always love it when Devin Banks stops by the show and his whole story with getting Jack to pull favors to get his triplets into an exclusive preschool, which means his daughter probably won't be able to get in was a good one. I liked how Tracy's story managed to affect most of the other stories, while still being funny. Criss continues to be a good character, and I enjoy how little he cares about what Jack thinks of him. And Kenneth's and Jenna's story ended as ridiculously as it began with Kelsey Grammar causing a distraction by putting on a one-man show as Abraham Lincoln. All-in-all, a great episode. Grade: Totally Awesome! (Great)
The Ballad of Kenneth Parcell: After the previous great episode this episode was... equally good. I laughed really hard at the trailer for Martin Luther King Day. I enjoyed the explanation for why Liz and Jenna are best friends (Jenna needs someone with nothing going on in their life and Liz needs someone she can vent to, even if they aren't listening) and the reasoning for why Jack needs Kenneth. Hank Hooper is always a treat and Tracy becoming depressed after realizing he has everything was great, especially the ending when he gets the presents he had wanted only to already have them (Not that this upsets him, mind you.). So good double header 30 Rock. Grade: Totally Awesome! (Great)
Memorable Moments
-Devon: “That little Tracy Jordan gem I leaked last night was just the tip of the iceberg, Jack, and NBC is the Titanic.” Jack: “The highest grossing movie of all time?” Devon: “The boat. Not the movie! The boat!”
-Tracy speaks for his organization: “Since it's founding earlier this afternoon, the National Association for Zero Intolerance, or NAZI- we should change that." Denise Richards: "It's fine".
-Tracy: "My ringtone is the chicken dance. If I answer it, I won't hear the whole song!"
-Liz sees her mental image as a Princess Leia-esque figure.
-Kenneth: "In school, all you learn about Abraham Lincoln is that he was a gay alcoholic."
-
-I also enjoyed the return of Cathy Geiss, and NBC's new mascot being a unicorn was great.
-Jack: Our new slogan: NBC: We have a magical horse? is testing...okay.
-Andy Samberg: "What? Tomorrow is Martin Luther King Day?" Emma Stone: "Yeah.. and neither of us have dates". Andy Samberg: "Too bad we're just platonic friends".
-Martin Luther King Day: Got MLK?
-Tracy's birthday invitations instruct "Give to charity please. No presents". But what Tracy meant was "Give to charity? Please, no! Presents!"
-Jack has good news and bad news: “The bad news is that I am shutting down the page program. The good news is for a different group of people.”
-Kenneth: “Well then I know about another story that turned out to be true. It’s about a virgin who gave birth to a man who had some funny ideas. That virgin was my sister, and her son Lyle has a learning disability.”
-Amy: “I hate it when they put the movie poster on the cover of the book that the movie is based on.” Liz: “Let me imagine what Peeta Mellark looks like and how his arms smell of bread!”
-Jack: "I was wrong. I do need you". Kenneth: "You had me at 'I was wrong, I do need'".
Idiots Are People Three!: Idiots Are People Three! was a solid conclusion to the two-parter started last week. I always love it when Devin Banks stops by the show and his whole story with getting Jack to pull favors to get his triplets into an exclusive preschool, which means his daughter probably won't be able to get in was a good one. I liked how Tracy's story managed to affect most of the other stories, while still being funny. Criss continues to be a good character, and I enjoy how little he cares about what Jack thinks of him. And Kenneth's and Jenna's story ended as ridiculously as it began with Kelsey Grammar causing a distraction by putting on a one-man show as Abraham Lincoln. All-in-all, a great episode. Grade: Totally Awesome! (Great)
The Ballad of Kenneth Parcell: After the previous great episode this episode was... equally good. I laughed really hard at the trailer for Martin Luther King Day. I enjoyed the explanation for why Liz and Jenna are best friends (Jenna needs someone with nothing going on in their life and Liz needs someone she can vent to, even if they aren't listening) and the reasoning for why Jack needs Kenneth. Hank Hooper is always a treat and Tracy becoming depressed after realizing he has everything was great, especially the ending when he gets the presents he had wanted only to already have them (Not that this upsets him, mind you.). So good double header 30 Rock. Grade: Totally Awesome! (Great)
Memorable Moments
-Devon: “That little Tracy Jordan gem I leaked last night was just the tip of the iceberg, Jack, and NBC is the Titanic.” Jack: “The highest grossing movie of all time?” Devon: “The boat. Not the movie! The boat!”
-Tracy speaks for his organization: “Since it's founding earlier this afternoon, the National Association for Zero Intolerance, or NAZI- we should change that." Denise Richards: "It's fine".
-Tracy: "My ringtone is the chicken dance. If I answer it, I won't hear the whole song!"
-Liz sees her mental image as a Princess Leia-esque figure.
-Kenneth: "In school, all you learn about Abraham Lincoln is that he was a gay alcoholic."
-
-I also enjoyed the return of Cathy Geiss, and NBC's new mascot being a unicorn was great.
-Jack: Our new slogan: NBC: We have a magical horse? is testing...okay.
-Andy Samberg: "What? Tomorrow is Martin Luther King Day?" Emma Stone: "Yeah.. and neither of us have dates". Andy Samberg: "Too bad we're just platonic friends".
-Martin Luther King Day: Got MLK?
-Tracy's birthday invitations instruct "Give to charity please. No presents". But what Tracy meant was "Give to charity? Please, no! Presents!"
-Jack has good news and bad news: “The bad news is that I am shutting down the page program. The good news is for a different group of people.”
-Kenneth: “Well then I know about another story that turned out to be true. It’s about a virgin who gave birth to a man who had some funny ideas. That virgin was my sister, and her son Lyle has a learning disability.”
-Amy: “I hate it when they put the movie poster on the cover of the book that the movie is based on.” Liz: “Let me imagine what Peeta Mellark looks like and how his arms smell of bread!”
-Jack: "I was wrong. I do need you". Kenneth: "You had me at 'I was wrong, I do need'".
Friday, 27 January 2012
Parks and Recreation: Bowling For Votes
What Happened, Yo!:
-Leslie is watching a focus group about her and becomes obsessed over one man's comment that he won't vote for her because she doesn't seem like the kind of person he'd go bowling with. Ben tries to get her to let it go, but she organizes a bowling event so she can get in touch with her voters. It seems fine until Ben realizes she personally invited the man who made a negative comment against her. Despite his efforts to get her to focus on other people and ignore the people who will dislike her, she spends a lot of time bowling with the man and even lets him win. When he still says he won't vote for her though, she gets angry and demands a rematch for his vote where she beats him easily. When the man says he'll just write bitch on his ballot, Ben punches him out. Later, Ben suggests that Leslie fires him so that she'll be cleared of the new scandal, but she refuses and when she goes to apologize, she winds up refusing to do that too because the guy was a jerk and she's not sorry Ben punched him out. This actually goes over well with the next focus group, who like her and Ben assures her that most voters just go with their gut.
-Meanwhile, Jerry has Andy, April, Donna, and Chris calling people for donations. He offers tickets to Pawnee's Monoplex for the person who raises the most money. Chris is excited by the prize and sets out to raise the most, and April decides to end Chris' happiness by raising more money than him. She winds up doing rather well, but everyone becomes distracted when Chris announces his intention to ask Jerry's daughter to move in with him, followed by Jerry telling everyone (except Chris) that Millicent intends to break up with Chris. Sure enough, Millicent shows up later and breaks up with him. April feels bad about this and after winning the contest, she later gives the movie tickets to Chris, along with an additional ticket so he can go to the movies with her and Andy. She also gives him a half-hug. Aww.
-At the bowling event, Ron gets frustrated by Tom bowling with two hands, despite being a man. He gets even more frustrated when this turns out to be a successful strategy and Tom starts winning. But when Tom gets a minor finger injury (though he treats it like a major one) and he has to bowl one-handed, he still succeeds.
I Liked This:
Bowling For Votes wasn't as spectacular as the past few episodes of Parks and Rec, but it was still a very good one. Like last week's episode, I bought into Leslie's fixation over the one comment, because we know by this point that she's the kind of person who gets obsessed by things like this. It was good to see them finally head to that bowling alley that they've previously established, but never visited and there was plenty of good moments there. I also liked the turn in Leslie's story with Ben punching out the voter and Leslie refusing to apologize for it. It was a neat twist and it worked nicely. And the other stuff at the bowling alley with Tom and Ron was a lot of fun. Especially the tidbit that the concession stand that only sells Hot Dogs and Hamburgers is Ron's favorite restaurant
As for the other plot, it was full of good moments (plus it appears Champion the Three-Legged Dog will be sticking around, which can only be good news), but it also served as a pretty big story for April. I enjoyed her efforts to thwart Chris, followed by her showing him some rare sympathy at the end. It's unlikely that this will lead to a major character change for April, but for now it gave the episode some extra sweetness.
But...: The episode was just lacking in really major laughs this week. That's the only reason why it wasn't as good as the past few.
The Bottom Line: Parks and Rec scores major laughs this week (Though not as major as previous weeks) with another solid episode on the campaign trail.
Grade: Totally Awesome! (Great)
Memorable Moments
-Ron: “When I eat, it is the food that is scared”
-Potential bowling handles for Tom before Ron just types in "Tom" are: T-Rex, T-Boz, Tommy Tsunami, Tiki Tiki Tom Tom, and Flyguy.
-Andy: "I don't think we're able to accept donations over 50 dollars".
-Jerry: "Millie's going to break up with Chris". Donna: "Shut Up!" Andy: “Oh my God, that’s gonna be super weird when they move in together.”
-April: "I wished for his happiness to go away. I may be a wizard."
-Andy: "What's that Champion? You need to go outside now? Come on. (He gets the dog and prepares to leave) Sorry. He hates awkward situations".
-Everyone booing Jerry after he announces Chris' break-up was a classic anti-Jerry moment.
-Randy: "The guy said he might press charges". Leslie: "Well, Randy I would like you to know that we will not be pressing charges". Randy: "Yeah, well that really wasn't an option".
-The end tag with Ron bowling a 300 playing like Tom, but refusing to be recognized for it was great. "I was never here and you will never speak of this again".
-Leslie is watching a focus group about her and becomes obsessed over one man's comment that he won't vote for her because she doesn't seem like the kind of person he'd go bowling with. Ben tries to get her to let it go, but she organizes a bowling event so she can get in touch with her voters. It seems fine until Ben realizes she personally invited the man who made a negative comment against her. Despite his efforts to get her to focus on other people and ignore the people who will dislike her, she spends a lot of time bowling with the man and even lets him win. When he still says he won't vote for her though, she gets angry and demands a rematch for his vote where she beats him easily. When the man says he'll just write bitch on his ballot, Ben punches him out. Later, Ben suggests that Leslie fires him so that she'll be cleared of the new scandal, but she refuses and when she goes to apologize, she winds up refusing to do that too because the guy was a jerk and she's not sorry Ben punched him out. This actually goes over well with the next focus group, who like her and Ben assures her that most voters just go with their gut.
-Meanwhile, Jerry has Andy, April, Donna, and Chris calling people for donations. He offers tickets to Pawnee's Monoplex for the person who raises the most money. Chris is excited by the prize and sets out to raise the most, and April decides to end Chris' happiness by raising more money than him. She winds up doing rather well, but everyone becomes distracted when Chris announces his intention to ask Jerry's daughter to move in with him, followed by Jerry telling everyone (except Chris) that Millicent intends to break up with Chris. Sure enough, Millicent shows up later and breaks up with him. April feels bad about this and after winning the contest, she later gives the movie tickets to Chris, along with an additional ticket so he can go to the movies with her and Andy. She also gives him a half-hug. Aww.
-At the bowling event, Ron gets frustrated by Tom bowling with two hands, despite being a man. He gets even more frustrated when this turns out to be a successful strategy and Tom starts winning. But when Tom gets a minor finger injury (though he treats it like a major one) and he has to bowl one-handed, he still succeeds.
I Liked This:
Bowling For Votes wasn't as spectacular as the past few episodes of Parks and Rec, but it was still a very good one. Like last week's episode, I bought into Leslie's fixation over the one comment, because we know by this point that she's the kind of person who gets obsessed by things like this. It was good to see them finally head to that bowling alley that they've previously established, but never visited and there was plenty of good moments there. I also liked the turn in Leslie's story with Ben punching out the voter and Leslie refusing to apologize for it. It was a neat twist and it worked nicely. And the other stuff at the bowling alley with Tom and Ron was a lot of fun. Especially the tidbit that the concession stand that only sells Hot Dogs and Hamburgers is Ron's favorite restaurant
As for the other plot, it was full of good moments (plus it appears Champion the Three-Legged Dog will be sticking around, which can only be good news), but it also served as a pretty big story for April. I enjoyed her efforts to thwart Chris, followed by her showing him some rare sympathy at the end. It's unlikely that this will lead to a major character change for April, but for now it gave the episode some extra sweetness.
But...: The episode was just lacking in really major laughs this week. That's the only reason why it wasn't as good as the past few.
The Bottom Line: Parks and Rec scores major laughs this week (Though not as major as previous weeks) with another solid episode on the campaign trail.
Grade: Totally Awesome! (Great)
Memorable Moments
-Ron: “When I eat, it is the food that is scared”
-Potential bowling handles for Tom before Ron just types in "Tom" are: T-Rex, T-Boz, Tommy Tsunami, Tiki Tiki Tom Tom, and Flyguy.
-Andy: "I don't think we're able to accept donations over 50 dollars".
-Jerry: "Millie's going to break up with Chris". Donna: "Shut Up!" Andy: “Oh my God, that’s gonna be super weird when they move in together.”
-April: "I wished for his happiness to go away. I may be a wizard."
-Andy: "What's that Champion? You need to go outside now? Come on. (He gets the dog and prepares to leave) Sorry. He hates awkward situations".
-Everyone booing Jerry after he announces Chris' break-up was a classic anti-Jerry moment.
-Randy: "The guy said he might press charges". Leslie: "Well, Randy I would like you to know that we will not be pressing charges". Randy: "Yeah, well that really wasn't an option".
-The end tag with Ron bowling a 300 playing like Tom, but refusing to be recognized for it was great. "I was never here and you will never speak of this again".
Sunday, 22 January 2012
30 Rock: Idiots Are People Two!
-Kelsey Grammar approaches Liz to tell her something is wrong with Pete. Liz goes to find Pete and finds him unconscious, with a plastic bag around his head, a belt around his neck, his pant pulled down, and a suggestive magazine on his lap. As he wakes up, he wonders what has happened. That's when we flashback 8 hours earlier.
-8 hours earlier, Liz is having breakfast with her new boyfriend Criss, when she sees on the news that Tracy has been involved in a offensive rant against the Gay Community. When she gets to work, she sees protestors around. After confronting Tracy, she agrees to issue an apology for him. But when she calls him an idiot in his apology and puts that out as the reason he said his rant, Tracy gets offended and so he organizes all the idiots to protest NBC. Soon a whole new protest (With people including Denise Richards) has begun. When Jack informs Liz that idiots are most of TGS' audience, she realizes she has to fix the situation. But she soon finds she has other, more pressing problems.
-Around the same time as the whole rant thing, Jack confronts Liz about her new boyfriend, which she hasn't told him about. Liz says she hasn't told Jack about Criss, because she knew he wouldn't approve of him for various reasons. Jack confirms this and tells her that the only way he would think of approving him would be if he met Criss. Liz won't let this happen, but as she eats lunch with him later, she keeps seeing Jack pointing out his flaws. She later begs Jack to give Criss his approval, but Jack won't. Later though, she learns from Criss that someone has given him a check to fund his hot dog food truck he had been wanting to start. She is happy
about this until she realizes the check was from Jack.
-Meanwhile, the janitor, angry over Tracy's rant, refuses to change the fluorescent light bulbs in Jenna's dressing room. Kenneth and Jenna sneak into the supply closet to get some but Kenneth accidentally breaks them. Kenneth panics because there's the danger of mercury gas being released, but Jenna calms him down and they leave to clean up the scene. But while they're gone, Pete sneaks in after downing liquor and sleeping pills to take a nap. When they come back and see him passed out, they panic, and Jenna calls in the oner person who can fix this: Kelsey Grammar.
-To Be Continued
I Liked This: Idiots Are People Two! was a good start to the first two-parter of 30 Rock's 6th season. I liked how they chose to handle Tracy Morgan's offensive rant, by shifting the focus from the gay community to the idiot community, which is a much better target for this show. Tracy's rant was funny, without actually being offensive (Though it was perhaps too mild) and the idea of him rallying all the idiots to protest NBC is a good one. I hope to see even more of this protest next week. Jack and Liz's story was a good one too, and one could see why Liz may not want Jack to meet her latest boyfriend. Jack's meddling has promise and it should be interesting to see how this is followed up on next week. And Jenna and Kenneth prove once again to be a good combination, and I'm looking forward to their full reunion with Kelsey Grammar.
But...: I'm aware this is a two-part episode, but I wish we had gotten more of Tracy's protest, and Jenna and Kenneth's dilemma. They were good stories, but by the end, I was left feeling like they were just set-up for the real stories.
The Bottom Line: Idiots Are People Two! was a solid second episode of the season and has me excited for next week's conclusion.
Grade: Awesome! (Good)
Memorable Moments
-Liz: "Why did you have to offend the gay community? It is the most organized of all the communities. They make the Japanese look like the Greeks!"
-Tracy's Rant: "Being gay is stupid! If you wanna see a Penis, take off your pants! If I got turned into a gay, I'd sit around all day and look at my own junk".
-Liz: "Now I'm heading home for a nooner, which is what I call having pancakes for lunch."
-Tracy: “How dare you? I am nonplussed. And that is the correct usage.”
-Tracy's idiot group decides to misremember movie quotes, like from Braveheart. Tracy: "You can take our freedom, unless you take our lives!"
-Jenna: “Imagine what the Internet would do with this. Maroney found in closet with unconscious married man and inbred virgin…again.”
-Kelsey Grammar: "I'm on my way. Any idea what bus I take to get there... cuz' I'm in Chinatown baby."
-Kenneth: "They'd kick me out of the page program faster than a fella can come up with folksy similes".
-Tracy's answering machine was the most over-the-top hilarious joke in the episode: "Hi, this is Tracy's cellphone. Dotcom, hold the steering wheel. I gotta leave my outgoing message. THUMP. What'd I just hit? Was that a person?! Is that paint or blood? Dotcom, this did not happen! We take this to our GRAVE!!!"
-Liz's extension spells ANIS.
-8 hours earlier, Liz is having breakfast with her new boyfriend Criss, when she sees on the news that Tracy has been involved in a offensive rant against the Gay Community. When she gets to work, she sees protestors around. After confronting Tracy, she agrees to issue an apology for him. But when she calls him an idiot in his apology and puts that out as the reason he said his rant, Tracy gets offended and so he organizes all the idiots to protest NBC. Soon a whole new protest (With people including Denise Richards) has begun. When Jack informs Liz that idiots are most of TGS' audience, she realizes she has to fix the situation. But she soon finds she has other, more pressing problems.
-Around the same time as the whole rant thing, Jack confronts Liz about her new boyfriend, which she hasn't told him about. Liz says she hasn't told Jack about Criss, because she knew he wouldn't approve of him for various reasons. Jack confirms this and tells her that the only way he would think of approving him would be if he met Criss. Liz won't let this happen, but as she eats lunch with him later, she keeps seeing Jack pointing out his flaws. She later begs Jack to give Criss his approval, but Jack won't. Later though, she learns from Criss that someone has given him a check to fund his hot dog food truck he had been wanting to start. She is happy
about this until she realizes the check was from Jack.
-Meanwhile, the janitor, angry over Tracy's rant, refuses to change the fluorescent light bulbs in Jenna's dressing room. Kenneth and Jenna sneak into the supply closet to get some but Kenneth accidentally breaks them. Kenneth panics because there's the danger of mercury gas being released, but Jenna calms him down and they leave to clean up the scene. But while they're gone, Pete sneaks in after downing liquor and sleeping pills to take a nap. When they come back and see him passed out, they panic, and Jenna calls in the oner person who can fix this: Kelsey Grammar.
-To Be Continued
I Liked This: Idiots Are People Two! was a good start to the first two-parter of 30 Rock's 6th season. I liked how they chose to handle Tracy Morgan's offensive rant, by shifting the focus from the gay community to the idiot community, which is a much better target for this show. Tracy's rant was funny, without actually being offensive (Though it was perhaps too mild) and the idea of him rallying all the idiots to protest NBC is a good one. I hope to see even more of this protest next week. Jack and Liz's story was a good one too, and one could see why Liz may not want Jack to meet her latest boyfriend. Jack's meddling has promise and it should be interesting to see how this is followed up on next week. And Jenna and Kenneth prove once again to be a good combination, and I'm looking forward to their full reunion with Kelsey Grammar.
But...: I'm aware this is a two-part episode, but I wish we had gotten more of Tracy's protest, and Jenna and Kenneth's dilemma. They were good stories, but by the end, I was left feeling like they were just set-up for the real stories.
The Bottom Line: Idiots Are People Two! was a solid second episode of the season and has me excited for next week's conclusion.
Grade: Awesome! (Good)
Memorable Moments
-Liz: "Why did you have to offend the gay community? It is the most organized of all the communities. They make the Japanese look like the Greeks!"
-Tracy's Rant: "Being gay is stupid! If you wanna see a Penis, take off your pants! If I got turned into a gay, I'd sit around all day and look at my own junk".
-Liz: "Now I'm heading home for a nooner, which is what I call having pancakes for lunch."
-Tracy: “How dare you? I am nonplussed. And that is the correct usage.”
-Tracy's idiot group decides to misremember movie quotes, like from Braveheart. Tracy: "You can take our freedom, unless you take our lives!"
-Jenna: “Imagine what the Internet would do with this. Maroney found in closet with unconscious married man and inbred virgin…again.”
-Kelsey Grammar: "I'm on my way. Any idea what bus I take to get there... cuz' I'm in Chinatown baby."
-Kenneth: "They'd kick me out of the page program faster than a fella can come up with folksy similes".
-Tracy's answering machine was the most over-the-top hilarious joke in the episode: "Hi, this is Tracy's cellphone. Dotcom, hold the steering wheel. I gotta leave my outgoing message. THUMP. What'd I just hit? Was that a person?! Is that paint or blood? Dotcom, this did not happen! We take this to our GRAVE!!!"
-Liz's extension spells ANIS.
Saturday, 21 January 2012
Parks and Recreation: Campaign Ad
What Happened, Yo!:
-Leslie attends a rally for her opponent in the city council race, Bobby Newport (Played by Paul Rudd!) of the Newport Family (They own Sweetums). When she talks to him, Bobby is confused about who she is, as he was under the impression he was running unopposed.
-With ads and posters endorsing Bobby Newport all over town, Ben gets the idea of making a campaign ad for Leslie and spending money to air it during halftime at the Pawnee/Eagleton Basketball game (which in Pawnee is bigger than the superbowl.). Ben wants to do an attack ad, but Leslie doesn't want to go negative. She proposes that they both make ads, and whoever has the better ad will get it aired. Leslie's ad is positive, but somewhat lame and doesn't even mention that she's running for City Council. Ben's attack ad is a lot better and everyone votes for it. Leslie seems to concede but later tackles Ben at the TV studio and prevents his ad from being shown, while not getting their money back. Leslie is confident in her decision, because she doesn't want to be negative, which Ben gets but he also tells her she needs to toughen up.
-Later, Ben and Leslie make an ad together, which uses footage from fake campaign ads Leslie made as a ten-year-old, and footage from Bobby Newport's current ads to illustrate what a better choice Leslie is, without being overtly negative. Bobby Newport doesn't like it though and requests they drop out of the race because he really wants the city council position. Leslie refuses and tells him to toughen up.
-Meanwhile, Chris gets Ron to shut down Public Works Projects for him, before somehw getting Ron to go to Lunch with him. Ron is confused by how Chris seems to be buddying up to hi. Donna suggests it's because Chris misses Ben and needs a friend, so Rong gets Kyle to do something with Chris. Chris reveals though that he was actually giving Ron a try out as assistant City Manager, as he needs to replace Ben. Chris says he'll be deciding in a couple months who will get the position.
-Also meanwhile, Andy concusses himself hanging up his gold record, and being told they have insurance, he and April visit the hospital. It turns out that Andy has numerous things wrong with him, so they make lots of appointments, but find out that even with insurance, they still owe 500 dollars. They decide to run from the bill, but Andy runs right into an ambulance.
I Liked This: I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Parks and Recreation has been on a real roll as of late. This was a really strong episode, with three really strong, really funny stories and featuring some big steps for Leslie's city council campaign and the introduction of a promising storyline for Ron. Paul Rudd was great in his first appearance as Bobby Newport, who is the perfect political opponent for Leslie. He's not a bad guy, but he thinks he can win the election just because he wants it. In addition, his status as a member of the Newport clan makes him already popular with the people of Pawnee, despite his obvious incompetence, and add in his 70 point lead, and Leslie will have quite the fight ahead for her, which I am thrilled to see.
But Paul Rudd wasn't the only great aspect of this episode. I found Leslie's conflict with Ben to be very natural and interesting. Of course, she would be reluctant to air an attack ad. And I also enjoyed how her positive ad turned out to be the inferior one, showing that she can't always succeed by doing things her way. But the joint campaign ad in the end was very good and made for a nice moment. And of course, the story was also full of great, funny moments. Ron's story with Chris was quite funny too, and serves a greater purpose. It'll be interesting to see if Ron becomes assistant city manager, especially if Leslie wins the election. Because what happens to the Parks department if their two leaders leave. Of all the stories though, the funniest had to be Andy and April's trip to the doctors. There was no higher purpose to this one besides illustrating how hilariously irresponsible Andy and April are. I laughed as Andy rattled off a list of fake symptoms, only to reveal that he also broke his thumb and their attempts to flee the hospital bill at the end, ending with Andy running into an ambulance was tops.
But...: No complaints.
The Bottom Line: Campaign Ad was another fantastic episode of Parks and Recreation. The season 4 master arc of Leslie running for City Council has allowed for all kinds of great stories, and now with Paul Rudd as her opponent, this trend should only continue.
Grade: Zounds! (Almost Perfect)
Memorable Moments
-Leslie: "He is attractive, and charming, and his family employs half the town. But, so what? I am a lifelong government bureaucrat who's well versed in the issues. And those are the kind of sexy qualifications that win elections".
-April: "Hey Ann, are you still a nurse or did they fire you because you slept with all the doctors?" Ann: "Do you wanna try that again?"
-Andy: "Technically I did smash my head area into the wall area."
-Ron: "Have you considered cutting the entire fire department? I have personally put out several local fires at no cost to the taxpayer."
-Andy tries to make an excuse for why he hit his head: "I was reading an encyclopedia and I tripped, or 'fell over', and hit my head or 'brain helmet'.
-Ron: "The important thing is, the dam is never happening, and your dream has been crushed". Chris: "We're very sorry". Ron: "I'm not. Good meeting".
-Tom: "When I bet on horses, I never lose. Why? I bet on all the horses."
-Andy takes an eye exam: E, H, 4, M, potato shape, coffee mug shape, smudge, smudge, middle finger, smudge, the rest are all smudges". April: "Oh my god, you drove us here".
-The scene with Ben, Tom, and Jerry all trying to say Bobby Newport in the most menacing way possible was classic.
-Ron is unsure how he went to lunch with Chris: "I don’t know what happened. I declined his invitation, he started laughing, and the next thing I knew we were at lunch. Did he drug me?"
-There were so many things crammed into Leslie's campaign ad, I'm not even going to bother to try to list them all. I remember Better Better Business Bureau, Less Libraries, and Find Gary the Toucan, but that's about it.
-Andy: "I got my ankles microwaved". April: "X-Rayed". Andy: "They took my blood away to use for science". April: "Cholesterol test". Andy: "April had her sinuses removed?" April: "Looked at". Andy: "Some guy looked at my weiner. Touched it. That was weird." April: "And that guy wasn't even a doctor". Andy: "That- what?"
-Leslie: "Ann, I painted your garage pink". Ann: "I did not ask you to do that".
-Andy: "Call an ambulance! A different ambulance, not the one I ran into!"
-Bobby Newport's lack of understanding about Leslie's commercial was also great. Leslie: "That girl is me as a 10-Year-Old". Bobby: "How did you do that?!"
-Leslie attends a rally for her opponent in the city council race, Bobby Newport (Played by Paul Rudd!) of the Newport Family (They own Sweetums). When she talks to him, Bobby is confused about who she is, as he was under the impression he was running unopposed.
-With ads and posters endorsing Bobby Newport all over town, Ben gets the idea of making a campaign ad for Leslie and spending money to air it during halftime at the Pawnee/Eagleton Basketball game (which in Pawnee is bigger than the superbowl.). Ben wants to do an attack ad, but Leslie doesn't want to go negative. She proposes that they both make ads, and whoever has the better ad will get it aired. Leslie's ad is positive, but somewhat lame and doesn't even mention that she's running for City Council. Ben's attack ad is a lot better and everyone votes for it. Leslie seems to concede but later tackles Ben at the TV studio and prevents his ad from being shown, while not getting their money back. Leslie is confident in her decision, because she doesn't want to be negative, which Ben gets but he also tells her she needs to toughen up.
-Later, Ben and Leslie make an ad together, which uses footage from fake campaign ads Leslie made as a ten-year-old, and footage from Bobby Newport's current ads to illustrate what a better choice Leslie is, without being overtly negative. Bobby Newport doesn't like it though and requests they drop out of the race because he really wants the city council position. Leslie refuses and tells him to toughen up.
-Meanwhile, Chris gets Ron to shut down Public Works Projects for him, before somehw getting Ron to go to Lunch with him. Ron is confused by how Chris seems to be buddying up to hi. Donna suggests it's because Chris misses Ben and needs a friend, so Rong gets Kyle to do something with Chris. Chris reveals though that he was actually giving Ron a try out as assistant City Manager, as he needs to replace Ben. Chris says he'll be deciding in a couple months who will get the position.
-Also meanwhile, Andy concusses himself hanging up his gold record, and being told they have insurance, he and April visit the hospital. It turns out that Andy has numerous things wrong with him, so they make lots of appointments, but find out that even with insurance, they still owe 500 dollars. They decide to run from the bill, but Andy runs right into an ambulance.
I Liked This: I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Parks and Recreation has been on a real roll as of late. This was a really strong episode, with three really strong, really funny stories and featuring some big steps for Leslie's city council campaign and the introduction of a promising storyline for Ron. Paul Rudd was great in his first appearance as Bobby Newport, who is the perfect political opponent for Leslie. He's not a bad guy, but he thinks he can win the election just because he wants it. In addition, his status as a member of the Newport clan makes him already popular with the people of Pawnee, despite his obvious incompetence, and add in his 70 point lead, and Leslie will have quite the fight ahead for her, which I am thrilled to see.
But Paul Rudd wasn't the only great aspect of this episode. I found Leslie's conflict with Ben to be very natural and interesting. Of course, she would be reluctant to air an attack ad. And I also enjoyed how her positive ad turned out to be the inferior one, showing that she can't always succeed by doing things her way. But the joint campaign ad in the end was very good and made for a nice moment. And of course, the story was also full of great, funny moments. Ron's story with Chris was quite funny too, and serves a greater purpose. It'll be interesting to see if Ron becomes assistant city manager, especially if Leslie wins the election. Because what happens to the Parks department if their two leaders leave. Of all the stories though, the funniest had to be Andy and April's trip to the doctors. There was no higher purpose to this one besides illustrating how hilariously irresponsible Andy and April are. I laughed as Andy rattled off a list of fake symptoms, only to reveal that he also broke his thumb and their attempts to flee the hospital bill at the end, ending with Andy running into an ambulance was tops.
But...: No complaints.
The Bottom Line: Campaign Ad was another fantastic episode of Parks and Recreation. The season 4 master arc of Leslie running for City Council has allowed for all kinds of great stories, and now with Paul Rudd as her opponent, this trend should only continue.
Grade: Zounds! (Almost Perfect)
Memorable Moments
-Leslie: "He is attractive, and charming, and his family employs half the town. But, so what? I am a lifelong government bureaucrat who's well versed in the issues. And those are the kind of sexy qualifications that win elections".
-April: "Hey Ann, are you still a nurse or did they fire you because you slept with all the doctors?" Ann: "Do you wanna try that again?"
-Andy: "Technically I did smash my head area into the wall area."
-Ron: "Have you considered cutting the entire fire department? I have personally put out several local fires at no cost to the taxpayer."
-Andy tries to make an excuse for why he hit his head: "I was reading an encyclopedia and I tripped, or 'fell over', and hit my head or 'brain helmet'.
-Ron: "The important thing is, the dam is never happening, and your dream has been crushed". Chris: "We're very sorry". Ron: "I'm not. Good meeting".
-Tom: "When I bet on horses, I never lose. Why? I bet on all the horses."
-Andy takes an eye exam: E, H, 4, M, potato shape, coffee mug shape, smudge, smudge, middle finger, smudge, the rest are all smudges". April: "Oh my god, you drove us here".
-The scene with Ben, Tom, and Jerry all trying to say Bobby Newport in the most menacing way possible was classic.
-Ron is unsure how he went to lunch with Chris: "I don’t know what happened. I declined his invitation, he started laughing, and the next thing I knew we were at lunch. Did he drug me?"
-There were so many things crammed into Leslie's campaign ad, I'm not even going to bother to try to list them all. I remember Better Better Business Bureau, Less Libraries, and Find Gary the Toucan, but that's about it.
-Andy: "I got my ankles microwaved". April: "X-Rayed". Andy: "They took my blood away to use for science". April: "Cholesterol test". Andy: "April had her sinuses removed?" April: "Looked at". Andy: "Some guy looked at my weiner. Touched it. That was weird." April: "And that guy wasn't even a doctor". Andy: "That- what?"
-Leslie: "Ann, I painted your garage pink". Ann: "I did not ask you to do that".
-Andy: "Call an ambulance! A different ambulance, not the one I ran into!"
-Bobby Newport's lack of understanding about Leslie's commercial was also great. Leslie: "That girl is me as a 10-Year-Old". Bobby: "How did you do that?!"
Friday, 20 January 2012
The Office: Pool Party
What Happened, Yo!:
-In the midst of his divorce, Robert is planning to sell his mansion, which he had bought with the intention of making it a playboy mansion-esque place before he got married and his wife took over. Kevin convinces him to throw a pool party for the office and Robert agrees, but he uses the term get together instead of party.
-Andy brings Jessica, who met his parents recently and was such a big hit with them, they gave Andy the family ring. Andy is unsure if he wants to use it though, but he keeps it in his pocket. Unfortunately, the ring is misplaced and Kelly finds it. In an attempt to get it back without revealing that it's his ring, Andy convinces Kelly that the ring brings bad luck since it must come from a failed marriage and tries to take it, but Kelly and Phyllis decide to destroy it by having a viking funeral for it.
-Meanwhile, Erin learns from Meredith that Andy had followed her home during Christmas Wishes. Deciding to make Andy jealous again, she starts trying to flirt with Dwight, who goes along with it because he assumes he was chosen for his manliness. Andy is so distracted by the search for his ring, he doesn't notice, so they start a bunch of chicken fights hoping to get Andy and Jessica involved. It's a while until that happens though, and Erin's efforts to win cause Dwight to pass out in the water. Later, Dwight tests Andy to see if he's truly over Erin and when Andy indicates he is, Dwight calls him an idiot. Erin finds Andy's ring in the pool, and recognizing his family crest returns it to him. Andy tells Erin he's really confused right now and Erin accepts it.
-Meanwhile Jim attempts to make a strong impression and leave early, but winds up trapped on a tour of Robert's mansion where Robert laments how his mansion never became what he wanted it to be thanks to his marriage. They go through all the rooms, consuming fancy wine as they do. When they get back to the pool though, Robert looks at the party before him and realizes that instead of lamenting the nights that never were, he should have been partaking in the night that was happening before him. He declares his get together a party, strips naked, and dives into the pool. Gabe and Ryan who have been brown nosing all night follow suit, and this event is enough to cause Jim to finally bolt from the party.
-And in a minor subplot that is still a continuation of an ongoing storyline, Daryl bonds with Val a bit, but becomes self-conscious when she goes into the pool and his upper flab hasn't gone away. He resists but eventually he jumps in the pool and joins in the fun.
I Liked This: I found Pool Party to be another strong episode of The Office Season 8. Robert California continues to be an outrageous, yet human character and I enjoyed both his tour through his home and his revelation at the end. I'd like to think that after this experience, he'll be closer with the Dunder Mifflin staff. I also enjoyed Gabe and Ryan's brown nosing, and Toby faking being a wine expert to impress Oscar. As for the other plots, Daryl's slow courtship of Val continues to be entertaining and a storyline worth investing my time in. I enjoyed Erin's attempts to get Andy jealous by flirting with Dwight, which turned out to be a funny combination. Andy and Erin's long-term relationship storyline has been pretty inconsistent ever since it began back in season 6, but I've been enjoying it more and more this season. I just hope we get a major development in this story, sooner rather than later.
But...: Jessica still just exists as a generic girlfriend character, so it's hard to view her as anything more than an obstacle at this point in the game. And much of the stuff with Andy's ring didn't do that much for me.
The Bottom Line: Pool Party was a strong, enjoyable episode of The Office with lots of good moments with the characters we (or at least I) have grown to love.
Grade: Totally Awesome! (Great)
Memorable Moments
-The cold open with Jim using meatballs for his pranks on Dwight to make Stanley laugh, started out funny and got even funnier when it was revealed that Dwight and Stanley were running a con to get free meatballs.
-Dwight: "We'll never have to buy meatballs again!"
-Andy: "I haven't proposed to anyone in years".
-Robert: "The ultimate insult? They're calling my speakeasy lounge a rumpus room".
-Robert: "The 1% are suffering too, people!"
-Val: "Does Daryl not swim?" Kevin: "That's racist!"
-Erin: "Andy's confused. That's not what I was hoping for, but it's not so bad either. I can live with confused. I get confused. I totally get confused."
-Oscar: "I am Bacchus, God of Wine!" Toby: "And I am Bacchus' friend!"
-Robert: "It's not a party if you don't do something that scares you".
-In the midst of his divorce, Robert is planning to sell his mansion, which he had bought with the intention of making it a playboy mansion-esque place before he got married and his wife took over. Kevin convinces him to throw a pool party for the office and Robert agrees, but he uses the term get together instead of party.
-Andy brings Jessica, who met his parents recently and was such a big hit with them, they gave Andy the family ring. Andy is unsure if he wants to use it though, but he keeps it in his pocket. Unfortunately, the ring is misplaced and Kelly finds it. In an attempt to get it back without revealing that it's his ring, Andy convinces Kelly that the ring brings bad luck since it must come from a failed marriage and tries to take it, but Kelly and Phyllis decide to destroy it by having a viking funeral for it.
-Meanwhile, Erin learns from Meredith that Andy had followed her home during Christmas Wishes. Deciding to make Andy jealous again, she starts trying to flirt with Dwight, who goes along with it because he assumes he was chosen for his manliness. Andy is so distracted by the search for his ring, he doesn't notice, so they start a bunch of chicken fights hoping to get Andy and Jessica involved. It's a while until that happens though, and Erin's efforts to win cause Dwight to pass out in the water. Later, Dwight tests Andy to see if he's truly over Erin and when Andy indicates he is, Dwight calls him an idiot. Erin finds Andy's ring in the pool, and recognizing his family crest returns it to him. Andy tells Erin he's really confused right now and Erin accepts it.
-Meanwhile Jim attempts to make a strong impression and leave early, but winds up trapped on a tour of Robert's mansion where Robert laments how his mansion never became what he wanted it to be thanks to his marriage. They go through all the rooms, consuming fancy wine as they do. When they get back to the pool though, Robert looks at the party before him and realizes that instead of lamenting the nights that never were, he should have been partaking in the night that was happening before him. He declares his get together a party, strips naked, and dives into the pool. Gabe and Ryan who have been brown nosing all night follow suit, and this event is enough to cause Jim to finally bolt from the party.
-And in a minor subplot that is still a continuation of an ongoing storyline, Daryl bonds with Val a bit, but becomes self-conscious when she goes into the pool and his upper flab hasn't gone away. He resists but eventually he jumps in the pool and joins in the fun.
I Liked This: I found Pool Party to be another strong episode of The Office Season 8. Robert California continues to be an outrageous, yet human character and I enjoyed both his tour through his home and his revelation at the end. I'd like to think that after this experience, he'll be closer with the Dunder Mifflin staff. I also enjoyed Gabe and Ryan's brown nosing, and Toby faking being a wine expert to impress Oscar. As for the other plots, Daryl's slow courtship of Val continues to be entertaining and a storyline worth investing my time in. I enjoyed Erin's attempts to get Andy jealous by flirting with Dwight, which turned out to be a funny combination. Andy and Erin's long-term relationship storyline has been pretty inconsistent ever since it began back in season 6, but I've been enjoying it more and more this season. I just hope we get a major development in this story, sooner rather than later.
But...: Jessica still just exists as a generic girlfriend character, so it's hard to view her as anything more than an obstacle at this point in the game. And much of the stuff with Andy's ring didn't do that much for me.
The Bottom Line: Pool Party was a strong, enjoyable episode of The Office with lots of good moments with the characters we (or at least I) have grown to love.
Grade: Totally Awesome! (Great)
Memorable Moments
-The cold open with Jim using meatballs for his pranks on Dwight to make Stanley laugh, started out funny and got even funnier when it was revealed that Dwight and Stanley were running a con to get free meatballs.
-Dwight: "We'll never have to buy meatballs again!"
-Andy: "I haven't proposed to anyone in years".
-Robert: "The ultimate insult? They're calling my speakeasy lounge a rumpus room".
-Robert: "The 1% are suffering too, people!"
-Val: "Does Daryl not swim?" Kevin: "That's racist!"
-Erin: "Andy's confused. That's not what I was hoping for, but it's not so bad either. I can live with confused. I get confused. I totally get confused."
-Oscar: "I am Bacchus, God of Wine!" Toby: "And I am Bacchus' friend!"
-Robert: "It's not a party if you don't do something that scares you".
Thursday, 19 January 2012
Happy Endings: Makin' Changes
Quicky Opinion: Makin' Changes was another solid Happy Endings episode. The whole V-Neck intervention plot was solid and I still enjoy the Alex/Max/Dave combination. Brad and Jane's conflict was pretty good too and the revelation that Jane was changed just as much as Brad was a welcome one. Penny trying to change a guy worked well too, especially with the twist of him getting back together with his ex-girlfriend. I would say that this episode wasn't quite as funny as the last too, but it was still quite funny. Grade: Awesome! (Good)
Memorable Moments
-Jane: "You always change to fit a guy". Penny: "No. Sometimes I change to fit a girl if she's got cute guy friends".
-Jane: "I'm gonna say this because I'm one of your best friends and I don't want to overstep, but every choice you make in your life about everything is monumentally wrong". Brad: "Hehehe. It's funny cuz' it's sad".
-Jane: "You deserve to have a guy change for you the way Brad changed for me". Brad: "I'm not gonna say 'what' again, but you know I'm thinking it".
-Brad: "So that whole changine me stuff you told Penny was just B.S slumber party pep talk period crap, right?"
-Jane: "Of course I loved old Brad. Just like how I loved those chairs your mother gave us that I had reupholstered, and refinished so they're unrecognizable.
-Max: "These people make me look like I have my life together".
-Max: "Oh my god, Alex. You understand what's happening here, right?" Alex: "Yes. Maybe. Let's say it at the same time".
-Alex: "Oh my god, that's 4 V's. That's almost 5".
-Penny: "It's like he's squatting in a vacant Bennigan?"
-Jeff: "I'm really into combo stuff right now? Like this beer sign? It's also my reading lamp."
-Dave: "I dunno. What's a baker's dozen?" Alex: "11!" Max: "13. (Looks at Alex) What?" Alex: "I think my baker's ripping me off."
-Brad bragging about Old Brad being back before slipping on pudding and falling into the mouse traps was great. It was even funnier the second time.
-Dave (mimicking a robot): "Humour mode activated". Max: "I don't know what that was." Alex: "I do. Denial".
-Penny: "You know what else they have here: other stuff!"
-Jane: "Old Brad din't take baths. He took showers because his tub was filled with 3-11 CD's." Brad: "Old Brad couldn't afford a CD rack?"
-Penny: "I have a super sexy idea. Why don't we go into the bathroom, take off your shirt?" Jeff: "Listening." Penny: "and shave your face and burn your hat".
-Max: "Hello. How were your quote unquote "errands" David?" Alex: "If that's even your real name".
-Max: "Why don't you take your coat off?" Alex: "If that's even a real coat."
-Max: "We're more disappointed than mad, David!"
-Penny: "I'm gonna start a blog. Or a twitter. Huh! And then it'll become a TV series starring Alyssa Millano." Alex: "Boy, I wish my last name was a cookie".
-Jeff: "Guess what? I'm engaged!"
-Penny: "And you would be doing what?" Jane: "Nothing wierd. Just blowing the scent of New Brad's favorite candle downstairs so Old Brad will admit he's better the way I made him".
-The pictures of Old Brad and Jane were also great.
-Alex: "Ooh, I'm so excited. An intervention. It's like having a surprise party for someone who's going to hate you".
-Max: "Don't be scared. This is exactly what it looks like: an inter-veen-tion". Alex: "I thought we were going with intervent-een". Max: "That really sounds better to you?"
-Dave: "And why is this guy here? You couldn't get any of my real friends to come to my fake intervention?" Scotty: "Admit that you have a problem, Doug!" Dave: "Doug? It's Dave".
-Phil: "Listen! This is really stupid, but I have an hour to kill before I got to go to a real intervention so.."
-Dave: "I was 11-years-old. i was being bullied by this fat kid, appropiately named Fat Harold".
-Scotty: "Guys, I think I have an addiction to vicodin".
-Three hours later Dave Rose relapsed. He was last seen roaming the outlet mall. Searching for that sweet V-Neck high.
Memorable Moments
-Jane: "You always change to fit a guy". Penny: "No. Sometimes I change to fit a girl if she's got cute guy friends".
-Jane: "I'm gonna say this because I'm one of your best friends and I don't want to overstep, but every choice you make in your life about everything is monumentally wrong". Brad: "Hehehe. It's funny cuz' it's sad".
-Jane: "You deserve to have a guy change for you the way Brad changed for me". Brad: "I'm not gonna say 'what' again, but you know I'm thinking it".
-Brad: "So that whole changine me stuff you told Penny was just B.S slumber party pep talk period crap, right?"
-Jane: "Of course I loved old Brad. Just like how I loved those chairs your mother gave us that I had reupholstered, and refinished so they're unrecognizable.
-Max: "These people make me look like I have my life together".
-Max: "Oh my god, Alex. You understand what's happening here, right?" Alex: "Yes. Maybe. Let's say it at the same time".
-Alex: "Oh my god, that's 4 V's. That's almost 5".
-Penny: "It's like he's squatting in a vacant Bennigan?"
-Jeff: "I'm really into combo stuff right now? Like this beer sign? It's also my reading lamp."
-Dave: "I dunno. What's a baker's dozen?" Alex: "11!" Max: "13. (Looks at Alex) What?" Alex: "I think my baker's ripping me off."
-Brad bragging about Old Brad being back before slipping on pudding and falling into the mouse traps was great. It was even funnier the second time.
-Dave (mimicking a robot): "Humour mode activated". Max: "I don't know what that was." Alex: "I do. Denial".
-Penny: "You know what else they have here: other stuff!"
-Jane: "Old Brad din't take baths. He took showers because his tub was filled with 3-11 CD's." Brad: "Old Brad couldn't afford a CD rack?"
-Penny: "I have a super sexy idea. Why don't we go into the bathroom, take off your shirt?" Jeff: "Listening." Penny: "and shave your face and burn your hat".
-Max: "Hello. How were your quote unquote "errands" David?" Alex: "If that's even your real name".
-Max: "Why don't you take your coat off?" Alex: "If that's even a real coat."
-Max: "We're more disappointed than mad, David!"
-Penny: "I'm gonna start a blog. Or a twitter. Huh! And then it'll become a TV series starring Alyssa Millano." Alex: "Boy, I wish my last name was a cookie".
-Jeff: "Guess what? I'm engaged!"
-Penny: "And you would be doing what?" Jane: "Nothing wierd. Just blowing the scent of New Brad's favorite candle downstairs so Old Brad will admit he's better the way I made him".
-The pictures of Old Brad and Jane were also great.
-Alex: "Ooh, I'm so excited. An intervention. It's like having a surprise party for someone who's going to hate you".
-Max: "Don't be scared. This is exactly what it looks like: an inter-veen-tion". Alex: "I thought we were going with intervent-een". Max: "That really sounds better to you?"
-Dave: "And why is this guy here? You couldn't get any of my real friends to come to my fake intervention?" Scotty: "Admit that you have a problem, Doug!" Dave: "Doug? It's Dave".
-Phil: "Listen! This is really stupid, but I have an hour to kill before I got to go to a real intervention so.."
-Dave: "I was 11-years-old. i was being bullied by this fat kid, appropiately named Fat Harold".
-Scotty: "Guys, I think I have an addiction to vicodin".
-Three hours later Dave Rose relapsed. He was last seen roaming the outlet mall. Searching for that sweet V-Neck high.
Glee: Yes/No
What Happened, Yo!:
-Emma and Sue find out that Beiste eloped over the holidays with Cooter (So much for that love triangle they were setting up.). Emma begins wishing that Will would propose and Sue suggests that Emma propose to him. She fantasizes about it but accidentally slips it out in front of Will, who decides that he's going to propose. In order to make it perfect, he assigns the Glee Club to come up with the perfect proposal song.
-Meanwhile Sam is still trying to get back Mercedes, but Mercedes keeps insisting that their relationship was just a summer fling. In an effort to impress her, Sam joins the only sports team with an open spot: synchronized swimming. As the club works on the assignment, Mercedes and a few of the other girls sing The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face and she thinks of Sam instead of her current boyfriend. The rest of the girls tell her to think about it and to take things slow and this storyline is left to be continued.
-Also meanwhile, Becky decides she is going to romance Artie and make him her boyfriend. Artie sort of asks out Sugar and gets rejected right before Becky comes along so he lets her watch him perform and later goes to dinner with him. While he defends his actions, saying he likes spending time with Becky, he gets nervous when she sends him a nude photo. When he tells Sue he really doesn't intend to see Becky again, Sue tells him to just straight up tell her and treat her like a normal person. Becky is hurt by the news, but Sue helps cheer her up.
-Will learns that Finn is planning to join the army, like his father before him. He alerts Finn's mom and Burt, who tell him that Finn's dad wasn't the hero Finn thinks he has. For some reason, Finn's dad was dishonorably discharged, and after coming home, he developed a drug addiction and died of an overdose. Finn is devastated by the news and left more unsure than ever. Later Finn, Rachel, and Kurt lament the future and how unsure they are of what's going to happen (NYADA letters are coming back and Rachel and Kurt are unlikely to get them.).
-Will, meanwhile asks Emma's parents for their blessing to marry Emma, but is shot down. They tell Will that she won't be able to handle marriage and all that stuff with her condition. Will starts having second thoughts and upsets Emma when he suggests she might not be able to handle the marriage. But, he later decides to go through with proposing and gets the Glee Club and the Synchronized Swimming Team to put on a big aquatic rendition of We Found Love, before he proposes. Emma accepts happily.
-Later Rachel meets Finn in the break room where he talks about how much he loves her before he straight out proposes to her. TWIST!
I Liked This: Yes/No was a solid episode to come back to the third season on. I'm glad that the writers are no longer dragging their feet on Emma and Will, by inserting more contrived drama to get between them. These two people love each other so why not marry them off? And even though it was obvious that Will would propose and Emma would accept, I did enjoy the scene between the two of them after Emma's parents plant doubt in Will's mind. Emma's OCD is serious and it's good to see the show tackle it honestly. As far as the other plots go, I was a bit worried at first with where Becky and Artie's storyline would go when I saw it in the previews, but it was actually very well-handled and entertaining. Hellen Mirren as Becky's voice-over was really funny, and it added extra weight to her final voice-over. It was nice to see softer Sue in this episode as well. Finn's story was also quite good. The idea that everything he thought he knew about his dad was a lie is a good one, and I liked how it led to the proposal I didn't see coming. Finn and Rachel are again two characters who should be together, and this proposal makes things extra interesting. Can't wait to see how she responds.
But...: First of all, Will makes finding a proposal song an assignment? Really?! Even for Will, this seemed like a serious misuse of authority. Secondly, I was a bit disappointed with how the love triangle storyline between Sue, Beiste.and Cooter was resolved before it could even get started. Really? They couldn't stretch that story out any further. And, for a person Mercedes is supposed to be serious about, we've seen barely anything between her and Shane that shows why she'd want to be with him over Sam. I actually forgot the character's name until she brought it up. That makes the love triangle storyline pretty one-sided. Hopefully they fix that soon. Those are my main quibbles. I also thought the Summer Nights number was rather unnecessary (though I'll admit it was entertaining), and I'm not sure about Syhnchronized Swim Coach Roz Washington. Her rant was funny, but her character came off as a clone of Sue Sylvester (minus the hatred of Glee Club). Hopefully, if she becomes a recurring character, her personality will become more distinctive because this show certainly doesn't need two Sue's. Those were my only issues though.
The Bottom Line: Yes/No was a fairly solid episode of Glee and a good one to start the second half of the season on. I can't wait to see where these characters go from here.
Grade: Awesome! (Good)
Memorable Moments
-Best Musical Number: We Found Love was good and flashy, but my favorite number this week was the smaller-scale, but incredibly emotionally effective The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face.
-Worst Musical Number: I did not care for Rachel's slow version of Without You. Santana and Artie's assesment of the song were pretty on the dot.
-Sue: "Well Michael Chiklis in a wig, I would like to offer my congratulations. I've been bested. I guess it's time to call Boreanaz."
-Becky's voice over: "I, Becky Faye Jackson, am the hottest bitch at McKinley High School. You may be wondering why I sound like the Queen of England. It's simple: in mind, I can sound like whomever I want. So lay off, haters".
-Roz Washington: "I've never seen lips like that on a white child, and one of your nipples is higher than the other."
-Sam: "Swimming is sexy". Finn: "Not if it's synchronized!"
-Sue: "You can maybe go one day without the driving gloves. It's a wheel chair Artie, not a Porsche".
-Artie jumping into the pool was pretty funny and I was glad to see that he wasn't putting himself in any danger.
-Also, how the hell did Will find the time to change into that fancy suit and get to the other side of the pool during the duration of We Found Love. That was ridiculous.
-Emma and Sue find out that Beiste eloped over the holidays with Cooter (So much for that love triangle they were setting up.). Emma begins wishing that Will would propose and Sue suggests that Emma propose to him. She fantasizes about it but accidentally slips it out in front of Will, who decides that he's going to propose. In order to make it perfect, he assigns the Glee Club to come up with the perfect proposal song.
-Meanwhile Sam is still trying to get back Mercedes, but Mercedes keeps insisting that their relationship was just a summer fling. In an effort to impress her, Sam joins the only sports team with an open spot: synchronized swimming. As the club works on the assignment, Mercedes and a few of the other girls sing The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face and she thinks of Sam instead of her current boyfriend. The rest of the girls tell her to think about it and to take things slow and this storyline is left to be continued.
-Also meanwhile, Becky decides she is going to romance Artie and make him her boyfriend. Artie sort of asks out Sugar and gets rejected right before Becky comes along so he lets her watch him perform and later goes to dinner with him. While he defends his actions, saying he likes spending time with Becky, he gets nervous when she sends him a nude photo. When he tells Sue he really doesn't intend to see Becky again, Sue tells him to just straight up tell her and treat her like a normal person. Becky is hurt by the news, but Sue helps cheer her up.
-Will learns that Finn is planning to join the army, like his father before him. He alerts Finn's mom and Burt, who tell him that Finn's dad wasn't the hero Finn thinks he has. For some reason, Finn's dad was dishonorably discharged, and after coming home, he developed a drug addiction and died of an overdose. Finn is devastated by the news and left more unsure than ever. Later Finn, Rachel, and Kurt lament the future and how unsure they are of what's going to happen (NYADA letters are coming back and Rachel and Kurt are unlikely to get them.).
-Will, meanwhile asks Emma's parents for their blessing to marry Emma, but is shot down. They tell Will that she won't be able to handle marriage and all that stuff with her condition. Will starts having second thoughts and upsets Emma when he suggests she might not be able to handle the marriage. But, he later decides to go through with proposing and gets the Glee Club and the Synchronized Swimming Team to put on a big aquatic rendition of We Found Love, before he proposes. Emma accepts happily.
-Later Rachel meets Finn in the break room where he talks about how much he loves her before he straight out proposes to her. TWIST!
I Liked This: Yes/No was a solid episode to come back to the third season on. I'm glad that the writers are no longer dragging their feet on Emma and Will, by inserting more contrived drama to get between them. These two people love each other so why not marry them off? And even though it was obvious that Will would propose and Emma would accept, I did enjoy the scene between the two of them after Emma's parents plant doubt in Will's mind. Emma's OCD is serious and it's good to see the show tackle it honestly. As far as the other plots go, I was a bit worried at first with where Becky and Artie's storyline would go when I saw it in the previews, but it was actually very well-handled and entertaining. Hellen Mirren as Becky's voice-over was really funny, and it added extra weight to her final voice-over. It was nice to see softer Sue in this episode as well. Finn's story was also quite good. The idea that everything he thought he knew about his dad was a lie is a good one, and I liked how it led to the proposal I didn't see coming. Finn and Rachel are again two characters who should be together, and this proposal makes things extra interesting. Can't wait to see how she responds.
But...: First of all, Will makes finding a proposal song an assignment? Really?! Even for Will, this seemed like a serious misuse of authority. Secondly, I was a bit disappointed with how the love triangle storyline between Sue, Beiste.and Cooter was resolved before it could even get started. Really? They couldn't stretch that story out any further. And, for a person Mercedes is supposed to be serious about, we've seen barely anything between her and Shane that shows why she'd want to be with him over Sam. I actually forgot the character's name until she brought it up. That makes the love triangle storyline pretty one-sided. Hopefully they fix that soon. Those are my main quibbles. I also thought the Summer Nights number was rather unnecessary (though I'll admit it was entertaining), and I'm not sure about Syhnchronized Swim Coach Roz Washington. Her rant was funny, but her character came off as a clone of Sue Sylvester (minus the hatred of Glee Club). Hopefully, if she becomes a recurring character, her personality will become more distinctive because this show certainly doesn't need two Sue's. Those were my only issues though.
The Bottom Line: Yes/No was a fairly solid episode of Glee and a good one to start the second half of the season on. I can't wait to see where these characters go from here.
Grade: Awesome! (Good)
Memorable Moments
-Best Musical Number: We Found Love was good and flashy, but my favorite number this week was the smaller-scale, but incredibly emotionally effective The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face.
-Worst Musical Number: I did not care for Rachel's slow version of Without You. Santana and Artie's assesment of the song were pretty on the dot.
-Sue: "Well Michael Chiklis in a wig, I would like to offer my congratulations. I've been bested. I guess it's time to call Boreanaz."
-Becky's voice over: "I, Becky Faye Jackson, am the hottest bitch at McKinley High School. You may be wondering why I sound like the Queen of England. It's simple: in mind, I can sound like whomever I want. So lay off, haters".
-Roz Washington: "I've never seen lips like that on a white child, and one of your nipples is higher than the other."
-Sam: "Swimming is sexy". Finn: "Not if it's synchronized!"
-Sue: "You can maybe go one day without the driving gloves. It's a wheel chair Artie, not a Porsche".
-Artie jumping into the pool was pretty funny and I was glad to see that he wasn't putting himself in any danger.
-Also, how the hell did Will find the time to change into that fancy suit and get to the other side of the pool during the duration of We Found Love. That was ridiculous.
Tuesday, 17 January 2012
Alcatraz: Pilot/Ernest Cobb
Last night, Fox debuted J.J Abram's new show Alcatraz. I never wound up watching J.J Abram's Person of Interest show like I had intended, but I was psyched for Alcatraz. And I still AM psyched for Alcatraz after last night's series premiere. Since it was the series debut and two distinct episodes, I'm going to break format a little to talk about it.
Alcatraz has a high concept premise. In 1963, 302 prisoners and guards mysteriously vanished from island prison Alcatraz. Now in present day, they're popping up again having not aged at all somehow. Detective Rebecca Madsen discovers this while investigating a case and gets drafted onto a secret Government task force along with Alcatraz expert Dr. Diego Soto, which is charged with tracking down and recapturing these criminals. The task force is headed up by the mysterious Emerson Hauser, who knows more about what's happening then what he's saying. In addition, Rebecca learns she has a personal connection to what's going on: her grandfather was one of the prisoners who disappeared and he's responsible for the death of her partner. Interesting stuff.
The pilot episode sets up everything I've mentioned above and a couple other things (Emerson has an assistant, Lucy, and Rebecca has a surrogate uncle who was a former guard at Alcatraz. Oh, and Emerson was one of the two prison guards who discovered that the prisoners had gone missing.) and does it rather well. It gives us a basic formula for episodes going forward: the task force takes on a prisoner of the week, flashbacks reveal background about the prisoner and their time in Alcatraz, and we get some smatterings of mythology and character development on the side. It's a good formula, for now at least, and it gives plenty of opportunity for some interesting stories. So that's the basics of Alcatraz. But how were the episodes that aired last night?
Well, for starters, I'm glad Fox aired two episodes instead of one, because Ernest Cobb got me a lot more excited for the show than the pilot did. Don't get me wrong. The pilot was a nice, solid episode of television. It set-up everything, and got me invested in what was happening, but it just seemed to be missing a spark. There was no real 'wow' factor to the proceedings. No big twists to really get me hooked. (Well, the twist that Rebecca's grandfather was the criminal who caused her partner's death came pretty close to doing the job, but not quite.). It was still good and still made me want to see the next episode but wasn't enough to make me want to commit to watching the whole season.
But Ernest Cobb was enough to make me want to tune in for sure. It offered plenty of character development as Doc Soto began to grasp the reality of the situation he was now in (with some great acting from Jorge Garcia, who was one of the reasons I was excited for this show). It had a more compelling villain (And the prisoner from the pilot was pretty compelling to begin with) with Ernest Cobb, the psychotic sniper with a serious desire to be alone and some also serious abandonment issues. It also put one of our characters (Lucy) in life-threatening danger, which helps remind us that they're not dealing with your average run-of-the-mill criminals. Putting Lucy in danger also allowed us to see a different side of Emerson Hauser, and showing that there is more to him than just the mysterious government agent who used to be a prison guard. And of course, the episode provided a huge twist at the end that the pilot lacked: Lucy was apparently alive in Alcatraz times, looking exactly the same as she was now!
Overall, I quite enjoyed the Alcatraz premiere event. I find Rebecca and Doc to be good characters and I'm interested in their journey. Plus the sci-fi serial elements should help make this show more than just your typical procedural drama. The pilot was good, though lacking, and episode 2 was a lot better. Anyhow, I'm now super excited for next weeks episode and can't wait to watch this show all season (and hopefully talk about it on this blog all season.)
Pilot Grade: I was going to go with Enjoyable Enough (Pretty Good), but on second thought, it was just plain Awesome! (Good)
Ernest Cobb Grade: Totally Awesome! (Great)
Alcatraz has a high concept premise. In 1963, 302 prisoners and guards mysteriously vanished from island prison Alcatraz. Now in present day, they're popping up again having not aged at all somehow. Detective Rebecca Madsen discovers this while investigating a case and gets drafted onto a secret Government task force along with Alcatraz expert Dr. Diego Soto, which is charged with tracking down and recapturing these criminals. The task force is headed up by the mysterious Emerson Hauser, who knows more about what's happening then what he's saying. In addition, Rebecca learns she has a personal connection to what's going on: her grandfather was one of the prisoners who disappeared and he's responsible for the death of her partner. Interesting stuff.
The pilot episode sets up everything I've mentioned above and a couple other things (Emerson has an assistant, Lucy, and Rebecca has a surrogate uncle who was a former guard at Alcatraz. Oh, and Emerson was one of the two prison guards who discovered that the prisoners had gone missing.) and does it rather well. It gives us a basic formula for episodes going forward: the task force takes on a prisoner of the week, flashbacks reveal background about the prisoner and their time in Alcatraz, and we get some smatterings of mythology and character development on the side. It's a good formula, for now at least, and it gives plenty of opportunity for some interesting stories. So that's the basics of Alcatraz. But how were the episodes that aired last night?
Well, for starters, I'm glad Fox aired two episodes instead of one, because Ernest Cobb got me a lot more excited for the show than the pilot did. Don't get me wrong. The pilot was a nice, solid episode of television. It set-up everything, and got me invested in what was happening, but it just seemed to be missing a spark. There was no real 'wow' factor to the proceedings. No big twists to really get me hooked. (Well, the twist that Rebecca's grandfather was the criminal who caused her partner's death came pretty close to doing the job, but not quite.). It was still good and still made me want to see the next episode but wasn't enough to make me want to commit to watching the whole season.
But Ernest Cobb was enough to make me want to tune in for sure. It offered plenty of character development as Doc Soto began to grasp the reality of the situation he was now in (with some great acting from Jorge Garcia, who was one of the reasons I was excited for this show). It had a more compelling villain (And the prisoner from the pilot was pretty compelling to begin with) with Ernest Cobb, the psychotic sniper with a serious desire to be alone and some also serious abandonment issues. It also put one of our characters (Lucy) in life-threatening danger, which helps remind us that they're not dealing with your average run-of-the-mill criminals. Putting Lucy in danger also allowed us to see a different side of Emerson Hauser, and showing that there is more to him than just the mysterious government agent who used to be a prison guard. And of course, the episode provided a huge twist at the end that the pilot lacked: Lucy was apparently alive in Alcatraz times, looking exactly the same as she was now!
Overall, I quite enjoyed the Alcatraz premiere event. I find Rebecca and Doc to be good characters and I'm interested in their journey. Plus the sci-fi serial elements should help make this show more than just your typical procedural drama. The pilot was good, though lacking, and episode 2 was a lot better. Anyhow, I'm now super excited for next weeks episode and can't wait to watch this show all season (and hopefully talk about it on this blog all season.)
Pilot Grade: I was going to go with Enjoyable Enough (Pretty Good), but on second thought, it was just plain Awesome! (Good)
Ernest Cobb Grade: Totally Awesome! (Great)
How I Met Your Mother: 46 Minutes
What Happened, Yo!:
-Marshall and Lily finally move to Long Island, leaving Ted, Robin, and Barney depressed that they won't hang out with them as often and afraid that they'll eventually just drift apart. Barney becomes undepressed though, when he realizes that no Marshall and Lily mean no married couple to oppose his awesome ideas. He declares himself the new leader of the group (complete with a re-imagined title sequence) and suggests they go to a strip club. Ted agrees, and so do Robin and Kevin who are in a game of new relationship chicken (Doing things they don't want to do so they don't seem boring.)
-At the strip club, Barney runs into Lily's stripper Doppleganger and decides she's the new Lily. When it turns out she has a tough Russian boyfriend, Barney makes him the new Marshall. Ted won't go with this at first, but when Marshall and Lily don't take his calls (unbeknownst to him, their cell reception is out), he gets drunk and happily embraces New Marshall and Lily. So the gang follows the pair to an underground poker game in a mostly abandoned insane asylum, where Ted almost gets himself killed (Bragging about his winnings and bluffs, plus nicknaming most of the other players), and then to a "party" at a slaughterhouse where Ted convinces the gang to give them 200 dollars for cover charges, only to realize to late they've been robbed.
-Meanwhile Lily's dad Mickey has been staying with Lily and Marshall, and refuses to leave, being pushy and giving them unwanted advice about how to do things in their new home (which is Mickey's old home). When they finally demand that he leave, he tampers with the fuse box and taunts Marshall through an intercom system he installed as Marshall navigates his way through the pitch black house. After Marshall falls down the basement steps, Lily convinces Mickey to help Marshall reach the fuse box instead of impede him. Marshall is successful (And the adventure of him trying to reach the fuse box leads to Aldrin Game's one successful board game: Lights Out) and Mickey finally agrees to leave, but Lily says he can stay for a while. He says he'll only be there a couple weeks top but we learn that that's not true.
-After being robbed, Ted apologizes for being drunk and naive, and says that he misses Marshall and Lily. Barney also admits that he misses Marshall and Lily. Ted decides that they should just make the 46-minute trip to be with them and they all agree, except Kevin who finally ends the game of New Relationship Chicken, much to Robin's relief. So they all go to Long Island and spend time with Marshall and Lily. Future Ted closes the episode by saying that although they weren't always at their regular booth at the bar, their real booth was wherever the five of them were together.
I Liked This: 46 Minutes was the 150th episode of How I Met Your Mother, and as a milestone episode, it didn't disappoint. I'm glad that the writers seem to be sticking with Marshall and Lily moving to Long Island, and it led to some good material here. I was excited by the return of Stripper Lily and the introduction of her intimidating boyfriend, and the entire scene at the poker game was hysterical. I enjoyed Ted and his willingness to go along with Stripper Lily and her boyfriend. His Naivety was great here. The idea of New Relationship Chicken was a fun one and I enjoyed seeing the escalation of events up to the point where Kevin decides to say No to him going to Long Island. And of course, I liked the emotional throughline of the episode and how it ends with the gang all together, which was touching.
But...: It wasn't that bad, but the subplot with Lily's father didn't do that much for me as a storyline (Though it had it's moments. I appreciated the horror-movie vibe given off here).
The Bottom Line: 46 Minutes was a splendid episode of How I Met Your Mother with lots of laugh and a nice ending. Definitely worthy of being episode 150.
Grade: Totally Awesome! (Great)
Memorable Moments
-I loved both variations on the theme song, though the best one was probably the second one with Stipper Lily and her boyfriend.
-Ted: "It's like when they cancelled Party of Five for the second time. I mean when they cancelled... sports."
-Barney: "I'm your two best friends!"
-Ted's Empire State Building made out of poker chips was great. As was his parody tune "We Built Chip City".
-Why does everyone at the poker game get a nickname except Larry (who has such features as an eyepatch, a handlebar mustache and a ferret)? "You have too many things. You only get one thing!"
-Ted gives the 200 dollars to get into the "Yankee Coca-Cola" party because it "totally sounds like a real thing". Oh Ted.
-Marshall and Lily finally move to Long Island, leaving Ted, Robin, and Barney depressed that they won't hang out with them as often and afraid that they'll eventually just drift apart. Barney becomes undepressed though, when he realizes that no Marshall and Lily mean no married couple to oppose his awesome ideas. He declares himself the new leader of the group (complete with a re-imagined title sequence) and suggests they go to a strip club. Ted agrees, and so do Robin and Kevin who are in a game of new relationship chicken (Doing things they don't want to do so they don't seem boring.)
-At the strip club, Barney runs into Lily's stripper Doppleganger and decides she's the new Lily. When it turns out she has a tough Russian boyfriend, Barney makes him the new Marshall. Ted won't go with this at first, but when Marshall and Lily don't take his calls (unbeknownst to him, their cell reception is out), he gets drunk and happily embraces New Marshall and Lily. So the gang follows the pair to an underground poker game in a mostly abandoned insane asylum, where Ted almost gets himself killed (Bragging about his winnings and bluffs, plus nicknaming most of the other players), and then to a "party" at a slaughterhouse where Ted convinces the gang to give them 200 dollars for cover charges, only to realize to late they've been robbed.
-Meanwhile Lily's dad Mickey has been staying with Lily and Marshall, and refuses to leave, being pushy and giving them unwanted advice about how to do things in their new home (which is Mickey's old home). When they finally demand that he leave, he tampers with the fuse box and taunts Marshall through an intercom system he installed as Marshall navigates his way through the pitch black house. After Marshall falls down the basement steps, Lily convinces Mickey to help Marshall reach the fuse box instead of impede him. Marshall is successful (And the adventure of him trying to reach the fuse box leads to Aldrin Game's one successful board game: Lights Out) and Mickey finally agrees to leave, but Lily says he can stay for a while. He says he'll only be there a couple weeks top but we learn that that's not true.
-After being robbed, Ted apologizes for being drunk and naive, and says that he misses Marshall and Lily. Barney also admits that he misses Marshall and Lily. Ted decides that they should just make the 46-minute trip to be with them and they all agree, except Kevin who finally ends the game of New Relationship Chicken, much to Robin's relief. So they all go to Long Island and spend time with Marshall and Lily. Future Ted closes the episode by saying that although they weren't always at their regular booth at the bar, their real booth was wherever the five of them were together.
I Liked This: 46 Minutes was the 150th episode of How I Met Your Mother, and as a milestone episode, it didn't disappoint. I'm glad that the writers seem to be sticking with Marshall and Lily moving to Long Island, and it led to some good material here. I was excited by the return of Stripper Lily and the introduction of her intimidating boyfriend, and the entire scene at the poker game was hysterical. I enjoyed Ted and his willingness to go along with Stripper Lily and her boyfriend. His Naivety was great here. The idea of New Relationship Chicken was a fun one and I enjoyed seeing the escalation of events up to the point where Kevin decides to say No to him going to Long Island. And of course, I liked the emotional throughline of the episode and how it ends with the gang all together, which was touching.
But...: It wasn't that bad, but the subplot with Lily's father didn't do that much for me as a storyline (Though it had it's moments. I appreciated the horror-movie vibe given off here).
The Bottom Line: 46 Minutes was a splendid episode of How I Met Your Mother with lots of laugh and a nice ending. Definitely worthy of being episode 150.
Grade: Totally Awesome! (Great)
Memorable Moments
-I loved both variations on the theme song, though the best one was probably the second one with Stipper Lily and her boyfriend.
-Ted: "It's like when they cancelled Party of Five for the second time. I mean when they cancelled... sports."
-Barney: "I'm your two best friends!"
-Ted's Empire State Building made out of poker chips was great. As was his parody tune "We Built Chip City".
-Why does everyone at the poker game get a nickname except Larry (who has such features as an eyepatch, a handlebar mustache and a ferret)? "You have too many things. You only get one thing!"
-Ted gives the 200 dollars to get into the "Yankee Coca-Cola" party because it "totally sounds like a real thing". Oh Ted.
Monday, 16 January 2012
Memorable Moments: The Simpsons: The D'oh-cial Network
Quicky Opinion: The D'oh-cial Network wasn't the best episode of this season, but it still brought the laughs to the table. I was glad to see it was more targeting Facebook than The Social Network, as a complete parody of that movie would feel pretty dated at this point. I liked the framing device that the whole story was set around and the general plot. But, you would think The Simpsons would be able to come up with more material for a show targeting Facebook. There were two filler segments at the end, for crying out loud (Though those were both pretty funny). So not The Simpsons best effort this season, but still one with plenty of funny moments. Quicky Grade: Enjoyable Enough (Pretty Good)
Memorable Moments
-Chalkboard: We Do Need No Education
-The Couch Gag with the family rushing to make an appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman was quite enjoyable.
-Blue-Haired Lawyer: "Lisa Simpson, your actions have brought devastation upon this town. And all because of your selfish desire to be accepted by others".
-Homer: "Leave her alone! That's my only talking daughter!"
-Blue-Haired Lawyer: "Your honor, I would like to request that everyone in the court in their minds picture what the witness is describing". Judge Snyder: "I'll allow it. But no flights of fancy".
-Lisa: "Like all too many stories about my family, it began with somebody watching television".
-Marge: "Homie, stop watching the movie in the other people's car". Homer: " Ooh, but I'm invested in the characters!"
-Homer: "Marge, if you were married to Da Vinci, you wouldn't tell him not to Da Vinch".
-Stores in the new mall include Nothing Under A Thousand, Nouveau Bitch, and Banana Dictatorship.
-Lisa: "I kinda just want to create my own thing. Do you sell any plain sets?" Blocko Store Clerk: "No. We do all the imagining for you". Lisa: "Eh, well I'll just buy one of these and build something different". Blocko Store Clerk: "You do and you better build yourself a lawyer".
-Blue-Haired Lawyer: "Ms. Simpson, does the court really need to hear everything that happened in every store your family visited?" Lisa: "Trust me, I've left a lot out and cleaned up the swears".
-Mapple Store Clerk: "Yep, the lightest, most desirable computer in the world- for the next three weeks- The Mapple Void".
-Homer: "I'll take it, provided you charge me for services Google offers for free". Mapple Store Clerk: "I already have". Homer: "Suh-weet".
-Homer downloading The Complete Works of Shakespeare was a funny joke made funnier with him flexing and saying "Now, who's the greatest writer of all time?"
-The entire sequence which follows after Bart advises Lisa not to use the word conundrum, only to get overheard by Jimbo, beaten up by Jimbo, gets out of the situation when Martin Prince becomes a better target, and helps Jimbo beat up Martin was great.
-Ralph likes ice cream as food and a pillow.
-Lisa: "What if I started an online meeting place where all are equal and I am the undisputed centre?"
-Lisa: "Since I had no friends, I assembled a motley crew of the friendless to help put together my social network. Did we become friends? No."
-Springfield Elementary Computer Lab: Proud Home of the Commodore 64"
-Nelson: "The only way I would be your friend is if I could click a box under a picture saying Accept Friendship Request From.
-Jimbo: "I just got invited to make out with Shauna. See?" Dolph: "That went out to 200 guys". Jimbo: "Aw." Dolph: "And 7 girls". Jimbo: "Ahh."
-Ralph: "All my friends have birthdays this year".
-Skinner: "Doggone it. I'm less popular than the hornet's nest in the gym". Chalmers: "You said you were getting rid of that nest. Skinner: "Uhm, We trade the honey for chalk and yard sticks". Chalmers: "Hornets make honey?" Skinner: "Better than Wasp honey. Not as good as Bee". Chalmers: "Is this how you talk on dates?" Skinner: "I wish my dates were this interesting".
-Lisa: "I have 1000 friends! And only 8 of them are Milhouse!" Bart: "1000 kids? If you got each of them to send you a dollar, you'd be a millionaire!"
-Lisa: "I created something popular!" Homer: "And I created something that created something popular!" Abe: "And I created an alcoholic hippo!" Homer: "You never showed it to me!" Abe: "A stupid alcoholic hippo." Homer: "I still wanna see it". Abe: "There is no Hippo!" Homer: Then why did you say it?" Abe: "Because you're the hippo!" Homer: "Are you just saying that because you don't want me to see the hippo?" Abe: "I don't have a hippo!"
-Part of Homer's drunk SpringFace message to Marge: "...Counting the moments to closing time until I can stumble home to you. Another round Moe. Uh-oh. Did I type that? Delete! Delete! Hmm, typing delete does not delete."
-Lenny: "Uh-oh. Bernice Hibbert keeps liking Bumblebee Man's posts. That's how it staarts".
-Lisa: "Friend, friend, awaiting reply, friend".
-Lisa: "I have 1000 friends and I feel more alone than ever". Ralph on Playground Spinny Thing: "Wee!" Lisa: "I am trying to set a mood here". Ralph: "Wee..."
-I appreciated the joke about Ask Jeeves.
-Blue Haired Lawyer (Apparently also known as Burn's Lawyer): "And so Springface became too big to control. Just like the 60 ft. baby in my self-published novel: The 60 Ft. Baby. Order it online now while you can still cheat the Government on sale's tax."
-Lenny: "I don't know how to use the phone on my phone".
-Lisa: "I had a friend in common with Malcolm Gladwell!" Blue-Haired Lawyer: "He friends everybody".
-Bart: "We don't need your crummy website. We can make anything into guns".
-Janey: "Lisa, Lisa! Wanna play Marco Polo with us? We just realized you don't have to play in a pool!"
-End Captions: Principal Skinner Was Convicted of Selling Hornet Honey as Bee Honey. Mr. Burns received a payment of $35 Million Dollars even though he didn't do anything. Groundskeeper Willie was not in this episode. Lisa learned that it's not how many SpringFace friends you have, what matters is how many followers you have on SpringTwit. Kearney's Avatar died in Vietnam.
-The end thing with Patty and Selma against the Winklevoss Twins (Voiced by Armie Hammer) was also great.
-So was The Simpson's Show's Too Short Story. Especially Skinner's moral getting undercut by another Bart prank.
Memorable Moments
-Chalkboard: We Do Need No Education
-The Couch Gag with the family rushing to make an appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman was quite enjoyable.
-Blue-Haired Lawyer: "Lisa Simpson, your actions have brought devastation upon this town. And all because of your selfish desire to be accepted by others".
-Homer: "Leave her alone! That's my only talking daughter!"
-Blue-Haired Lawyer: "Your honor, I would like to request that everyone in the court in their minds picture what the witness is describing". Judge Snyder: "I'll allow it. But no flights of fancy".
-Lisa: "Like all too many stories about my family, it began with somebody watching television".
-Marge: "Homie, stop watching the movie in the other people's car". Homer: " Ooh, but I'm invested in the characters!"
-Homer: "Marge, if you were married to Da Vinci, you wouldn't tell him not to Da Vinch".
-Stores in the new mall include Nothing Under A Thousand, Nouveau Bitch, and Banana Dictatorship.
-Lisa: "I kinda just want to create my own thing. Do you sell any plain sets?" Blocko Store Clerk: "No. We do all the imagining for you". Lisa: "Eh, well I'll just buy one of these and build something different". Blocko Store Clerk: "You do and you better build yourself a lawyer".
-Blue-Haired Lawyer: "Ms. Simpson, does the court really need to hear everything that happened in every store your family visited?" Lisa: "Trust me, I've left a lot out and cleaned up the swears".
-Mapple Store Clerk: "Yep, the lightest, most desirable computer in the world- for the next three weeks- The Mapple Void".
-Homer: "I'll take it, provided you charge me for services Google offers for free". Mapple Store Clerk: "I already have". Homer: "Suh-weet".
-Homer downloading The Complete Works of Shakespeare was a funny joke made funnier with him flexing and saying "Now, who's the greatest writer of all time?"
-The entire sequence which follows after Bart advises Lisa not to use the word conundrum, only to get overheard by Jimbo, beaten up by Jimbo, gets out of the situation when Martin Prince becomes a better target, and helps Jimbo beat up Martin was great.
-Ralph likes ice cream as food and a pillow.
-Lisa: "What if I started an online meeting place where all are equal and I am the undisputed centre?"
-Lisa: "Since I had no friends, I assembled a motley crew of the friendless to help put together my social network. Did we become friends? No."
-Springfield Elementary Computer Lab: Proud Home of the Commodore 64"
-Nelson: "The only way I would be your friend is if I could click a box under a picture saying Accept Friendship Request From.
-Jimbo: "I just got invited to make out with Shauna. See?" Dolph: "That went out to 200 guys". Jimbo: "Aw." Dolph: "And 7 girls". Jimbo: "Ahh."
-Ralph: "All my friends have birthdays this year".
-Skinner: "Doggone it. I'm less popular than the hornet's nest in the gym". Chalmers: "You said you were getting rid of that nest. Skinner: "Uhm, We trade the honey for chalk and yard sticks". Chalmers: "Hornets make honey?" Skinner: "Better than Wasp honey. Not as good as Bee". Chalmers: "Is this how you talk on dates?" Skinner: "I wish my dates were this interesting".
-Lisa: "I have 1000 friends! And only 8 of them are Milhouse!" Bart: "1000 kids? If you got each of them to send you a dollar, you'd be a millionaire!"
-Lisa: "I created something popular!" Homer: "And I created something that created something popular!" Abe: "And I created an alcoholic hippo!" Homer: "You never showed it to me!" Abe: "A stupid alcoholic hippo." Homer: "I still wanna see it". Abe: "There is no Hippo!" Homer: Then why did you say it?" Abe: "Because you're the hippo!" Homer: "Are you just saying that because you don't want me to see the hippo?" Abe: "I don't have a hippo!"
-Part of Homer's drunk SpringFace message to Marge: "...Counting the moments to closing time until I can stumble home to you. Another round Moe. Uh-oh. Did I type that? Delete! Delete! Hmm, typing delete does not delete."
-Lenny: "Uh-oh. Bernice Hibbert keeps liking Bumblebee Man's posts. That's how it staarts".
-Lisa: "Friend, friend, awaiting reply, friend".
-Lisa: "I have 1000 friends and I feel more alone than ever". Ralph on Playground Spinny Thing: "Wee!" Lisa: "I am trying to set a mood here". Ralph: "Wee..."
-I appreciated the joke about Ask Jeeves.
-Blue Haired Lawyer (Apparently also known as Burn's Lawyer): "And so Springface became too big to control. Just like the 60 ft. baby in my self-published novel: The 60 Ft. Baby. Order it online now while you can still cheat the Government on sale's tax."
-Lenny: "I don't know how to use the phone on my phone".
-Lisa: "I had a friend in common with Malcolm Gladwell!" Blue-Haired Lawyer: "He friends everybody".
-Bart: "We don't need your crummy website. We can make anything into guns".
-Janey: "Lisa, Lisa! Wanna play Marco Polo with us? We just realized you don't have to play in a pool!"
-End Captions: Principal Skinner Was Convicted of Selling Hornet Honey as Bee Honey. Mr. Burns received a payment of $35 Million Dollars even though he didn't do anything. Groundskeeper Willie was not in this episode. Lisa learned that it's not how many SpringFace friends you have, what matters is how many followers you have on SpringTwit. Kearney's Avatar died in Vietnam.
-The end thing with Patty and Selma against the Winklevoss Twins (Voiced by Armie Hammer) was also great.
-So was The Simpson's Show's Too Short Story. Especially Skinner's moral getting undercut by another Bart prank.
Saturday, 14 January 2012
30 Rock: Dance Like Nobody's Watching
-Coming back from Winter Break, Jack correctly deduces most of what Liz did over the holidays as he knows her better than she knows herself. Liz Lemon seems happier than usual, which upsets Tracy because it means she's paying less attention to him, which means he's more likely to act crazy. He tries to figure out her secret and deduces that she must be a Crack Whore. Jack assures him that is not the case and based on the clues from Tracy's investigation, they figure out that Liz has been exercising by being a dancer for the WNBA. As Jack drops off Liz at the movies, he predicts that she'll be seeing New Year's Eve alone and will enjoy it, even though she'll came to have seen it ironically. As Liz goes into the theater though, Jack is shocked to see her with a new boyfriend.
-Meanwhile Jenna is the judge people love to hate on NBC's hit new reality show America's Kidz Got Singing!. Jack is happy by the success of the show, but as a new parent he becomes concerned when he witnesses how horrible to the children Jenna really is. He tries to get her to be nice, but that fails miserably. Later, he talks with his baby daughter over whether he should cancel the show and he's going to do it until he mistakes his daughter's first word "Mommy" (Avery is still stuck in North Korea married to Kim Jong-Un) for the word "Money" and decides not to cancel the show after all.
-Also meanwhile, Kenneth's Pastor Gary has predicted that the world will end tomorrow, so Liz and Pete tell Kenneth that if he thinks the world is ending, he should be out living life. Kenneth decides to do his dream chores (which are chores that aren't even his job), but Pete tries to get him to live life, while Frank and the writers try to trick Kenneth into thinking the world really is ending. When the world doesn't end, Pete comforts Kenneth, and takes Kenneth and the writers (who were still trying to trick Kenneth) to the ocean, where Kenneth feels the ocean for the first time.
I Liked This: I miss Community a lot, but I'm happy to have 30 Rock back and the sixth season premiere was all kinds of good. There was the re-establishment of the fact that Jack knows Liz better than she knows herself, which set up for the reveal that this isn't entirely true anymore. There was great use of all the various characters. There was a whole bunch of good Tracy one-liners. There was the return of D'Fwan. Dance Like Nobody's Watching had basically everything that's good about 30 Rock. I was a fan of all the storylines and Jack's scene with his daughter was sweet and funny. I also liked Jenna being the mean judge on America's Kidz Get Talent. Making fun of these types of competitions isn't the newest idea in the world, but Jenna's over-the-top meanness really sold it. And Kenneth's story had a nice ending, with Pete being able to be something more than the creepy sad sack character (though we still saw that side of him with his line about being in love with his wife's twin sister.). I'm also excited to see where Liz's storyline goes, now that we know she has a secret boyfriend. Should be good.
But...: Before the strong ending, Kenneth's storyline was pretty weak, though maybe that's because I was hoping his dream chores would be wackier.
The Bottom Line: Dance Like Nobody's Watching was a great, funny way to start 30 Rock's 6th season. Hopefully, the rest of this season will be as great or greater.
Grade: Totally Awesome! (Great)
Memorable Moments
-D'Fwan is listed as a "Style" "Expert".
-Jenna: "Jason, have you ever put out a cigar on Gilbert Gottfried's neck? Because I have and his screams were the worst thing I've ever heard. Until tonight. Congratulations. You're a disgrace".
-Jack got a nice Christmas card from Avery and Kim Jong-un: Death to U.S Imperialist Wolves and Happy Hanukkah.
- Kenneth: "I get to go to heaven and receive my reward: 72 virgin margaritas. Hold the salt".
-Jenna: "When you google Jenna Maroney now, I come up first. Not the Jenna Maroney who electrocuted all those horses". Liz: "Jenna, that was you".
-Tracy: "This has nothing to do with Jenna's success which I'm jealous of..."
-Liz: "You're a 42-Year-Old man". Tracy: “No I'm not. I took a real age test. It said I’m dead.”
-Jack: This thing's a real cash cow, unlike Cash Cow, the failed NBC spinoff of Cash Cab. You try riding a cow through midtown Manhattan, Lemon. The animal will panic".
-Jenna's catchphrase is "Go jump back up your mother".
-Toofer: "We were just out on the plaza and four flaming horses rode by". Kenneth: "Rev. Gary says super-gay horses are one of the signs of the apocalypse".
-Tracy: "I just remembered I started a camp for under-privileged kids last summer. We have to drive upstate to see if any of them are still alive".
-Tracy: "I just got an honorary Sheriff's badge and I'm gonna start making real arrests".
-Tracy: "Did we switch brains? Why aren't I feeling your boobs? WHAT IS HAPPENING?!"
-Jack: "Perhaps we could make even more money by pretending to be nice. I mean, look at Betty White".
-Liz: “My name is Liz. I’m 39 for the third time and my favorite move is Sunset Arms!”
Parks and Recreation: The Comeback Kid
What Happened, Yo!:
-As the department begins to prepare for Leslie's campaign Leslie makes Ann her campaign manager (She doesn't want to hire Ben because of their scandal. They plan a rally at a sports arena and plan to recruit town hero "Pistol" Pete Disellio, who in high school. once scored a slam sunk and won a basketball game against Eagleton. "Pistol" Pete is willing to endorse Leslie, but he refuses to dunk again, which is what they need. Leslie leaves Ann to try and convince him to dunk, but Ann winds up drudging up his traumatic past.
-Meanwhile, Ron, Tom, Andy, April and Champion (A three-legged dog that Andy and April adopted) are out getting supplies to build a stage for Leslie's rally when the truck they are in is pulled over for many violations (Apparently Ron and the police officer have different philosophies on what constitutes a law.). Leslie is able to get them out of it, but they have to jettison a lot of their supplies, leading to a small stage, an incomplete banner, and a short red carpet. In addition, it turns out that the sports arena is currently a hockey rink, which April forgot to mention. Leslie thinks of cancelling, but Jerry has succeeded at his job and there are plenty of people there. So they set out to do the rally, but slip on the ice plenty of times along the way. Leslie finally gives her speech and Pistol Pete shows up to dunk, but he slips on the ice and breaks his arm.
-Meanwhile, Chris comes to visit Ben who is unknowingly in a deep depression, and is keeping busy by dreaming up a Calzone empire and making stop-motion animation. Chris supports Ben even though he knows he needs help. Ben has a break-through when his stop-motion film turns out to be only a few seconds long after 3 weeks of work. Chris gets him to talk about his issues. When Leslie comes back though, she gets Ben to be her campaign manager since he's much better equipped for the job than Ann and without him, her campaign will be a disaster.
I Liked This: Parks and Recreations has been on a roll as of late and The Comeback Kid continues this trend. I liked how the show is realistic about what would happen is a bunch of inexperienced people ran a big political campaign and I'm glad that this political storyline seems to be taking a much bigger role in the latter half of season 4. Chris can be a little over-the-top at times but he was handled very well here. I liked how he told Ben that his idea for a Low-Cal Calzone Zone was literally the best idea he had ever heard, before confiding to the cameras that he thinks it's a terrible idea. That moment is really funny, but also says a lot about Chris' character. I liked watching Ben go about his life before realizing he was depressed, and how him becoming Leslie's campaign manager felt like a natural development. Also, Champion the dog is a great addition to the cast and I hope to see more of him soon. And of course, this episode was hilarious, with the climax of them struggling across the hockey arena while the song Get On Your Feet keeps starting and stopping being one of the funniest things I've seen in a while.
But...: No real problems tonight.
The Bottom Line: Parks and Recreation has been having a great 4th season and that trend continues with The Comeback Kid. Can't wait for the rest of season 4.
Grade: Zounds! (Almost Perfect)
Memorable Moments
-Leslie:"Don’t listen to your head or your heart, just look in my eyes and say yes."
-Man, Pawnee is a Ridiculous Place: Pawnee's high school basketball team is called the Drunken Savages. The mascot (originally a Native American) was later changed.
-Ron: "Well, we have a philosophical difference on what constitutes a law."
-Andy: “Windows are the eyes to the house.”
-April: “Can’t you do anything wrong, Jerry?”
-Chris: "And, your hair doesn't have that normal uptight, rigid, inflexible, Ben Wyatt sense of fun".
-Leslie's cards may be out of order: "Together we can defeat... obese children. I'm sure that was something positive originally."
-April: “Don’t make out. It’s making Champion sad.’
The Office: Trivia
What Happened, Yo!:
-As the end of the quarter has arrived, Andy finds himself just over 800 dollars short of reaching the office's target of doubling sales. He tries to get Oscar to fudge the numbers, but Oscar is going to a bar trivia contest in Philadelphia and can't do it. When Andy learns the prize money for winning the contest is 1000 dollars, he convinces the office to go to Philadelphia and try to win the money so they can buy their own paper and reach their goal.
-They split into 3 teams: An A-Team (Andy, Jim, Daryl and Ryan), A B-Team (Stanley, Phyllis, Cathy, Creed) and a just have fun team (Kevin, Meredith, Erin, Kelly). As the game goes on though, the just have fun team do better than both the A-Team and the B-Team and wind up in the finals against Oscar's team (Aesop's Foibles), and a team called the Queerstein Bears (It's a gay bar). Once again they start off rough, but they quickly catch up and Kevin winds up beating Oscar in the final question about French Cinema, winning the contest.
-Meanwhile, Dwight has gone to Florida hoping to get a job as manager of the Northwest Printer Division. Robert California is unable to listen to him and tells Dwight he'll be meeting with the COO but he tells Gabe (Who works in Florida a couple days of the week) to listen to Dwight and then reject him. Dwight catches on and gets Gabe to take him to Robert's Florida condo, where Robert tells him that no his talents would be wasted on that job and he wouldn't like Florida anyways, but he'll let Dwight know if something he's right for comes up.
I Liked This: Season 8 of The Office came back to a strong start with Trivia, which was very funny. The trivia contest story was very simple and really just an excuse to have these guys in a trivia contest, but it worked well. Even though it was predictable after their first right answer that Kevin's team would go on to win the contest, it still felt somewhat realistic, as we saw them get some wrong answers too (the tag with them at a harder trivia contest was great). And Gabe continues his trend of being a better character this season as we finally learn why an apparent executive is always in Scranton (We also learn why Robert is always in Scranton, which I appreciated). I appreciated seeing Dwight pursue a better job and hope this isn't the last we've heard of his ambitions.
But...: The set-up to why the the office was entering this contest was a bit contrived. Just a bit though. And Dwight's storyline had it's moments, but wasn't as strong as the trivia plot.
The Bottom Line: This was a strong episode of The Office that has got me excited for the rest of season 8.
Grade: Totally Awesome! (Great)
Memorable Moments
-The cold open with the office trying to keep their silence streak was pretty funny, especially Kevin's compulsive need to say "Oh, Yeah!" when he eats a candy bar.
-Things the office came up with as uses for paper: Ransom Notes, Anonymous Threats, Love Letters, Books, Infinite things).
-Gabe: "I am the toilet of this office".
-Creed: "Let's reverse engineer this. You're a black singer. Where do you go where you're a novelty? Alaska?"
-Erin's ideas for what blind people think about: "Dogs, canes, signs, manholes, stairs, piano, darkness."
-Kevin's sign "What is SEE-Attle?" was one of the funniest jokes of the episode.
-Ryan tries to answer a basketball question: "[Shawn Marion] doesn't sound right. I want to say Ladamian Washington." Jim: "Wrong. For so many reasons".
-Ryan's inability to be separated from his smart phone was also really funny.
-The Einsteins (Kevin's team) getting a question about Albert Einstein wrong was again, also really funny.
-Kevin: "A fluke is one of the most common fish in the sea, so if you go fishing for a fluke, chances are you just might catch one".
-The Einstein's guess on who wrote The Grapes of Wrath: The California Raisins.
-As the end of the quarter has arrived, Andy finds himself just over 800 dollars short of reaching the office's target of doubling sales. He tries to get Oscar to fudge the numbers, but Oscar is going to a bar trivia contest in Philadelphia and can't do it. When Andy learns the prize money for winning the contest is 1000 dollars, he convinces the office to go to Philadelphia and try to win the money so they can buy their own paper and reach their goal.
-They split into 3 teams: An A-Team (Andy, Jim, Daryl and Ryan), A B-Team (Stanley, Phyllis, Cathy, Creed) and a just have fun team (Kevin, Meredith, Erin, Kelly). As the game goes on though, the just have fun team do better than both the A-Team and the B-Team and wind up in the finals against Oscar's team (Aesop's Foibles), and a team called the Queerstein Bears (It's a gay bar). Once again they start off rough, but they quickly catch up and Kevin winds up beating Oscar in the final question about French Cinema, winning the contest.
-Meanwhile, Dwight has gone to Florida hoping to get a job as manager of the Northwest Printer Division. Robert California is unable to listen to him and tells Dwight he'll be meeting with the COO but he tells Gabe (Who works in Florida a couple days of the week) to listen to Dwight and then reject him. Dwight catches on and gets Gabe to take him to Robert's Florida condo, where Robert tells him that no his talents would be wasted on that job and he wouldn't like Florida anyways, but he'll let Dwight know if something he's right for comes up.
I Liked This: Season 8 of The Office came back to a strong start with Trivia, which was very funny. The trivia contest story was very simple and really just an excuse to have these guys in a trivia contest, but it worked well. Even though it was predictable after their first right answer that Kevin's team would go on to win the contest, it still felt somewhat realistic, as we saw them get some wrong answers too (the tag with them at a harder trivia contest was great). And Gabe continues his trend of being a better character this season as we finally learn why an apparent executive is always in Scranton (We also learn why Robert is always in Scranton, which I appreciated). I appreciated seeing Dwight pursue a better job and hope this isn't the last we've heard of his ambitions.
But...: The set-up to why the the office was entering this contest was a bit contrived. Just a bit though. And Dwight's storyline had it's moments, but wasn't as strong as the trivia plot.
The Bottom Line: This was a strong episode of The Office that has got me excited for the rest of season 8.
Grade: Totally Awesome! (Great)
Memorable Moments
-The cold open with the office trying to keep their silence streak was pretty funny, especially Kevin's compulsive need to say "Oh, Yeah!" when he eats a candy bar.
-Things the office came up with as uses for paper: Ransom Notes, Anonymous Threats, Love Letters, Books, Infinite things).
-Gabe: "I am the toilet of this office".
-Creed: "Let's reverse engineer this. You're a black singer. Where do you go where you're a novelty? Alaska?"
-Erin's ideas for what blind people think about: "Dogs, canes, signs, manholes, stairs, piano, darkness."
-Kevin's sign "What is SEE-Attle?" was one of the funniest jokes of the episode.
-Ryan tries to answer a basketball question: "[Shawn Marion] doesn't sound right. I want to say Ladamian Washington." Jim: "Wrong. For so many reasons".
-Ryan's inability to be separated from his smart phone was also really funny.
-The Einsteins (Kevin's team) getting a question about Albert Einstein wrong was again, also really funny.
-Kevin: "A fluke is one of the most common fish in the sea, so if you go fishing for a fluke, chances are you just might catch one".
-The Einstein's guess on who wrote The Grapes of Wrath: The California Raisins.
Thursday, 12 January 2012
Memorable Moments: Happy Endings: Meat The Parrots
Quicky Opinion: Meat the Parrots was another great episode of Happy Endings. I enjoyed Megan Mullally the first time she showed up as Penny's mom and I enjoyed even more this time out. I also enjoyed the introduction of Dave's dad. Meanwhile, Alex's racist parrot was a great running gag and the investigation into the chinese resturant had hilarious results. All in all, another great episode of an increasingly better Happy Endings. Quicky Grade: Totally Awesome! (Great)
Memorable Moments:
-Alex getting all the answers in the celebrity guessing game based on increasingly minimal clues (The last few were just various throat clearing sounds) was great.
-Brad: "Who put in so many honorable Elijah Muhammad's?" Max: "Ali was on last night".
-Jane: "Even as kids, Alex and I were always finishing each others-" Alex: "Pizzas!" Jane: "I was going to say sentences, but that works too because I was not much of a crust girl". Alex: "I love my pie crusty".
-Penny: "The closest I ever got to a kid sister was a MyBuddy doll?" Max: "Why didn't you just get a Kid Sister doll?" Penny: "I did, but we weren't that close".
-Jane: "Big Dave is coming to town? God, I love your dad". Alex: "Ugh, he hates me for no reason". Everyone Else: "You left Dave at the altar!" Alex: "No it was not that. He thinks I spilled chocolate milk on his sheep-skin sea covers when I was 9".
-Alex: "And I was a big girl. I was able to do long division with leftovers". Jane: "Remainders".
-Alex: "C'mon guys. We could play charades. I could bake cookies. I'll get naked!"
-Alex: "My store's empty all day long!" Brad: "Well hire somebody." Alex: "Well, they usually want money".
-Never Not Funny: Tyler, the racist parrot. Stock, racist ("White power", "America for Americans") and homophobic ("It's Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve") statements sound funny when a parrot says them.
-Penny: “I went to third base with Peter Wong in that rec room. I still smile every time I see wood paneling. Or Peter Wong.”
-Dave: "Peter Wong. Really? Didn't that kid always use to wear a cape?" Jane: "Yes." Dave: "You too?" Jane: "Up, up, and away".
-Max: "Alex, what was so important that you called us here? I was right i the middle of doing nothing".
-Alex: "I got him from A-Ryan420@providence.net. Why would a stoner have a racist bird?"
-Hitler's birthday is also Brad's birthday. Go figure.
-Alex: "Max! You knocked over all my Tibetan mood rings." Max: "Sorry, Alex". Alex: "It's OK. (Looks at mood ring) Turns out I'm not even that upset about it".
-Alex: "So Dave's new mom is Penny's old mom?"
-Big Dave: "Penny, Jane, Brad, (Looks at Alex) Butterfingers".
-Great Sight Gag: Alex has to drink wine out of a sippy cup.
-Penny tries to give her new little bro a wedgie, only to remember too late that Dave's not wearing undies.
-Max insists on saying "just like on The Wire", because saying "just like Blue Bloods just doesn't pop".
-Dave talks up his Sandiwch: "Greer Cheese, because you helped me to Greer up! That one's not great."
-Dave: "Hope those are hisses of excitement".
-Max: "Just follow my lead and stay cool". Waitress: "Can I take your order?" Max: "YOU TELL US WHERE THE WHORES ARE AT!" Brad: "I'm sorry. I think he means can we get some egg rolls?" Alex: "The weird ones you have sex with and-" Brad covers her mouth: "And she means can we have some duck sauce on the side?"
-Dave: "Speaking of pants, let's get to the Cubs convention".
-Dave: "Ed, Begley Jr. is stupid." Ed, Begley Jr.: "C'mon man. I got 9 kids. Just buy something".
-Dave: "I want my old dad back. The one that loved steaks and thought singing was gay. Now I didn't particularly agree on that last point, but I still miss it".
-Alex: "You're all going to jail?!" ESL Teacher: "For teaching an English as a Second Language Class?"
-Max: "This may be a bad time to tell you guys that I have never actually seen The Wire".
-Penny: "What's that on your shirt?" Max: "I don't know Penny. I don't have time to read everything that's stuck onto me".
-Dave: "This where I learned the keyboard. Over there is where I first Mastur- ed the keyboard".
-Little Girl: "Hey, can we wrap this up? I gotta skype with my Nana." Dave: "Can I skype with your Nana?" Little Girl: "What? No!"
-Tyler the Parrot: "All Italians are Mafia. All Italians are Mafia".
-Big Dave: "You lied and let your sister take the rap for 20 years?" Jane: "Yep." Ed: "Eh, I still like you better".
-Ed Begley, Jr.: "Now whose stupid?!"
Memorable Moments:
-Alex getting all the answers in the celebrity guessing game based on increasingly minimal clues (The last few were just various throat clearing sounds) was great.
-Brad: "Who put in so many honorable Elijah Muhammad's?" Max: "Ali was on last night".
-Jane: "Even as kids, Alex and I were always finishing each others-" Alex: "Pizzas!" Jane: "I was going to say sentences, but that works too because I was not much of a crust girl". Alex: "I love my pie crusty".
-Penny: "The closest I ever got to a kid sister was a MyBuddy doll?" Max: "Why didn't you just get a Kid Sister doll?" Penny: "I did, but we weren't that close".
-Jane: "Big Dave is coming to town? God, I love your dad". Alex: "Ugh, he hates me for no reason". Everyone Else: "You left Dave at the altar!" Alex: "No it was not that. He thinks I spilled chocolate milk on his sheep-skin sea covers when I was 9".
-Alex: "And I was a big girl. I was able to do long division with leftovers". Jane: "Remainders".
-Alex: "C'mon guys. We could play charades. I could bake cookies. I'll get naked!"
-Alex: "My store's empty all day long!" Brad: "Well hire somebody." Alex: "Well, they usually want money".
-Never Not Funny: Tyler, the racist parrot. Stock, racist ("White power", "America for Americans") and homophobic ("It's Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve") statements sound funny when a parrot says them.
-Penny: “I went to third base with Peter Wong in that rec room. I still smile every time I see wood paneling. Or Peter Wong.”
-Dave: "Peter Wong. Really? Didn't that kid always use to wear a cape?" Jane: "Yes." Dave: "You too?" Jane: "Up, up, and away".
-Max: "Alex, what was so important that you called us here? I was right i the middle of doing nothing".
-Alex: "I got him from A-Ryan420@providence.net. Why would a stoner have a racist bird?"
-Hitler's birthday is also Brad's birthday. Go figure.
-Alex: "Max! You knocked over all my Tibetan mood rings." Max: "Sorry, Alex". Alex: "It's OK. (Looks at mood ring) Turns out I'm not even that upset about it".
-Alex: "So Dave's new mom is Penny's old mom?"
-Big Dave: "Penny, Jane, Brad, (Looks at Alex) Butterfingers".
-Great Sight Gag: Alex has to drink wine out of a sippy cup.
-Penny tries to give her new little bro a wedgie, only to remember too late that Dave's not wearing undies.
-Max insists on saying "just like on The Wire", because saying "just like Blue Bloods just doesn't pop".
-Dave talks up his Sandiwch: "Greer Cheese, because you helped me to Greer up! That one's not great."
-Dave: "Hope those are hisses of excitement".
-Max: "Just follow my lead and stay cool". Waitress: "Can I take your order?" Max: "YOU TELL US WHERE THE WHORES ARE AT!" Brad: "I'm sorry. I think he means can we get some egg rolls?" Alex: "The weird ones you have sex with and-" Brad covers her mouth: "And she means can we have some duck sauce on the side?"
-Dave: "Speaking of pants, let's get to the Cubs convention".
-Dave: "Ed, Begley Jr. is stupid." Ed, Begley Jr.: "C'mon man. I got 9 kids. Just buy something".
-Dave: "I want my old dad back. The one that loved steaks and thought singing was gay. Now I didn't particularly agree on that last point, but I still miss it".
-Alex: "You're all going to jail?!" ESL Teacher: "For teaching an English as a Second Language Class?"
-Max: "This may be a bad time to tell you guys that I have never actually seen The Wire".
-Penny: "What's that on your shirt?" Max: "I don't know Penny. I don't have time to read everything that's stuck onto me".
-Dave: "This where I learned the keyboard. Over there is where I first Mastur- ed the keyboard".
-Little Girl: "Hey, can we wrap this up? I gotta skype with my Nana." Dave: "Can I skype with your Nana?" Little Girl: "What? No!"
-Tyler the Parrot: "All Italians are Mafia. All Italians are Mafia".
-Big Dave: "You lied and let your sister take the rap for 20 years?" Jane: "Yep." Ed: "Eh, I still like you better".
-Ed Begley, Jr.: "Now whose stupid?!"
Modern Family: Egg Drop
What Happened, Yo!:
-Luke and Manny are working on containers to keep an egg safe for a school project. Parents aren't supposed to be helping, but Jay suspects Claire will be helping Luke (And Claire suggests Jay will be helping Manny), so they both start helping their kids and begin competing with one another. They both create good designs (Though not as good as the design Alex one used), but keep being competitive, so Luke and Manny (worried that they'll be caught having parental help at this rate) admit to their parents that they tricked them into doing their products, because they knew how competitive they were. Claire and Jay send them to make new products, and Claire blames Jay for making her so competitive with him, but Jay says she's always been this way and that he likes that she's a fighter.
-Meanwhile, Phil has just become a partner at a new real estate agency and is preparing a seminar for new home buyers with Hayley's help. When Claire (who is also supposed to help as a plant in the audience) drops out to work on Luke's project he gets Gloria to help instead. However Gloria and Hayley make a trip to the salon and when Gloria's car gets towed (They parked in a tow zone), they find themselves unable to get to the presentation in time, leaving Phil to have to do it by himself. The presentation goes terribly. Hayley gets Gloria to take the blame because Phil never gets mad at Gloria. This turns out to be true, so Gloria gets mad at Phil because he won't get mad at her and that's not how family should treat each other. Phil does end up yelling at Gloria, but Gloria is happy about this because it means he cares about her.
-Also meanwhile, Cam and Mitchell are meeting with a potential birth mother for their child and Cam is worried Mitch will focus on her flaws, so Mitch promises he won't, even though the candidate isn't very bright. The potential makes them perform for her, because it's important to her that the baby grows up in a musical family, but Cam gets offended when she says that Mitch is the better singer. The rest of the interview goes well and they seem to be a lock, until Cam insists on singing another song which upsets the girl and makes her decide to keep her baby.
I Like This: Egg Drop was a rather strong episode of Modern Family with pretty much every character getting in at least one great moment. I liked the idea that Jay and Claire can be very competitive with each other, and their whole storyline was full of good moments. The twist that Luke and Manny were conning their parents into doing their project for them was unexpected and pretty genius. Phil's storyline also delivered. I like how it went from being about his career to his relationship with Gloria and the way he literally put her on a pedestal was quite funny indeed. I liked the continuation of Cam and Mitchell trying to adopt a second baby, and Cam not being able to take hearing Mitchell be called the better singer added a nice curve to the proceedings.
But...: Even with the great last part of the story, Cam and Mitchell once again wind up with the weakest plot of the evening.
The Bottom Line: Three (mostly) strong plots and some interesting character dynamics lead to another solid episode of Modern Family.
Grade: Awesome! (Good)
Memorable Moments:
-Phil: "So the five keys to investing wisely in a downward real estate market are: "Keyp your cool", "Keyp Informed", "Legwork"...
-Phil: "I wanted to give them a step-by-step description of what I can do for them. Am I worried that they may just write it all down and do it themselves? Quite frankly, I hadn't thought about it until just now."
-Luke's first idea for the egg drop is a simple Egg Carton. "What if the best idea has been under my nose this whole time?"
-Mitchell: "Actually it's the opposite of a first date: You don't want to have sex, but you do want a baby."
-Prospective Mother: "It's OK to eat tuna, but not Dolphin? My theory is a fish is a fish." Mitchell: "Well, a dolphin's actually a mammal, so..". P.M: "Tomato, Tomato". Mitchell: "More, like Tomato, Cow".
-Mitchell: "Ok, now we're actually doing a song and dance".
-Gloria: "Why did you have to do your toes, too?" Hayley: "Well, there's this really cute boy at my school whose really into my feet". Gloria: "Careful, that can get really creepy fast".
-Gloria after her hail for a taxi is ignored: "You see, they don't stop because I'm latina". Hayler: "Or because that was just a yellow car".
-Claire: "You know, I made the egg that made you that made that project, so in a lot of ways that design is already mine!"
-Cam: "Yes, she was upset. But on a positive note, what I take from this experience is: I can sing!"
-Gloria: "That's when you know your family loves you, when they feel free to scream at you."
-Alex after deploying her perfect egg drop design: "Give up. You're all just playing for second".
-The end tag with Alex thinking she's having a deep conversation with Hayley, when Hayley is just talking on her cell and not even aware that Alex is awake was gold.
-Luke and Manny are working on containers to keep an egg safe for a school project. Parents aren't supposed to be helping, but Jay suspects Claire will be helping Luke (And Claire suggests Jay will be helping Manny), so they both start helping their kids and begin competing with one another. They both create good designs (Though not as good as the design Alex one used), but keep being competitive, so Luke and Manny (worried that they'll be caught having parental help at this rate) admit to their parents that they tricked them into doing their products, because they knew how competitive they were. Claire and Jay send them to make new products, and Claire blames Jay for making her so competitive with him, but Jay says she's always been this way and that he likes that she's a fighter.
-Meanwhile, Phil has just become a partner at a new real estate agency and is preparing a seminar for new home buyers with Hayley's help. When Claire (who is also supposed to help as a plant in the audience) drops out to work on Luke's project he gets Gloria to help instead. However Gloria and Hayley make a trip to the salon and when Gloria's car gets towed (They parked in a tow zone), they find themselves unable to get to the presentation in time, leaving Phil to have to do it by himself. The presentation goes terribly. Hayley gets Gloria to take the blame because Phil never gets mad at Gloria. This turns out to be true, so Gloria gets mad at Phil because he won't get mad at her and that's not how family should treat each other. Phil does end up yelling at Gloria, but Gloria is happy about this because it means he cares about her.
-Also meanwhile, Cam and Mitchell are meeting with a potential birth mother for their child and Cam is worried Mitch will focus on her flaws, so Mitch promises he won't, even though the candidate isn't very bright. The potential makes them perform for her, because it's important to her that the baby grows up in a musical family, but Cam gets offended when she says that Mitch is the better singer. The rest of the interview goes well and they seem to be a lock, until Cam insists on singing another song which upsets the girl and makes her decide to keep her baby.
I Like This: Egg Drop was a rather strong episode of Modern Family with pretty much every character getting in at least one great moment. I liked the idea that Jay and Claire can be very competitive with each other, and their whole storyline was full of good moments. The twist that Luke and Manny were conning their parents into doing their project for them was unexpected and pretty genius. Phil's storyline also delivered. I like how it went from being about his career to his relationship with Gloria and the way he literally put her on a pedestal was quite funny indeed. I liked the continuation of Cam and Mitchell trying to adopt a second baby, and Cam not being able to take hearing Mitchell be called the better singer added a nice curve to the proceedings.
But...: Even with the great last part of the story, Cam and Mitchell once again wind up with the weakest plot of the evening.
The Bottom Line: Three (mostly) strong plots and some interesting character dynamics lead to another solid episode of Modern Family.
Grade: Awesome! (Good)
Memorable Moments:
-Phil: "So the five keys to investing wisely in a downward real estate market are: "Keyp your cool", "Keyp Informed", "Legwork"...
-Phil: "I wanted to give them a step-by-step description of what I can do for them. Am I worried that they may just write it all down and do it themselves? Quite frankly, I hadn't thought about it until just now."
-Luke's first idea for the egg drop is a simple Egg Carton. "What if the best idea has been under my nose this whole time?"
-Mitchell: "Actually it's the opposite of a first date: You don't want to have sex, but you do want a baby."
-Prospective Mother: "It's OK to eat tuna, but not Dolphin? My theory is a fish is a fish." Mitchell: "Well, a dolphin's actually a mammal, so..". P.M: "Tomato, Tomato". Mitchell: "More, like Tomato, Cow".
-Mitchell: "Ok, now we're actually doing a song and dance".
-Gloria: "Why did you have to do your toes, too?" Hayley: "Well, there's this really cute boy at my school whose really into my feet". Gloria: "Careful, that can get really creepy fast".
-Gloria after her hail for a taxi is ignored: "You see, they don't stop because I'm latina". Hayler: "Or because that was just a yellow car".
-Claire: "You know, I made the egg that made you that made that project, so in a lot of ways that design is already mine!"
-Cam: "Yes, she was upset. But on a positive note, what I take from this experience is: I can sing!"
-Gloria: "That's when you know your family loves you, when they feel free to scream at you."
-Alex after deploying her perfect egg drop design: "Give up. You're all just playing for second".
-The end tag with Alex thinking she's having a deep conversation with Hayley, when Hayley is just talking on her cell and not even aware that Alex is awake was gold.
Monday, 9 January 2012
Memorable Moments: The Simpsons: Politically Inept, With Homer Simpson
Quicky Opinion: Politically Inept, With Homer Simpson wasn't as strong as the last couple episodes of this season had been, but it still had plenty of good moments. The idea of Homer as political pungent was great, and worked well for the most part. And while the last few minutes of the episode fell a little flat, I liked the twist with the fake dream. All in all, this was a good way for Simpsons to start the new year. Grade: Awesome! (Good)
Memorable Moments
-Homer: "The only things I wait in line this long for are slightly better cellphones".
-Why are the Simpsons going to a wedding? Marge: "Cousin Cathy invited us so our feelings won't be hurt and we're going so HER feelings won't be hurt." Homer: "I just don't understand the world of grown-ups".
-Homer: "Don't argue in front of the airport line. Strangers are judging are marriage!"
-Bart: "Lisa, do you really need all these Kurt Vonnegut novels?" Lisa: "They self-reference each other!"
-Homer: "Marge, do we really need all these (lowers his voice) feminine products?" Marge: "That's toothpaste!"
-TSA Lady: "True patriots breastfeed".
-Pilot: "We're going to be turning off the air, but ethnic people are permitted to open and eat their homecooked food."
-Pilot (After 7 Hours): "Good news folks. We've been cleared to taxi back to the terminal. You still can't get off but you will be able to look through the window and see other people walking around and making fun of us. Still no word on take-off."
-Stewardess: "Sir, please return to your seat". Homer: "But I have to go to the bathroom!" Stewardess: "You should've thought about that before you drank the fluids you need to live".
-Homer: "All I want is what everybody wants: preferential treatment!"
-Homer (While being beaten by TSA Agents): "I regret nothing!... except this part.
-Bart: "Post to YouTube with the following keywords: Fat, Stupid, Classic Simpsons, and just to be safe: Baby Rides Kitten Rides Penguin".
-Homer: "What gave me away?" Apu: "Well, the Hot Dogs spin counter-clockwise in fear whenever you're here, sir".
-Homer: “The quiet Homer Simpson that kept it all bottled up inside is dead. This is the birth of Homer Simpson: blowhard!”
-Homer: "Woohoo! I'm famous again!" Nash Castor: "Yes, your video's been mashed up, autotuned, Phillipined Prisonered, and occasionally watched.
-Things seen on the Headbutt News Ticker include: Rick Perry Mistakenly Signs Order To Execute Himself. Obama Calls Mulligan on First Term, Europe Puts Greece on Ebay, Steve Jobs Unveils iGhost, Congress Delays End of the World To 2013, and Biden To Republican Candidates: "Compared To You, Me Am Smart".
-Bart: "From now on, when someone asks me, I'm going to say you ARE my father". Homer: "Aw, son. Now I regret bad mouthing you to that girl you like".
-The network's Liberal Strawman sings a song to If I Only Had A Brain: "Oh, the plain and simple fact is: I'd like to raise your taxes and make your children gay".
-Marge: "How can you speak about your audience that way?" Executive: "Well what you do is you think of a derogatory term and then you think opf another word that starts with the same letter".
-Homer's book: America: Love It Or I'll Punch You. 36 Pgs including Index. It also has a book on tape version read by Lenny.
-Homer: "It's already happening people. Hoard your toilet paper. Shoot the mailman! Shoot the mailman."
-Karl: "Is it a little weird how much he cries?" Lenny: "No way. When a guy who loves America cries, that makes him super straight".
-To make a Homer Simpson Halloween mask, they just painted Shrek's face yellow.
-Right after Homer tells the children they've never seen him cry before, he bursts into tears when he finds out there's no more gravy.
-Homer: “They know I’m doing a character. Like Stephen Colbert or Newt Gingrich.”
-Homer: "I have something very American to show you. Follow me. (He walks right into the camera). Death to America! I mean- over here."
-Homer: "When March Madness spills over into April, that's the gravy. When someone messes with you and you invade the country that did it, and another one, that's the gravy. When you stick your flag in the moon and say 'Now, we're done trying!', that's the gravy! So get on the boat- the Gravy Boat! Good night, and good gravy!"
-Lisa: "What's the Gravy Boat?" Homer: "Just an innocuous little symbol, like a smiley face, or... an IOU".
-Protest signs include "Occupy Springfield: And Stay For The Garlic Festival" and a burning sign calling to
"Cut Pay for Firemen".
-Kent Brockman: “The gravy boat movement is spreading across the nation like a rumor about some kid and someone’s mom hooking up in a high school.”
-“Now Lisa, I'm an entertainer. And you can’t entertain and inform at the same time. And if you’re Access Hollywood, you do neither.”
-Springfield Republican Headquarters: We Win in 2012 Or Your Money Back.
-Homer: "Maybe I'll vote Democrat. The great thing is when they get in, they act like Republicans".
-Lisa: "You're endorsing Ted Nugent for President? He's a right wing Rock Star who likes everything I hate!" Bart: "Could there be anyone awesomer?"
-James Madison: "Rise Homer Simpson." Homer: "Aah! Mozart!"
-James Madison: "Now come, and I shall teach you of Democracy". Homer: "Can we get some pizza on the way?" James Madison: "Everything's closed". Homer: They sell some at the gas station." James Madison: "I don't want gas station pizza!"
-Homer: "So, how come your pictures not on money". James Madison: "Actually, I'm on the 5000 Dollar bill." Homer: "Do you give those out to fans, because I'm a fan!"
James Madison: "You are an embarassment to the aristocratic slave holders who forged this mighty nation!"
Homer: "No, no, John hancock. I don't need any insurance. Sam Adams?! i'm sorry I made fun of your winter ale".
-James Madison Look-Alike: Great for Birthday Parties, Field Trips, Fake Dreams.
-Bart: "I did it just to mess with your mind". Homer: "That's what a Play within a Play is for!" Marge: No stranglings on school days!"
Homer: "Well, if there's one thing I don't like being taught, it's a lesson!"
Homer: "The words 'Strutting Stadium Rocker" are overused a lot these days".
Homer: "My lips will say anything, but my eyes know the truth! My ears are keeping their mouth shut".
Memorable Moments
-Homer: "The only things I wait in line this long for are slightly better cellphones".
-Why are the Simpsons going to a wedding? Marge: "Cousin Cathy invited us so our feelings won't be hurt and we're going so HER feelings won't be hurt." Homer: "I just don't understand the world of grown-ups".
-Homer: "Don't argue in front of the airport line. Strangers are judging are marriage!"
-Bart: "Lisa, do you really need all these Kurt Vonnegut novels?" Lisa: "They self-reference each other!"
-Homer: "Marge, do we really need all these (lowers his voice) feminine products?" Marge: "That's toothpaste!"
-TSA Lady: "True patriots breastfeed".
-Pilot: "We're going to be turning off the air, but ethnic people are permitted to open and eat their homecooked food."
-Pilot (After 7 Hours): "Good news folks. We've been cleared to taxi back to the terminal. You still can't get off but you will be able to look through the window and see other people walking around and making fun of us. Still no word on take-off."
-Stewardess: "Sir, please return to your seat". Homer: "But I have to go to the bathroom!" Stewardess: "You should've thought about that before you drank the fluids you need to live".
-Homer: "All I want is what everybody wants: preferential treatment!"
-Homer (While being beaten by TSA Agents): "I regret nothing!... except this part.
-Bart: "Post to YouTube with the following keywords: Fat, Stupid, Classic Simpsons, and just to be safe: Baby Rides Kitten Rides Penguin".
-Homer: "What gave me away?" Apu: "Well, the Hot Dogs spin counter-clockwise in fear whenever you're here, sir".
-Homer: “The quiet Homer Simpson that kept it all bottled up inside is dead. This is the birth of Homer Simpson: blowhard!”
-Homer: "Woohoo! I'm famous again!" Nash Castor: "Yes, your video's been mashed up, autotuned, Phillipined Prisonered, and occasionally watched.
-Things seen on the Headbutt News Ticker include: Rick Perry Mistakenly Signs Order To Execute Himself. Obama Calls Mulligan on First Term, Europe Puts Greece on Ebay, Steve Jobs Unveils iGhost, Congress Delays End of the World To 2013, and Biden To Republican Candidates: "Compared To You, Me Am Smart".
-Bart: "From now on, when someone asks me, I'm going to say you ARE my father". Homer: "Aw, son. Now I regret bad mouthing you to that girl you like".
-The network's Liberal Strawman sings a song to If I Only Had A Brain: "Oh, the plain and simple fact is: I'd like to raise your taxes and make your children gay".
-Marge: "How can you speak about your audience that way?" Executive: "Well what you do is you think of a derogatory term and then you think opf another word that starts with the same letter".
-Homer's book: America: Love It Or I'll Punch You. 36 Pgs including Index. It also has a book on tape version read by Lenny.
-Homer: "It's already happening people. Hoard your toilet paper. Shoot the mailman! Shoot the mailman."
-Karl: "Is it a little weird how much he cries?" Lenny: "No way. When a guy who loves America cries, that makes him super straight".
-To make a Homer Simpson Halloween mask, they just painted Shrek's face yellow.
-Right after Homer tells the children they've never seen him cry before, he bursts into tears when he finds out there's no more gravy.
-Homer: “They know I’m doing a character. Like Stephen Colbert or Newt Gingrich.”
-Homer: "I have something very American to show you. Follow me. (He walks right into the camera). Death to America! I mean- over here."
-Homer: "When March Madness spills over into April, that's the gravy. When someone messes with you and you invade the country that did it, and another one, that's the gravy. When you stick your flag in the moon and say 'Now, we're done trying!', that's the gravy! So get on the boat- the Gravy Boat! Good night, and good gravy!"
-Lisa: "What's the Gravy Boat?" Homer: "Just an innocuous little symbol, like a smiley face, or... an IOU".
-Protest signs include "Occupy Springfield: And Stay For The Garlic Festival" and a burning sign calling to
"Cut Pay for Firemen".
-Kent Brockman: “The gravy boat movement is spreading across the nation like a rumor about some kid and someone’s mom hooking up in a high school.”
-“Now Lisa, I'm an entertainer. And you can’t entertain and inform at the same time. And if you’re Access Hollywood, you do neither.”
-Springfield Republican Headquarters: We Win in 2012 Or Your Money Back.
-Homer: "Maybe I'll vote Democrat. The great thing is when they get in, they act like Republicans".
-Lisa: "You're endorsing Ted Nugent for President? He's a right wing Rock Star who likes everything I hate!" Bart: "Could there be anyone awesomer?"
-James Madison: "Rise Homer Simpson." Homer: "Aah! Mozart!"
-James Madison: "Now come, and I shall teach you of Democracy". Homer: "Can we get some pizza on the way?" James Madison: "Everything's closed". Homer: They sell some at the gas station." James Madison: "I don't want gas station pizza!"
-Homer: "So, how come your pictures not on money". James Madison: "Actually, I'm on the 5000 Dollar bill." Homer: "Do you give those out to fans, because I'm a fan!"
James Madison: "You are an embarassment to the aristocratic slave holders who forged this mighty nation!"
Homer: "No, no, John hancock. I don't need any insurance. Sam Adams?! i'm sorry I made fun of your winter ale".
-James Madison Look-Alike: Great for Birthday Parties, Field Trips, Fake Dreams.
-Bart: "I did it just to mess with your mind". Homer: "That's what a Play within a Play is for!" Marge: No stranglings on school days!"
Homer: "Well, if there's one thing I don't like being taught, it's a lesson!"
Homer: "The words 'Strutting Stadium Rocker" are overused a lot these days".
Homer: "My lips will say anything, but my eyes know the truth! My ears are keeping their mouth shut".
Thursday, 5 January 2012
Memorable Moments: Happy Endings: The Shrink, the Dare, Her Date and Her Brother
Happy Endings is probably the funniest show I occasionally watch. I mentioned it way back in my original schedule as a show I'd sometimes talk about, but that became difficult with my limited access to the TV Wednesday nights. This year though, I have some better resources and think I'll be able to talk about this show more often (Not to mention, watch this show more often). I also realized that with it's fast pace, simple (but crazy) plots and it's tendency to have wall-to-wall jokes, this show was perfect for my memorable moments format. So let's talk about last night's episode: The Shrink, the Dare, Her Date and Her Brother.
Quicky Opinion: The Shrink, the Dare, Her Date and Her Brother was a very funny episode of Happy endings with lots of jokes and good story from the character pairings. I could relate with Brad and Alex's dilemma of not having much in common (And their eventual bonding ver RomComs was quite funny), and found Max and Jane's battle over a sweater, which had them wearing terrible outfits was quite funny. They even used Dave and Penny's plot to introduce a potential romantic complication down the line. So a good outing for Happy Endings last night. Grade: Totally Awesome! (Great)
Memorable Moments
-Before we start, with this entry I have figured out how to put pictures in my entries! And I find that more exciting than it probably is..
-Max: "Big news! New Rom-Com opening tonight!" Everyone else: "Noooo." Penny: "I bet it's got some super vague title that says that tells nothing about the movie". Max: "Yeah, That's The Way It's Gotta Be". Dave: "Really? Do they all have to be so stupid and predictable?" Max: "No, that's the title of the movie: That's The Way It's Gotta Be."
-Jane tries to guess the predictable plot of That's The Way It's Gotta Be.: "Or [It's about] somebody whose supposed to marry someone and then leaves them at the (She looks over at Dave and Alex who are looking at her)... Dentist's office."
-Max claims his Grandma died and left him the disputed sweater. Penny: "How many times has your Grandma died? Because you said the same thing about half a club sandwich."
-Jane: "Get back here, you gay!" Max: "You gay?! That's the best you could think of"?
-Brad: "Seriously, I get stuck with the check again? What is the point of having white friends?"
-Penny: "You guys are so vain. You probably think this sweater is about you" Max: "Don't you- don't you dare make that joke."
-Dave: "This is Richard. He's my work- friend- colleague, who I know from camp- the war- dance class." Jane: "War. Which war?" Dave: "The war on drugs. And we won. You're welcome".
-Penny finds out Richard is Dave's therapist. "Oh thank God. I was afraid you were actually taking a dance class".
-Max on being attacked by Jane: "God, it's like being attacked by a rake!"
-Jane: "I twisted my ankle twisting Max's ankle."
-Max's go-to "out call" is "There's a meteor about to hit the earth".
-Max: "How do you think Jane would feel about high-waisted jeans?" Brad: "I think she would have to be high and wasted."
-Jane: "Everything about this shirt is going to look bad on Max". Penny: "He has two of them. He wore one to your wedding".
-Brad: "So... stamps went up again. Unbelievable": Alex: "I get the forever ones but who knows how long they're good for".
-Alex: "Are hip-hop and rap the same thing?" Brad: "Yes."
-Dave is surprised about his therapist. "So socially, he prefers Rick Rickman?"
-Rick Rickman: "You've been talking about your mother a lot today. And it makes me wonder: where does Penny work? And what bus line is that on?
-Penny: "What do you wear to a stalking? Stockings? No, that's too on the nose".
-Max: "Nothing is weird. I've dated Baliff's, Monks, Jockey's, and my personal best is a butcher, a baker, and a candlestick maker and, yes, that was all in one tub." Dave: "Please tell me that wasn't our tub".
-Alex: "It should be super easy to fool [Jane] because I'm super easy to fool and we're sisters". Dave: "In hindsight, I may have dodged a bullet".
-Dave: "Am I the only one who thinks the name Rick Rickman is insane?" Alex: "Well, it's a lot better than Dick Dickman." Dave: "No, you- you can't change the last name. Forget it. I did dodge a bullet".
-Brad is caught about to see That's The Way It's Gotta Be and tries to make an excuse. "I thought this was the murder death sports explosion film for men. With full beard. And ample chest hair".
-Brad: "Last year I told Jane I was going to the Chicago ComicCon. But really I went to the RomComCon".
-Jane: "You look like Jamiroquai before labor day". Max: "You look like Carol Brady right before she got arrested for molesting Bobby".
-The scenes in the RomCom echoing Dave confronting Penny and his therapist with Penny's therapist was great.
-Fireman: "Where's the fire?" Jane (in underwear): "Right here, boys" Max (also in underwear): "Jane, I thought we agreed on in our pants. The fire is in our pants".
-Rick Rickman: "Therapy is a 2-Way street, David!" Dave: "No, it's not".
-One last side note: this post marks the 100th entry of Kenny Talks TV, Yo! It's been a wild ride so far and things are just starting to heat up!
Modern Family: Lifetime Supply
What Happened, Yo!:
-Phil visits the doctor who checks out a tender spot on his arm and says he will call if anything's wrong.
-The next day, Phil misses a call from his doctor who leaves a message saying to get back to him quickly, but when he calls the doctor back, he learns the doctor has just gotten on a plane to London.
-While Phil tries to assure himself he'll be fine (He takes Claire not being worried as a good sign), things such as his lifetime supply of razors running out and Gloria panicking because she saw a black mouse in her dream (An omen in Columbia) keep him freaked out throughout the day.
-Meanwhile, Manny's father Javier has come to town to take Manny to the racetracks for a belated birthday present. Jay is forced to tag along, because Gloria doesn't like leaving Manny alone with Javier (Who once took Manny to a "stripper club" with the name "Petting Zoo").
-At the race, Javier wins every race he bets on, crediting it to a connection with the souls of the horses. On the race that Jay's horse wins, an inquiry is made and the results are overturned so Jay loses.
-Jay later apologizes to Javier for being hard on him, and admits to the cameras that he has a good thing going with Manny and doesn't like being reminded that Manny isn't his son.
-Also meanwhile, Mitchell wins an environmental award (Which is basically the Oscar for Environmental Lawyers) and proudly displays it on the mantle. But when Cam puts up a trophy he won for fishing, Mitchell begins to suspect Cam is jealous. He decides Cam must be jealous for sure when the next morning, he finds Cam has added a piece to his trophy, making it bigger than Mitchell's.
-Mitchell and Cam have an argument, but after talking with Alex who admits she feels jealous when Claire praises over her siblings lesser accomplishments, Mitchell realizes he's been acting like a 14-year-old girl.
-Mitchell looks in the garage and finds that Cam has hidden tons of trophies from him to protect his feeling. He decides to make a big display of the trophies as a surprise, but accidentally drops the box when he sees a black mouse in there, just as Cam and Lily get home. Cam gets upset and walks off.
-Later, everyone shows up at the Dunphy household, when Gloria tells the whole family Phil is expecting bad news. This panics Claire, which causes Phil to really panic when the doctor calls. It turns out he was just calling to ask about a real estate listing, much to the annoyance of Phil.
I Liked This: I got both seasons of Modern Family over the holidays, so I was pretty psyched for this show to return. And it did not disappoint with Lifetime Supply. All the stories were funny, and felt fresh, rather than being rehashes of previous stories and themes. Phil is my favorite character of the show, and it was great to watch him get more and more worried over the course of the day, with his chances of survival apparently decreasing (He goes from saying there's a 60% chance he's going to die to saying there's a 5% chance he'll make it). I like Benjamin Bratt as Manny's father, and he was great here, spouting off philisophical nonsense to Manny, which seems to actually work. And the moment where Jay admits he doesn't like being reminded he's not Manny's father was a nice bit of sentiment for the show.
But...: Cam and Mitchell probably had the weakest story tonight, though it still had it's moments (Particularly the pay-off).
The Bottom Line: Lifetime Supply is a very solid start to 2012 for Modern Family. Very solid indeed.
Grade: Totally Awesome! (Great)
Memorable Moments
-Luke's elderly friend Walt returned this week to play videogames with Luke, which was also funny. Luke learns a lot from him including the phrase "See you in hell, Klaus!"
-Alex: "I wouldn't get out of bed in the morning for a trophy that small".
-Young Phil won a lifetime supply of razors on a quiz show. "Two blades? It'll never get better than this".
-Claire: Claire: "Maybe Luke hit you with his broomstick when you guys were playing Quidditch." Phil: "I'm way too fast, he never touched me."
-Cam signed autographs after winning his fishing award. "Best fishes, Cameron Tucker".
-Jay bought a coffee cake, but Javier brought it in from the car so he gets the credit.
-Lily continues to show off her ability to talk, sending Phil over the edge with "Are you going to die?"
-Phil sees Claire as a flight attendant. So when she gets worried...: "Oh boy. The plane's in trouble. You've put away the drink cart and you're strapping in."
-Javier gets the attention of both Claire and Cam, to the point where Mitchell has to say "Stop staring".
-On the game show, Phil references both the eternal love of Jay and DeeDee Pritchett, and his friend who's about to test his homemade helicopter.
-Phil visits the doctor who checks out a tender spot on his arm and says he will call if anything's wrong.
-The next day, Phil misses a call from his doctor who leaves a message saying to get back to him quickly, but when he calls the doctor back, he learns the doctor has just gotten on a plane to London.
-While Phil tries to assure himself he'll be fine (He takes Claire not being worried as a good sign), things such as his lifetime supply of razors running out and Gloria panicking because she saw a black mouse in her dream (An omen in Columbia) keep him freaked out throughout the day.
-Meanwhile, Manny's father Javier has come to town to take Manny to the racetracks for a belated birthday present. Jay is forced to tag along, because Gloria doesn't like leaving Manny alone with Javier (Who once took Manny to a "stripper club" with the name "Petting Zoo").
-At the race, Javier wins every race he bets on, crediting it to a connection with the souls of the horses. On the race that Jay's horse wins, an inquiry is made and the results are overturned so Jay loses.
-Jay later apologizes to Javier for being hard on him, and admits to the cameras that he has a good thing going with Manny and doesn't like being reminded that Manny isn't his son.
-Also meanwhile, Mitchell wins an environmental award (Which is basically the Oscar for Environmental Lawyers) and proudly displays it on the mantle. But when Cam puts up a trophy he won for fishing, Mitchell begins to suspect Cam is jealous. He decides Cam must be jealous for sure when the next morning, he finds Cam has added a piece to his trophy, making it bigger than Mitchell's.
-Mitchell and Cam have an argument, but after talking with Alex who admits she feels jealous when Claire praises over her siblings lesser accomplishments, Mitchell realizes he's been acting like a 14-year-old girl.
-Mitchell looks in the garage and finds that Cam has hidden tons of trophies from him to protect his feeling. He decides to make a big display of the trophies as a surprise, but accidentally drops the box when he sees a black mouse in there, just as Cam and Lily get home. Cam gets upset and walks off.
-Later, everyone shows up at the Dunphy household, when Gloria tells the whole family Phil is expecting bad news. This panics Claire, which causes Phil to really panic when the doctor calls. It turns out he was just calling to ask about a real estate listing, much to the annoyance of Phil.
I Liked This: I got both seasons of Modern Family over the holidays, so I was pretty psyched for this show to return. And it did not disappoint with Lifetime Supply. All the stories were funny, and felt fresh, rather than being rehashes of previous stories and themes. Phil is my favorite character of the show, and it was great to watch him get more and more worried over the course of the day, with his chances of survival apparently decreasing (He goes from saying there's a 60% chance he's going to die to saying there's a 5% chance he'll make it). I like Benjamin Bratt as Manny's father, and he was great here, spouting off philisophical nonsense to Manny, which seems to actually work. And the moment where Jay admits he doesn't like being reminded he's not Manny's father was a nice bit of sentiment for the show.
But...: Cam and Mitchell probably had the weakest story tonight, though it still had it's moments (Particularly the pay-off).
The Bottom Line: Lifetime Supply is a very solid start to 2012 for Modern Family. Very solid indeed.
Grade: Totally Awesome! (Great)
Memorable Moments
-Luke's elderly friend Walt returned this week to play videogames with Luke, which was also funny. Luke learns a lot from him including the phrase "See you in hell, Klaus!"
-Alex: "I wouldn't get out of bed in the morning for a trophy that small".
-Young Phil won a lifetime supply of razors on a quiz show. "Two blades? It'll never get better than this".
-Claire: Claire: "Maybe Luke hit you with his broomstick when you guys were playing Quidditch." Phil: "I'm way too fast, he never touched me."
-Cam signed autographs after winning his fishing award. "Best fishes, Cameron Tucker".
-Jay bought a coffee cake, but Javier brought it in from the car so he gets the credit.
-Lily continues to show off her ability to talk, sending Phil over the edge with "Are you going to die?"
-Phil sees Claire as a flight attendant. So when she gets worried...: "Oh boy. The plane's in trouble. You've put away the drink cart and you're strapping in."
-Javier gets the attention of both Claire and Cam, to the point where Mitchell has to say "Stop staring".
-On the game show, Phil references both the eternal love of Jay and DeeDee Pritchett, and his friend who's about to test his homemade helicopter.
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