Quicky Opinion: I actually probably could've done a full opinion of The Food Wife, which is probably my favorite episode The Simpsons has done this season. There was dozens of good freeze frame gags, and the plot about Marge wanting to be seen as the "fun mom", was made fresh with the food blog angle. Good guest star use too. And Homer mistakening a meth lab for the resturant where all the food is made by science was a great climax. Good job, Simpsons. Quicky Grade: Totally Awesome! (Great)
Memorable Moments
-Previous Fun Dad Saturday activites: Cemetary Paintball and Go Karts on real roads.
-Homer: "Is there any better feeling than cutting in line, because a plastic badge says you're special?"
-Among the many videogame booths shown at the E4 convention, I noticed Grand Theft Scratchy, Mapple, Bongo Games (A reference to Matt Groening's comic company), Chalmskinn Interactive (with Chalmer's face on it), Dig Dug: Revelations, Terrence Mallick's Tree of Life Online, Driver's License 2: License to Drive, Assassin's Creed: Summer of Love, and Human Centipede. Among other things.
-Other good jokes at E4: Marching Band, and Homer's videogame experience trying to get the kids to Hall G for the Funtendo videogame announcement (the Zii Zu)
-Marge: "How come they never call me fun mom?" Homer: "A family's like a team. On every team you have the slam dunking mega star and the referee".
-The whole Cross Games joke was funny too.
-Lisa is suprised that the people at Little Ethiopia use "pancakes" as spoons.
-The foodies Marge, Lisa, and Bart meet apparently discovered Korean BBQ in Springfield before the Koreans.
-Homer: "I don't eat anything new unless I've tried it before".
-Homer: "Alright, food nerds. Reality check: All the food in those pictures is poop by now. Minds blown. You're welcome."
-Krusty: "Krustyland has a new ride, the Eyeballs of Death. It only passed the safety by a 3 to 2 vote. And that third vote didn't come cheap".
-Homer: "Marge, this isn't a food restaurant. It's a meth restaurant. A meth-taurant!"
-I also liked the meth dealer having a Ratatouille flashback. Even though that's kind of a dated reference.
-Best Guest Star Appearance: Gordon Ramsey yelling at Marge, and then hijacking her dream.
Monday, 14 November 2011
Chuck: Chuck Versus The Frosted Tips
Welcome to the maiden test of the new format I'm trying. See the previous post (Tinkering With the Format, Yo!) for details. Let's get into it.
What Happened, Yo!:
-The intersect is affecting Morgan's brain and is making him act erratically.
-Feeling unappreciated by Carmichael Industries, he goes to work for their competitors at Verbanski Corp, the CEO of which Casey has feelings for.
-Before leaving, Morgan steals information about an assignment General Beckman has secretly given the team, and breaks up with Alex.
-Chuck thinks Morgan is just abusing his power like he did in seventh grade when he grew a moustache, and Casey is furious at Morgan, but Sarah begins to suspect something is wrong with him.
-The team breaks into Verbanski Corp to steal back their assignment. Casey and Gertrude Verbanski have a moment. Chuck confronts Morgan who tells them they aren't friends. Chuck manages to tranq Morgan and they escape.
-Ellie tells Sarsh something has been done to the intersect and when Beckman reveals that she wasn't the one who sent the intersect glasses, the team realizes that Clyde Decker had probably sent them in an effort to do something to Chuck. Chuck also realizes Morgan is losing his memory and who he is.
-Finding Morgan is on his way to the sight of their assignment (to capture a man who has classified CIA secrets), there's a confrontation at a helicopter pad, where Chuck is able to get Morgan to remember who he was, and Casey saves Gertrude after a massive explosion. Carmichael Industries gets their target and an agreement is made to split the bounty with Verbanski Corp.
-The team has some money again, and Morgan is back to normal, but Casey is still mad at him and kicks him out, so Sarah and Chuck let him live with them again. All is well...
-Until Chuck learns from Beckman that the CIA has a kill order out on Morgan for talking about the intersect. We then see Morgan approach his van, with a car bomb underneath.
-To Be Continued.
I Liked This:
I really liked the Chuck/Morgan dynamic, which was the the front and centre of this episode. Morgan has been an important character from the beginning because of his relationship with Chuck, and it was good to see that here. I also enjoyed Casey's romantic subplot with Gertrude. Casey has been lacking a proper romantic interest for some time now, and it's handled well here. I also continue to enjoy Ellie's proper integration into the spy world and Beckman's return was appreciated. I miss her as a character. This was also probably the best episode of the fifth season so far.
But...
The minor Captain Awesome/Buy More subplot wasn't that great. I'm hoping a rehabilitated Jeff sticks though, as that could actually add potential to the Buy More. I'm also a little bummed that Morgan having the intersect is being resolved so soon, but hopefully this'll be a good thing in the long run.
Grade: Captain Awesome! (Great)
Memorable Moments
-The scene where Chuck pantses Morgan, just like Morgan was pantsed in the seventh grade was a clever way to tranq Morgan, who had been able to dodge the darts in bullet time, before that happened.
-Again Captain Awesome's story wasn't that great, but it did lead to a great Jeff line now that he's stopped sleeping under his car and seems normal: “I will not be party to the reckless endangerment of a coworker!”
What Happened, Yo!:
-The intersect is affecting Morgan's brain and is making him act erratically.
-Feeling unappreciated by Carmichael Industries, he goes to work for their competitors at Verbanski Corp, the CEO of which Casey has feelings for.
-Before leaving, Morgan steals information about an assignment General Beckman has secretly given the team, and breaks up with Alex.
-Chuck thinks Morgan is just abusing his power like he did in seventh grade when he grew a moustache, and Casey is furious at Morgan, but Sarah begins to suspect something is wrong with him.
-The team breaks into Verbanski Corp to steal back their assignment. Casey and Gertrude Verbanski have a moment. Chuck confronts Morgan who tells them they aren't friends. Chuck manages to tranq Morgan and they escape.
-Ellie tells Sarsh something has been done to the intersect and when Beckman reveals that she wasn't the one who sent the intersect glasses, the team realizes that Clyde Decker had probably sent them in an effort to do something to Chuck. Chuck also realizes Morgan is losing his memory and who he is.
-Finding Morgan is on his way to the sight of their assignment (to capture a man who has classified CIA secrets), there's a confrontation at a helicopter pad, where Chuck is able to get Morgan to remember who he was, and Casey saves Gertrude after a massive explosion. Carmichael Industries gets their target and an agreement is made to split the bounty with Verbanski Corp.
-The team has some money again, and Morgan is back to normal, but Casey is still mad at him and kicks him out, so Sarah and Chuck let him live with them again. All is well...
-Until Chuck learns from Beckman that the CIA has a kill order out on Morgan for talking about the intersect. We then see Morgan approach his van, with a car bomb underneath.
-To Be Continued.
I Liked This:
I really liked the Chuck/Morgan dynamic, which was the the front and centre of this episode. Morgan has been an important character from the beginning because of his relationship with Chuck, and it was good to see that here. I also enjoyed Casey's romantic subplot with Gertrude. Casey has been lacking a proper romantic interest for some time now, and it's handled well here. I also continue to enjoy Ellie's proper integration into the spy world and Beckman's return was appreciated. I miss her as a character. This was also probably the best episode of the fifth season so far.
But...
The minor Captain Awesome/Buy More subplot wasn't that great. I'm hoping a rehabilitated Jeff sticks though, as that could actually add potential to the Buy More. I'm also a little bummed that Morgan having the intersect is being resolved so soon, but hopefully this'll be a good thing in the long run.
Grade: Captain Awesome! (Great)
Memorable Moments
-The scene where Chuck pantses Morgan, just like Morgan was pantsed in the seventh grade was a clever way to tranq Morgan, who had been able to dodge the darts in bullet time, before that happened.
-Again Captain Awesome's story wasn't that great, but it did lead to a great Jeff line now that he's stopped sleeping under his car and seems normal: “I will not be party to the reckless endangerment of a coworker!”
Tinkering With The Format, Yo!
So Kenny Sage Talks TV, Yo! is now a couple months in, and for the most part, I've worked up a pretty solid system. But, I'm always looking for ways to improve things so I can post faster (and maybe post more things regularly), so this week I'll be trying a couple new things. The first thing will be a new "Special Format" (Like Quicky Opinions or 5 Things I Enjoy...,) that I'll be using for some of the comedies I talk about called Memorable Moments. When I don't have much to say about something (like Simpsons) or don't have time to post a full thing, I'll use the Memorable Moments format, which will be a fast quicky opinion, followed by a big collection of funny lines/sight gags from the episode. Basically a bigger version of the regular Memorable Moments.
The other new thing I'll be trying this week is a change in the regular format, which is why I'm posting about it before hand. Starting with my opinions of Friday's Chuck (hopefully), all regular opinions will look like this for the next week:
What Happened, Yo!: A bullet point summary of the basic plot and major events of the episode.
I Liked This: Here, I'll basically go in-depth into some of the things I specifically liked about the episode.
But...: Here, I'll talk about the things that bugged me about the episode.
Grade and Memorable Moments: These two things will remain unchanged.
I will try this for about a week. Then, I'll decide whether I'll be using this all the time, or just some of the time for specific shows. I really believe these changes will make my blog more efficient for me to write and better for you guys to read. So get excited, because these things are just around the corner!
The other new thing I'll be trying this week is a change in the regular format, which is why I'm posting about it before hand. Starting with my opinions of Friday's Chuck (hopefully), all regular opinions will look like this for the next week:
What Happened, Yo!: A bullet point summary of the basic plot and major events of the episode.
I Liked This: Here, I'll basically go in-depth into some of the things I specifically liked about the episode.
But...: Here, I'll talk about the things that bugged me about the episode.
Grade and Memorable Moments: These two things will remain unchanged.
I will try this for about a week. Then, I'll decide whether I'll be using this all the time, or just some of the time for specific shows. I really believe these changes will make my blog more efficient for me to write and better for you guys to read. So get excited, because these things are just around the corner!
Saturday, 12 November 2011
The Office: Pam's Replacement
When I first heard about what Pam's Replacement was going to be about, I got excited. Jim and Pam don't get as many good stories as they used too, and Pam's hormones making her extra crazy sounded like as good a premise as any. Plus as I mentioned last week, Dwight and Pam have a good relationship so when I heard that Dwight would be involved, I knew good things would happen. And although the episode wasn't perfect, good things did indeed happen.
The episode plot was simple, which is always good, because simple allows for more jokes and character moments. Pam is training a temp Office Administrator, for when she goes onto maternity leave (which has to be soon. Though if the birth of Pam's 2nd baby isn't heavily advertised before it happens, that would be a fun surprise.). The temp, Cathy is quite attractive. But the rest of the office is both underplaying her attractiveness and insisting that Pam is still attractive, when Pam is around. Everyone except Dwight, who Pam starts to see as the only honest one. So she enlists Dwight to get Jim to admit that he finds Cathy attractive (which Jim confides to us that he does. But he loves Pam so much, he doesn't plan to tell her while she's heavily pregnant.).
This whole plot had a lot of quality material, but I felt like there could've been more of them trying to figure it out through wacky methods, before the makeshift lie detector test. What we saw was fine and funny, but the matchmaker test wasn't wacky enough for my tastes, and Dwight grabbing Jim's crotch was already spoiled by promos. The lie detector though, with Dwight using a drug store's blood pressure machine delivered on both the funny (Their run-in with an old man who wanted to use the machine. Dwight believing that Jim was lying about his name), and the sweet (Pam's concerned side conquering her suspicious side when they realize that Jim has high blood pressure), so it was fine that some of the stuff leading up to it didn't quite live up to my imagination.
And meanwhile, Andy, Daryl, and Kevin's band (which at the end of the episode officially becomes Kevin and the Zits.) returns in a subplot that was also funny and showed us a new, musically talented side of Robert California. This time, Robert wants to play in their band, and he proves to be a good Harmonica player. But when he invites some friends to join them with some impressive musical pedigree of their own, Andy and company find themselves slowly edged out of their own band. Their efforts to still try and be a part of it were amusing, and it was nice to see them jamming out to Peter Frampton classic "Baby, I Love Your Way" with what they could find in the episode's final scene. It was also good to see Val again, which seems to show that the new warehouse workers will slowly become a steady presence again.
Ultimately, Pam's Replacement wasn't the best episode of season 8 so far or the best Jim/Pam episode, but that's fine. It was still a solid, funny episode of The Office, with good moments for the characters and an earned sweetness at the end. And this far down the line, it's still amazing that the show hasn't had any real decline (at least in my opinion. I'm aware plenty of people believe the show has declined.). Office continues to be good this season, with it's nice ensemble focus. And hopefully, it'll stay this way.
Grade: Awesome! (Good)
Memorable Moments
-The cold open started by somewhat recycling a joke from season 4's The Deposition, where Andy wants Erin to fake that an important call is on the line, so he can turn it down and impress a client. But it takes a hilarious turn, when Erin doesn't realize that Andy doesn't want to take the fake call and tells him his mother had died. Andy ultimately takes the call and plays along, despite Daryl's objections on the other end of the line.
-Andy: “CEOs don’t play tambourine. Tambourines are for girlfriends.”
-As the office insists that a pregnant Helen Mirren would be hot, Dwight points out the absurdity of it. “The hottest thing ever is a 66-year-old pregnant woman?”
-Dwight: “Jim has no discernable sense of humor, Pam, you should know that.”
-Dwight: “Does your husband ever have very soft erections, 'cause if not, I just grabbed a very soft penis for nothing.”
-Jim: "Stop shoving me." Dwight: "Aww, 'stop shoving me'. 'Stop grabbing my penis.' Grow up."
-Dwight: "Doesn't it concern you in the slightest that Jim isn't his real name."
The episode plot was simple, which is always good, because simple allows for more jokes and character moments. Pam is training a temp Office Administrator, for when she goes onto maternity leave (which has to be soon. Though if the birth of Pam's 2nd baby isn't heavily advertised before it happens, that would be a fun surprise.). The temp, Cathy is quite attractive. But the rest of the office is both underplaying her attractiveness and insisting that Pam is still attractive, when Pam is around. Everyone except Dwight, who Pam starts to see as the only honest one. So she enlists Dwight to get Jim to admit that he finds Cathy attractive (which Jim confides to us that he does. But he loves Pam so much, he doesn't plan to tell her while she's heavily pregnant.).
This whole plot had a lot of quality material, but I felt like there could've been more of them trying to figure it out through wacky methods, before the makeshift lie detector test. What we saw was fine and funny, but the matchmaker test wasn't wacky enough for my tastes, and Dwight grabbing Jim's crotch was already spoiled by promos. The lie detector though, with Dwight using a drug store's blood pressure machine delivered on both the funny (Their run-in with an old man who wanted to use the machine. Dwight believing that Jim was lying about his name), and the sweet (Pam's concerned side conquering her suspicious side when they realize that Jim has high blood pressure), so it was fine that some of the stuff leading up to it didn't quite live up to my imagination.
And meanwhile, Andy, Daryl, and Kevin's band (which at the end of the episode officially becomes Kevin and the Zits.) returns in a subplot that was also funny and showed us a new, musically talented side of Robert California. This time, Robert wants to play in their band, and he proves to be a good Harmonica player. But when he invites some friends to join them with some impressive musical pedigree of their own, Andy and company find themselves slowly edged out of their own band. Their efforts to still try and be a part of it were amusing, and it was nice to see them jamming out to Peter Frampton classic "Baby, I Love Your Way" with what they could find in the episode's final scene. It was also good to see Val again, which seems to show that the new warehouse workers will slowly become a steady presence again.
Ultimately, Pam's Replacement wasn't the best episode of season 8 so far or the best Jim/Pam episode, but that's fine. It was still a solid, funny episode of The Office, with good moments for the characters and an earned sweetness at the end. And this far down the line, it's still amazing that the show hasn't had any real decline (at least in my opinion. I'm aware plenty of people believe the show has declined.). Office continues to be good this season, with it's nice ensemble focus. And hopefully, it'll stay this way.
Grade: Awesome! (Good)
Memorable Moments
-The cold open started by somewhat recycling a joke from season 4's The Deposition, where Andy wants Erin to fake that an important call is on the line, so he can turn it down and impress a client. But it takes a hilarious turn, when Erin doesn't realize that Andy doesn't want to take the fake call and tells him his mother had died. Andy ultimately takes the call and plays along, despite Daryl's objections on the other end of the line.
-Andy: “CEOs don’t play tambourine. Tambourines are for girlfriends.”
-As the office insists that a pregnant Helen Mirren would be hot, Dwight points out the absurdity of it. “The hottest thing ever is a 66-year-old pregnant woman?”
-Dwight: “Jim has no discernable sense of humor, Pam, you should know that.”
-Dwight: “Does your husband ever have very soft erections, 'cause if not, I just grabbed a very soft penis for nothing.”
-Jim: "Stop shoving me." Dwight: "Aww, 'stop shoving me'. 'Stop grabbing my penis.' Grow up."
-Dwight: "Doesn't it concern you in the slightest that Jim isn't his real name."
Parks and Recreation: The Treaty
Last week's Parks and Rec had Leslie and Ben agree to be friends. But that's not always easy for exes (even exes who had as graceful a break-up as Leslie and Ben), so this week's episode had Ben deciding he couldn't do it. Of course, Leslie wasn't that happy about it and so the main conflict of The Treaty was revealed, as she tried to use a high schools model UN to go to war.
This whole storyline was a solid one with a good emotional component. After the first part of the season had little focus on Leslie and Ben following their break-up, it's been nice for these past two episodes to show that it's still an issue. And this time, their unsettled issues almost ruined a group of kid's (well, teenagers) Model UN. Of course, once they settle their issues and decide to have one fun conversation at work a day, they manage to right their wrongs, but it was nice to remind us that Leslie isn't perfect. Of course, the storyline still delivered on the laughs as well, many of them coming from Andy (who's traded all of Finland's boring stuff like armies for every country's lions.) and April (who insists on being the moon.). But Leslie's whole war on Peru was entertaining too, especially with her over the top threat.
Meanwhile, The Treaty also finally brought Tom back into the fold. I appreciate that they dragged his decision to leave for as long as they could, because if he had come back in episode 1 or 2 of the season, it would've felt like a cop-out. But they waited until episode 7, and had Tom be too prideful to come back right away, which allowed for us to watch Ron interview an endless string of Pawnee Oddballs for the position. The best of these was him pretending to be amused when one applicant put "Yes, please" beside the section for Sex. And even when Tom had Ron put on a public show to try and get him back, Tom refused, planning to come back in a couple days, but his plan got derailed when Ron grabbed him and forced him to accept. Anyways, Tom is back where he belongs now, but I'm still hoping that we'll see some of the aftereffects of his experience with Entertainment 720.
The Treaty also gave Ann a chance to finally air out her relationship grievances with Chris, after a season of some unresolved issues. Chris is concerned because Millicent won't return his calls, so he gathers Ann, Donna, and a very reluctant Jerry to try and figure out why. Ann's whole thing about how Chris basically turned her into him and left when he got bored, and how he has to give Millicent space to be herself was very true, and a nice character moment for Ann, who's really coming into her own this year, as someone who's more than just Leslie's friend.
All in all, I felt The Treaty was a very strong episode of Parks and Recreation, that advanced the emotional arcs of many of the characters, while still allowing for some good comedy. Parks and Recreation continues to be dynamite and refusing to get off of the stride they've been on since mid-season 2. I can't wait to see what happens to these characters next.
Grade: Totally Awesome! (Great)
Memorable Moments
-Tom explains what he's done during his time at the Parks department.: "In my four years here I revolutionized the position of administrator and made this place cool. I was the first person to abbreviate Parks and Recreation department. First it was Parks and Recreation, then Parks and Rec. Then P&R, then I lengthened just a little bit to… Tommy's Place."
-Andy: "I just traded Finland's military to Kenya for 50 lions. That's pretty good, right?"
-Leslie: "I'm back! Or as they say in Denmark: 'I’m back.' Most people speak English."
-One of the applicants for Tom's job is from Gary, Indiana. His name is Gary. Tom is not impressed.
-Leslie: “The only thing I will be waving is your decapitated head on a stick in front of your weeping mother!”
-Andy: "If you re-arrange the letters of Peru, you get Europe."
-Leslie is glad when April announces the Moon will join her war on Peru: "We got the freakin' moon. What are you gonna do without tides Peru?"
-April: "OK. You guys are being stupid. Why don't you work it out while Andy and I..." Andy (picking up an Erlenmeyer Flask): "...Throw these scientist bottles off the roof."
This whole storyline was a solid one with a good emotional component. After the first part of the season had little focus on Leslie and Ben following their break-up, it's been nice for these past two episodes to show that it's still an issue. And this time, their unsettled issues almost ruined a group of kid's (well, teenagers) Model UN. Of course, once they settle their issues and decide to have one fun conversation at work a day, they manage to right their wrongs, but it was nice to remind us that Leslie isn't perfect. Of course, the storyline still delivered on the laughs as well, many of them coming from Andy (who's traded all of Finland's boring stuff like armies for every country's lions.) and April (who insists on being the moon.). But Leslie's whole war on Peru was entertaining too, especially with her over the top threat.
Meanwhile, The Treaty also finally brought Tom back into the fold. I appreciate that they dragged his decision to leave for as long as they could, because if he had come back in episode 1 or 2 of the season, it would've felt like a cop-out. But they waited until episode 7, and had Tom be too prideful to come back right away, which allowed for us to watch Ron interview an endless string of Pawnee Oddballs for the position. The best of these was him pretending to be amused when one applicant put "Yes, please" beside the section for Sex. And even when Tom had Ron put on a public show to try and get him back, Tom refused, planning to come back in a couple days, but his plan got derailed when Ron grabbed him and forced him to accept. Anyways, Tom is back where he belongs now, but I'm still hoping that we'll see some of the aftereffects of his experience with Entertainment 720.
The Treaty also gave Ann a chance to finally air out her relationship grievances with Chris, after a season of some unresolved issues. Chris is concerned because Millicent won't return his calls, so he gathers Ann, Donna, and a very reluctant Jerry to try and figure out why. Ann's whole thing about how Chris basically turned her into him and left when he got bored, and how he has to give Millicent space to be herself was very true, and a nice character moment for Ann, who's really coming into her own this year, as someone who's more than just Leslie's friend.
All in all, I felt The Treaty was a very strong episode of Parks and Recreation, that advanced the emotional arcs of many of the characters, while still allowing for some good comedy. Parks and Recreation continues to be dynamite and refusing to get off of the stride they've been on since mid-season 2. I can't wait to see what happens to these characters next.
Grade: Totally Awesome! (Great)
Memorable Moments
-Tom explains what he's done during his time at the Parks department.: "In my four years here I revolutionized the position of administrator and made this place cool. I was the first person to abbreviate Parks and Recreation department. First it was Parks and Recreation, then Parks and Rec. Then P&R, then I lengthened just a little bit to… Tommy's Place."
-Andy: "I just traded Finland's military to Kenya for 50 lions. That's pretty good, right?"
-Leslie: "I'm back! Or as they say in Denmark: 'I’m back.' Most people speak English."
-One of the applicants for Tom's job is from Gary, Indiana. His name is Gary. Tom is not impressed.
-Leslie: “The only thing I will be waving is your decapitated head on a stick in front of your weeping mother!”
-Andy: "If you re-arrange the letters of Peru, you get Europe."
-Leslie is glad when April announces the Moon will join her war on Peru: "We got the freakin' moon. What are you gonna do without tides Peru?"
-April: "OK. You guys are being stupid. Why don't you work it out while Andy and I..." Andy (picking up an Erlenmeyer Flask): "...Throw these scientist bottles off the roof."
Community: Studies in Modern Movement
Last night's Community wasn't that dense or complex. It wasn't as dark or meta as other episodes this season. It didn't break any ground or turn conventions on their head. It was however, a lot of fun with characters I have come to care about and with a song I also really loved. And that was all it took for me to enjoy it. A lot.
Following up on Abed's offer for Annie to move in with him and Troy in Remedial Chaos Theory, this week was moving day as everyone gathered to help Annie move from the dangerous neighborhood she lives in. Except for Jeff, but more on that in a sec. Except she starts to get agitated when Troy and Abed use all the packing tape to tape Troy to the door. Britta advises her to just be less uptight though, so she gives it a chance. And she does a good job. Even when she gets concerned because the second bedroom is apparently just a blanket fort, she gets excited when Troy and Abed put on a shadow play depicting how she's been rescued by them. Of course when she finds out that the actual 2nd bedroom is used by the two as a "Dreamatorium ("It's a place for us to have virtual adventures."), she realizes that she shouldn't be the only one who has to adapt and decides she can't move in with them. Until Troy and Abed make it up to her by giving her an actual bedroom (They're moving into the blanket fort. The Dreamtorium is too important.).This storyline was a lot of fun AND actually does feature some character growth for Annie (And Abed and Troy to an extent.).
The rest of the storylines didn't really have any character growth, with the possible exception of Shirley and Britta, who come to an understanding of sorts after their adventure picking up a Hitchhiker who thinks he's Jesus (who loves marijuana and drinking human blood, but is against race mixing.) but they were all a lot of fun. Shirley's and Britta's kinda explains itself. They're arguing about who the moral one is and then Britta picks up a hitchhiker and the scenario I just mentioned above happens. Again, there was a bit of growth here but the real fun in this storyline came from the Jesus the hitchhiker, who was really funny. Pierce's storyline meanwhile, was mainly just there for Chevy Chase to do some physical comedy, as he tried to fix a minor issue at Annie's apartment, only to cause more problems AND inhale paint fumes, but it was a lot of fun. And Annie and Pierce had a nice, small scene together at the end of it.
Jeff's storyline though, probably was the highlight of the episode for me. It had him fake being sick and at the hospital, while he actually shopped at the Gap. Unfortunately he "coincidentally" (I never once believed this was a coincidence) runs into Dean Pelton, who blackmails him into taking him to lunch, and recording a music video to Kiss From A Rose with him. The scene where they do this, while the show cuts between Annie watching the shadow play, Jesus singing a song of his own and Pierce hallucinating that he's playing the piano is the funniest scene of the episode (It also reminded me of the Somewhere Out There/Irish Dancing/Shirley's Speech montage from season 1's Environmental Science, but I love that scene too, so I didn't mind). The plot was also good because they didn't drag it out or take Dean Pelton's obsession with Jeff too far. And the conclusion, where Jeff realizes that the Dean had looked into his student e-mail account and machinated the whole situation, causing him to beat him up as another video starts and the background changes multiple times was gold. As was Jeff realizing that the Dean did wind up tweeting their video as the whole gang mocks him.
Again, this episode of Community wasn't revolutionary by any means. But not every episode can be revolutionary. Some episodes should just be fun. And this was a lot of fun. So I'm still happy with Community this week.
Grade: Awesome! (Good)
Memorable Moments
-Shirley: “How can I religiously persecute you? You don’t have a religion.”
-"Jesus loves marijuana. Jesus loves marijuana. Jesus loves marijuana... AND DRINKING HUMAN BLOOD!"
-Pierce: How long was I out? Is Napster still a thing?
-The tag, with Troy, Abed, and Annie putting on a shadow puppet play for Jeff and Britta was also gold. As was Jeff's tearful reaction to the death of the Horsebot 3000. “I liked Horsebot 3000.”
Following up on Abed's offer for Annie to move in with him and Troy in Remedial Chaos Theory, this week was moving day as everyone gathered to help Annie move from the dangerous neighborhood she lives in. Except for Jeff, but more on that in a sec. Except she starts to get agitated when Troy and Abed use all the packing tape to tape Troy to the door. Britta advises her to just be less uptight though, so she gives it a chance. And she does a good job. Even when she gets concerned because the second bedroom is apparently just a blanket fort, she gets excited when Troy and Abed put on a shadow play depicting how she's been rescued by them. Of course when she finds out that the actual 2nd bedroom is used by the two as a "Dreamatorium ("It's a place for us to have virtual adventures."), she realizes that she shouldn't be the only one who has to adapt and decides she can't move in with them. Until Troy and Abed make it up to her by giving her an actual bedroom (They're moving into the blanket fort. The Dreamtorium is too important.).This storyline was a lot of fun AND actually does feature some character growth for Annie (And Abed and Troy to an extent.).
The rest of the storylines didn't really have any character growth, with the possible exception of Shirley and Britta, who come to an understanding of sorts after their adventure picking up a Hitchhiker who thinks he's Jesus (who loves marijuana and drinking human blood, but is against race mixing.) but they were all a lot of fun. Shirley's and Britta's kinda explains itself. They're arguing about who the moral one is and then Britta picks up a hitchhiker and the scenario I just mentioned above happens. Again, there was a bit of growth here but the real fun in this storyline came from the Jesus the hitchhiker, who was really funny. Pierce's storyline meanwhile, was mainly just there for Chevy Chase to do some physical comedy, as he tried to fix a minor issue at Annie's apartment, only to cause more problems AND inhale paint fumes, but it was a lot of fun. And Annie and Pierce had a nice, small scene together at the end of it.
Jeff's storyline though, probably was the highlight of the episode for me. It had him fake being sick and at the hospital, while he actually shopped at the Gap. Unfortunately he "coincidentally" (I never once believed this was a coincidence) runs into Dean Pelton, who blackmails him into taking him to lunch, and recording a music video to Kiss From A Rose with him. The scene where they do this, while the show cuts between Annie watching the shadow play, Jesus singing a song of his own and Pierce hallucinating that he's playing the piano is the funniest scene of the episode (It also reminded me of the Somewhere Out There/Irish Dancing/Shirley's Speech montage from season 1's Environmental Science, but I love that scene too, so I didn't mind). The plot was also good because they didn't drag it out or take Dean Pelton's obsession with Jeff too far. And the conclusion, where Jeff realizes that the Dean had looked into his student e-mail account and machinated the whole situation, causing him to beat him up as another video starts and the background changes multiple times was gold. As was Jeff realizing that the Dean did wind up tweeting their video as the whole gang mocks him.
Again, this episode of Community wasn't revolutionary by any means. But not every episode can be revolutionary. Some episodes should just be fun. And this was a lot of fun. So I'm still happy with Community this week.
Grade: Awesome! (Good)
Memorable Moments
-Shirley: “How can I religiously persecute you? You don’t have a religion.”
-"Jesus loves marijuana. Jesus loves marijuana. Jesus loves marijuana... AND DRINKING HUMAN BLOOD!"
-Pierce: How long was I out? Is Napster still a thing?
-The tag, with Troy, Abed, and Annie putting on a shadow puppet play for Jeff and Britta was also gold. As was Jeff's tearful reaction to the death of the Horsebot 3000. “I liked Horsebot 3000.”
Thursday, 10 November 2011
5 Things I Enjoyed About Survivor: South Pacific: Cut Throat
"I thought we were supposed to be in the final 3". Those are the last words of Cut Throat, uttered by Jim as he joins Ozzy and Keith on Redemption Island, which just go to show what a game changer Cochran's move last week truly was. Of course, with the rest of Savii now freshly vulnerable, it was pretty clear who would be going to Redemption this week (unless there was another game changing move, which there wasn't.). But the episode was still enjoyable, so here are 5 specific things I enjoyed.
1. For Some Mysterious Reason Savii Hates Cochran: OK, technically I didn't really enjoy watching this, but it was good television. Because oh, man. It was previewed last week, but the first few minutes of Cut Throat were a bit hard to watch, as Ozzy, Jim, and Whitney tore into Cochran hard. Well, Ozzy wasn't that bad. He was at least civil about it, so Cochran sent away bodyguard Brandon. Then Jim told Cochran to never speak to him again and Whitney told Cochran he disgusted her. You can understand their emotions though. If I was in their shoes, I'd've been pissed at Cochran too. As a viewer though, I found his big move exciting, because it changed things up.
2. You Get The Water From The Coconut And Spit It All Out: As a double elimination episode, we got to the duel pretty quick, which had everyone try to shoot a coconut in the basket and then had the first 4 people to do this break coconuts, get a mouthful of coconut water, and rush through an obstacle course trying to fill a vial. And though Whitney and Dawn both made it to the second part, this really was a race between Jim and Sophie. And ultimately, Jim won his survival for another day at least when Sophie threw up just as she was about to beat him. Which leads to...
3. Tribal #1: Send A Message: Though Jim considered transferring his immunity to Ozzy, he ultimately decides against it, and winds up using a big part of tribal council for a wacky speech, where he implores Upolu to vote out Cochran to send a message to future generations of survivors that being devious and dishonorable doesn't get rewarded. Of course, Coach points out that this would also teach future generations of survivors that if you stand up for yourself you get screwed, and Ozzy gets voted out. Nice try though, Jim (also nice was the sand diagram he drew up later in the episode when trying to get Albert and Sophie to flip.)
4. Dawn: So Nice, It's Dangerous: During the second immunity challenge, everyone in Upolu plus Cochran took the option of easting pastries instead of competing, and Dawn made some supportive comments that everyone appreciated. Except Albert realized that Dawn was slowly worming her way into their alliance and that she was really dangerous if she made it to the finals. So he thinks about voting for Dawn instead of Jim (Whitney has immunity.). Of course, this is only there so the forthcoming tribal isn't so predictable, but it'll assumedly be important next week and it was good to see Albert acknowledge that Dawn is dangerous. But of course Upolu + Cochran all vote for Jim. But not before...
5. Tribal #2: Brandon Treats Savii To His Insane Tribal Ramblings: Brandon annoys me as a player, but I have to admit: when he freaks out at Tribal, it's always amusing. This time, Dawn mentions that it was kind of hard for her to watch Upolu stuff themselves at the challenge and he sees it as a contradiction of her earlier support of their decision. Dawn calmly handles her way through it though. Oh! And he also says that they won't stop until Savii is all wiped out. Oh, Brandon. What kind of wacky shenanigans will you get into next week.
And that's five. That's all for now. Expect the regular coverage of Community, Parks and Rec, and Office over the next day or two after they air tonight. And expect me to talk about Chuck again, after missing last week.
1. For Some Mysterious Reason Savii Hates Cochran: OK, technically I didn't really enjoy watching this, but it was good television. Because oh, man. It was previewed last week, but the first few minutes of Cut Throat were a bit hard to watch, as Ozzy, Jim, and Whitney tore into Cochran hard. Well, Ozzy wasn't that bad. He was at least civil about it, so Cochran sent away bodyguard Brandon. Then Jim told Cochran to never speak to him again and Whitney told Cochran he disgusted her. You can understand their emotions though. If I was in their shoes, I'd've been pissed at Cochran too. As a viewer though, I found his big move exciting, because it changed things up.
2. You Get The Water From The Coconut And Spit It All Out: As a double elimination episode, we got to the duel pretty quick, which had everyone try to shoot a coconut in the basket and then had the first 4 people to do this break coconuts, get a mouthful of coconut water, and rush through an obstacle course trying to fill a vial. And though Whitney and Dawn both made it to the second part, this really was a race between Jim and Sophie. And ultimately, Jim won his survival for another day at least when Sophie threw up just as she was about to beat him. Which leads to...
3. Tribal #1: Send A Message: Though Jim considered transferring his immunity to Ozzy, he ultimately decides against it, and winds up using a big part of tribal council for a wacky speech, where he implores Upolu to vote out Cochran to send a message to future generations of survivors that being devious and dishonorable doesn't get rewarded. Of course, Coach points out that this would also teach future generations of survivors that if you stand up for yourself you get screwed, and Ozzy gets voted out. Nice try though, Jim (also nice was the sand diagram he drew up later in the episode when trying to get Albert and Sophie to flip.)
4. Dawn: So Nice, It's Dangerous: During the second immunity challenge, everyone in Upolu plus Cochran took the option of easting pastries instead of competing, and Dawn made some supportive comments that everyone appreciated. Except Albert realized that Dawn was slowly worming her way into their alliance and that she was really dangerous if she made it to the finals. So he thinks about voting for Dawn instead of Jim (Whitney has immunity.). Of course, this is only there so the forthcoming tribal isn't so predictable, but it'll assumedly be important next week and it was good to see Albert acknowledge that Dawn is dangerous. But of course Upolu + Cochran all vote for Jim. But not before...
5. Tribal #2: Brandon Treats Savii To His Insane Tribal Ramblings: Brandon annoys me as a player, but I have to admit: when he freaks out at Tribal, it's always amusing. This time, Dawn mentions that it was kind of hard for her to watch Upolu stuff themselves at the challenge and he sees it as a contradiction of her earlier support of their decision. Dawn calmly handles her way through it though. Oh! And he also says that they won't stop until Savii is all wiped out. Oh, Brandon. What kind of wacky shenanigans will you get into next week.
And that's five. That's all for now. Expect the regular coverage of Community, Parks and Rec, and Office over the next day or two after they air tonight. And expect me to talk about Chuck again, after missing last week.
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