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[Saturday, May 19th, 2012, 9:20 PM] |
I just spent the day watching old Community episodes, and I think I've come to terms with the fact that these three seasons are all we're going to be getting of the show at its best. I'm so thankful that Dan Harmon has gotten a chance to make such iconoclastic, nuanced television. No other show could've given us episodes as moving as "Mixology Certification," or as unique as "Critical Film Studies," or as accomplished as "Remedial Chaos Theory." And that's not even mentioning the absolute comic perfection of "Paradigms of Human Memory," or just how earth-shattering "Modern Warfare" felt back in season 1, or all the wonderful sequences hidden in normal episodes like "Studies in Modern Movement." Though there are a lot of shows I love, there aren't very many whose fandoms I will admit to being a part of. But screw all the pretense: I am a full-on fan of Community. It was everything a sitcom could and should be, and even if season 4 without Harmon is a disappointing shell of its former self, I'm so glad I'll have these three wonderful seasons to rewatch for years and years.
I've had a pet theory for a little while now that every decade since the form's invention has had a single, landmark sitcom, one that breaks down constraints the genre previously had and points the way forward for future examples. Of course, The Honeymooners invented sitcoms in the fist place in the 1950s, developing conventions that last to this day. The '60s had The Dick Van Dyke Show, a series that identified the form's potential for storytelling rather than isolated sketches. The '70s brought The Mary Tyler Moore Show, which understood the value of a beloved ensemble and cemented how sitcoms would look and sound for decades to come. In the '80s, Cheers brought a sophistication to its writing that pulled sitcoms out of a low-art ghetto, and at the same time saw the value in a continuing story linking its episodes together. The Simpsons did more with the sitcom form in the '90s than any other show had before (and probably ever will), building its own world for itself and establishing a unique pace and tone for its humour that would influence every subsequent comedy program, animated or otherwise. Finally, Arrested Development followed in the '00s by attacking every convention of the form until little was left. You heard it here that Community will be the defining sitcom of the 2010s, a show that rebuilt the genre following the many deconstructions of the previous decade and served as a beacon for what a sitcom could really achieve in terms of both form and emotion. It wasn't always a perfect show, but it was always special. Community is one of those shows that just proves how valuable television is as an artistic medium. |
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| (no subject) |
[Thursday, May 17th, 2012, 11:27 PM] |
I said way back around "Studies in Modern Movement" that I love that Community is always trying new things, especially when the new things are different from the new things it did last season. Tonight's three final episodes each did something new, and they each took me out of my head while watching them. And honestly, if the show weren't already renewed for a fourth season, I would've been happy to call "Introduction to Finality" its series finale. Community's never been my favourite show on TV, but I've always loved its approach to being a show. When we look back at the sitcoms that did the most with the genre, Community will be high on the list. I'm so glad we've gotten these three seasons of television.
Edit: And now that Dan Harmon's out as showrunner, it looks like "Introduction to Finality" will probably be the series finale in my mind going forward. Very disheartened by this. |
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[Sunday, April 29th, 2012, 11:41 PM] |
lamest thing I will say this week: I'm in love with Girls' title cards |
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| (no subject) |
[Thursday, April 26th, 2012, 11:00 PM] |
God damn, Parks & Rec. You can really knock it out of the park when you try to. "The Debate" might have just been the best episode of this season. |
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| (no subject) |
[Wednesday, April 18th, 2012, 9:39 PM] |
Ugh. It's decided. Suburgatory is the worst scored sitcom on TV. This is like MIDI demo music-level composition. It clashes with everything onscreen and makes musical sequences just unbearable. I don't know how a score this bad can make it to the screen, really. Suburgatory's okay though. |
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| (no subject) |
[Wednesday, April 18th, 2012, 1:06 AM] |
I like E-40 as much as the next guy... but do I really want to sit down and listen to his entire new triple album?
...maybe I do. |
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| (no subject) |
[Monday, April 16th, 2012, 1:23 AM] |
I'm in love with Girls, as I knew I would be. But I don't have much to say about it that hasn't been said already. I will say, though, that I love that HBO cancelled three of its male-centred comedies (Hung, How to Make it in America, and Bored to Death, the last of which I did like) last fall in favour of female-centred ones. With Eastbound & Down having aired its series finale tonight, that means Girls, Veep, and Enlightened are the new comedy lineup, and that's fantastic. |
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| (no subject) |
[Wednesday, April 11th, 2012, 10:56 PM] |
Don't Trust the Bitch in Apartment 23 isn't entirely my thing, but I do like a few parts of it. First, it's got the very funny Liza Lapira, who deserves a bigger role here but makes the most out of all the material she's given. Second, the relationship between the two leads, Kristen Ritter and Dreama Walker, is really great stuff, and I'm excited to see it develop over this short season. And finally, the show's got a fantastic surreal bent to it, the type that another sitcom would develop once story ideas dried up around the fifth season. It gives Apartment 23 a unique feel compared to other sitcoms on the air, and the show wrings a lot of laughs out of its heightened reality. The sooner it ditches its cumbersome premise and becomes a bizarre version of a hangout sitcom, the better. |
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| (no subject) |
[Monday, April 9th, 2012, 11:58 PM] |
Something's changed in my head in the past year. When I was watching Treme's second season first run, it took me until the second episode to decide the show wasn't for me (after mostly tolerating the first season). I just wasn't interested in any of the stories it was telling, and I knew the payoffs wouldn't be as explosive as I wanted them to be. But a year later I'm giving it a second chance, and now, somehow, I've completely come around to it. Suddenly I'm invested in every character, and I'm riveted by every scene. It's not my favourite show, but it does a lot of things I love to see in television. One of the most difficult things a show can do is authentically capture the rhythms of everyday life. Treme is one of the best examples of that goal, and it gives the series a feeling that's unlike any other.
Forgive me for being a little self-indulgent here. But I think that the more of an art form you experience, the more you're willing to give a chance. A year ago, I was convinced I would never be an enormous fan of television dramas. Since then, though, I've become invested in several, and suddenly I'm more attuned to and welcoming of the rhythms of different dramas. It might have been Luck that turned me on to experiencing dramas at their own pace. Since I've fallen in love with it, I've become an honest-to-god fan of more slow-paced shows like Mad Men and Treme. I'm honestly kind of proud of myself. We'll see where dramas take me. |
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| Delocated season 3 |
[Friday, April 6th, 2012, 3:06 PM] |
Delocated never really needed to get any better at what it did. It has a perfect comedy premise: a guy in the witness protection program sets up his own reality show, while the crime family who want him dead are the stars of their own competing reality show. Just the idea itself is hilarious, and you can think of so many great episodes stemming just from that. Even better, the central conceit, that "Jon" (his witness protection name) must always keep his face covered by a ski mask and have his voice distorted by a harmonizer, is something that refuses to stop being funny even after three years (especially when the whole idea defeats the whole purpose of being in the witness protection program, which is surely the whole point of the series). And yet what at first seemed to be a very silly sketch idea that was inexplicably given a series order has turned into creator Jon Glaser's passion project.
Every aspect of the show is meticulously thought through, and it's all far better written than something this ridiculous should ever be. The cast, mostly comprised of NYC comedy insiders, is universally amazing, treating the material with the utmost seriousness (except when it's funnier for them to not do so). It's even got Todd Barry in a performance that puts all other "as himself" roles to shame. The show makes the most of its impossibly low budget, turning the cheesy incidental music into its own joke and staging surprisingly convincing murder scenes despite their looking like something out of a student play. But Delocated's most triumphant creation is "Jon" himself, a wholly unsympathetic character who exists in a universe designed solely to enable his every whim. Glaser has so fully embodied "Jon" that he has become one of the most compelling comedic characters on TV despite living his entire existence with his face hidden. "Jon" has become such a defined character that even things like his wardrobe and body language could only be his. Glaser plays him with an infectious joy, giving him his own bizarre slang and catch-phrases and having him improvise terrible songs when he's excited about something. That joy is part of the reason that "Jon," who's possibly more self-centred and deluded than nearly any other comedy protagonist, still manages to be someone you root for, even as he's making one stupid decision after another. "Jon"'s actions have basically ensured that everyone close to him will be (or has already been) murdered, and yet you still want him to succeed in his potato skin business.
Delocated just wrapped up its third season, and it's been just a revelatory piece of television. Every single aspect of the show has improved from season 2: it's expanded its universe, deepened its protagonist, and tightened its direction and presentation. But really, the show's just gotten funnier. It's managed to cram jokes into every scene and line, marking a significant improvement from the often slow second season. It's simultaneously gotten sillier and more grounded, with an episode where "Jon" goes on a silence strike and buys a suit that plays samples of his own voice airing immediately following one where he's emotionally devastated after being told point blank exactly why he's such a terrible person. It's been supremely confident television, and Glaser's commitment to making each season of the show distinct and of a consistently high quality means that season 4 can't come soon enough. |
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| (no subject) |
[Wednesday, April 4th, 2012, 10:07 PM] |
I really like the pilot of Best Friends Forever. It's nothing revolutionary, but it's a surprisingly confident first episode for what could eventually turn into a great sitcom (if it ever makes it to a second season). It features two fearless performances by Jessica St. Clair and Lennon Parham, and is pretty snappily edited for a pilot, with great rhythm and pacing to the proceedings. Even better, the show starts developing its own sense of humour right from the get-go. But my two favourite things about it, two simple additions that can help any single-camera sitcom:
1. Characters actually laugh at each other's jokes. Watching two people trade punchlines back and forth without ever cracking a smile can get pretty grating after a while, and when you're trying to cultivate a positive atmosphere, nothing helps more than seeing characters actually having a good time. Despite the show being scripted (though through a pretty convoluted improvisational process that somehow sounds kind of inspired), St. Clair and Parham cracking each other up gives the show a looseness and sense of realism that just makes everything more enjoyable.
2. The show isn't overscored. In fact, aside from some Full House type "here's the everyone loves each other moment" music in the third act, there's barely any score at all. The current trend in non-mockumentary single camera comedies (gross) is to wallpaper the whole show with goofy bouncy music that steps on nearly every punchline. It's one of the most irritating things about pretty-good sitcoms like The Middle and Raising Hope. What a relief it is, then, that Best Friends Forever lets its characters just talk without sounding like they're in a Looney Tunes short, and actually features some pretty funny reaction shots without a musical sting telling you "this is a reaction shot!! Laugh now!"
It's nowhere near perfect, but it's got the feel and ambition of something special. I'll happily stick with the show until its inevitable quiet cancellation, praying the whole way that Best Friends Forever turns into 2012's Happy Endings: flawed but lovable, renewed at the last minute, then fantastic in its second season. |
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| (no subject) |
[Monday, April 2nd, 2012, 11:59 PM] |
I've recently come around to Mad Men, a show I always thought was nice but not for me. I figured since the fifth season was starting, it would be nice to watch it from the start with my mom, since we needed a new show to get into. And my god does it play well on a rewatch. I don't have much to say about it, since my critical voice only extends to the lamest of sitcoms, but I will say that a lot of its shots and musical choices are incredibly powerful and moving.
Bonus thought: my favourite thing about the new season is that after four years of the show still generally feeling like the '50s (with a bit of movement beyond that in season four), in 1966 it finally feels like that decade has started. The first few seasons did a great job of showing that the early '60s weren't all about go-go dancing and counterculture, but now the soundtrack sounds like Mancini-style exotica and new characters are pointing the way to the years to come (especially Megan, who is turning more and more compelling with each episode). I think the show handles the movement of time expertly, and its stylistic evolution matching its era only adds to that. |
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| (no subject) |
[Friday, March 30th, 2012, 5:46 PM] |
Guys, Delocated is having a crazy good third season. Like, one of the best of this TV season. It's a toss-up whether it or Happy Endings is my favourite sitcom right now. Archer as well has been super consistent. And Girls and Veep will be premiering this month. This shit is CRAZY.
Anyway if you like supremely silly and ridiculously well-written comedy, Delocated is for you. |
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| (no subject) |
[Friday, March 23rd, 2012, 1:18 PM] |
Back in September, I get tentative passes to two new comedies, Up All Night and 2 Broke Girls, saying that they had a lot of potential but weren't quite there yet. Now I've stopped watching both, and am actually tuning into New Girl and Whitney more often, two comedies I wrote off completely back then. The difference is that the latter two shows have actually started exploring the intricacies of their premises, and have given some effort into deepening their characters. Neither is there yet, but they're taking risks where Up All Night and (especially) 2 Broke Girls are spinning their wheels.
New Girl has been particularly successful at this. In January, it aired an episode which addressed the show's problematic premise in a satisfactory way, and since then it's been a bit less formless. "Injured," especially, was a surprisingly emotional half hour for the show, and successfully deepened all the characters. And while the show still hasn't found personalities for a few of them, it has mostly solved the joke problem I mentioned in that last post. "Fancyman (Part 1)" was the most joke-filled episode of the show yet, and it actually had quite a few well-earned funny moments. It's nowhere near Happy Endings, a show New Girl still desperately wants to be, but it's slowly becoming good, something I wouldn't have given it back in the pilot.
Whitney, on the other hand, isn't quite good television yet, but it's showing a surprising willingness to break free of its stale premise. "G-Word," which aired a couple of weeks ago, was a shockingly mature take on sexual orientation, and it accomplished that in a way that was true to the show's (admittedly thin) characters and premise. It even made fun of the show's ridiculous sets. And, god help me, there was an actual laugh in there, a character beat that actually worked and made me laugh aloud. There's hope for this one, I think. |
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| (no subject) |
[Monday, March 19th, 2012, 1:25 AM] |
I kinda stumbled into rewatching a few Office episodes from its second and third seasons in the past couple of days, and until then I'd completely forgotten why I loved the show so much way back when. I couldn't stop giggling at the last scene of "Office Olympics," and the ending to "The Carpet" is still one of the most poignant sitcom moments ever. The best thing about it, though, is just how effortless it all seems. Every aspect of it was firing on all cylinders, and in the show's slow decline since season 5, it's easy to forget that that time existed. I've been in a Parks & Recreation bubble for a few years now, assuming that it had already surpassed The Office's best moments. Now I'm not too sure. The Office is a show that had something of a time limit on its premise, and now we're seeing the result of that. But in its best years, it really was a force to be reckoned with. I should give these seasons a full rewatch one of these days. They deserve it. |
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| (no subject) |
[Sunday, March 18th, 2012, 3:15 PM] |
birdie birdie chirp chirp |
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| (no subject) |
[Wednesday, March 14th, 2012, 11:17 PM] |
I agree with Sepinwall. It had to be done. But personally, it's devastating. I've had shows cancelled on me before, but this is the first time on a show I've watched that a renewal has been taken back out of nowhere. And now we'll never get to see Luck possibly mirror the leap in quality that took place between the first two seasons of Deadwood, where it went from very good to outstanding. I'm really unhappy about this. |
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| (no subject) |
[Monday, March 5th, 2012, 9:39 PM] |
One of my favourite things in the whole world is a good comedy list. Here are two lists each from my favourite listmakers, The Simpsons and Homestar Runner, plus a bonus Bob Ducca one.
1. Jasper's brief teaching tenure, which may just be my favourite Simpsons gag ever.
2. Apu's bad cheque list is the type of quick split-second list that The Simpsons could toss off in their sleep, but I've always liked the elegance of this one.
3. Homestar Runner dealt in more surreal lists than most, but there's something about the way they're constructed that really gets to me. Homestar's grocery list (which he describes as his resume) is a lovely little one. The two obscured items are "dentifrice" and "macho nachos."
4. Another surreal one, but the reviews for Strong Bad's autobiography make such a great little short list. It makes no sense and I love it.
5. Finally, the list that possibly makes me laugh the most is Bob Ducca's list of ailments from Comedy Bang Bang. It's just perfect. |
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| (no subject) |
[Sunday, February 26th, 2012, 11:56 PM] |
I'm now completely in love with Luck. The show is like a drug to me. I can feel the endorphins being released in my head as I watch it. It's just so wonderful. I like a good depressing story as much as anyone, but there's nothing I love more than something truly, fully positive. Luck tells stories that have dark elements in them, but they're always rooted in a certain optimism and faith in humanity. It's the same tone that defined Deadwood, but this time the story is smaller and more focused, and I think that's working to the show's benefit. In tonight's episode, Ace shows happiness for the first time while witnessing a race, and later even expresses actual compassion for his horse. It's a truly touching moment for a character that up until then seemed almost not human—sometimes even less so than the so lovingly portrayed horses. Last week, a stunning showing by Getting Up Morning brought on an epiphany in Marcus, and his acting on it leads him to find a bit of solace in actually having friends. The horses bring such joy to these characters... and increasingly, me. |
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| (no subject) |
[Thursday, February 23rd, 2012, 12:20 AM] |
ahh, just when I worry that Happy Endings had hit all of its peaks, it delivers a flat out fantastic episode in "The Butterfly Effect Effect." No guest stars, no gimmicks, just six characters being silly for half an hour. Wonderful. |
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| (no subject) |
[Friday, February 17th, 2012, 5:31 PM] |
To try to get myself to write a bit more about TV, I've started another blog dedicated to my sitcom project. Follow if you want! All of my posts about the classic sitcoms I watch will be there from now on.
http://paulvssitcoms.blogspot.com/ |
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| (no subject) |
[Friday, February 17th, 2012, 3:18 PM] |
back into alternative rock in the past few days. Here are two songs I'm loving:
Titus Andronicus - "Titus Andronicus" (never really liked their first album as much as The Monitor, but god damn these guys can write a rager when they want to)
Cloud Nothings - "Fall In" (I like Dylan Baldi's new dark direction as much as anyone, but to my ears there's nothing better than his pop songs, and he just keeps getting better at writing them) |
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| (no subject) |
[Friday, February 17th, 2012, 12:47 PM] |
Some thoughts on a few current sitcoms I don't talk about too much:
Raising Hope: Slowly, and with a bit of difficulty, Raising Hope has turned into one of the best comedies on the air in its second season. "Jimmy's Fake Girlfriend," this week's episode, is maybe the best episode yet in what's been a fantastic streak for the show since late last fall. The show blends great character-based comedy and sickly sweet emotion as well as any other sitcom today, but it's also surprisingly deft in its use of questionable elements like baby reaction shots and gross-out humour (both somehow entirely endearing in this show). Martha Plimpton and Garret Dillahunt are both still incredible comic performers, against all odds, and Todd Giebenhain's Frank has turned into one of the show's funniest characters. And most bizarrely, Raising Hope is frequently one of the best directed sitcoms on the air, with surprisingly daring compositions and setpieces. It's easily one of the funniest shows airing right now, and one of the shows I look forward to the most during the week.
Happy Endings: Happy Endings seemed to be the next big comedy back in the fall, but it turned out to be disappointingly front-loaded, with all of its best episodes bundled together at the beginning of the season. It's still incredibly entertaining, however, and while it hasn't yet matched its near-perfect Halloween episode, it's not for lack of trying. It's even been experimenting with a few more complex sequences in the last few episodes, like the romantic comedy cutaways in "The Shrink, The Dare, Her Date and Her Brother" and the choreographed dance in "The St. Valentine's Day Maxssacre." The latter may even be the hardest I've ever laughed at this show. It's not the revelation I thought it would be in the fall, but Happy Endings is still one of the most enjoyable sitcoms on the air.
The Office: I haven't talked much about The Office this season, but I agree with the consensus that it's mostly terrible these days. The worst part is how easily its problems could've been avoided by making some gutsier decisions for the show's premise post-Carell, but that's beside the point. What is relevant is how happy I am the show's shaking up its cast, even just slightly, with this Florida business trip introduced last week. The episodes that resulted from it aren't great, but they're at least exciting, which is something this show hasn't been since last season. It's allowed stale characters like Stanley to be funny again in a new environment, and with less people back at the main office, Andy now has room to breathe and become a little less horrifying than he's been recently. And it's another great showcase for the only consistent bright point this season, Ellie Kemper, who has slowly turned a character introduced in season 5 into the most entertaining one on the show. Inexplicably, the almost impossibly insane Erin is also now one of the show's most realistic, fully drawn characters, which says a lot about the rest of them. Despite this promising development, however, it's still not enough for me to be hopeful this tone will be maintained.
Up All Night: Up All Night is a show I saw some potential in when it premiered in the fall, but while it's settled into a comfortable groove, it's not the type that I enjoy. It's turned into 100% comfort TV, a simple, gentle show made to hang out with characters you like for half an hour. There's nothing particularly wrong with that, but I personally prefer a more active kind of sitcom. The jokewriting is confident but generic, with no distinct tone for the show's sense of humour yet. I like the actors enough, and the show's slowly been accumulating a pretty impressive roster of guest stars, but it's not in the service of any greater goal. It just seems content to be mostly boring and easy to tune out to. This is the type of style a sitcom tends to develop in its later seasons, when ideas are running thin, but for a show to do it so early into its run is pretty strange. I'm not quite at the point of giving up on it yet, but I doubt I'll be sticking around for season 2.
Unsupervised: Just a quick one about this show. It's been pretty inconsistent since it premiered a few weeks ago, with a fantastic voice cast underserved by its pretty juvenile scripts. But "Stupid Idiots," last night's episode, was the show's best yet, and maybe one of the better episodes of a sitcom I've seen in recent memory. It served up some more of the show's edgy humour and great characters, but this time with a much better hit ratio. It engaged in some well-needed worldbuilding, which is always exciting for a new show. And it even dealt in some pretty biting satire at the episode's end. I hope this is a sign of things to come, because this show just radiates potential. |
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