TV Diary
a) "Parenthood"
I've always liked the original Parenthood movie and when I saw it was gonna be a new TV show (as opposed to the old failed one 20 years ago) I was vaguely interested, moreso when I saw how good the cast is, although I'm bummed about Maura Tierney dropping out and being replaced by Lauren Graham, who I've always had an irrational dislike of. It's weird, though, they've not only changed all the character names but there's not really any correspondence between the movie and the show even to the extent of, say, all the different international versions of "The Office." There's a couple vaguely similar family situations with lots of details changed (one brother has a weird/neurotic kid, one just found out he has an illegitimate black son, one sister has an unruly teenage daughter, etc.), but basically this is just a generic ensemble family dramedy with a known brand name slapped on it. But that's OK, because, again, good cast, and having just become a parent I'm in more of a mood for sappy ruminations on thereof than ever before.
b) "The Marriage Ref"
So much of the humor on "Seinfeld" was derived from arguments, and treating social situations like games with all sorts of arcane rules, that this is kind of an interesting continuation of it, even in the context of a weird talk/reality/game show format. And I have to say, even though it was kind of corny at times, and they pick arguments that are really goofy and easy to settle and take sides on so far, I laughed really hard at the first episode. As has been pointed out elsewhere, though, there's something kind of messed up about Alec Baldwin telling anyone else what to do in their marriage, though.
c) "The Kids In The Hall: Death Comes To Town"
I pretty much worship "KITH": favorite sketch show, favorite show of the '90s, maybe favorite TV show of all time. I got the 2nd season DVD for Christmas, and spent basically a month watching that and the first season all the time and they're virtually perfect to me. So it's with no small amount of anticipation that I've been looking forward to their new mini-series, even as I'm apprehensive about them leaving the sketch format for sustained storytelling -- I'm just not a big fan of Brain Candy or a lot of the longer pre-taped sketches from the later seasons. Still, it's just great to see these guys on TV again, even if it's only on TV in Canada and I have to stream episodes online. The first couple episodes set up a weird tone and sometimes it feels like they're going for the easy laughs of gore and vulgarity (seeing Bruce in a fatsuit is just kinda ugh) more than they ever did on the old show, where they'd kind of tiptoe around things in more clever ways, but then I'm generally pro-horror comedy and there's some great twisted moments so far.
d) "Funny Or Die Presents"
In a weird way, sometimes I think the biggest obstacle separating good and great sketch comedy shows from weak ones is the presentation and the overall feeling of the ensemble and its collective sensibility. Aside from "Monty Python," I've always preferred the kind of simple presentation of a series of unrelated sketches, like "SNL" or "KITH," over attempts to bridge stuff together with segues or callbacks or weird concepts. So the way they introduced this show with the stupid fake TV channel and the host guy, just made me roll my eyes. I've never looked at the Funny Or Die site a whole lot, but the one thing on there that's always cracked me up is the Drunk History sketches, and once again that was my favorite thing here. And again, even though Atapow and Ferrell know virtually everyone in mainstream comedy and pull a lot of them in to do things here, the lack of a cast or unifying aesthetic just makes it feel even more scattershot and inconsistent than it already is.
e) "Archer"
If this was just a regular live action show starring H. Jon Benjamin, Aisha Tyler, Chris Parnell and Judy Greer, I'd probably love it. But honestly, the whole Adult Swim aesthetic, even taken to another network, has just been done to death by now and I'm kind of tired of funny voice actors saying funny things in the kind of stilted rhythm of poorly directed cartoons while I watch shitty flash animation drawings dance around. If the people that do these shows are more into dialogue than visual design, and aren't even on the Cartoon Network anymore, really the only point I can think of in doing this show animated is that it's cheaper for when they do the action/special effects kind of stuff, but that's kind of a lame rationale.
f) "The Forgotten"
I'm still trying to get into this show, watching it here and there, and I think it's well done but not really appointment viewing. But an old friend of mine, Danielle Syslo, will be on the March 9th episode, playing the murder victim of the week, so I'm pretty excited to watch that. It's weird how Elisha Cuthbert just kinda suddenly showed up on this show after 10 episodes, like she just kinda started popping up in the promos and I was like "wait, I don't remember her being in the cast?"
g) "Lost"
It's hard to know how to feel about the last season so far, and even though it's easy to be harsh on it and criticize the clunkier elements (the boring temple stuff, the unengaging flash-sideways plots, the seemingly endless new twists they keep adding just when you think they're finally going to untangle the old ones), I'm still just so excited to see new episodes after spending the last few months re-watching most of the first 5 seasons. "The Substitute" was pretty great, though, and I feel like this episode is setting us up for some real cool shit to start happening. I've never been a huge fan of Locke as a character, so what they're doing with 'him' at this point is just fine with me.
h) "American Idol"
As usual the last couple years, I've been half-assed in my attempts to follow "Idol," mostly because I hate the audition episodes and then forget to pick up on it once those are over, so this week was really the first I've watched it much this year. The guys seem weak overall, but the girls were mostly good last night, I really liked Siobhan and Katie, and hated Lilly, so it's good to have some immediate gut reactions on who to root for/against. I don't mind Ellen as a judge, because while she knows nothing about music or singing, she at least is good at thinking on her feet and improvising on TV, and I just got really tired of Randy and Paula, who rarely say anything that betrays any musical knowledge anyway, stumbling over themselves and botching jokes every week. Simon is still the rock, though, sometimes I really do need him to just sit there and be blunt after everybody else tries way too hard to sugarcoat everything.
I've always liked the original Parenthood movie and when I saw it was gonna be a new TV show (as opposed to the old failed one 20 years ago) I was vaguely interested, moreso when I saw how good the cast is, although I'm bummed about Maura Tierney dropping out and being replaced by Lauren Graham, who I've always had an irrational dislike of. It's weird, though, they've not only changed all the character names but there's not really any correspondence between the movie and the show even to the extent of, say, all the different international versions of "The Office." There's a couple vaguely similar family situations with lots of details changed (one brother has a weird/neurotic kid, one just found out he has an illegitimate black son, one sister has an unruly teenage daughter, etc.), but basically this is just a generic ensemble family dramedy with a known brand name slapped on it. But that's OK, because, again, good cast, and having just become a parent I'm in more of a mood for sappy ruminations on thereof than ever before.
b) "The Marriage Ref"
So much of the humor on "Seinfeld" was derived from arguments, and treating social situations like games with all sorts of arcane rules, that this is kind of an interesting continuation of it, even in the context of a weird talk/reality/game show format. And I have to say, even though it was kind of corny at times, and they pick arguments that are really goofy and easy to settle and take sides on so far, I laughed really hard at the first episode. As has been pointed out elsewhere, though, there's something kind of messed up about Alec Baldwin telling anyone else what to do in their marriage, though.
c) "The Kids In The Hall: Death Comes To Town"
I pretty much worship "KITH": favorite sketch show, favorite show of the '90s, maybe favorite TV show of all time. I got the 2nd season DVD for Christmas, and spent basically a month watching that and the first season all the time and they're virtually perfect to me. So it's with no small amount of anticipation that I've been looking forward to their new mini-series, even as I'm apprehensive about them leaving the sketch format for sustained storytelling -- I'm just not a big fan of Brain Candy or a lot of the longer pre-taped sketches from the later seasons. Still, it's just great to see these guys on TV again, even if it's only on TV in Canada and I have to stream episodes online. The first couple episodes set up a weird tone and sometimes it feels like they're going for the easy laughs of gore and vulgarity (seeing Bruce in a fatsuit is just kinda ugh) more than they ever did on the old show, where they'd kind of tiptoe around things in more clever ways, but then I'm generally pro-horror comedy and there's some great twisted moments so far.
d) "Funny Or Die Presents"
In a weird way, sometimes I think the biggest obstacle separating good and great sketch comedy shows from weak ones is the presentation and the overall feeling of the ensemble and its collective sensibility. Aside from "Monty Python," I've always preferred the kind of simple presentation of a series of unrelated sketches, like "SNL" or "KITH," over attempts to bridge stuff together with segues or callbacks or weird concepts. So the way they introduced this show with the stupid fake TV channel and the host guy, just made me roll my eyes. I've never looked at the Funny Or Die site a whole lot, but the one thing on there that's always cracked me up is the Drunk History sketches, and once again that was my favorite thing here. And again, even though Atapow and Ferrell know virtually everyone in mainstream comedy and pull a lot of them in to do things here, the lack of a cast or unifying aesthetic just makes it feel even more scattershot and inconsistent than it already is.
e) "Archer"
If this was just a regular live action show starring H. Jon Benjamin, Aisha Tyler, Chris Parnell and Judy Greer, I'd probably love it. But honestly, the whole Adult Swim aesthetic, even taken to another network, has just been done to death by now and I'm kind of tired of funny voice actors saying funny things in the kind of stilted rhythm of poorly directed cartoons while I watch shitty flash animation drawings dance around. If the people that do these shows are more into dialogue than visual design, and aren't even on the Cartoon Network anymore, really the only point I can think of in doing this show animated is that it's cheaper for when they do the action/special effects kind of stuff, but that's kind of a lame rationale.
f) "The Forgotten"
I'm still trying to get into this show, watching it here and there, and I think it's well done but not really appointment viewing. But an old friend of mine, Danielle Syslo, will be on the March 9th episode, playing the murder victim of the week, so I'm pretty excited to watch that. It's weird how Elisha Cuthbert just kinda suddenly showed up on this show after 10 episodes, like she just kinda started popping up in the promos and I was like "wait, I don't remember her being in the cast?"
g) "Lost"
It's hard to know how to feel about the last season so far, and even though it's easy to be harsh on it and criticize the clunkier elements (the boring temple stuff, the unengaging flash-sideways plots, the seemingly endless new twists they keep adding just when you think they're finally going to untangle the old ones), I'm still just so excited to see new episodes after spending the last few months re-watching most of the first 5 seasons. "The Substitute" was pretty great, though, and I feel like this episode is setting us up for some real cool shit to start happening. I've never been a huge fan of Locke as a character, so what they're doing with 'him' at this point is just fine with me.
h) "American Idol"
As usual the last couple years, I've been half-assed in my attempts to follow "Idol," mostly because I hate the audition episodes and then forget to pick up on it once those are over, so this week was really the first I've watched it much this year. The guys seem weak overall, but the girls were mostly good last night, I really liked Siobhan and Katie, and hated Lilly, so it's good to have some immediate gut reactions on who to root for/against. I don't mind Ellen as a judge, because while she knows nothing about music or singing, she at least is good at thinking on her feet and improvising on TV, and I just got really tired of Randy and Paula, who rarely say anything that betrays any musical knowledge anyway, stumbling over themselves and botching jokes every week. Simon is still the rock, though, sometimes I really do need him to just sit there and be blunt after everybody else tries way too hard to sugarcoat everything.
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on Thursday, March 04, 2010 at 10:13 AM.
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