Fall TV 2011: Community, Season 3

It's hard to believe that Thursday night TV is so close to being back.  This year NBC's lineup is looking pretty spectacular (with the possible exception of "Whitney"), and I am excited to see three of TV's best comedies make their respective returns.  Community will once again be kicking off the evening, and season three sounds like it might be the show's best yet.

Where We Left Off:  Paintball, naturally.  A Western showdown gave way to a Star Wars-esque battle, which Pierce came from the shadows to help our favorite community college win against its crosstown foe.  We saw a surprise hookup between Annie and Abed, and were left wondering whether Pierce was really serious about leaving the group.

What's Ahead:  Rumors have been flying all summer about what season 3 might bring us.  As always, this show is notoriously hard to predict, but there do seem to be at least a few things confirmed.  There will be some new teachers, which have always been hit or miss on this show; John Goodman is making a much-hyped guest appearance as the Vice Dean (who knew such a small and dysfunctional school had multiple people in administration?); and we're going to see Troy, Abed, and Annie as roommates!  I think that last one is what I'm most excited about, to be honest; I'm hoping the showrunners will continue to use these three as a trio, as the results are usually pretty hilarious.

What I'd Like to See:  Among the unconfirmed rumors and speculation there is a lot being said about the various romances on the show.  Season 3 may feature some Jeff and Annie, some Annie and Abed, some Britta and Troy, or maybe all of the above.  As the show has made a point of its ability to pair anyone with anyone, I don't think we'll see any of these couples on a typical (or indeed, logical) relationship track, though I think it might be interesting to see a pair other than Jeff and Britta engage in something longer than an episode's duration. 

Dan Harmon also recently talked about his plans for Abed, and his hope to further develop his character this season.  He spoke about how Abed has been largely appealing for the first two season, and now we are going to see a bit more of why it's difficult for Abed to interact with others, as well as why they might struggle with engaging with him.  This was touched on a bit in "Critical Film Studies," but it looks like it'll be an ongoing thing in season 3, particularly with Abed rooming with two of his study group pals. 

Overall, I'm interested to see where this season's episodes go thematically, and what kind of new ideas the writers have up their sleeves.  I am intensely curious to see how in the world they'll top "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas" come holiday time, and whether there will be a third paintball extravaganza, or if they'll try to carve a new but equally hilarious path during sweeps.  In any case, season 2 went out on a high note with a lot of open doors, so there's no reason this week's premiere shouldn't deliver the goods, and then some.

Premiere Date:  (Tomorrow!) Thursday, September 22nd

TV Review: 2 Broke Girls, Pilot

I'm going to go ahead and say it:  this is my favorite of the three pilots I've watched for this season.  I was not expecting this to be the case, as it looked like the weakest contender based on the ads; then again, the other two shows (Up All Night and New Girl) basically put all the funny parts in their countless promos, thus dooming themselves to me being bored, because I watch promos for everything I'm interested in excessively.

But yes, 2 Broke Girls is pretty darn charming.  I think I like it because the pilot delivered pretty much exactly what I was promised:  a straightforward premise, two characters who are reasonably likeable and who both have room for further development and complications, and some sassy, real-life humor that was genuinely amusing and more raunchy than I'd expected for CBS.

Kat Dennings plays seasoned waitress Max, and is actually kind of perfect as the lead of this show, and I really liked the opening with her talking to the hipsters.  She definitely won't be able to get by on the street-wise schtick forever, but for an introduction to this character it really works.  Beth Behrs plays Caroline, the very recently impoverished daughter of a notorious Ponzi schemer.  I expected this character to be kind of whiny and annoying, but there is already something very genuine and endearing about Caroline, and the writers have clearly worked hard to make her a foil to Max without it being unreasonable that the two of them might become friends.

The plot is no roller coaster (the pilot did little more than establish that they will both be working and living together from now on), but it still moves with surprising speed and fluidity because of the back-and-forth between all the characters, primarily the two girls.  The only potential problem was Max's live-in boyfriend, who came off flat, but that issue was resolved by the episode's end, with her sending him packing.  And yes, having a laugh track when so many of the shows I watch now don't use one is a little jarring, but I think if the wit of this show is maintained I can even make peace with that. 

TV Review: How I Met Your Mother's Premiere Double Dose

"...We're nowhere near the end."
This is what Ted tells his children (who have got to be sick of sitting on that couch) near the conclusion of part one of Monday's two for one premiere, and it is a statement that for this viewer was simultaneously frustrating and satisfying; the former because I want to know already, gosh darnit, and the latter because if the mystery continues to unravel like this (and if we continue to see equally intriguing mysteries concerning the rest of the gang surface), I will be willing to watch this show for as long as it takes for Ted to tell this story.  (On that note, do you think his kids will ever agree to hearing a story from their dear old dad again?)

I'm going to go through the two episodes as chronologically as possible, even though (SPOILER) I am so excited that my Victoria prediction has already been proven correct.  So in the first episode we witnessed a split between future and present, with Ted and Barney reminiscing at Barney's wedding about Punchy's nuptials, which the gang attended here in 2011.  We didn't get very many clues about Barney's impending marriage, just that he's feeling a little jittery, but I would like to bring up the fact that in this flash-forward, we saw Lily tell Ted that "the bride wanted to talk to him."  I think there are three reasons this indicates the bride will in fact be Robin:  one, Ted isn't friends with Norah, so why would she want to talk to him?; two, Lily is presumably helping the bride prepare and was dispatched to deliver the message, and she's not friends with Norah either; three, this bit was almost immediately juxtaposed with the scene where Ted and Robin had something of a heart to heart about their respective love lives, and I think Ted would be just the person to talk a nervous Robin down on the day of her wedding.  Thank you for indulging me in that little sidebar of speculation; and if it's all a misdirect and we get an episode down the road where Norah or some yet unknown lady friend of Barney's becomes super tight with the gang, my apologies in advance.

Continuing on... We saw Marshall and Lily try (and fail) to keep their pregnancy secret from everyone.  It wasn't much for either of them to do, but it did supply us with ample amounts of Drunk Marshall, and the only person who loves Drunk Marshall more than Lily is me.  Watching him inadvertently send the reception into chaos was just icing on the cake.  And speaking of the reception, two things that I wondered:  first, why was everyone wearing purple and orange?  Is that an Ohio thing I've never heard of or did the couple really choose such an awful combination for the theme because they liked it?  And second, is the balcony where Ted and Robin have their cigars and soul-baring time the very same from Lily and Marshall's wedding?  It sure looked like it (but this is not remotely relevant to the plot).  Barney and Robin proved that they still have undeniable chemistry, which was unfortunately disrupted by Norah.  Watching Robin feed Barney her own confession of still-simmering feelings so that he could relay it as his own to his new crush was one of the episode's better moments, and absolutely heartbreaking to boot.

The second episode was a little more the focused and linear, and it had a favorite device of mine from the older seasons, where the B-plot turns out to be at least as important (if not more so) to the overall narrative than the A-plot.  You see, this episode was supposedly about Marshall trying to get a job working for Martin Short's environmental law firm, and his unfortunate run-in with employer cyber screening practices.  Additionally, we saw Barney continue to attempt to win Norah's affections by camping out in an all-night diner (which I guess would have actually been the B-plot, meaning Ted's was the C-plot, or maybe the B 2.0- plot).  I am not crazy about what they've done with Norah's character in this episode; she seems a little snobbish, I guess, and what I liked about her before was that she seemed so earnest.  However, this gives me further hope that she is not his endgame relationship, because this show has a historical tendency to spoil female characters once they've decided she is not "the one" for Ted (see Stella, Zoey, Victoria, and even Robin to an extent).  It is not a huge jump in logic to think they might be doing the same with Barney to outline Robin (or someone else, I grudgingly admit) as his true love.

But like I was saying about Ted's plot-- it felt throwaway, to him and to us, and so I wasn't super invested in him going to the Architect's Ball (though the bit with Robin angling for an invite was pretty great), and I didn't really think anything of consequence would happen there.  That in combination with the fact that I was sure Ted's running into an ex flame was something we wouldn't be seeing until at least November sweeps made Victoria's last-minute appearance genuinely and satisfyingly shocking.  I can't wait to see that interaction next week.

Do I think Ted will end up with Victoria?  No, probably not.  Six years is a long time, and though I think Ted will certainly try to pick up where they left off, it won't work out.  We've gotten too many clues about the mother for it to turn out to be Victoria, whom Ted knew and dated for a while (and therefore would have known well enough to be able to tell if she was Rachel Bilson's roommate, just to point out one example), and I'm pretty sure the showrunners still think they've got enough time to introduce the mother as a completely new character.  If the writing stays at this quality level, maybe they do.  In any case, season 7 is off to a hilarious and well-crafted start, and I am excited to stay tuned for more in the weeks to come.

TV Review: It's Always Sunny 7.1: "Frank's Pretty Woman"

The gang is back and while they're maybe not better than ever, they are definitely better than this time last year, which opens the door for all manner of hilarity.  For last night's premiere the writers went with a few of the things they know already work so well for this show and used those to reach new heights of ridiculous antics.  We saw Frank achieving maximum grossness in his relationship with Roxy, a crack-smoking hooker (literally though), and his plan to propose to her so that she would only sleep with him (don't worry, he assured her that she would continue to be paid).  We also saw Dennis try to save the gang from becoming the "gross crew" (you're about two years too late on that one, amigo), and staging an intervention for Mac, who has put on an astonishing 50 pounds that he fervently insists is muscle mass.  Dee and Charlie were up to their own various escapades, with Dee first pitching the idea of getting a pit bull for Paddy's pub and then attempting to give Roxy a makeover; and Charlie scheming (for reasons I can't quite remember) with Frank to convince a woman that he is a millionaire.

How did it all shake out?  Well, Dennis and Mac made a trip to the doctor and found out that not only has Mac developed Type-2 diabetes, but Dennis is not nearly as healthy as he thought.  The two bond over chimichangas, which Mac now apparently carries around in a trash bag at all times, and Dennis tries to cut back on his self-deprivation.  I really liked Mac offering up his insulin like a party drug when Dennis seemed down, and Dennis' subsequent realization that what he really wanted was some crack, which as we know he and Dee had a previous addiction.  Dee did not manage to successfully make-over Roxy, but she did learn that she may have a potential career in dealing with foot fetishists, and she delivered Roxy just in time for Frank's proposal.  Charlie's millionaire gambit was by far the funniest, though-- so many factors that weren't funny independently came together to make this a true achievement in absurdity.  First, his ridiculous "Texan" accent, and him wearing the denim he had found in a box under a bridge (don't worry, he boiled it first!).  Second, the blood incident.  I can't even really describe how disgusting this was, but Charlie's explanation should give you some idea:  he wanted to fake coughing up a little blood to make his fake illness realistic, and so swallowed "a bunch" of blood capsules, resulting in a projectile regurgitation of both blood and vomit and one of my favorite lines of the night ("I have a touch of consumption"). 

By the time all the dust has settled from these various goings-on, it's time for Frank's proposal, set at his and Charlie's apartment.  Dennis and Mac dress for the occasion in comfy shirts designed to "hide their fatness", and Charlie is covered in blood.  Just when you think it can't get any more romantic, Frank praises Roxy's abilities as a whore and asks her to be his wife, at which point she keels over and dies (not. joking.).  Now, because it would obviously bad for the authorities to discover a dead hooker in Charlie's apartment, the gang decides to dispose of her body in the hallway and then phone in an anonymous tip, from a pay phone.  "Pretty Woman" then closes out the episode as the gang ditches the corpse of Frank's would-be fiancee.

Overall, this premiere has about as much crassness as we've all come to expect from this show, and then some.  I look forward to the gang's continued adventures which, as Dennis divined, are likely to get increasingly extreme (and gross).  Welcome back, guys.

TV Review: Up All Night

In Up All Night we've got another show with a premise that has definite potential but which makes its debut with an underwhelming pilot.  Will Arnett and Christina Applegate are Chris and Reagan, new parents to baby Amy, who has some kind of weird thing going on with her hair (or does all baby hair look like that?).  Whatever the case, the hair was distracting.

I really enjoyed the cold open with Chris and Reagan waiting for the pregnancy test results (and especially Reagan's monologue about her bleak future in a nursing home), and the reversal of the stereotypical roles (Chris stays home with the baby while Reagan goes back to work).  Maya Rudolph's character freshens things up a bit with her trademark over-the-top humor.  She plays an Oprah-like talk show host, complete with inflated self-importance, who is heavily dependent on Reagan to do basically all her work (example:  "we're going to put our heads together and Reagan's going to come up with something"). 

We see some of Chris' adventures in childcare, which are amusing but which don't dominate the episode, which I think really does it a favor.  He also busies himself coming up with an elaborate plan (and a fantastic invitation/itinerary) for his and Reagan's 7th anniversary celebration, which of course never come to fruition.  Reagan gets caught up at work and Chris stays home and apparently eats an entire pizza by himself (I really liked the shame he played this scene with).  They eventually decide to go out later in the evening to reclaim their lost "idiot" years, bar-hopping and singing karaoke which, despite being an obvious play for laughs, works because who wouldn't enjoy Arnett, Applegate, and Rudolph performing a drunken rendition of "It's Raining Men"?  That's right, no one.


While this show has to prove itself by showing a little more range in its subsequent episodes, there is a definite motif here begging to be explored.  What all three of the main characters have in common is a kind of perpetual adolescence, a desire to remain their young, hip selves even whilst they navigate the waters of adulthood and the responsibilities therein.  This obviously isn't going to work, at least for the new parents (as they learn when they wake up to vicious hangovers and a screaming baby), and I am interested to see how this development continues as the show wears on.  It's not a lesson any of them will learn overnight, and it will be fun to watch these hilarious actors try to find their way toward maturity. 

(Advance) TV Review: New Girl

So the folks over at FOX decided to go for a more aggressive approach marketing this show by putting the full pilot up on iTunes for free downloading (at last check it was still available, so if you don't feel like waiting till next Tuesday, I recommend it).  I watched it on Saturday but wasn't quite ready to form an opinion of it, and so watched it again last night to see if I could glean anything new.  I think I'm one of the few people I know not blinded by the Zooey Deschanel adorable factor, and so that has allowed me to be more objective than the army of her fans who will undoubtedly supply this show with the bulk of its ratings.

The premise is pretty simple:  Deschanel's character Jess is smarting from a bad breakup and wants somewhere new to live.  Cue interview session with the three amigos in their almost too-good-to-be-true apartment.  We meet her three soon-to-be roommates, only one of whom (Nick) seems to have a first name.  The other two are called Coach (yep, you read that right), and Schmidt (which I'm assuming is his surname).  And yes, on the whole they are as flat and douche-y as they sound.  The only redeeming quality these three have in the pilot is that they form a quick, platonic attachment to Jess and by episode's end really have her back, which is nice because she needs all the help she can get. 

Looking at this show's long-term potential, however, raises some flags.  The pilot had some laughs, certainly, and the writers should be able to coast on the whole "the gang gets into a mix-up" gimmick for a while, but if they don't do something about characterization this show is going to lose its charm fast.  Jess is very funny and has the potential to continue to get laughs, so long as she doesn't let the guys whitewash her.  Most of the things I thought were funny were her awkwardness and "nerdy" references, but you could already see hints of her trying to shed that skin because it wasn't "cool" enough.  I'd like to see Jess remain an unabashed nerd, something that can still work really well in comedy (there's a reason both male leads from The Big Bang Theory have Emmy nominations).  If she becomes just another pretty girl trying to fit in, this show will embark on a slippery downhill slope, fast. 

Of the three roommates, only Nick is tolerable right now, and even he's walking a tightrope there.  He is introduced with an easy role; he's the heartbroken, kind-of-a-bummer guy.  But that works for him, and of the three guys he seems to have the most genuine interest in being friends with Jess, proven when he ditches drinks with his ex to go and "save" Jess from being stood up.  His character runs the risk of becoming bland, though, if they don't come up with something other than the recently-dumped angle.  I noticed that he apparently works at the bar they go to on their first night out; I'm sure that could be incorporated in some way to add to his character or at least provide an activity for him that isn't moping over his ex (played, incidentally, by the fantastic Mary Elizabeth Ellis, aka "the waitress" from Always Sunny).  Coach, on the other hand, has hitherto exhibited almost no personality whatsoever.  By the end of the pilot we know two things about him:  he's a personal trainer and he is apparently a hardass/sucks at talking to women.  Let's peel the onion a little with this one, guys.  And Schmidt...well, let's just say that if this character keeps up his current antics, he will be the reason I (and likely many others) have to stop watching this show.  He is really, really douche-y, unapologetically so, even when he has to put money in the "douchebag jar" (I did like that).  I get that we need to have the one guy who is kind of full of himself and is (hopefully) being set up for eventual redemption, but if you ask me, his personality still needs to be toned down a little.  Not only is he kind of a jackass in a very stereotypical way (he decides Jess should move in because her friends are models, and he removes his shirt whenever he feels like there's a woman nearby who needs to be impressed), but he also comes off as extremely unintelligent.  If this is all for the sake of his later development/improvement, I hope that Jess intervenes sooner rather than later.  Also, on a somewhat unrelated note, what the heck is his job, where he apparently works exclusively with shrill women?

All of that said (and now looking back I'm realizing I had a lot more thoughts than I expected), there are still some moments where the show exhibits real potential.  Jess' quirks, as aforementioned, so long as they aren't overused or wiped away completely, make her character much more relatable, so that even though it is clear why the guy stands her up for their date, you still feel genuinely bad for her.  Additionally, the scene in the restaurant, as cheesy as it was, gives us the most fantastically garbled, off-key rendition of "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" that I've ever heard, although I spent most of the episode wondering why Dirty Dancing would be someone's go-to breakup movie. 

Overall, New Girl gives us a somewhat uneven pilot with glimmers of potential.  I think it will be clear within the next two or three episodes whether this is a show worth sticking with, because it will either get much better or much worse (there's not much room for a middle ground).  Check it out on iTunesTuesday, September 20th on FOX.

Fall TV 2011: How I Met Your Mother, Season 7

Where We Left Off:  Marshall and Lily found out that they are about to become parents, after months of ups and downs.  Ted broke up with Zoey, to the surprise of no one.  And Barney made life changes in two different time periods:  in the present we saw him earn a second chance with Norah, his months-long crush, much to the dismay of Robin; and in the future ("some time down the road," according to Ted's narration) Barney prepares to (gasp!) walk down the aisle...at his own wedding!

What's Ahead:  Season 6's finale set us up to solve some pretty big mysteries, the juiciest involving the recently evolved Barney.  We got a potential love-triangle setup, with the further complication of Robin and Norah being co-workers and good friends, and hints that they are the two primary contenders for the position of the mystery bride at Barney's eventual nuptials.  Carter and Bays, the shows producers, tease that this season will have even more twists and turns for both Barney and Robin, and that this love triangle has the potential to become a much more complicated shape.  We are also going to see Marshall and Lily's inevitable hijinks on the road to parenthood, struggling with what adding a baby to their quirky relationship will mean.  And Ted is supposed to get a visit from an old girlfriend, a visit which according to Josh Radnor will "reward long-time viewers of the show."  My money's on Victoria, but it's anyone's guess.

What I'd Like to See:  Carter and Bays have said in multiple interviews that this is going to be very much a "Robin season," something I will be interested to see given the fact that she seemed to get the short straw for most of season six.  I'd like to see her have an arc similar to one we saw Barney given last year, easing her into the character she's going to be in the show's endgame.  She's apparently getting Kal Penn as a psychologist and possibly as a competing love interest, which has definite potential, but I hope they do a bit more with her than exclusively romantic stories.  Also rumored to be getting better material this season is Ted, who in the wake of Marshall and Lily's news will renew the search for Ms. Right/the titular mother he's been yakking about for the past six years.  I'm getting a little tired of seeing Ted in long-term relationships with placeholder women, so I hope that Carter and Bays have something a bit more momentous up their sleeves.  We'll have to see, but if anything is guaranteed on this show, it's a steady supply of laughs, and I'm looking forward to every one.

Premiere Date:  Monday, September 19th on CBS