When I started this blog, I tended to give my thoughts on each season of whatever show I was watching. For classic television shows, that doesn't make sense, because it is only relatively recently that writers have distinguished seasons from each other. Consider these type of posts indicative of my thoughts on the show as a whole.
Seinfeld never had a chance with me. I realize that now. I think Seinfeld is a good show. I want to make that clear. It wouldn't rank particularly high on my favorite comedies nor would it rank that high if I were to make an "objective" best comedies ever list. That is to say, if I decided one day to list the ten best comedies in my opinion, Seinfeld wouldn't be on it. I actually have no idea where it would rank, but I'm guessing "shockingly low" would be the answer.
All shows are dated in some way. I happen to think time was particularly cruel to Seinfeld. This is honestly a hard argument to make. The vast majority of people who watched Seinfeld consumed it at the time or they grew up with Seinfeld. I fully acknowledge that Seinfeld at the time was definitely worthy of its distinction. The thing is though - that brilliance isn't lost upon multiple viewings once you've seen it in the time and context it was meant to be seen. If you rewatch an episode that you first saw in 1994, it puts you back in 1994 and all those great memories return. For the people around my age who "grew up" with the show (basically watched it all the time as a kid and throughout their teens), it sort of has the same effect.
To use an example from my own personal life, I grew up with Friends. I find it much funnier than Seinfeld in a way that I simply cannot explain, but I assume it has something to do with watching and rewatching the show all throughout my childhood. Friends doesn't exactly have the greatest critical reputation - to say the least. If I started watching Friends for the first time tomorrow, I might still like the show, but I really doubt I'd love it. Who knows though?
Being that Seinfeld is primarily an observational comedy, it probably wasn't ever going to age all that well, but technology has made it worse than it otherwise could have been. The things Seinfeld observes pretty much don't apply now. Some do. Not many, but some do. There are legitimately episodes that only apply to living in New York specifically in the 1990s and no other time in history. That's not a complaint, but it makes it hard for me to love the show, especially with its emphasis on never developing its (unlikable) characters.
I'm going to look at another sitcom that crossed paths with Seinfeld as a comparison point to help illustrate my point. I'm going to ignore Friends, which I've already established I cannot look at objectively given that I grew up with the show and have literally spent thousands of hours of my life watching. The show I'm talking about is Cheers, which for me, would probably make a list of top ten sitcoms of all time. (Probably is only there because I've never given serious thought to make a top ten list at all)
First off, Cheers took the time to get you invested in the characters. They are way more likable even though they aren't necessarily "good" people. For the purposes of my argument, assume Cheers ended after five seasons. Sam is a sleazy womanizer. Norm is an alcoholic who neglects his wife. Diane is a pretentious asshole. Cliff is a pontificating know-it-all who actually knows jack shit. I will not say anything bad about Coach or Woody. Everyone loves a well-meaning buffoon. I haven't seen the show Frasier yet, but Frasier on Cheers has a book-worthy amount of issues you can unpack.
I think one key element between the shows is the acting. The acting on Cheers is just better. Julia Louis Dreyfuss and Jason Alexander aren't a problem, but Jerry Seinfeld is a terrible actor and Michael Richards* plays Kramer like he's on a different show from the rest of the leads. For whatever reason, I didn't enjoy about half the guest stars' acting either. It's not limited to people who can't act either. I didn't think Bryan Cranston was very good in his episodes. One example where this is an issue with me is Elaine's boyfriends, who frequently lack any charisma and look dopey in whatever 90s haircut they have.
*I'm going to admit that it's easier to hate on Michael Richards after what's come out on him. Similarly, Jerry Seinfeld seems like a huge jackass in real life to me. That's not an issue if the actor is good enough at acting to make you ignore real life, but Seinfeld is not. He might even admit that.
As a side note to the acting, I don't really want to harp on this too much, because it's not really what my post is specifically about, but I have to talk about how minorities and gay characters are portrayed on here. It's...pretty bad. For "comedies" sake, they usually went with the exaggerated, stereotypical, and borderline offensive accent, which would be less of a problem if that wasn't the only time the characters were represented.
I hate to bash on what is essentially the premise of the show, but... yes it got pretty old seeing Jerry and George date women way out of their league, only for the two of them to break up with them for some nitpicky reason. I'm not saying the nitpicky reasons weren't sometimes funny, but that's not something that you can sustain for 173 episodes - in my opinion anyway. It obviously worked best when you could understand the reason even though it's stupid, and you can only come up with so many stupid reasons to break up with someone that you sort of get.
Secondly, the combination of the "no hugging, no learning" strategy coupled with what I find to be mostly uninteresting characters leads to the entire episode completely dependent on how funny it is. George is really the only character that feels distinct and original from the others. I'm sure Seinfeld fans could do it, but I'm having a hard time trying to define either Elaine and Jerry as characters. JLD is a strong enough actress that it's not really a huge problem with her, but I legitimately find Jerry Seinfeld to be an awful actor. Kramer's a somewhat typical sitcom character - a character broad enough that they can write just about any storyline for him and it would be plausible. You can have one of those characters, but he's just not very interesting.
Seinfeld, in addition to being an observational comedy, was sort of a trial run of sorts to what Curb Your Enthusiasm became. There's three seemingly unrelated stories that may or may not come together at the end for maximum humiliation for one of the main characters. For example, Elaine buys her ex-roommate a bra out of spite because she never wears a bra. George finds that simply leaving his car at Yankee Stadium means everyone think he's working hard. The car gets bird shit all over it so they need to drive it to a car wash so nobody at Yankee Stadium is the wiser. They walk by the ex-roommate, who is wearing just a bra, which causes them to crash George's car.
I don't think Seinfeld started as that type of show, but eventually this type of plotting happened just about every episode. And... it sure makes New York City seem like the smallest fucking place in the world. To use the above example, Kramer and Jerry are really driving by Sue Ellen walking in her bra at the exact same time? IT'S NEW YORK FUCKING CITY. Do you know how big that place is? Or how many people are in it? Again, this is something that is fine to wave away sometimes, but it happens a lot. Granted, this is also somewhat of an issue with Curb Your Enthusiasm, but it's easier to wave away because it's a bunch of show business people probably going to the same places and the plotting is much tighter and better written.
That leads me to my last point. I don't find Seinfeld funny enough to overcome these flaws (to be a great show.) As I said, the show's lack of interest in developing its characters and my lack of interest in the characters themselves mean it's all up to the episode to be funny. It would not be inaccurate to say that a large part of the show's humor is observational humor, which goes back to one of the first points I made: it's dated particularly poorly. Now, I'm being unfair because I'm not going back and watching the rest of the sitcoms that aired in 1989. I'm sure I'd have a greater appreciation for Seinfeld if torturers Clockwork Orange'd me into watching every show it was up against. I'm comparing it to the classic comedies.
In that respect, I think I've at least watched enough of the shows that aired at similar times - to be able to declare that I just will never think of this as the classic many do. It's not as good as Cheers. It's not as good as The Simpsons. It's not as good as The Larry Sanders Show. I think Curb Your Enthusiasm is vastly superior in terms of Larry David shows (which to be fair has a whole bunch of advantages over Seinfeld by virtue of being on HBO and airing in 2000).
Seinfeld holds it place for me as a good, not great show. If I gave my honest opinion to people who hadn't seen the show on whether or not they should go back and watch Seinfeld, I'd say if there's a rerun on one of the channels and nothing else is on, sure go ahead. I would not suggest going back and watching the entire show. It's just not quite good enough to justify that to me. The reruns give a good sense of what type of a show it is. If you love it, well then my answer changes. If you felt like I did: "This is pleasant, a mild distraction from everyday life, but I don't get what the fuss is about" - it's really not worth it.
To be clear, I'm grading this show against other classic, best of all time shows, because that's how it's perceived. I don't consider Seinfeld "timeless" in the way the best shows do. Obviously, you'll recognize when just about any television show was made immediately, but timeless shows have a way of maintaining their quality years later. I can't possibly explain why I think Cheers is timeless and Seinfeld isn't*, but as Justice Potter Stewart once said, "I know it when I see it." Again, Seinfeld was kind of always doomed on this front, just because the writers couldn't possibly have seen what technology was about to bring, not to mention Larry David and writers were not concerned what someone in 2018 would think about the show. But it's simply not timeless.
*Though here's a short attempt. The Diane Chamber years of Cheers covered a truly timeless sitcom staple: will they/won't they. Season two of Cheers is one of the greatest seasons of television and every episode checked in with Sam and Diane's relationship. The character-based work and focus on whether or not a relationship will work? That's always going to be present in shows. If the Rebecca Howe years were considered a separate show, however, I would not consider that timeless.
Am I judging this too harshly for what it was? Yes absolutely. But to me, a classic television show would hold up to these questions and survive. M*A*S*H was a classic (which I hope to write about one day, but I've only seen the fantastic first season so far). Cheers was a classic. The Simpsons - the show that got cancelled after 11 seasons - was a classic. Seinfeld? A good, but not great show.
Showing posts with label Classic Comedy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Classic Comedy. Show all posts
Thursday, March 15, 2018
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
Rewind: The Simpsons S8
I'm a somewhat strange Simpsons viewer in two respects. The first is that I started watching a couple years ago, in 2013, and have somehow completely avoided watching any episodes - to my memory - good or bad ever before that first viewing. I think I haphazardly watched part of a Treehouse of Horrors episode in its later years, but I gave up on it pretty quickly - and really not sure a later years Treehouse of Horrors is the best introduction to The Simpsons.
On the other hand, season eight really feels like a series ending type of season, doesn't it? You get the sense that they are wringing every possible type of comedy that is left in their creative brain. This is everything that they have left and everything they've got for the rest of the series. Now that may or may not be true, but this season features changing the status quo more than once (Milhouse Divided, Grade School Confidential), off-the wall ideas (El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer, Spinoff Showcase), and unfortunately narrative shortcuts and some lazy ideas (The Springfield Files, Simpsoncalifragi. yeah not typing more of that).
The last three episodes, for my money, are some of the greatest episodes to end The Simpsons. I'm not saying they are the best episodes, but that it's a damn great way to stop watching. "Homer's Enemy" IS one of the greatest episodes of the season, features some extreme meta commentary on the show, and after watching it, it's kind of hard to continue forward. The show is pointing out how ridiculous it is and that seems like a thing you do when you end the show. "The Spin-off Showcase" is a creative and original idea, and while not all three segments are great, it helps, well, showcase both its originality and the vast crate of characters. The last one is a return to classic Simpsons: simple story, emotional, and funny. Seriously, I want my last memory of The Simpsons to be that so bad that it's going to be difficult to watch season nine, which I pretty much assume is worth watching if not essential.
(Short review, but I watched most of this season a while ago so you get what you get)
Playlist
1. "NWA" - Miguel feat. Kurupt
2. "Them Kids" - Sam Roberts Band
3. "Long Way Down" - Robert DeLong
4. "Endors Toi" - Tame Impala
5. "Hood Took Me Under" - Compton's Most Wanted
The second is that, amidst the discussion of what the "golden era" of The Simpsons is, I found myself extremely underwhelmed in some of the years considered "golden". Season 2 is by no means a season that is universally considered among peak Simpsons, but seasons 3 and 4 are on every list. It's not that I didn't like them, but I so clearly enjoy seasons five through seven over the previous two that I feel I'm missing something. Hell, I rewatched seasons three and four to make sure I didn't miss anything.. and pretty much the same feeling as before. I caught more jokes, but overall I didn't experience some sort of leap in quality or enjoyment that I was hoping I would get.
So I'm a little more amenable to the idea that season eight might not have been the decline people make it out to be. Or I was when I started the season. There's definitely a dip in quality. I wish I could explain it well, or even at all, because I watched the majority of this season a few months ago. Looking over the previous episodes, the episodes I remember or ones that stick out, are ones that are considered classics. But I distinctly remember at the time watching them - though not the specific episodes - that this is somewhat of a downgrade from before.
So I'm of two minds going forward at this point. On the one hand, I am clearly an unconventional Simpsons viewers with varying tastes from the consensus. As such, I shouldn't assume things that the consensus tells me are simply true. I should find out for myself. From that perspective, I absolutely need to watch season nine and possibly season 10 (as both are lumped together as similar in quality). I probably won't watch season 11 as of now, but I'm willing to amend that depending on how much I like or dislike the next two seasons. At most, I'm watching until season 12 and I've considered having sort of a "greatest hits" collection of episodes post season 10 on to the present day. Skip the bad ones while still getting a feel for modern Simpsons.
On the other hand, season eight really feels like a series ending type of season, doesn't it? You get the sense that they are wringing every possible type of comedy that is left in their creative brain. This is everything that they have left and everything they've got for the rest of the series. Now that may or may not be true, but this season features changing the status quo more than once (Milhouse Divided, Grade School Confidential), off-the wall ideas (El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer, Spinoff Showcase), and unfortunately narrative shortcuts and some lazy ideas (The Springfield Files, Simpsoncalifragi. yeah not typing more of that).
The last three episodes, for my money, are some of the greatest episodes to end The Simpsons. I'm not saying they are the best episodes, but that it's a damn great way to stop watching. "Homer's Enemy" IS one of the greatest episodes of the season, features some extreme meta commentary on the show, and after watching it, it's kind of hard to continue forward. The show is pointing out how ridiculous it is and that seems like a thing you do when you end the show. "The Spin-off Showcase" is a creative and original idea, and while not all three segments are great, it helps, well, showcase both its originality and the vast crate of characters. The last one is a return to classic Simpsons: simple story, emotional, and funny. Seriously, I want my last memory of The Simpsons to be that so bad that it's going to be difficult to watch season nine, which I pretty much assume is worth watching if not essential.
(Short review, but I watched most of this season a while ago so you get what you get)
Playlist
1. "NWA" - Miguel feat. Kurupt
2. "Them Kids" - Sam Roberts Band
3. "Long Way Down" - Robert DeLong
4. "Endors Toi" - Tame Impala
5. "Hood Took Me Under" - Compton's Most Wanted
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Rewind: The Simpsons S7
When I started this feature, I had certain preconceived expectations about the quality of each Simpsons season - when it was promising, when it was best, and when it showed its cracks. I expected the best two seasons to be the fourth and fifth seasons. I had this vague impression that the later golden era seasons were still hilarious, but showing its cracks. Interestingly enough, neither of those expectations held true to me.
It's a little difficult to pick out the best seasons for me among the golden era seasons, but it's shockingly easy for me to leave out Season 4. I was under the impression that the fourth season was the perfect mix of comedy and heart. I think that was overstated as every season I've watched has heart in at least a couple episodes and it's not nearly as funny as other seasons. I only mention that because I present the true season that is the perfect mix of comedy and heart: Season 7.
Season 7 has all of the heart of the fourth season, but it's also just funnier. My opinions comparing the fourth and seventh seasons, fair or not, is perfectly reflected in the two clip shows. The fourth season clip show is good in its own right, compared to other clip shows, but the 138th Episode Spectacular is good compared to regular episodes. The clip show is just brilliant in its execution and the way it is structured.
The clip show is reminiscent of the entire season in another facet: it's endless creativity and experimentation. Despite the show having been on the air for 128 episodes and for being responsible for 25 in this season alone, the show has mostly completely fresh new ideas for each episode. There's the obvious "22 Short Films About Springfield," but I mean even in its more grounded storylines. Something as simple as the family encountering a rich club in "Scenes from the Class Struggle" was still a wholly new idea the show had yet to write about. (You can go ahead and correct me if I'm wrong about that)
The seventh season takes full advantage of its wide arsenal of characters. Again, there's the obvious "22 Short Films" which is basically the writers showing off about how many great characters they have. There's maybe Sideshow Bob's best episode (which is saying something) and Abe Simpson improbably being an action hero (not a complaint). Apu gets a worthy sequel to "Homer and Apu" in an episode that may just be the most politically on one side the show's ever been. Lastly, Troy McClure is seen for the first time "live" because he needs to be shown with a woman because of his weird fish fetish. Going to characters such as Abe and Troy McClure for full episodes - who really work best in short doses - may reek of a desperation to fill out 25 episodes, but somehow all the episodes hold together really well and it never feels padded.
No other character benefits more from this season than Lisa. If it's true that Lisa is a hard character to write an episode about, the multitude of effective and heartwarming Lisa episodes are perhaps their best achievements in the season. Specifically, there's just something about Lisa and Homer's relationship that strikes a cord. "Lisa the Iconclast" and "Bart on the Road" both feature some of the sweetest moments on the show. "Lisa the Vegetarian" finds her at odds with Homer (and all of Springfield) and lastly Lisa finds new friends in "Summer of 4 ft. 2." It was a good season to be Lisa basically.
But the sentimental episodes aren't limited to just Lisa. Most of these episodes surprisingly end on some emotional level. There's the obvious "Mother Simpson" which finally answers the question about Homer's mother. "Marge Be Not Proud," about Bart and Marge, is probably one of the few Simpsons episodes that can make you cry. Even an episode as silly as "Homerpalooza" ends with Homer realizing he shouldn't die just to be cool, which really doesn't sound as affecting as it is when written into words.
There is not a single bad episode in this seventh season in my opinion, so much so that I'm surely forgetting a classic. There's the yearly Treehouse of Horror, the sequel to "Who Shot Mr Burns," and "King Size Homer," where Homer aspires to work on disability by gaining weight. (How had they not done this episode yet is beyond me - I similarly feel the same about "Homer the Smithers")
It probably goes without saying, but the voice work is still elevating the material given to them. Mediocre lines became funny and funny lines become instantly quotable because of the fantastic voice work. Similarly, I don't usually comment on the animation, but this season seems to have some of the most impressive animation yet. This is truly a show that was firing on all cylinders.
Season 7 went for both the crazy like Season 5 and 6, but brought back the heart held in the first four seasons. I don't know if I'd call this season the best season, but it's probably the best representation of The Simpsons in my opinion. It's got heart, laughs, experimentation, and some of the most original ideas the show had ever done.
Grade - A
Playlist
1. "White Lies" - Milo Greene
2. "Electric Man" - Rival Sons
3. "Heroine" - Dwntwn
4. "Don't Wanna Be Your Girl" - Wet
5. "Swimsuits" - The Cool Kids feat. Mayer Hawthorne
It's a little difficult to pick out the best seasons for me among the golden era seasons, but it's shockingly easy for me to leave out Season 4. I was under the impression that the fourth season was the perfect mix of comedy and heart. I think that was overstated as every season I've watched has heart in at least a couple episodes and it's not nearly as funny as other seasons. I only mention that because I present the true season that is the perfect mix of comedy and heart: Season 7.
Season 7 has all of the heart of the fourth season, but it's also just funnier. My opinions comparing the fourth and seventh seasons, fair or not, is perfectly reflected in the two clip shows. The fourth season clip show is good in its own right, compared to other clip shows, but the 138th Episode Spectacular is good compared to regular episodes. The clip show is just brilliant in its execution and the way it is structured.
The clip show is reminiscent of the entire season in another facet: it's endless creativity and experimentation. Despite the show having been on the air for 128 episodes and for being responsible for 25 in this season alone, the show has mostly completely fresh new ideas for each episode. There's the obvious "22 Short Films About Springfield," but I mean even in its more grounded storylines. Something as simple as the family encountering a rich club in "Scenes from the Class Struggle" was still a wholly new idea the show had yet to write about. (You can go ahead and correct me if I'm wrong about that)
The seventh season takes full advantage of its wide arsenal of characters. Again, there's the obvious "22 Short Films" which is basically the writers showing off about how many great characters they have. There's maybe Sideshow Bob's best episode (which is saying something) and Abe Simpson improbably being an action hero (not a complaint). Apu gets a worthy sequel to "Homer and Apu" in an episode that may just be the most politically on one side the show's ever been. Lastly, Troy McClure is seen for the first time "live" because he needs to be shown with a woman because of his weird fish fetish. Going to characters such as Abe and Troy McClure for full episodes - who really work best in short doses - may reek of a desperation to fill out 25 episodes, but somehow all the episodes hold together really well and it never feels padded.
No other character benefits more from this season than Lisa. If it's true that Lisa is a hard character to write an episode about, the multitude of effective and heartwarming Lisa episodes are perhaps their best achievements in the season. Specifically, there's just something about Lisa and Homer's relationship that strikes a cord. "Lisa the Iconclast" and "Bart on the Road" both feature some of the sweetest moments on the show. "Lisa the Vegetarian" finds her at odds with Homer (and all of Springfield) and lastly Lisa finds new friends in "Summer of 4 ft. 2." It was a good season to be Lisa basically.
But the sentimental episodes aren't limited to just Lisa. Most of these episodes surprisingly end on some emotional level. There's the obvious "Mother Simpson" which finally answers the question about Homer's mother. "Marge Be Not Proud," about Bart and Marge, is probably one of the few Simpsons episodes that can make you cry. Even an episode as silly as "Homerpalooza" ends with Homer realizing he shouldn't die just to be cool, which really doesn't sound as affecting as it is when written into words.
There is not a single bad episode in this seventh season in my opinion, so much so that I'm surely forgetting a classic. There's the yearly Treehouse of Horror, the sequel to "Who Shot Mr Burns," and "King Size Homer," where Homer aspires to work on disability by gaining weight. (How had they not done this episode yet is beyond me - I similarly feel the same about "Homer the Smithers")
It probably goes without saying, but the voice work is still elevating the material given to them. Mediocre lines became funny and funny lines become instantly quotable because of the fantastic voice work. Similarly, I don't usually comment on the animation, but this season seems to have some of the most impressive animation yet. This is truly a show that was firing on all cylinders.
Season 7 went for both the crazy like Season 5 and 6, but brought back the heart held in the first four seasons. I don't know if I'd call this season the best season, but it's probably the best representation of The Simpsons in my opinion. It's got heart, laughs, experimentation, and some of the most original ideas the show had ever done.
Grade - A
Playlist
1. "White Lies" - Milo Greene
2. "Electric Man" - Rival Sons
3. "Heroine" - Dwntwn
4. "Don't Wanna Be Your Girl" - Wet
5. "Swimsuits" - The Cool Kids feat. Mayer Hawthorne
Sunday, August 24, 2014
Rewind: The Simpsons S6
With a then-series high 25 episodes, it's truly amazing that the series barely suffers in quality despite having a clip show and two other episodes produced by writers from a different show. That's a little unfair actually. The vast majority of the episodes, with the exception of the couch and chalkboard gags (which honestly seem less inspired, but it really doesn't matter), seem completely unaffected. Really, you could only point to two episodes that aren't really up to the classic The Simpsons standard (which I'll get to later).
Grade - A
This season received writing credits from an astounding 16 people. If you look at some of the shows these writers worked on, post-Simpsons, though you begin to truly understand the talent that was at hand. There's Greg Daniels of course, who later co-created King of the Hill and Parks and Recreation, and developed The Office for American television. There's David Cohen (Futurama), Jennifer Crittenden (Seinfeld), and Ken Keeler (Futurama). Then there's Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein (showrunners for seasons 7 and 8), Mike Scully (showrunner for Seasons 9-12), and John Schwartzwelder (the most prolific writer with 59 writing credits and some considered the best).
These writers helped manage what they considered an impossible amount of episodes. The surprising thing to me is that the next three seasons are just as long and I would have thought The Simpsons had enough leverage to produce less episodes. The ratings were great, the quality was great, and it was a beloved show. If they wanted to produce less episodes, couldn't they have forced the network to simply accept it? (I mean they eventually were able to, but it just surprises me)
The two episodes that I mentioned above that suffer from your typical "golden era" Simpsons is the clip show of course and "Round Springfield." The former is simply unavoidable. While it is vastly superior to most clip shows, it's still inferior to the rest of the season. They make it as good as a clip show can be (well, Community technically did but that wasn't really a "clip" show so unfair comparison) to their credit. "Round Springfield" seems dropped from another season to me with the death of Bleeding Gums. It wasn't even written by the main staff of The Simpsons, but by The Critic writers. (Not sure I'd let this episode dictate my opinion of The Critic though as the other "controversial" episode, A Star is Burns, is actually pretty good despite Matt Groening's complaints.)
As always, the voice work done by the main cast (and the guest stars) is phenomenal. Not trying to take away from the writers, but they can make the most mundane lines hilarious. Dan Castellaneta, Hank Azaria, Harry Shearer, and Nancy Cartwright are national treasures both for their work on the family and for the recurring characters. (The other two, Julie Kavner and Yeardley Smith, are also good although play very few characters)
While I mentioned that the high episode order is evident, I don't want to act like this season is somehow below par. This may be my favorite season of The Simpsons - picking between this season and the fifth season is like picking between seasons two and four of The Wire - I don't really think you can go wrong with either choice. It's as quotable as the show has ever been, it has stone cold classics ("Itchy and Scratchy Land, "Homer Badman," and "Lemon of Troy"), and it's extremely funny.
"Itchy and Scratchy Land" rips on violence in cartoons and Disneyland, "Sideshow Bob Roberts" rips on politics, and "Lisa on Ice" rips on parents who care too much about their kids' sports (which scarily seems even more prevalent today). "Homer Badman" is an episode that also seems timely to watch now with the reporting in Ferguson. (To clarify, because that sentence can be misconstrued badly, I do NOT support Darren Wilson) Words can't possibly describe how great "Homer the Great" is with guest star Patrick Stewart the perfect choice for an underground secret club.
"And Maggie Makes Three" and "Lisa's Wedding" are two of those episodes that I would point to in season six having more heart than you'd expect. I'm just going to keep listing episodes that stand out for me, by the way, which is nearly every single episode. There's the fantastic "Bart's Comet," the aforementioned "Lemon of Troy" with its rival town, and "Two Dozen and One Greyhounds with Burns as evil as he probably will ever be. And I can't forget "Bart vs. Australia" with its completely bizarre idea of Australia.
I'm probably forgetting to mention your favorite episode, but it's hard to talk about more without just commenting on every episode. I'm not saying those episodes I didn't mention are bad or even worse than the ones mentioned above, they just don't quite make me laugh instantly upon remembering the insane plot or a funny quote. The sixth season of The Simpsons is simply about as good as a comedy show can get. (This is kind of an awkward way to end this post, but last paragraphs always suck to write and the last paragraph would just be filler cause I have nothing else to say.)
Grade - A
Playlist
1. "Seasons (Waiting on You)" - Future Islands
2. "Emotion" - The Bee Gees feat. Samantha Sang
3. "Pretend" - Bad Suns
4. "Go" - Grimes feat. Blood Diamonds
5. "Recover" - CHVRCHES
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
Rewind: Freaks and Geeks
Timing is everything. Timing is both why Freaks and Geeks was one of the best, most realistic shows of all time and also why it was cancelled after just one season. It's appropriate that the show is set in 1980, thus allowing it to escape being dated. With the exception of a few actors (one in particular really), it has completely stood the test of time.
By this point - and it's still being perpetuated - high school shows or movies follow a stereotypical pattern that seemingly applies to no one. (And when it doesn't, it's usually because that high school is really unique - Texas HS in Friday Night Lights; need I explain for Buffy?) Freaks and Geeks seemed like a real high school experience - because it mostly was. It is based off Paul Feig's time in high school. And several of the ideas are from real-life experiences from the writers.
The show gave each character, no matter how minor, enough shading to make them seem believable and not like a plot device. This is a show where there really aren't major cliques. Sure you have your jocks and you have your geeks, but they still interact with each other. There's a scene where a girl tries to get a jock and a geek to fight, but neither will because they like each other. And there's another scene where a bully looks approvingly on when a girl dances with a mentally challenged kid at a school dance. It defies high school cliches.
This cast is ridiculously talented. It's insane. Oscar nominated actor James Franco, box office behemoth Seth Rogen, and the always hilarious Jason Segel are only the tip of the iceberg. Ironically, those three guys give perhaps the weakest performances of the cast. Well Rogen certainly does. He's pretty awful, but thankfully he's given the least to do and by the time he does have a storyline, he's improved enough to make it good.
Stealing the show is Linda Cardellini, playing Lindsday Weir. I almost want to watch ER just for her. Almost. Filling out the freaks is Busy Phillips, who I wish I had more to say about. Among the kids, Martin Starr is the standout actor though "should have been a child star" Sam Levinne and "ridiculously good at playing shy and awkward" John Francis Daley certainly are close by. Honestly, if I had no knowledge of their future careers, I would have guessed this trio would have made it big and the older guys would have had successful, if somewhat underwhelming careers. Go figure.
The supporting cast includes a wonderful performance by Joe Flaherty as the father to Linsday and a sweet-natured performance by Becky Ann Baker as the mother. The list of guest stars to appear on this show include: Shia LaBeouf, Jason Schwartzman, Rashida Jones, David Krumholz, Leslie Mann, Ben Foster, Lizzy Caplan, and Joanna Garcia Swisher. It's mind boggling how successful the majority of the people who were on this show became.
It's only appropriate then that the people behind the camera have also been ridiculously successful. Judd Apatow, whom the person reading surely knows, wrote six episodes and directed three. It's created by Paul Feig (who's directed several episodes of Arrested Development and The Office, and Bridesmaids). Feig had a writing credit for all 18 episodes, surely because this is essentially based on his experience.
In 1999-2000, the show regularly got 8 million viewers, which was low enough to be obviously cancelled by just about every network. Nowadays, a show like Freaks and Geeks gets put on the air and gets low ratings, it mostly likely survives on the backs of critics. Of course, if that were the case, we wouldn't have the wonderful cast and brilliant writers that we do. So it's both a blessing and a curse that it came at the time that it did.
As far as the show is concerned, I watched it with somebody who did not receive the pilot episode well. By that same token, I've read someone say that the pilot is one of the best pilots in introducing the characters. And I kind of agree with both. The pilot is clearly the weakest episode of the ones I watched and Seth Rogen's bad acting is way too prominent to be ignored. But I recently re-watched it and it's amazing how much it improves after you've seen the series. So if you feel underwhelmed by the pilot, give it one or two more episodes (at least until "Kim Kelly is My Friend.")
Freaks and Geeks was masterful in building sympathetic characters. Daniel (Franco), Nick (Segel), Ken (Rogen), and Kim (Phillips) are all people I can see myself distancing from when I was in high school. And yet, the show slowly unfolds backstories that help explain the situation they are in. It explains their actions, which don't look too kindly upon the character if you have no knowledge of what they've been through. The geeks - Bill (Starr) and Neal (Levinne) - also have somewhat complicated home lives, although the geeks are probably easy to relate to from the get-go. The only exceptions to having problems at home are Lindsay and Sam Weir, because their parents are extremely understanding and happy.
The show also makes good use out of its premise, for the most part separating the freaks and geeks. But when a geek and a freak come into contact for some reason, it's usually one of the best parts of the episode. It's also made more plausible since Lindsay and Sam and brother and sister, therefore the freaks are aware of the geeks more than they probably would have been.
It is hard to argue for another season - as much as I want one - because the first season was so perfect. It'd be difficult to imagine the second season being better. In fact, the last few episodes - when the creators knew it would be cancelled - had a plots meant for the second season, but truncated into a few episodes. It doesn't make the plots feel as rushed as you would imagine however and the episodes hardly suffer for it.
So, come watch Freaks and Geeks to watch your favorite stars before they were stars, and stay for an excellent piece of television. It's a show that rings truer to life than most shows on television, which means there aren't usually big victories at the end, but minor ones. It looks at high school as it was and not as it's portrayed on screen usually. Most importantly, it's a show that is immensely enjoyable and entertaining.
Grade - A
Playlist
1. "The Chain" - Fleetwood Mac
2. "Burning" - The Whitest Boy Alive
3. "Be Good (RAC Remix)" - Tokyo Police Club
4. "Don't Wanna Dance" - MØ
5. "Runaway" - Mr Little Jeans
By this point - and it's still being perpetuated - high school shows or movies follow a stereotypical pattern that seemingly applies to no one. (And when it doesn't, it's usually because that high school is really unique - Texas HS in Friday Night Lights; need I explain for Buffy?) Freaks and Geeks seemed like a real high school experience - because it mostly was. It is based off Paul Feig's time in high school. And several of the ideas are from real-life experiences from the writers.
The show gave each character, no matter how minor, enough shading to make them seem believable and not like a plot device. This is a show where there really aren't major cliques. Sure you have your jocks and you have your geeks, but they still interact with each other. There's a scene where a girl tries to get a jock and a geek to fight, but neither will because they like each other. And there's another scene where a bully looks approvingly on when a girl dances with a mentally challenged kid at a school dance. It defies high school cliches.
This cast is ridiculously talented. It's insane. Oscar nominated actor James Franco, box office behemoth Seth Rogen, and the always hilarious Jason Segel are only the tip of the iceberg. Ironically, those three guys give perhaps the weakest performances of the cast. Well Rogen certainly does. He's pretty awful, but thankfully he's given the least to do and by the time he does have a storyline, he's improved enough to make it good.
Stealing the show is Linda Cardellini, playing Lindsday Weir. I almost want to watch ER just for her. Almost. Filling out the freaks is Busy Phillips, who I wish I had more to say about. Among the kids, Martin Starr is the standout actor though "should have been a child star" Sam Levinne and "ridiculously good at playing shy and awkward" John Francis Daley certainly are close by. Honestly, if I had no knowledge of their future careers, I would have guessed this trio would have made it big and the older guys would have had successful, if somewhat underwhelming careers. Go figure.
The supporting cast includes a wonderful performance by Joe Flaherty as the father to Linsday and a sweet-natured performance by Becky Ann Baker as the mother. The list of guest stars to appear on this show include: Shia LaBeouf, Jason Schwartzman, Rashida Jones, David Krumholz, Leslie Mann, Ben Foster, Lizzy Caplan, and Joanna Garcia Swisher. It's mind boggling how successful the majority of the people who were on this show became.
It's only appropriate then that the people behind the camera have also been ridiculously successful. Judd Apatow, whom the person reading surely knows, wrote six episodes and directed three. It's created by Paul Feig (who's directed several episodes of Arrested Development and The Office, and Bridesmaids). Feig had a writing credit for all 18 episodes, surely because this is essentially based on his experience.
In 1999-2000, the show regularly got 8 million viewers, which was low enough to be obviously cancelled by just about every network. Nowadays, a show like Freaks and Geeks gets put on the air and gets low ratings, it mostly likely survives on the backs of critics. Of course, if that were the case, we wouldn't have the wonderful cast and brilliant writers that we do. So it's both a blessing and a curse that it came at the time that it did.
As far as the show is concerned, I watched it with somebody who did not receive the pilot episode well. By that same token, I've read someone say that the pilot is one of the best pilots in introducing the characters. And I kind of agree with both. The pilot is clearly the weakest episode of the ones I watched and Seth Rogen's bad acting is way too prominent to be ignored. But I recently re-watched it and it's amazing how much it improves after you've seen the series. So if you feel underwhelmed by the pilot, give it one or two more episodes (at least until "Kim Kelly is My Friend.")
Freaks and Geeks was masterful in building sympathetic characters. Daniel (Franco), Nick (Segel), Ken (Rogen), and Kim (Phillips) are all people I can see myself distancing from when I was in high school. And yet, the show slowly unfolds backstories that help explain the situation they are in. It explains their actions, which don't look too kindly upon the character if you have no knowledge of what they've been through. The geeks - Bill (Starr) and Neal (Levinne) - also have somewhat complicated home lives, although the geeks are probably easy to relate to from the get-go. The only exceptions to having problems at home are Lindsay and Sam Weir, because their parents are extremely understanding and happy.
The show also makes good use out of its premise, for the most part separating the freaks and geeks. But when a geek and a freak come into contact for some reason, it's usually one of the best parts of the episode. It's also made more plausible since Lindsay and Sam and brother and sister, therefore the freaks are aware of the geeks more than they probably would have been.
It is hard to argue for another season - as much as I want one - because the first season was so perfect. It'd be difficult to imagine the second season being better. In fact, the last few episodes - when the creators knew it would be cancelled - had a plots meant for the second season, but truncated into a few episodes. It doesn't make the plots feel as rushed as you would imagine however and the episodes hardly suffer for it.
So, come watch Freaks and Geeks to watch your favorite stars before they were stars, and stay for an excellent piece of television. It's a show that rings truer to life than most shows on television, which means there aren't usually big victories at the end, but minor ones. It looks at high school as it was and not as it's portrayed on screen usually. Most importantly, it's a show that is immensely enjoyable and entertaining.
Grade - A
Playlist
1. "The Chain" - Fleetwood Mac
2. "Burning" - The Whitest Boy Alive
3. "Be Good (RAC Remix)" - Tokyo Police Club
4. "Don't Wanna Dance" - MØ
5. "Runaway" - Mr Little Jeans
Sunday, May 4, 2014
Rewind: The Simpsons S5
Whenever I begin a review of The Simpsons, I feel this enormous weight on my shoulders. There's the simple fact that a lot of people consider this show as one of the best of all time. Based on the views I get for each of these posts, it's safe to say there's quite a few people who basically only tune into these Simpsons reviews. I tend to feel guilty that I am not worthy of writing about this show.
If I thought I felt pressure writing about previous seasons, well triple it here for the vaunted fifth season. The season where, let's face it, the plots are ridiculously insane, even for The Simpsons. They get a pet elephant, Bart AND Homer both become famous, and Homer goes to fucking space. Needless to say, the show didn't seem to feel the need to restrain itself. Virtually any parody or wacky plot could conceivably happen, which is a welcome change from the usual repeated storylines even the best sitcoms tend to have. (In theory, having the plots be virtually anything shouldn't work. In theory, communism works. In theory.)
This may sound like sacrilege to some, but honestly this is the first season where I get it. I understand its love, its admiration, and its obsessive fans. This is the first season of The Simpsons that worked for me like I expected it to. Now, I'm not saying the previous seasons disappointed me by any means, I just felt like my expectations had been built so high that I was holding the show to an impossible standard. Those standards haven't been lowered so much as the fifth season reached them.
I realized something else to help me reach this conclusion. The Simpsons do two things that are common nowadays, but back then was rare. The first is the cutaway gag. It's not exactly accurate to say it's overused now, because if it's done well it will always work, but between all of Seth McFarlane's shows, 30 Rock and New Girl (and others), the cutaway gag is all over the place.
The other thing is meta humor and meta sitcom humor (I don't know what else to call it). The show makes fun of itself frequently and comments on its place in pop culture. It also makes fun of the structure of the show itself and how sitcoms usually work. Other shows do meta humor - hell other shows did meta humor around the same time (I am scared to put this show here because of the hate it gets now, but Friends is a good example). But no other shows make fun of how exposition works and say things about how the episode is wrapping up much quicker than usual. (Although, if there's a weakness in this season, it's that they went to that well too many times. It felt like every episode had a meta joke in it)
Those two things helped me appreciate The Simpsons more, but what also helped it was that I found it much funnier. The "insect overlords" scene makes me laugh every time I think about it and is one of the funniest scenes of any comedy show ever for me. For some reason, watching Sideshow Bob get constantly pummeled is also endlessly hilarious including walking into a rake a ridiculous number of times. Then there's the innumerable amount of times The Simpsons generates laughs by doing the opposite of what would be expected.
Adding to the laughs is an almost insanely amazing ability to deploy famous guest stars in the best way possible. I can't think of any better use than what they do with James Woods, Michelle Pfeiffer, Ernest Borgnine, and Albert Brooks. And not necessarily due to their voice work like the actors, they tend to make comedy gold out of their musical guest stars such as George Harrison, the Ramones, and James Taylor.
Despite these laughs, I don't think The Simpsons sacrificed any humanity for its characters. There's a shocking character consistency that I expected to falter. If Homer needs to find something out, every single time they make sure he only finds out because it's blatantly obvious. Bart is mischievous, but he's not downright evil by rejecting Burns and confessing that he witnessed an apparent assault. This aspect of The Simpsons is evidently missing from newer episodes from what I've read (well that and being funny).
If there's one thing that I miss the most in Simpsons episodes, it's the not insignificant amount of its pop culture references. One of the weaknesses to being young (humble brag) is that my cultural cache is much, much smaller than most people. Sure, I most likely have a considerably bigger reach than most people my age, and I'm trying hard to expand it, but I have nowhere near what The Simpsons writers had. I mean four of the first seven episodes are elaborate parodies of things I have little knowledge of. The history of The Beatles? I'm probably the farthest thing from an expert on The Beatles. Also, I've never seen Cape Fear, Citizen Kane (gasp!), or Thelma & Louise. You could say I feel a little bit left out.
If anything though, the impressive reach of movies/shows that it would inspire me to watch is an enormous positive for the show. And to revisit these episodes after having seen things that the show mocks, lovingly parodies, or comments upon will be a joy. I've said it before and it never has been truer than now for me: I will enjoy these episodes more on re-watch than my first viewing.
Lastly, because I think it deserves merit, is the show's title sequence. It says something about what a run they had reached that the chalkboard and couch gags became must-see television. Between "I will never win an Emmy," "I will not celebrate meaningless milestones," and every single, unique couch gag, the show was clearly firing on all cylinders.
It feels good that I finally get it. I'm really interested to see how I view previous seasons now that I feel I understand its love. I don't know what it says about me that it took until the fifth season, but an important thing to understand is that I have always expected to laugh more at these episodes. And this is the first season where that expectation was met. (Last note: It's amazing how many quotes I am well aware of that I didn't know came from The Simpsons)
Playlist
1. "No Rest for the Wicked" - Lykki Li
2. "High" - Freddie Gibbs feat. Danny Brown & Madlib
3. "Gooey" - Glass Animals
4. "Do it Again" - Robyn, Röyksopp
5. "Comes and Goes" - Greg Laswell
If I thought I felt pressure writing about previous seasons, well triple it here for the vaunted fifth season. The season where, let's face it, the plots are ridiculously insane, even for The Simpsons. They get a pet elephant, Bart AND Homer both become famous, and Homer goes to fucking space. Needless to say, the show didn't seem to feel the need to restrain itself. Virtually any parody or wacky plot could conceivably happen, which is a welcome change from the usual repeated storylines even the best sitcoms tend to have. (In theory, having the plots be virtually anything shouldn't work. In theory, communism works. In theory.)
This may sound like sacrilege to some, but honestly this is the first season where I get it. I understand its love, its admiration, and its obsessive fans. This is the first season of The Simpsons that worked for me like I expected it to. Now, I'm not saying the previous seasons disappointed me by any means, I just felt like my expectations had been built so high that I was holding the show to an impossible standard. Those standards haven't been lowered so much as the fifth season reached them.
I realized something else to help me reach this conclusion. The Simpsons do two things that are common nowadays, but back then was rare. The first is the cutaway gag. It's not exactly accurate to say it's overused now, because if it's done well it will always work, but between all of Seth McFarlane's shows, 30 Rock and New Girl (and others), the cutaway gag is all over the place.
The other thing is meta humor and meta sitcom humor (I don't know what else to call it). The show makes fun of itself frequently and comments on its place in pop culture. It also makes fun of the structure of the show itself and how sitcoms usually work. Other shows do meta humor - hell other shows did meta humor around the same time (I am scared to put this show here because of the hate it gets now, but Friends is a good example). But no other shows make fun of how exposition works and say things about how the episode is wrapping up much quicker than usual. (Although, if there's a weakness in this season, it's that they went to that well too many times. It felt like every episode had a meta joke in it)
Those two things helped me appreciate The Simpsons more, but what also helped it was that I found it much funnier. The "insect overlords" scene makes me laugh every time I think about it and is one of the funniest scenes of any comedy show ever for me. For some reason, watching Sideshow Bob get constantly pummeled is also endlessly hilarious including walking into a rake a ridiculous number of times. Then there's the innumerable amount of times The Simpsons generates laughs by doing the opposite of what would be expected.
Adding to the laughs is an almost insanely amazing ability to deploy famous guest stars in the best way possible. I can't think of any better use than what they do with James Woods, Michelle Pfeiffer, Ernest Borgnine, and Albert Brooks. And not necessarily due to their voice work like the actors, they tend to make comedy gold out of their musical guest stars such as George Harrison, the Ramones, and James Taylor.
Despite these laughs, I don't think The Simpsons sacrificed any humanity for its characters. There's a shocking character consistency that I expected to falter. If Homer needs to find something out, every single time they make sure he only finds out because it's blatantly obvious. Bart is mischievous, but he's not downright evil by rejecting Burns and confessing that he witnessed an apparent assault. This aspect of The Simpsons is evidently missing from newer episodes from what I've read (well that and being funny).
If there's one thing that I miss the most in Simpsons episodes, it's the not insignificant amount of its pop culture references. One of the weaknesses to being young (humble brag) is that my cultural cache is much, much smaller than most people. Sure, I most likely have a considerably bigger reach than most people my age, and I'm trying hard to expand it, but I have nowhere near what The Simpsons writers had. I mean four of the first seven episodes are elaborate parodies of things I have little knowledge of. The history of The Beatles? I'm probably the farthest thing from an expert on The Beatles. Also, I've never seen Cape Fear, Citizen Kane (gasp!), or Thelma & Louise. You could say I feel a little bit left out.
If anything though, the impressive reach of movies/shows that it would inspire me to watch is an enormous positive for the show. And to revisit these episodes after having seen things that the show mocks, lovingly parodies, or comments upon will be a joy. I've said it before and it never has been truer than now for me: I will enjoy these episodes more on re-watch than my first viewing.
Lastly, because I think it deserves merit, is the show's title sequence. It says something about what a run they had reached that the chalkboard and couch gags became must-see television. Between "I will never win an Emmy," "I will not celebrate meaningless milestones," and every single, unique couch gag, the show was clearly firing on all cylinders.
It feels good that I finally get it. I'm really interested to see how I view previous seasons now that I feel I understand its love. I don't know what it says about me that it took until the fifth season, but an important thing to understand is that I have always expected to laugh more at these episodes. And this is the first season where that expectation was met. (Last note: It's amazing how many quotes I am well aware of that I didn't know came from The Simpsons)
Playlist
1. "No Rest for the Wicked" - Lykki Li
2. "High" - Freddie Gibbs feat. Danny Brown & Madlib
3. "Gooey" - Glass Animals
4. "Do it Again" - Robyn, Röyksopp
5. "Comes and Goes" - Greg Laswell
Thursday, January 9, 2014
Rewind: The Simpsons S4
The fourth season of The Simpsons is widely regarded as one of the best seasons on television ever. It's consistent from Episode 1 to Episode 22 and it even makes the most out of a lame clip show. I've seen 22 of these episodes one time through so I'm not going to pretend I was able to get every gag, reference, or joke that the show threw at me. Therefore, I can't pretend I consider this one of the all-time greatest seasons ever. I'm not sure I ever will. The problem is that The Simpsons paved ground for shows I've already seen so some of the writing doesn't appear so revolutionary as it happened to be.
True to its reputation, the fourth season is shockingly consistent. Some of the episodes are more memorable than the others and some of them I need to read a quick plot review to remember, but I definitely didn't finish any of the episodes thinking it was bad.
The season begins with the students led by Principal Skinner destroying Springfield Elementary after school ends. Granted, it was Bart's dream, but that pretty much indicates what to expect from this season - anything and everything. The show then proceeds to have episodes dedicated to making fun of religion, beauty pageants, 80s action movies, labor disputes, cartoon television writers, long-standing practices in the name of tradition, and the phenomenon of mobs. It also parodies such classic movies as "A Streetcar Named Desire," "The Great Escape," "A Clockwork Orange," "The Music Man," and many other movies I've never seen.
In previous seasons, my lone complaint was that the show wasn't as funny as I was expecting given its reputation. While it still kind of falls short in that department honestly, it made me laugh considerably more than in previous seasons. But really I've learned not to watch this show to laugh as odd as that may sound. I do know there are people who exist - a good number of them in fact - who find this show gut-bustingly hilarious. I'm not one of those people. That's not to say I don't laugh a lot at these episodes - and probably more on subsequent visits - it's just that if I find myself in the mood to laugh, I'm probably not going to be watching The Simpsons. I hope you can understand the distinction.
The first four episodes set the standard for the season. "Kamp Krusty" particularly stands out for me. The show has kids destructing a school, followed by child abuse by camp counselors, and the implication that Homer and Marge are being dragged down by having kids. Even by today's standards, that's daring. The second episode makes me want to go watch "The Great Escape" and "A Streetcar Named Desire." I mean even if the episode was bad, that's definitely a good thing. The third episode just absolutely destroys organized religion. I'm not going to say my opinions on this one way or the other, but everything it says is absolutely spot-on. The fourth does a spectacular job on the admittedly easy target that is a beauty pageant, more relevant today than then I'd argue.
The Treehouse of Horror underwhelmed me. It's not that it was bad, but I actually like the previous two better which surprised me. I don't want to go through every episode, so I'll just name a few that stood out to me. "Marge vs the Monorail" was one of my favorites of the season with a random appearance from Leonard Nimoy (and hilarious). "Selma's Choice" provides me with the funniest laughs of the season when Lisa trips out at Duff Gardens. "I Love Lisa" is a showcase for Ralph Wiggums and Bart's willingness to do just about anything to get to a Krusty show. "Last Exit to Springfield" of course which is considered the greatest of the series by many. Lastly, I really liked "Whacking Day" for how it shows how stupid certain traditions are (and apparently this specific tradition is actually based on a real life tradition similar to this amazingly).
Hell, in the mandatory clip show, the writers poke fun at at the fact that it's a clip show (my favorite bit is Bart talking about that one Itchy & Scratchy episode completely unrelated to anything). This was before anybody even had the audacity to do this.
Overall, the fourth season doesn't quite live up to its reputation for me, you know, because its reputation is greatest of all-time of any show ever. But I liked it a lot and will definitely re-watch a few times before I move on to the fifth season at an undetermined date.
Since I'm a newbie to this show, I wanted to give the perspective of a veteran. So I asked twitter friend John to write his opinion on this season as well. Here is what he had to say.
So there you have it. I hope you enjoyed both perspectives. The weight of writing about this season is finally going to be removed. I wanted to share the writing duties to someone who could appropriately compliment the show that The Simpsons fanatics would desire and my words just couldn't do that.
Playlist (Part of Top 50 tracks of 2013; 1-10; 11-20; 21-30)
31. "Nuclear Seasons" - Charli XCX (Not 2013, but in was in her 2013-released album)
32. "Savagely Attack" - CZARFACE ft. Ghostface Killah
33. "Latch" - Disclosure ft. Sam Smith
34. "While I'm Alive" - STRFKR
35. "This Ladder is Ours" - The Joy Formidable
36. "Ab-Soul's Intro" - Terrace Martin ft. Ab-Soul
37. "Fast in My Car" - Paramore
38. "John Doe" - B.O.B. ft. Priscilla
39. "The Stars (Are Out Tonight)" - David Bowie
40. "Villuminati" - J. Cole
True to its reputation, the fourth season is shockingly consistent. Some of the episodes are more memorable than the others and some of them I need to read a quick plot review to remember, but I definitely didn't finish any of the episodes thinking it was bad.
The season begins with the students led by Principal Skinner destroying Springfield Elementary after school ends. Granted, it was Bart's dream, but that pretty much indicates what to expect from this season - anything and everything. The show then proceeds to have episodes dedicated to making fun of religion, beauty pageants, 80s action movies, labor disputes, cartoon television writers, long-standing practices in the name of tradition, and the phenomenon of mobs. It also parodies such classic movies as "A Streetcar Named Desire," "The Great Escape," "A Clockwork Orange," "The Music Man," and many other movies I've never seen.
In previous seasons, my lone complaint was that the show wasn't as funny as I was expecting given its reputation. While it still kind of falls short in that department honestly, it made me laugh considerably more than in previous seasons. But really I've learned not to watch this show to laugh as odd as that may sound. I do know there are people who exist - a good number of them in fact - who find this show gut-bustingly hilarious. I'm not one of those people. That's not to say I don't laugh a lot at these episodes - and probably more on subsequent visits - it's just that if I find myself in the mood to laugh, I'm probably not going to be watching The Simpsons. I hope you can understand the distinction.
The first four episodes set the standard for the season. "Kamp Krusty" particularly stands out for me. The show has kids destructing a school, followed by child abuse by camp counselors, and the implication that Homer and Marge are being dragged down by having kids. Even by today's standards, that's daring. The second episode makes me want to go watch "The Great Escape" and "A Streetcar Named Desire." I mean even if the episode was bad, that's definitely a good thing. The third episode just absolutely destroys organized religion. I'm not going to say my opinions on this one way or the other, but everything it says is absolutely spot-on. The fourth does a spectacular job on the admittedly easy target that is a beauty pageant, more relevant today than then I'd argue.
The Treehouse of Horror underwhelmed me. It's not that it was bad, but I actually like the previous two better which surprised me. I don't want to go through every episode, so I'll just name a few that stood out to me. "Marge vs the Monorail" was one of my favorites of the season with a random appearance from Leonard Nimoy (and hilarious). "Selma's Choice" provides me with the funniest laughs of the season when Lisa trips out at Duff Gardens. "I Love Lisa" is a showcase for Ralph Wiggums and Bart's willingness to do just about anything to get to a Krusty show. "Last Exit to Springfield" of course which is considered the greatest of the series by many. Lastly, I really liked "Whacking Day" for how it shows how stupid certain traditions are (and apparently this specific tradition is actually based on a real life tradition similar to this amazingly).
Hell, in the mandatory clip show, the writers poke fun at at the fact that it's a clip show (my favorite bit is Bart talking about that one Itchy & Scratchy episode completely unrelated to anything). This was before anybody even had the audacity to do this.
Overall, the fourth season doesn't quite live up to its reputation for me, you know, because its reputation is greatest of all-time of any show ever. But I liked it a lot and will definitely re-watch a few times before I move on to the fifth season at an undetermined date.
Since I'm a newbie to this show, I wanted to give the perspective of a veteran. So I asked twitter friend John to write his opinion on this season as well. Here is what he had to say.
The fourth season of The Simpsons is the make or break season as far as fandom goes. If at some point in the fourth season (or before) you have not enjoyed the show, it probably won’t happen. Season 4 is the point at which the show most sublimely combines its more heartfelt elements (most noticeable and perhaps most over-done in the first two seasons, in which it shouldn’t be that hard to believe that the guy who wrote and directed Terms of Endearment was the de facto show runner) and its most asinine (the show becomes sillier, for better or worse, under David Mirkin for Seasons 5-6).
This was a season in which episodes about Homer’s mortality (Homer’s Triple Bypass) and Marge’s sister’s loneliness and general lack of life fulfillment (Selma’s Choice) were sandwiched by Marge vs. the Monorail—a goofy, hilarious episode filled with countless, oft-repeated lines and gags which has become legendary as one of three episodes written by Conan O’Brien, certainly the most famous Simpsons staff writer. The stranger episodes and the most earnest episodes alternate with seemingly no pattern, but this is never really a problem—it’s not like the show has linear storytelling anyway.
There are no truly bad episodes in the season (even the clip show is pretty good in comparison to your typical TV clip show). One of my favorite elements of the season is that the movie references go from common to borderline overwhelming. As somebody who doesn’t really watch a ton of TV that isn’t sports or news—it’s probably not a coincidence that my two favorite series post-Simpsons were King of the Hill and The Office, which were both co-created by a former Simpsons writer—I compensate with film. And the references are EVERYWHERE here. There are the overwhelmingly obvious (with an episode named A Streetcar Named Marge, even people who haven’t seen A Streetcar Named Desire probably have a decent idea of what’s going on); there are the old favorites (I don’t quite like Duffless’s parody of A Clockwork Orange as much as the extensive parody in Season 3’s Dog of Death, but I still laughed); and there are the smaller references that not everybody’s going to remember (Lisa the Beauty Queen has a scene which parodies Apocalypse Now that I had no idea was parodying it until years after having seen both the episode and the movie; the “Eureka!” moment was rather satisfying).
There are too many terrific episodes to focus on every single one so I’ll go to the greatest-episode-by-acclamation-of-the-internet: Last Exit to Springfield. I have never compiled a list of my favorite episodes because my opinions change too frequently, though there is little question that Last Exit would be near, if not at, the top of my list, as it tends to rank very highly on fan and critic lists. It was the final episode written by the underrated team of Jay Kogen and Wally Wolodarsky and one of the final episodes run by Al Jean and Mike Reiss, and it comes across as an episode constructed by people who were bored and felt like going for broke. There are a number of classic scenes that I think about/reference a lot in my life. The classic “Lisa needs braces/dental plan” exchange in Homer’s head might as well be the password to Simpsons fandom initiation—it would be impossible to explain to somebody who hasn’t seen the episode, yet it’ll bring a smile (or loud laugh) to the face of anyone who has. Homer’s bizarre Don Fanucci in The Godfather Part II fantasy of his union leadership leading to ties to organized crime (which, because it’s The Simpsons, seems to have transported him to 1920s New York). Lisa’s Beatles-esque dream while under anesthesia. The entire segment in which Homer meets with Mr. Burns at the latter’s mansion—ALL of it. The montage of Mr. Burns and Smithers running the plant by themselves. A truly great Simpsons episode needs not to have an air-tight plot (I would actually probably just sum up this episode as “Lisa needs braces/dental plan”); it just needs to make you laugh. And it does, even after having seen it countless times.
In Season 5, things get weird. This isn’t to say that they get worse (or better, really)—they just get…different. It’s not that the show becomes utterly vacant emotionally (Family Guy, a show which I don’t hate, is to some extent what The Simpsons probably would have been had they abandoned any sense of decency or emotion—often funny, sporadically intelligent, but nowhere near as good as peak-era Simpsons), but it isn’t the same type of show as it was during Seasons 1-4. Season 2 represented a noticeable jump in quality over Season 1, and Season 3 represented a quantum leap over Season 2. Season 4 represents a much milder jump in quality—this is a show which had hit its stride around the midpoint of Season 3 and at this point was just reveling in it. The rise of the show is almost like that of The Beatles—the Beatles probably needed to go through its “Love Me Do” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand” phase in order to pave the way for its great mid-to-late 60s work. And Season 4 is its Rubber Soul—a terrific sign of the frantic experimentation to come, but still very much grounded in the genius which had come before.
So there you have it. I hope you enjoyed both perspectives. The weight of writing about this season is finally going to be removed. I wanted to share the writing duties to someone who could appropriately compliment the show that The Simpsons fanatics would desire and my words just couldn't do that.
Playlist (Part of Top 50 tracks of 2013; 1-10; 11-20; 21-30)
31. "Nuclear Seasons" - Charli XCX (Not 2013, but in was in her 2013-released album)
32. "Savagely Attack" - CZARFACE ft. Ghostface Killah
33. "Latch" - Disclosure ft. Sam Smith
34. "While I'm Alive" - STRFKR
35. "This Ladder is Ours" - The Joy Formidable
36. "Ab-Soul's Intro" - Terrace Martin ft. Ab-Soul
37. "Fast in My Car" - Paramore
38. "John Doe" - B.O.B. ft. Priscilla
39. "The Stars (Are Out Tonight)" - David Bowie
40. "Villuminati" - J. Cole
Sunday, January 5, 2014
Friends: Finale & Season 1 Thoughts
Well, today ends the first season of Friends. In this post, I'll talk about the finale and then talk about the first season as a whole. I apologize ahead of time for Joey fans, because I mostly neglect his insignificant storyline in service of Ross-Rachel (which takes up most of the episode anyway). Anyway, enjoy.
"The One Where Rachel Finds Out"
This is Friends firing on all cylinders. Every joke seemed to hit. The way Rachel found out about Ross' love for her was hilarious. Joey's plot about preventing a woman from having sex with him was decently funny, but ultimately forgettable. But I did feel I laughed more than normal.
The opening scene quickly transitions the audience from last week's birth episode to what is clear will be the main plot of this one. Ross shows off his baby's picture to all of his friends. Rachel comments on the picture on Ross' shoulder while she says a bunch of stuff that also applies to Ross' feelings for her. Then Chandler scoffs at him. *FORESHADOWING*
Ross has to go to China for a week before her birthday. They don't really explain much, but he's a paleontologist and they need a bone so it works fine enough. Somewhat conveniently he has to go right before Rachel's birthday so he has enough time to give her the present but not enough to actually see her. That's just one of those things you have to accept in a show like this.
Rachel opens her presents. The guys give her pretty awful gifts. Travel Scrabble, really? I do understand gifts for her would be difficult, but that's like a kid gift. (Also Rachel doesn't travel) Granted, it's somewhat in character for Chandler to be the one who gives that gift. Joey gives her a Dr. Seuss book. Well, that's just making the character stupider than he is for the sake of a laugh. All's I'm saying is the writers could have come up with better gifts instead of things that would never happen.
Ross gives her a ring that reminds Rachel of her grandmother's ring. Ross remembers some specific moment when she wanted it. It's in character and it's a good gift. Then Chandler blurts out that Ross is in love with Rachel. Then Matthew Perry helps make the next four minutes or so hilarious as he tries desperately to backtrack his statement. If you don't laugh at Chandler fumbling his words and trying to convince Rachel what he said wasn't true or didn't happen, I don't understand you.
Rachel quickly tries to catch up to Ross in the airport. This wasn't a bad way to delay their meeting. Ross is understandably learning Chinese on the go. Although, in my opinion, if he's listening to a foreign language tape, he would probably have heard Rachel scream Ross. Music on a headphone? Yeah, that's hard to hear anyone. But an instructional tape with people speaking in relatively calm voices? Kind of a stretch.
She tells the airline attendant to pass a message to.... an old gentleman. I guess her message was vague enough that it wasn't clear she was a potential dating partner of this special message. I did chuckle at the older man trying to convince his wife that there is no Rachel though. Really, considering that this type of show was going to do end up delaying Ross-Rachel, I'm nitpicking. This is about as good as a contrivance in delaying a romance as you can get. The timing is going to be way too convenient. It's just a fact really.
So she goes back, thinks over it, and decides she doesn't want to pursue it. Monica wants her to be with Ross, which I guess makes sense. She rationally thinks about what it would mean for her friendship to start dating Ross. Then she goes on a date with Carl, who's sitcom obnoxious. I'm sure people like him exist, but what in the heck was Rachel interested in him for anyway the first time? It's not like it was a blind date.
Naturally, her thought bubble convinces her to try it with Ross. With the help of an imaginary Ross and her real, less than ideal date, she's convincingly sold. Only when she goes to the airport, Ross will be meeting her with Julie. And cliffhanger to end the season.
In hindsight, this doesn't look as bad because Julie is a perfectly nice woman. It's easy to see why Ross begins dating her. Rachel's hatred of her takes on funny levels because of how harmless and nice she is. She's Homer Simpson to Julie's Flanders. I'm sure at the time, this was immensely frustrating, but again the character of Julie significantly redeems this.
This episode was written surprisingly not by the creators. Usually, season finales, and especially so for debut seasons, are written by the creators. This is written by Chris Brown, who barely wrote anything else on television or movies. The episode sheds some light on his talent, and he wrote two more episodes, both of which I'd have to re-watch, but I remember being good. It's just a little strange.
The episode was directed by Kevin Bright, his first directorial effort for Friends. He went on to direct 54 episodes of the series including the finale of the entire series. He's an important executive producer for the show, who didn't write anything for it, but was involved in all 10 seasons. (I think only the creators were involved for that long)
Overall, I did spend a lot of time nitpicking the episode, but most of these are really small things and things you have to expect. So most of those won't affect my grade. There's also a subplot about Joey working for a fertility clinic and having to hold off on sex for him, but it's mildly memorable and his partner barely qualifies as an actual character.
Grade - A
Season 1 Review
The first season was a good start to a classic sitcom. Friends hasn't suffered yet from some of the issues that plague them later and the characters are all still sympathetic and relatable (to a point). They still can access people's hearts and make you care for the characters, something they lose in the later seasons. Obviously, a sitcom doesn't NEED that, but frankly it's better if it has it.
There are only a couple season-long arcs that the show did. First, Rachel needs to adjust and accept her newfound life, something that was resolved a few episodes ago. It was a complete arc to where she finally knew she was in the place was wanted to be. Her character still has a ways to go to future seasons, but it's certainly a good start.
Ross tries to date Rachel for the entirety of the season. First, they both need to wait, because Ross is going through a divorce and a future son while Rachel just walked out of a wedding. Just when the time began to make sense, Rachel found plot device Paolo which the writers fully acknowledged was a plot device. It worked ok and Paolo was in less episodes than I thought, but each successive episode was more frustrating.
Rachel then broke up with Paolo when he tried to cheat on her, which caused her to shun all men. I thought this made sense and was a nice way to delay the future relationship. Then they play in a poker game, Rachel misses out on a job, and Ross lets Rachel win a bunch of money. That helped the audience root for this sort of annoying inevitability. Then Rachel has a minor detour with Barry, which while it made little sense, helped close off the season-long arc I mentioned above. Then this episode happened and delayed it even further. So this is a season-long arc that is somewhat incomplete, but at least Rachel did find out about it and that's a new development.
The other characters don't really get season-long arcs unfortunately. Matthew Perry steals the season as Chandler making nearly every Chandler story funny and creating a unique and compelling individual. While Phoebe probably gets the least screen time, Lisa Kudrow I've noticed makes the most of her little time by the end and probably is MVP of the girls.
Monica and Joey, for better or worse, are still a little on the short end of the stick. Joey obviously a little bit more developed than your regular womanizer, but he's not exactly fully defined. Monica, while still consistent, is still kind of a clean-freak, obsessive friend. Both Matt Le Blanc and Courtney Cox still make the characters into... characters, but both of them are clearly on the bottom of the pole at least. (While I've never paid attention to it, there's a lot of people that think Le Blanc helped salvage the latter seasons so he does get his time. I'm not sure Cox ever gets hers)
So Friends first season gets four characters who stand out of an ensemble of six and complete one of two season-long arcs while adding to another arc that could have grown stale. I personally laugh at every episode so I'm going to raise this grade a little higher and I end up with a ....
Season 1 Grade - B+
Quotes
"What you think I'm going to tell a girl I like that I'm also seeing a cup?" - Joey
"The tough thing is that she really wants to have sex with me." - Joey
"Crazy bitch" - Chandler
"That book got me through some tough times." - Joey about Dr. Seuss
"That's good. Keep rubbing your head. That'll turn back time." - Joey to Chandler
"Maybe I'll know when I see him." - Rachel
"Does this help?" - Phoebe holds up picture of Ross
Playlist (Part of my Top 50 tracks of 2013; 1-10; 11-20)
21. "Inhaler" - Foals
22. "Rose Quartz" - Toro y Moi
23. "Ode to Sleep" - Twenty One Pilots
24. "Just Make it Stop" - Low
25. "Primetime" - Janelle Monae ft. Miguel
26. "Radioactive" - Imagine Dragons (I'm somehow not tired of this song)
27. "Sacrilege" - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
28. "Retrograde" - James Blake
29. "Hold On We're Going Home" - Drake ft. Majid Jordan
30. "The Mother We Share" - Chvrces
"The One Where Rachel Finds Out"
This is Friends firing on all cylinders. Every joke seemed to hit. The way Rachel found out about Ross' love for her was hilarious. Joey's plot about preventing a woman from having sex with him was decently funny, but ultimately forgettable. But I did feel I laughed more than normal.
The opening scene quickly transitions the audience from last week's birth episode to what is clear will be the main plot of this one. Ross shows off his baby's picture to all of his friends. Rachel comments on the picture on Ross' shoulder while she says a bunch of stuff that also applies to Ross' feelings for her. Then Chandler scoffs at him. *FORESHADOWING*
Ross has to go to China for a week before her birthday. They don't really explain much, but he's a paleontologist and they need a bone so it works fine enough. Somewhat conveniently he has to go right before Rachel's birthday so he has enough time to give her the present but not enough to actually see her. That's just one of those things you have to accept in a show like this.
Rachel opens her presents. The guys give her pretty awful gifts. Travel Scrabble, really? I do understand gifts for her would be difficult, but that's like a kid gift. (Also Rachel doesn't travel) Granted, it's somewhat in character for Chandler to be the one who gives that gift. Joey gives her a Dr. Seuss book. Well, that's just making the character stupider than he is for the sake of a laugh. All's I'm saying is the writers could have come up with better gifts instead of things that would never happen.
Ross gives her a ring that reminds Rachel of her grandmother's ring. Ross remembers some specific moment when she wanted it. It's in character and it's a good gift. Then Chandler blurts out that Ross is in love with Rachel. Then Matthew Perry helps make the next four minutes or so hilarious as he tries desperately to backtrack his statement. If you don't laugh at Chandler fumbling his words and trying to convince Rachel what he said wasn't true or didn't happen, I don't understand you.
Rachel quickly tries to catch up to Ross in the airport. This wasn't a bad way to delay their meeting. Ross is understandably learning Chinese on the go. Although, in my opinion, if he's listening to a foreign language tape, he would probably have heard Rachel scream Ross. Music on a headphone? Yeah, that's hard to hear anyone. But an instructional tape with people speaking in relatively calm voices? Kind of a stretch.
She tells the airline attendant to pass a message to.... an old gentleman. I guess her message was vague enough that it wasn't clear she was a potential dating partner of this special message. I did chuckle at the older man trying to convince his wife that there is no Rachel though. Really, considering that this type of show was going to do end up delaying Ross-Rachel, I'm nitpicking. This is about as good as a contrivance in delaying a romance as you can get. The timing is going to be way too convenient. It's just a fact really.
So she goes back, thinks over it, and decides she doesn't want to pursue it. Monica wants her to be with Ross, which I guess makes sense. She rationally thinks about what it would mean for her friendship to start dating Ross. Then she goes on a date with Carl, who's sitcom obnoxious. I'm sure people like him exist, but what in the heck was Rachel interested in him for anyway the first time? It's not like it was a blind date.
Naturally, her thought bubble convinces her to try it with Ross. With the help of an imaginary Ross and her real, less than ideal date, she's convincingly sold. Only when she goes to the airport, Ross will be meeting her with Julie. And cliffhanger to end the season.
In hindsight, this doesn't look as bad because Julie is a perfectly nice woman. It's easy to see why Ross begins dating her. Rachel's hatred of her takes on funny levels because of how harmless and nice she is. She's Homer Simpson to Julie's Flanders. I'm sure at the time, this was immensely frustrating, but again the character of Julie significantly redeems this.
This episode was written surprisingly not by the creators. Usually, season finales, and especially so for debut seasons, are written by the creators. This is written by Chris Brown, who barely wrote anything else on television or movies. The episode sheds some light on his talent, and he wrote two more episodes, both of which I'd have to re-watch, but I remember being good. It's just a little strange.
The episode was directed by Kevin Bright, his first directorial effort for Friends. He went on to direct 54 episodes of the series including the finale of the entire series. He's an important executive producer for the show, who didn't write anything for it, but was involved in all 10 seasons. (I think only the creators were involved for that long)
Overall, I did spend a lot of time nitpicking the episode, but most of these are really small things and things you have to expect. So most of those won't affect my grade. There's also a subplot about Joey working for a fertility clinic and having to hold off on sex for him, but it's mildly memorable and his partner barely qualifies as an actual character.
Grade - A
Season 1 Review
The first season was a good start to a classic sitcom. Friends hasn't suffered yet from some of the issues that plague them later and the characters are all still sympathetic and relatable (to a point). They still can access people's hearts and make you care for the characters, something they lose in the later seasons. Obviously, a sitcom doesn't NEED that, but frankly it's better if it has it.
There are only a couple season-long arcs that the show did. First, Rachel needs to adjust and accept her newfound life, something that was resolved a few episodes ago. It was a complete arc to where she finally knew she was in the place was wanted to be. Her character still has a ways to go to future seasons, but it's certainly a good start.
Ross tries to date Rachel for the entirety of the season. First, they both need to wait, because Ross is going through a divorce and a future son while Rachel just walked out of a wedding. Just when the time began to make sense, Rachel found plot device Paolo which the writers fully acknowledged was a plot device. It worked ok and Paolo was in less episodes than I thought, but each successive episode was more frustrating.
Rachel then broke up with Paolo when he tried to cheat on her, which caused her to shun all men. I thought this made sense and was a nice way to delay the future relationship. Then they play in a poker game, Rachel misses out on a job, and Ross lets Rachel win a bunch of money. That helped the audience root for this sort of annoying inevitability. Then Rachel has a minor detour with Barry, which while it made little sense, helped close off the season-long arc I mentioned above. Then this episode happened and delayed it even further. So this is a season-long arc that is somewhat incomplete, but at least Rachel did find out about it and that's a new development.
The other characters don't really get season-long arcs unfortunately. Matthew Perry steals the season as Chandler making nearly every Chandler story funny and creating a unique and compelling individual. While Phoebe probably gets the least screen time, Lisa Kudrow I've noticed makes the most of her little time by the end and probably is MVP of the girls.
Monica and Joey, for better or worse, are still a little on the short end of the stick. Joey obviously a little bit more developed than your regular womanizer, but he's not exactly fully defined. Monica, while still consistent, is still kind of a clean-freak, obsessive friend. Both Matt Le Blanc and Courtney Cox still make the characters into... characters, but both of them are clearly on the bottom of the pole at least. (While I've never paid attention to it, there's a lot of people that think Le Blanc helped salvage the latter seasons so he does get his time. I'm not sure Cox ever gets hers)
So Friends first season gets four characters who stand out of an ensemble of six and complete one of two season-long arcs while adding to another arc that could have grown stale. I personally laugh at every episode so I'm going to raise this grade a little higher and I end up with a ....
Season 1 Grade - B+
Quotes
"What you think I'm going to tell a girl I like that I'm also seeing a cup?" - Joey
"The tough thing is that she really wants to have sex with me." - Joey
"Crazy bitch" - Chandler
"That book got me through some tough times." - Joey about Dr. Seuss
"That's good. Keep rubbing your head. That'll turn back time." - Joey to Chandler
"Maybe I'll know when I see him." - Rachel
"Does this help?" - Phoebe holds up picture of Ross
Playlist (Part of my Top 50 tracks of 2013; 1-10; 11-20)
21. "Inhaler" - Foals
22. "Rose Quartz" - Toro y Moi
23. "Ode to Sleep" - Twenty One Pilots
24. "Just Make it Stop" - Low
25. "Primetime" - Janelle Monae ft. Miguel
26. "Radioactive" - Imagine Dragons (I'm somehow not tired of this song)
27. "Sacrilege" - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
28. "Retrograde" - James Blake
29. "Hold On We're Going Home" - Drake ft. Majid Jordan
30. "The Mother We Share" - Chvrces
Programming note: Thus ends my Friends recaps on Sundays. In its place, I will be doing The Sopranos Season 2. I found that doing Sopranos recaps significantly increased my appreciation of this show so I will continue those.
Sunday, December 29, 2013
Friends: The Birth and Rachel's Evolution (E20, 23)
This just happened to work out like this, but I only get two episodes on this one. It's funny because some of these three episodes posts feel like too many, but I could have easily added an episode to this because the first episode is pretty spare for talking points. Nonetheless, we have a story dedicated to Rachel getting away from her old life and Ross' baby being born, two plot points that have been season-long conflicts if you will. Both of them are paid off by having 75% of the episode be about that. One of them is more successful than the other in my opinion.
"The One with the Evil Orthodontist"
I'm a little conflicted about this episode. This is the episode where Rachel sleeps with Barry a final time. On the one hand, she sleeps with Barry for some reason. On the other hand, everything else about that particular storyline makes perfect sense for her character if that makes sense.
By that I mean if you can somehow get over the fact that she sleeps with Barry, her acceptance of her new life is finally completed. We the audience get to see the contrast between Mindy (what Rachel might have been) and new and improved Rachel. But I don't think I can get over that fact to truly embrace the episode.
I'm trying to figure out why I have such a problem with her decision to sleep with Barry. Obviously, he's clearly a piece of shit. That's certainly part of it. Also, Rachel does this knowing he's engaged to Mindy. Even though they are former best friends, that's a pretty shitty move.
But I think it's a case of the writers telling us they re-connected, instead of showing. The first scene we see of them together is when they are both naked (I'm not going to count the scene where we see them talking, but don't hear them). This would be admittedly hard to pull of - at least getting the audience to see from Rachel's point of view. As it stands, Barry's pretty much a dick at all times on screen.
But what it does do is complete her story arc for the first season. She's not a completely relatable or likable person, but she has accepted this new life. This was the step she needed. She has zero doubts about leaving her old life. This was kind of implied, but never explicitly stated. Her arc as a person isn't quite over, but this was her next step into becoming a different person.
At the same time, while she perhaps still retains some of her old attributes, she has clearly changed in a positive and substantial way. The writers actually show us this by giving us Mindy, the pathetic future housewife. That was who Rachel used to be, and now she's a better person and happier. This seems to be an endorsement of the saying "Money doesn't buy you happiness."
Strangely enough (in my opinion), the other two plots if you could call it that take place in Monica's apartment. Chandler anxiously awaits and freaks out over a phone call he may or may not get from the perfect first date. The friends also have a special, unwanted visitor looking at them from another apartment.
Chandler's story works, because it's in character and Matthew Perry plays Chandler. Some variation of that story has been used in countless sitcoms, but it's so incredibly easy to imagine Chandler actually behaving like this. Plus, Perry really commits to the material and sells the lines. I will say I didn't like the end credits scene where Chandler says the girl walking to the coffee house was too needy. I know what they where doing, but... it just isn't funny and makes Chandler look like a dick.
I did kind of like the telescope lady story. I like how they complain about their privacy and then the show has the characters look at Ugly Naked Guy. This is an example of the show commenting itself it seems, realizing looking at Ugly Naked Guy is kind of creepy. That sense of self-awareness is always appreciated by me. Then its revealed at the end that the creeper is a woman and compliments all the friends, which catches them off-guard. That was funny and an appropriate conclusion. In between the beginning and end scenes, none of the "creeper" parts really did anything for me though so I can't fully endorse this storyline.
This episode was written by Doty Abrams. She must have been friends with the creators because she's only ever written for four shows, all of which were created by them. She wrote an episode a year for every season of Friends (except Season 4 oddly enough). She also contributed a single episode to Veronica's Closet, Joey, and The Class. All of those were short-running so perhaps the episode per season was not limited to Friends. It was directed by Peter Bonerz, who I've mentioned in previous posts, but what an unfortunate name.
It seems I overall liked this episode, but had a major or minor problem with every storyline. One of the easier grades I'll probably have this season.
Grade - B+
"The One with the Birth"
This episode is what made Friends Friends. It gets everyone involved, it really sells the importance of the birth, and it resolves the Susan/Ross feud that's been happening all season. I will never like Rachel's little storyline with the cute doctor, but the rest of the episode works.
First off, David Schwimmer proves he has acting chops in this episode. He is the standout performer from his freaking out over why Carol isn't at the hospital to his amazement that he now has a kid. Ross may not always be a likable character, but I don't think Schwimmer ever was the reason.
Ross and Susan argue a lot in this episode, but it felt pretty natural. Something like getting candy instead of going straight to the hospital is one of those little things that could easily start a fight. It also had to happen because it's been consistently appearing anytime Susan and Ross were on screen together.
I also think the fight lent the extreme weirdness of the situation and was balanced in both character's issue with that situation. Susan gets to go home and be with the baby everyday while Ross is the father of the baby and she's just the lesbian lover of the mother. (Though I would argue that she could celebrate Mother's Day too. Not all moms actually give birth to the child they raise)
I have a small issue with the characters getting locked in the room together. It's something that happens way more in sitcoms than in real life. But when Phoebe tells the Ross and Susan how this little boy is so lucky to have three people who love him a lot and compares that to her situation growing up, it's very moving. It gets the characters to shut up and have perspective.
I really liked Joey's small storyline. Joey is a womanizer, but he really is a good guy. Leah Remini has a short audition for King of Queens and probably sent this episode as a reason to hire her. It's surprisingly affecting when Joey comes to the aid of this woman and then decides to leave when he sees her with the father. (The shot of him walking away with the balloon is so funny/sad)
Monica goes through the tribulations of becoming an aunt. She's always wanted to have kids, a consistent trait through the whole show. It also somewhat foreshadows - unintentionally - Monica and Chandler's future. Episodes like this make it seem like the writers did this on purpose, but they had no idea they would pair them until it happened. It's shocking how organic their eventual eloping is.
Rachel doesn't look very good in this episode, trying to woo a doctor while basically ignoring Carol. I won't say much more about this, but I just didn't like this plot point at all.
All of the friends get something to do with this episode, which is a net positive. Anytime every Friends performer is giving something, it's usually a good episode. This is not an exception.
Grade - A-
Quotes
"You cook naked?" - Phoebe to Joey
"Yeah, toast, oatmeal - nothing that spatters." - Joey
(Everybody looks at Chandler)
"What are you looking at me for? I didn't know that." - Chandler
"We went to camp together. She taught me how to kiss." - Rachel
"Yeah!" - Joey
"Now, you know I'm like the other woman. Ugh, I feel so-"
"Naughty" - Joey
"The first time didn't really count. You know, it's Barry." - Rachel
(Joey walks in on Monica and Rachel hugging)
"Big day" - Joey
"Tiny and chubby and so sweet to touch,
soon they'll grow up and resent you so much,
Now they're yelling at you and you don't know why,
And you cry and you cry and you cry" - Phoebe's heartwarming song
"Everyday is lesbian lover's day." - Funny line, but definitely false
"Wait! You forgot your legs!" - random janitor
"I will always have gum." - Monica to the newly born baby
"Dear god! This parachute is a knapsack."
Playlist
I'm going to give you guys my 50 favorite tracks of 2013. I didn't want to make a huge blogpost out of it and don't want to start a music blog so I'll just reveal some at each new post, 10 at a time. This is in no particular order. (Also, I only picked one song by an artist for the entire list so not repeat performers)
1. "Love Natural" - Crystal Fighters
2. "Do I Wanna Know?" - Arctic Monkeys
3. "Hearts Like Ours" - The Naked and the Famous
4. "Blood on the Leaves" - Kanye West
5. "Dead Man's Shoes" - The Virginmarys
6. "Domo 23" - Tyler, the Creator - I do not like Tyler, but this song is awesome
7. "The Bullet" - Daniel Wesley (Not on Youtube, but if you like 90s rock, this is right up your alley)
8. "Open" - Rhye
9. "Normal Person" - Arcade Fire
10. "Bitter Rivals" - Sleigh Bells
"The One with the Evil Orthodontist"
I'm a little conflicted about this episode. This is the episode where Rachel sleeps with Barry a final time. On the one hand, she sleeps with Barry for some reason. On the other hand, everything else about that particular storyline makes perfect sense for her character if that makes sense.
By that I mean if you can somehow get over the fact that she sleeps with Barry, her acceptance of her new life is finally completed. We the audience get to see the contrast between Mindy (what Rachel might have been) and new and improved Rachel. But I don't think I can get over that fact to truly embrace the episode.
I'm trying to figure out why I have such a problem with her decision to sleep with Barry. Obviously, he's clearly a piece of shit. That's certainly part of it. Also, Rachel does this knowing he's engaged to Mindy. Even though they are former best friends, that's a pretty shitty move.
But I think it's a case of the writers telling us they re-connected, instead of showing. The first scene we see of them together is when they are both naked (I'm not going to count the scene where we see them talking, but don't hear them). This would be admittedly hard to pull of - at least getting the audience to see from Rachel's point of view. As it stands, Barry's pretty much a dick at all times on screen.
But what it does do is complete her story arc for the first season. She's not a completely relatable or likable person, but she has accepted this new life. This was the step she needed. She has zero doubts about leaving her old life. This was kind of implied, but never explicitly stated. Her arc as a person isn't quite over, but this was her next step into becoming a different person.
At the same time, while she perhaps still retains some of her old attributes, she has clearly changed in a positive and substantial way. The writers actually show us this by giving us Mindy, the pathetic future housewife. That was who Rachel used to be, and now she's a better person and happier. This seems to be an endorsement of the saying "Money doesn't buy you happiness."
Strangely enough (in my opinion), the other two plots if you could call it that take place in Monica's apartment. Chandler anxiously awaits and freaks out over a phone call he may or may not get from the perfect first date. The friends also have a special, unwanted visitor looking at them from another apartment.
Chandler's story works, because it's in character and Matthew Perry plays Chandler. Some variation of that story has been used in countless sitcoms, but it's so incredibly easy to imagine Chandler actually behaving like this. Plus, Perry really commits to the material and sells the lines. I will say I didn't like the end credits scene where Chandler says the girl walking to the coffee house was too needy. I know what they where doing, but... it just isn't funny and makes Chandler look like a dick.
I did kind of like the telescope lady story. I like how they complain about their privacy and then the show has the characters look at Ugly Naked Guy. This is an example of the show commenting itself it seems, realizing looking at Ugly Naked Guy is kind of creepy. That sense of self-awareness is always appreciated by me. Then its revealed at the end that the creeper is a woman and compliments all the friends, which catches them off-guard. That was funny and an appropriate conclusion. In between the beginning and end scenes, none of the "creeper" parts really did anything for me though so I can't fully endorse this storyline.
This episode was written by Doty Abrams. She must have been friends with the creators because she's only ever written for four shows, all of which were created by them. She wrote an episode a year for every season of Friends (except Season 4 oddly enough). She also contributed a single episode to Veronica's Closet, Joey, and The Class. All of those were short-running so perhaps the episode per season was not limited to Friends. It was directed by Peter Bonerz, who I've mentioned in previous posts, but what an unfortunate name.
It seems I overall liked this episode, but had a major or minor problem with every storyline. One of the easier grades I'll probably have this season.
Grade - B+
"The One with the Birth"
This episode is what made Friends Friends. It gets everyone involved, it really sells the importance of the birth, and it resolves the Susan/Ross feud that's been happening all season. I will never like Rachel's little storyline with the cute doctor, but the rest of the episode works.
First off, David Schwimmer proves he has acting chops in this episode. He is the standout performer from his freaking out over why Carol isn't at the hospital to his amazement that he now has a kid. Ross may not always be a likable character, but I don't think Schwimmer ever was the reason.
Ross and Susan argue a lot in this episode, but it felt pretty natural. Something like getting candy instead of going straight to the hospital is one of those little things that could easily start a fight. It also had to happen because it's been consistently appearing anytime Susan and Ross were on screen together.
I also think the fight lent the extreme weirdness of the situation and was balanced in both character's issue with that situation. Susan gets to go home and be with the baby everyday while Ross is the father of the baby and she's just the lesbian lover of the mother. (Though I would argue that she could celebrate Mother's Day too. Not all moms actually give birth to the child they raise)
I have a small issue with the characters getting locked in the room together. It's something that happens way more in sitcoms than in real life. But when Phoebe tells the Ross and Susan how this little boy is so lucky to have three people who love him a lot and compares that to her situation growing up, it's very moving. It gets the characters to shut up and have perspective.
I really liked Joey's small storyline. Joey is a womanizer, but he really is a good guy. Leah Remini has a short audition for King of Queens and probably sent this episode as a reason to hire her. It's surprisingly affecting when Joey comes to the aid of this woman and then decides to leave when he sees her with the father. (The shot of him walking away with the balloon is so funny/sad)
Monica goes through the tribulations of becoming an aunt. She's always wanted to have kids, a consistent trait through the whole show. It also somewhat foreshadows - unintentionally - Monica and Chandler's future. Episodes like this make it seem like the writers did this on purpose, but they had no idea they would pair them until it happened. It's shocking how organic their eventual eloping is.
Rachel doesn't look very good in this episode, trying to woo a doctor while basically ignoring Carol. I won't say much more about this, but I just didn't like this plot point at all.
All of the friends get something to do with this episode, which is a net positive. Anytime every Friends performer is giving something, it's usually a good episode. This is not an exception.
Grade - A-
Quotes
"You cook naked?" - Phoebe to Joey
"Yeah, toast, oatmeal - nothing that spatters." - Joey
(Everybody looks at Chandler)
"What are you looking at me for? I didn't know that." - Chandler
"We went to camp together. She taught me how to kiss." - Rachel
"Yeah!" - Joey
"Now, you know I'm like the other woman. Ugh, I feel so-"
"Naughty" - Joey
"The first time didn't really count. You know, it's Barry." - Rachel
(Joey walks in on Monica and Rachel hugging)
"Big day" - Joey
"Tiny and chubby and so sweet to touch,
soon they'll grow up and resent you so much,
Now they're yelling at you and you don't know why,
And you cry and you cry and you cry" - Phoebe's heartwarming song
"Everyday is lesbian lover's day." - Funny line, but definitely false
"Wait! You forgot your legs!" - random janitor
"I will always have gum." - Monica to the newly born baby
"Dear god! This parachute is a knapsack."
Playlist
I'm going to give you guys my 50 favorite tracks of 2013. I didn't want to make a huge blogpost out of it and don't want to start a music blog so I'll just reveal some at each new post, 10 at a time. This is in no particular order. (Also, I only picked one song by an artist for the entire list so not repeat performers)
1. "Love Natural" - Crystal Fighters
2. "Do I Wanna Know?" - Arctic Monkeys
3. "Hearts Like Ours" - The Naked and the Famous
4. "Blood on the Leaves" - Kanye West
5. "Dead Man's Shoes" - The Virginmarys
6. "Domo 23" - Tyler, the Creator - I do not like Tyler, but this song is awesome
7. "The Bullet" - Daniel Wesley (Not on Youtube, but if you like 90s rock, this is right up your alley)
8. "Open" - Rhye
9. "Normal Person" - Arcade Fire
10. "Bitter Rivals" - Sleigh Bells
Sunday, December 22, 2013
Friends: The Monkey (E19, E21-22)
Well, Friends had pretty much hit its stride at this point. I cover three episodes and all of them receive B+. That can probably safely describe Friends. Reliably an above average show that will make you laugh, but (usually) never the best thing on television. Well, maybe it could have been in the 1990s when TV was objectively worse than it has been in the 2000s, but I think you get the point. Two of these episodes feature the monkey pretty prominently. Your approval or disapproval of the creature likely depends on whether you like those episodes (I'm apathetic about the monkey). The other one mostly doesn't feature any major subplots except to lead the audience to the birth in the next episode.
"The One Where the Monkey Gets Away"
This is a pretty good episode that highlights Rachel's transformation as a person and Ross-Rachel's relationship. It also delays the inevitable with a pretty stupid twist having Barry still be in love with Rachel. This is probably the worst sign of stalling yet on this show. Paolo wasn't a character, but at least the idea of what he represented made sense.
Ross finds out that Rachel is no longer interested in a penis embargo and is interested in the right guy. Ross sees this as a sign to attempt to "woo" her. He sees the perfect timing to try this when he goes to pick up Marcel by bringing wine over.
Rachel of course loses Marcel when he poops in the shoe. I think this is a pretty classic scene as I remember seeing this specific scene on another television show or movie in the background. She lets Marcel get away. She throws away his poop on the wedding invitation. Why does she need to walk outside to do this? I guess she wanted to get the poop out of the apartment which I can accept. I also feel like she would have seen Marcel when she went back into the house. Oh well. (There was another scene where it look like one of the friends should have clearly seen Marcel, but fine)
Ross spends most of the rest of the episode yelling at Rachel about losing his monkey. (Each time monkey was used as a euphemism was funny and takes every other use of monkey to a different level). He naturally extends that frustration with Rachel missing the signs that Ross wants to be with her.
Rachel mistakenly calls Animal Control, which is actually understandable. Unfortunately, the worker there happens to have a vendetta against Rachel (Monica was fat, she had her own problems) and Marcel is apparently illegal to own in the city.
The purpose of the worker is to show the difference between pre-Friends Rachel and Friends Rachel. It's a clearly different person. She still is adjusting and at least she's now trying to live on her own. (Witness her memorization of every muffin, but she said it to the wrong guy)
Joey and Ross look for the monkey and come across two sweaty, loosely clothed hot girls. Hilarity ensues. It's funny to think they could enter probably a dream of theirs, but they had to save Marcel. For once, Joey ruins it and not Chandler with the girls.
So Ross tries to make his original plan on Rachel and it's going well until Barry walks in out of nowhere. A thing that somewhat saves this scene is Ross' reaction, which is appropriately funny and self-referential to the show. Otherwise, it's way too obvious of a stalling tactic used by the show.
This episode was written by the team of Jeff Astrof and Mike Sikowitz, who wrote five episodes in season one and left after just season two. They later were both developers of The Wild Thornberry's. I don't know what a developer is, but it's not a creator and it was under the writing credits for both of them.
It was directed by the unfortunately named Peter Bonerz, who directed 12 episodes over four seasons before stopping. Bonerz is best-known for acting in the role of Dr. Jerry Robinson on The Bob Newhart Show. (Disclaimer: I've never seen the show; before my time)
It's a good episode undone by some unfortunate improbabilities (in addition to Barry, what the heck is with Heckles stealing the monkey?). It's not enough to ruin the episode, but I can't give it an A.
Grade - B+
"The One with the Fake Monica"
Thus ends the era of Marcel the monkey. I never hated the monkey like a lot of people do, but I've never loved it that much. I haven't really found an episode I hated due to the monkey. Of course, I never found myself missing the monkey either.
Anyway, the episode parodies parents looking for colleges for their kids when they have Ross look for zoos for Marcel to go to. I'm not sure if monkeys actually experience sexual stages where they need a partner, but it seems plausible enough and I'm not curious enough to google the accuracy.
The actual farewell was surprisingly effective. The monkey being taken away combined with the music and the look on Ross' face make you feel reasonably sad that it's happening even if you don't care about the monkey. The important thing is that Ross cares about the monkey leaving which the scene effectively conveys.
Meanwhile, Monica encounters a case of someone stealing her credit card. She befriends her and realizes she wants to be her. This plot is ultimately unimportant, but nonetheless kind of a good showcase for Courtney Cox. She is not satisfied with how little she actually does in her life, which I think most people can relate to. The ending where she joins the dance class is seen as a triumph of sorts.
Lastly, there's a very short, but really hilarious part where Joey is trying to find a better name for a role. Chandler mockingly suggest Joe Stalin, which Joey finds as a really good nickname. It's hilarious in part because I could see Joey not knowing who that is and also because Chandler's face when he is telling him is so perfectly played.
This episode was written by two writers who usually write alone. Adam Chase wrote 16 episodes over six seasons before leaving the show. This is his fourth credited writing episode on the show, although he wrote three of them within the first 11 episodes. (More impressive since the creators wrote quite a few of those themselves). Ira Ungerleider wrote nine episodes over three seasons before leaving. He (she?) wrote the classic bottle episode "The One Where No One's Ready."
It was directed by Gail Mancuso, who directed 14 episodes of Friends starting with this one. She won an Emmy for directing an episode of Modern Family and has directed 95 shows/movies. She regularly appeared in every season after this one until season five, when she stopped.
I liked this episode, but it's pretty unmemorable I guess. So points off for that.
Grade - B+
"The One with the Ick Factor"
The one where Monica has sex with a minor would be a more apt title. Their are four storylines in this episode, although two take up a short amount of time or significance. Ross gets a beeper (Hey it's 1995 alert!) so that he will know when Carol goes into labor. Chandler finds out his co-workers don't like him. And Rachel has sex dreams about all the guys.
Rachel dreams about having sex with first Chandler and then Chandler and Joey. They get a fair amount of humor from this with Chandler's cocky bravado mixed with his self-deprecating humor, Ross' jealousy, and the dreams themselves. It's a pretty inconsequential plot that almost led to something happening between Ross and Rachel. It doesn't which makes it completely inconsequential.
Ross' pager number is 555-JIMBO for some reason which is really close to 555-JUMBO. He keeps getting calls about people who are looking for sex - it's apparently a really popular sex line cause Ross gets a lot of calls. I wish the pager number wasn't so randomly JIMBO just to make it close to JUMBO, but that's also a pretty funny plot that leads Ross to see the pager at the end and sarcastically say "Great, now I'm having a baby."
Chandler finds out no one likes him at works. This works because Chandler would be the type to care what other people think about him. It's a fairly standard sitcom trope, but it's perfectly in character. Plus, it leads to Ross and Joey to make an impression on him, which is hilarious. Plus, Chandler learns to just accept it and pays his price secretly by having his imitators working on the weekends. (You can't just make fun of the boss out in the open like that!)
Then, Monica has sex with a minor. There's a weird "love" thing thrown around in this episode which feels like they are diminishing the word since Ethan is a one-episode character. That's a bit of a problem in this episode. We are kind of supposed to accept they have either been dating awhile or are close to being in love if not in love. That could be true, but it's not really effective in one episode.
The actor who played Ethan was adequate although in no way believable as a 17-year-old man. His voice certainly sounded young, but that was about it. The actor was 26 by the way. But it's still reasonably funny so it's not a total dud or anything.
This episode was written by Alexa Junge, her third episode thus far. Junge was a Friends writer for five seasons, writing 12 episodes over her run. The most amount of episodes she wrote was five in a season in Season 2. Her best written episode may very well be the best of the entire show with "The One Where Everybody Finds Out."
The director of the episode was Robby Benson, who interestingly enough is best-known for playing the beast on Beauty and the Beast. This is his only directed episode of the season, but he comes back to direct five episodes in 1997 and then never returns. Sitcom directors make me scratch my head.
Grade - B+
Quotes (Lots of Joey quotes here)
"What happened to forget relationships, I'm done with men - the whole penis embargo?" - Ross
"Hey, I don't need violence to enjoy a movie just so long as there's a little nudity" - Joey's movie philosophy
"You're a monkey. You're loose in the city. Where do you go?" - Joey
"Oh my god, you'd put that poor little creature in jail?" - Phoebe
"We have got to start locking that door." - Ross after Barry walks in on Ross-Rachel
"Apparently, he's reached sexual maturity." - Ross
"Hey! He beat ya!"- Joey about Chandler
"You know there already is a Joseph Stalin?" - Joey
"Marcel, I'm hungry." - Joey's goodbye to Marcel
"I'm sorry, it was a one-time thing. We were very drunk and it was someone else's subconscious." - Chandler's rationalization for dream sex with Rachel
"I just had sex with someone who wasn't alive during the bicentennial." - Monica
"I just had sex." - Ethan, and thus was born the Lonely Island song
Playlist
1. "Inhaler" - Foals
2. "Best of Friends" - Palma Violets
3. "Ambitionz as a Ridah" - Tupac
4. "Gas Money (Remix)" - Youtube rappers
5. "Primetime" - Janalle Monae ft. Miguel
"The One Where the Monkey Gets Away"
This is a pretty good episode that highlights Rachel's transformation as a person and Ross-Rachel's relationship. It also delays the inevitable with a pretty stupid twist having Barry still be in love with Rachel. This is probably the worst sign of stalling yet on this show. Paolo wasn't a character, but at least the idea of what he represented made sense.
Ross finds out that Rachel is no longer interested in a penis embargo and is interested in the right guy. Ross sees this as a sign to attempt to "woo" her. He sees the perfect timing to try this when he goes to pick up Marcel by bringing wine over.
Rachel of course loses Marcel when he poops in the shoe. I think this is a pretty classic scene as I remember seeing this specific scene on another television show or movie in the background. She lets Marcel get away. She throws away his poop on the wedding invitation. Why does she need to walk outside to do this? I guess she wanted to get the poop out of the apartment which I can accept. I also feel like she would have seen Marcel when she went back into the house. Oh well. (There was another scene where it look like one of the friends should have clearly seen Marcel, but fine)
Ross spends most of the rest of the episode yelling at Rachel about losing his monkey. (Each time monkey was used as a euphemism was funny and takes every other use of monkey to a different level). He naturally extends that frustration with Rachel missing the signs that Ross wants to be with her.
Rachel mistakenly calls Animal Control, which is actually understandable. Unfortunately, the worker there happens to have a vendetta against Rachel (Monica was fat, she had her own problems) and Marcel is apparently illegal to own in the city.
The purpose of the worker is to show the difference between pre-Friends Rachel and Friends Rachel. It's a clearly different person. She still is adjusting and at least she's now trying to live on her own. (Witness her memorization of every muffin, but she said it to the wrong guy)
Joey and Ross look for the monkey and come across two sweaty, loosely clothed hot girls. Hilarity ensues. It's funny to think they could enter probably a dream of theirs, but they had to save Marcel. For once, Joey ruins it and not Chandler with the girls.
So Ross tries to make his original plan on Rachel and it's going well until Barry walks in out of nowhere. A thing that somewhat saves this scene is Ross' reaction, which is appropriately funny and self-referential to the show. Otherwise, it's way too obvious of a stalling tactic used by the show.
This episode was written by the team of Jeff Astrof and Mike Sikowitz, who wrote five episodes in season one and left after just season two. They later were both developers of The Wild Thornberry's. I don't know what a developer is, but it's not a creator and it was under the writing credits for both of them.
It was directed by the unfortunately named Peter Bonerz, who directed 12 episodes over four seasons before stopping. Bonerz is best-known for acting in the role of Dr. Jerry Robinson on The Bob Newhart Show. (Disclaimer: I've never seen the show; before my time)
It's a good episode undone by some unfortunate improbabilities (in addition to Barry, what the heck is with Heckles stealing the monkey?). It's not enough to ruin the episode, but I can't give it an A.
Grade - B+
"The One with the Fake Monica"
Thus ends the era of Marcel the monkey. I never hated the monkey like a lot of people do, but I've never loved it that much. I haven't really found an episode I hated due to the monkey. Of course, I never found myself missing the monkey either.
Anyway, the episode parodies parents looking for colleges for their kids when they have Ross look for zoos for Marcel to go to. I'm not sure if monkeys actually experience sexual stages where they need a partner, but it seems plausible enough and I'm not curious enough to google the accuracy.
The actual farewell was surprisingly effective. The monkey being taken away combined with the music and the look on Ross' face make you feel reasonably sad that it's happening even if you don't care about the monkey. The important thing is that Ross cares about the monkey leaving which the scene effectively conveys.
Meanwhile, Monica encounters a case of someone stealing her credit card. She befriends her and realizes she wants to be her. This plot is ultimately unimportant, but nonetheless kind of a good showcase for Courtney Cox. She is not satisfied with how little she actually does in her life, which I think most people can relate to. The ending where she joins the dance class is seen as a triumph of sorts.
Lastly, there's a very short, but really hilarious part where Joey is trying to find a better name for a role. Chandler mockingly suggest Joe Stalin, which Joey finds as a really good nickname. It's hilarious in part because I could see Joey not knowing who that is and also because Chandler's face when he is telling him is so perfectly played.
This episode was written by two writers who usually write alone. Adam Chase wrote 16 episodes over six seasons before leaving the show. This is his fourth credited writing episode on the show, although he wrote three of them within the first 11 episodes. (More impressive since the creators wrote quite a few of those themselves). Ira Ungerleider wrote nine episodes over three seasons before leaving. He (she?) wrote the classic bottle episode "The One Where No One's Ready."
It was directed by Gail Mancuso, who directed 14 episodes of Friends starting with this one. She won an Emmy for directing an episode of Modern Family and has directed 95 shows/movies. She regularly appeared in every season after this one until season five, when she stopped.
I liked this episode, but it's pretty unmemorable I guess. So points off for that.
Grade - B+
"The One with the Ick Factor"
The one where Monica has sex with a minor would be a more apt title. Their are four storylines in this episode, although two take up a short amount of time or significance. Ross gets a beeper (Hey it's 1995 alert!) so that he will know when Carol goes into labor. Chandler finds out his co-workers don't like him. And Rachel has sex dreams about all the guys.
Rachel dreams about having sex with first Chandler and then Chandler and Joey. They get a fair amount of humor from this with Chandler's cocky bravado mixed with his self-deprecating humor, Ross' jealousy, and the dreams themselves. It's a pretty inconsequential plot that almost led to something happening between Ross and Rachel. It doesn't which makes it completely inconsequential.
Ross' pager number is 555-JIMBO for some reason which is really close to 555-JUMBO. He keeps getting calls about people who are looking for sex - it's apparently a really popular sex line cause Ross gets a lot of calls. I wish the pager number wasn't so randomly JIMBO just to make it close to JUMBO, but that's also a pretty funny plot that leads Ross to see the pager at the end and sarcastically say "Great, now I'm having a baby."
Chandler finds out no one likes him at works. This works because Chandler would be the type to care what other people think about him. It's a fairly standard sitcom trope, but it's perfectly in character. Plus, it leads to Ross and Joey to make an impression on him, which is hilarious. Plus, Chandler learns to just accept it and pays his price secretly by having his imitators working on the weekends. (You can't just make fun of the boss out in the open like that!)
Then, Monica has sex with a minor. There's a weird "love" thing thrown around in this episode which feels like they are diminishing the word since Ethan is a one-episode character. That's a bit of a problem in this episode. We are kind of supposed to accept they have either been dating awhile or are close to being in love if not in love. That could be true, but it's not really effective in one episode.
The actor who played Ethan was adequate although in no way believable as a 17-year-old man. His voice certainly sounded young, but that was about it. The actor was 26 by the way. But it's still reasonably funny so it's not a total dud or anything.
This episode was written by Alexa Junge, her third episode thus far. Junge was a Friends writer for five seasons, writing 12 episodes over her run. The most amount of episodes she wrote was five in a season in Season 2. Her best written episode may very well be the best of the entire show with "The One Where Everybody Finds Out."
The director of the episode was Robby Benson, who interestingly enough is best-known for playing the beast on Beauty and the Beast. This is his only directed episode of the season, but he comes back to direct five episodes in 1997 and then never returns. Sitcom directors make me scratch my head.
Grade - B+
Quotes (Lots of Joey quotes here)
"What happened to forget relationships, I'm done with men - the whole penis embargo?" - Ross
"Hey, I don't need violence to enjoy a movie just so long as there's a little nudity" - Joey's movie philosophy
"You're a monkey. You're loose in the city. Where do you go?" - Joey
"Oh my god, you'd put that poor little creature in jail?" - Phoebe
"We have got to start locking that door." - Ross after Barry walks in on Ross-Rachel
"Apparently, he's reached sexual maturity." - Ross
"Hey! He beat ya!"- Joey about Chandler
"You know there already is a Joseph Stalin?" - Joey
"Marcel, I'm hungry." - Joey's goodbye to Marcel
"I'm sorry, it was a one-time thing. We were very drunk and it was someone else's subconscious." - Chandler's rationalization for dream sex with Rachel
"I just had sex with someone who wasn't alive during the bicentennial." - Monica
"I just had sex." - Ethan, and thus was born the Lonely Island song
Playlist
1. "Inhaler" - Foals
2. "Best of Friends" - Palma Violets
3. "Ambitionz as a Ridah" - Tupac
4. "Gas Money (Remix)" - Youtube rappers
5. "Primetime" - Janalle Monae ft. Miguel
Sunday, December 15, 2013
Friends: Two Parts and Poker (E16-18)
Introduction I was going to write, but I didn't. So there.
"The One with the Two Parts"
This is a tangentially connected two part episode, but it's basically two different episodes. Also, the Friends writers really just don't give a shit about episode titles because this is the laziest yet. Ross comes to learn to accept that he is becoming a father. Rachel and Monica experience some good ole sitcom hijinks. Joey tries to go out with Phoebe's twin sister.
In the first part, there's one story completely unrelated to anything else which really makes it seem like two different episodes instead of an hour-long episode. Chandler has to fire Nina, who he wants to date, but doesn't at first because he doesn't want to dip his pen into the company ink.
This is one of those stories that kind of gets so ridiculous, it's funny. Also Chandler is in it, who has made funny stories out of average material. This possibly also works because Chandler has shown trouble consistent with this story in that he couldn't break up with Janice. Then he makes things worse by asking her out instead of firing her. Then he tells her she is getting a raise right before asking her to marry him. "So after the proposal, I kind of unraveled."
The rest of the stories are actually connected even if loosely. Ross needs to attend classes to learn how to raise a baby. It's mildly funny and the real reason for the setup is so that the teacher can tell Ross to imagine his vagina is opening like a flower when he has to play the mother. A really good punchline like that tends to make the previous stories better, especially if they either advance the plot or a character.
This leads to the second part where Ross finally realizes that he's going to be a father and he starts freaking out. The purpose of the monkey really shows up in this two-parter, obvious though it may have seemed. First Ross' inability to control his monkey represents his fear as a parent (not so subtly I may add). I thought this was nicely plotted as they showed the audience by having him change the channel to Spanish, which was both pretty funny and a constant reminder that this monkey is causing problems and reinforcing his fear as a parent.
Why I think this was nicely done is because the monkey stuff comes before he actually becomes afraid that he is going to become a father. When Carol starts hyperventilating about becoming a mother, it freaks Ross out about fatherhood. Then the monkey stuff comes to the surface and he realizes how hard a child would be to raise. He naturally ignores that a monkey would probably be harder, but honestly that's understandable when you are freaking out.
So Jack Gellar Jas a short scene - which is typically funny and well-played by Elliot Gould - to show Ross how he knew when he was going to be a father. He tells the story of how Ross grabbed his finger with his whole hand. So of course, after Marcel swallows Scrabble letters and has to go to the hospital, the monkey grabs Ross' finger. It's kind of corny, but it works somehow. Ross is ready to be a father.
Joey trying to go out with Ursula doesn't really work for me, because it's out-of-character for Joey. It seemed contrived in order to create tension the audience knew wouldn't last. For one, Joey is not that bad of a friend. He is way too oblivious about the fact that Phoebe clearly doesn't want Joey to go out with her or just doesn't care enough. Plus, there are zero scenes showing why Joey cares about Ursula.
I will say when they throw a surprise birthday party for Phoebe, I was affected. The pure joy that it brings Phoebe - even though it was a failed attempt at a surprise - that she was having a party thrown for her is great. Then she gets disappointed when Joey isn't there. That's the kind of thing I'm talking about. Joey is not that much of an asshole.
Then at the end, Phoebe tries to pass off as Ursula and breaks up with Joey. Joey of course talks about how she looks more beautiful than he's ever seen her. Then the writers try to make Joey look good by having him refuse to stop being friends with Phoebe in order to be with Ursula. This would work better if we had any indication why he wants to be with Ursula at all, who's a total bitch in her screen time.
Speaking of which, this episode has not one, but two shameless plugs from other shows. A two-minute appearance by Helen Hunt and another character I don't know from Mad About You. This looks REALLY dated, because i don't think anybody remembers Mad About You existed so when they weirdly cheered for their entry into Central Perk, it's just odd. At least I know who Helen Hunt is, otherwise it'd be really bad.
The other is by George Clooney - before movie star superstardom - and Noah Wyle from ER but not their characters on ER. They play doctors to Rachel and Monica. To be fair, their appearance is at least relevant and they seem to have fun with the roles.
So they set up the latter story by having Monica constantly tell Rachel to take down the lights. She does, but when it's snowing and dark out so she sprains her ankle. It's revealed, unsurprisingly and perfectly in character, that she doesn't have insurance. So she tries to commit insurance fraud and then hijinks ensue.
Whenever friends try to "up" each other in insults, it's usually hilarious. And it is in this case. They change this up by just having the two characters talk about "themselves," nicely set up by the two doctors wondering if these two women are crazy. Then there's the scene where Ross takes the monkey to the hospital and they see Monica and Rachel and there's a lot of double takes and confusion that mostly works.
So yeah, it's a decent episode with one important thing standing out (Ross is going to be a father) and one kind of stupid thing (Joey wants to date Ursula... for some reason). The rest of the stories are more sitcom hilarity.
Grade - B+
"The One with All the Poker"
My theory that putting all the friends in one room makes it a successful episode rings true here. This is a fantastic episode, written by the excellent team of Jeff Astrof and Mike Sikowitz. The episode title says it all. The friends play poker. Also, Rachel tries and fails to get a job and Ross is in love with Rachel. What a simple premise, but what beautiful execution.
This is probably the best episode of the first season. For the first time in a while, the Ross-Rachel relationship gets full notice. Also, the back-and-forth banter between the two is the best chemistry they've shown to date. You can really sense the flirting between the two and that there is something there.
Ross and the boys play poker all the time apparently, a fact that hasn't arisen yet and won't arisen even once in the next 10 seasons. No matter, they capture the spirit of it well in this episode. The women want to play with the boys, but they've never played before.
As soon as Ross (and the other two to a lesser extent) starts talking some serious smack, you just know that the girls are going to win one of the games in this episode. Hell, that doesn't really matter as the ending wasn't a cop-out (as in the girls would dominate which would probably ring false).
Rachel begins the episode applying for a bunch of different jobs - anything but as a waitress. The problem is that she has no resume or experience. She gets really excited for one job, a job that lets her shop essentially. The interview goes very well apparently - though it's easy to imagine the two talking forever with the employer having no intention to actually hire her given her resume.
That leads to the final - and dare I say tense - sequence with Ross and Rachel squaring off. They play it off pretty well. We're reminded of how competitive Ross is throughout this episode, which thankfully holds true for the rest of the series. (Anything that is true for the entire series works better in hindsight; anything the writers completely drop looks worse) Also, the constant references to Monica breaking a plate because of a game of Pictionary is hilarious.
Ross doesn't let her win, but he's clearly happy for her. It's a nice moment and makes you root for Ross-Rachel, something that's important when they drag the storyline out longer than necessary. I think I'm going to have to give this episode a perfect grade, because I can find nothing wrong with it.
Grade - A+
Quotes
"What I'm supposed to be the mommy?" - Susan
"Ok, I'm going to play my sperm card one more time." - Ross
"I wouldn't want to do anything to hurt your... WENUS." - Nina
"We haven't seen an ANUS this bad since the 70s." - Chandler's boss
"You know Ross some scientists are saying that monkeys and babies are actually different." - Chandler
"What the hell are you doing, you scared the crap outta me." - Ross, dropping the cake after getting "SURPRISED" at the party
"Oh God, I am so spoiled" - Monica acting as Rachel
"I use my breasts to get other people's attention." - Monica
"We both do that" - Rachel
"Whoa Rach, we have to settle." - Chandler, about the poker game
"Settle what?" - Rachel
"The Jamestown Colony of Virginia." - Chandler, who's really sarcastic in this episode
"I'm gonna pay for that tonight." - Ross, after he shuts of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" and Marcel slams the door
"Do you wanna go to the bathroom or do you want to play poker?" - Monica in competitive nature
"I want to go to the bathroom." - Ross, with the easy choice
"Joey, I'm a little shy." - Ross asking for money
"That's ok Ross, you can ask me" - Joey, not getting it
Playlist
1. "Rip Your Heart Out" - Hopsin ft. Tech N9ne
2. "Latch" - Disclosure ft. Sam Smith
3. "Shining Star" - Earth, Wind & Fire
4. "Never Let You Go" - Third Eye Blind
5. "Alter Ego" - Tame Impala
"The One with the Two Parts"
This is a tangentially connected two part episode, but it's basically two different episodes. Also, the Friends writers really just don't give a shit about episode titles because this is the laziest yet. Ross comes to learn to accept that he is becoming a father. Rachel and Monica experience some good ole sitcom hijinks. Joey tries to go out with Phoebe's twin sister.
In the first part, there's one story completely unrelated to anything else which really makes it seem like two different episodes instead of an hour-long episode. Chandler has to fire Nina, who he wants to date, but doesn't at first because he doesn't want to dip his pen into the company ink.
This is one of those stories that kind of gets so ridiculous, it's funny. Also Chandler is in it, who has made funny stories out of average material. This possibly also works because Chandler has shown trouble consistent with this story in that he couldn't break up with Janice. Then he makes things worse by asking her out instead of firing her. Then he tells her she is getting a raise right before asking her to marry him. "So after the proposal, I kind of unraveled."
The rest of the stories are actually connected even if loosely. Ross needs to attend classes to learn how to raise a baby. It's mildly funny and the real reason for the setup is so that the teacher can tell Ross to imagine his vagina is opening like a flower when he has to play the mother. A really good punchline like that tends to make the previous stories better, especially if they either advance the plot or a character.
This leads to the second part where Ross finally realizes that he's going to be a father and he starts freaking out. The purpose of the monkey really shows up in this two-parter, obvious though it may have seemed. First Ross' inability to control his monkey represents his fear as a parent (not so subtly I may add). I thought this was nicely plotted as they showed the audience by having him change the channel to Spanish, which was both pretty funny and a constant reminder that this monkey is causing problems and reinforcing his fear as a parent.
Why I think this was nicely done is because the monkey stuff comes before he actually becomes afraid that he is going to become a father. When Carol starts hyperventilating about becoming a mother, it freaks Ross out about fatherhood. Then the monkey stuff comes to the surface and he realizes how hard a child would be to raise. He naturally ignores that a monkey would probably be harder, but honestly that's understandable when you are freaking out.
So Jack Gellar Jas a short scene - which is typically funny and well-played by Elliot Gould - to show Ross how he knew when he was going to be a father. He tells the story of how Ross grabbed his finger with his whole hand. So of course, after Marcel swallows Scrabble letters and has to go to the hospital, the monkey grabs Ross' finger. It's kind of corny, but it works somehow. Ross is ready to be a father.
Joey trying to go out with Ursula doesn't really work for me, because it's out-of-character for Joey. It seemed contrived in order to create tension the audience knew wouldn't last. For one, Joey is not that bad of a friend. He is way too oblivious about the fact that Phoebe clearly doesn't want Joey to go out with her or just doesn't care enough. Plus, there are zero scenes showing why Joey cares about Ursula.
I will say when they throw a surprise birthday party for Phoebe, I was affected. The pure joy that it brings Phoebe - even though it was a failed attempt at a surprise - that she was having a party thrown for her is great. Then she gets disappointed when Joey isn't there. That's the kind of thing I'm talking about. Joey is not that much of an asshole.
Then at the end, Phoebe tries to pass off as Ursula and breaks up with Joey. Joey of course talks about how she looks more beautiful than he's ever seen her. Then the writers try to make Joey look good by having him refuse to stop being friends with Phoebe in order to be with Ursula. This would work better if we had any indication why he wants to be with Ursula at all, who's a total bitch in her screen time.
Speaking of which, this episode has not one, but two shameless plugs from other shows. A two-minute appearance by Helen Hunt and another character I don't know from Mad About You. This looks REALLY dated, because i don't think anybody remembers Mad About You existed so when they weirdly cheered for their entry into Central Perk, it's just odd. At least I know who Helen Hunt is, otherwise it'd be really bad.
The other is by George Clooney - before movie star superstardom - and Noah Wyle from ER but not their characters on ER. They play doctors to Rachel and Monica. To be fair, their appearance is at least relevant and they seem to have fun with the roles.
So they set up the latter story by having Monica constantly tell Rachel to take down the lights. She does, but when it's snowing and dark out so she sprains her ankle. It's revealed, unsurprisingly and perfectly in character, that she doesn't have insurance. So she tries to commit insurance fraud and then hijinks ensue.
Whenever friends try to "up" each other in insults, it's usually hilarious. And it is in this case. They change this up by just having the two characters talk about "themselves," nicely set up by the two doctors wondering if these two women are crazy. Then there's the scene where Ross takes the monkey to the hospital and they see Monica and Rachel and there's a lot of double takes and confusion that mostly works.
So yeah, it's a decent episode with one important thing standing out (Ross is going to be a father) and one kind of stupid thing (Joey wants to date Ursula... for some reason). The rest of the stories are more sitcom hilarity.
Grade - B+
"The One with All the Poker"
My theory that putting all the friends in one room makes it a successful episode rings true here. This is a fantastic episode, written by the excellent team of Jeff Astrof and Mike Sikowitz. The episode title says it all. The friends play poker. Also, Rachel tries and fails to get a job and Ross is in love with Rachel. What a simple premise, but what beautiful execution.
This is probably the best episode of the first season. For the first time in a while, the Ross-Rachel relationship gets full notice. Also, the back-and-forth banter between the two is the best chemistry they've shown to date. You can really sense the flirting between the two and that there is something there.
Ross and the boys play poker all the time apparently, a fact that hasn't arisen yet and won't arisen even once in the next 10 seasons. No matter, they capture the spirit of it well in this episode. The women want to play with the boys, but they've never played before.
As soon as Ross (and the other two to a lesser extent) starts talking some serious smack, you just know that the girls are going to win one of the games in this episode. Hell, that doesn't really matter as the ending wasn't a cop-out (as in the girls would dominate which would probably ring false).
Rachel begins the episode applying for a bunch of different jobs - anything but as a waitress. The problem is that she has no resume or experience. She gets really excited for one job, a job that lets her shop essentially. The interview goes very well apparently - though it's easy to imagine the two talking forever with the employer having no intention to actually hire her given her resume.
That leads to the final - and dare I say tense - sequence with Ross and Rachel squaring off. They play it off pretty well. We're reminded of how competitive Ross is throughout this episode, which thankfully holds true for the rest of the series. (Anything that is true for the entire series works better in hindsight; anything the writers completely drop looks worse) Also, the constant references to Monica breaking a plate because of a game of Pictionary is hilarious.
Ross doesn't let her win, but he's clearly happy for her. It's a nice moment and makes you root for Ross-Rachel, something that's important when they drag the storyline out longer than necessary. I think I'm going to have to give this episode a perfect grade, because I can find nothing wrong with it.
Grade - A+
Quotes
"What I'm supposed to be the mommy?" - Susan
"Ok, I'm going to play my sperm card one more time." - Ross
"I wouldn't want to do anything to hurt your... WENUS." - Nina
"We haven't seen an ANUS this bad since the 70s." - Chandler's boss
"You know Ross some scientists are saying that monkeys and babies are actually different." - Chandler
"What the hell are you doing, you scared the crap outta me." - Ross, dropping the cake after getting "SURPRISED" at the party
"Oh God, I am so spoiled" - Monica acting as Rachel
"I use my breasts to get other people's attention." - Monica
"We both do that" - Rachel
"Whoa Rach, we have to settle." - Chandler, about the poker game
"Settle what?" - Rachel
"The Jamestown Colony of Virginia." - Chandler, who's really sarcastic in this episode
"I'm gonna pay for that tonight." - Ross, after he shuts of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" and Marcel slams the door
"Do you wanna go to the bathroom or do you want to play poker?" - Monica in competitive nature
"I want to go to the bathroom." - Ross, with the easy choice
"Joey, I'm a little shy." - Ross asking for money
"That's ok Ross, you can ask me" - Joey, not getting it
Playlist
1. "Rip Your Heart Out" - Hopsin ft. Tech N9ne
2. "Latch" - Disclosure ft. Sam Smith
3. "Shining Star" - Earth, Wind & Fire
4. "Never Let You Go" - Third Eye Blind
5. "Alter Ego" - Tame Impala
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