Still Hope For Better Off Ted? Probably Not, But We'll Try

http://www.hitfix.com/articles/2010-5-27-better-off-ted-fans-should-pray-for-a-short-nbc-finals

Long story short, if the NBA finals don't go to game seven, we get the last two un-aired episodes.

If you have never seen this show, season 1 is on Netflix Instant Watch and it's got a great cast, excellent joke delivery that doesn't stop to explain itself, and was solidly written.

I'll leave this list of outtakes (they had to make a PC version for ABC obviously but filmed the naughty bits) to prove my point.

Season Wrap-Up: Community, Season 1

First off, fuck CBS and fuck Big Bang Theory for putting the next season in Community's timeslot. Way to take more ratings away from shows that deserve them. But I digress.

If it wasn't for Community, Modern Family would be my favorite new show. As it stands, Community kicks everything else in the teeth. The season ended last week and some people were disappointed, others speculative.


Love is in the... uh...

Let's go over the finale and the episode before it. I'm including the episode prior to the finale because Modern Warfare really blew things out of the water in terms of the show's humor and tight writing. A lot of fans were curious how they could outdo such a great episode.

I wouldn't say they came close. However, with season 2 on the way, there still had to be some kind of closure to the show that leads it into next fall. And I think for how intense Modern Warfare was, it was jarring to go back to the usual Greendale. Once you get that out of the way, English As A Second Language was classic stuff. Jeff deconstructing Annie and using Abed's love of movies to deter him from giving in to her charms is brilliant. Senor Chang's mental breakdown leading to a fight with Jeff on top of his smashed Lexus with a keytaur is not something I can say I saw coming. Despite Chang's lost teaching status he's still on the roster, and the study group has moved to taking Anthropology next year. It maintained the same bar of quality and referential humor, while paving an excuse to keep the group together.


A roll of quarters, why?
Speaking of keeping the group together, Pascal's Triangle Revisited was a very interesting episode. Troy learns that living with Abed would be a bad thing for their friendship (as noted by eating a gigantic cookie as the episode goes on). The dean's fetish for dalmatians comes full force, Jon Oliver returns as professor Duncan and tries to hit on everyone, and Britta competes in the Transfer Queen competition, as noted by the banners on all the contestants that say Tranny Queen. One of the contestants is listed as Danielle Harmon, get it? Tranny queen? Never mind. But speaking of Dan Harmon, his love for trolling his fans knows no bounds. A conflict happens and Jeff has to decide between Britta and professor Slater as they both love him.

Now, here Jeff makes a point, and I think there is something in the air that's plagued multiple season finale writers (HIMYM and 30 Rock made the same conclusions about finding yourself). Jeff is undecided because Britta is the kind of woman who fits the slob lifestyle he lives now, but Slater fits the sophisticated lifestyle he wants. In the end, he picks Annie. The Community slashfic groups on the internet probably spontaneously combusted. This is one of the ways Dan Harmon trolls his audience, and I love him for it.

So what does this mean looking ahead? The show often retcons itself by stating flat out something's done and over with, so I'm not worried. Duncan probably spiked the punch or something stupid will come along and everyone will back off and go back to normal. While some shows suffer from a reset button every episode, Community manages to keep it up by letting the base study group be the launching point for something ridiculous. The words "Last week, on Community" aren't words I'd expect to see on-air, and it's sort of comforting knowing every time you tune in you will be rewarded with something great.

Moving to the entire season, it's had a flawless run. There was a lot of dissension among the ranks over the episode Investigative Journalism due to everyone hating Jack Black, but to those people I say you're an idiot for not realizing that Jack Black's whole purpose was to be deliberately annoying, showing the group that they don't need a wacky fat guy who kicks. Sometimes I think the meta jokes might have flown by, but I've been saying it all season long: Community is a niche show. It fits a specific sect of nerds and people who have been cramming media and popular culture into their mouth like a buffet table at a feeder convention. If I had to guess, I'd say people who like MST3k probably make up this demographic a good bit.

But while it appeases a specific audience, it does it well. Some shows like Big Bang Theory feel like they wrote the word "nerd" on a piece of paper and started a bullet point list on how nerds act based on what people thought of them in 1985. We're all still socially awkward, but we have so much pop culture on our side that we are disappointed when someone doesn't get our references, and Community challenges us in that respect. There are so many layers in most of the jokes. The first one that comes to mind is Jeff and Troy dressing Pierce up as the Cookie Crisp wizard, leading to this line:

"It’s not a meteor, it’s a cookie wand! Me and Jeff made it because it made you look more like the Cookie Crisp wizard! Which is not even a reference I get, because the Cookie Crisp mascot wasn’t a wizard when I was kid! It was a burglar!"

Without getting too distracted, if you're reading this blog, you probably already watch or should watch this show. It may have not had perfect ratings, but it had a perfect season. It's inspired debate and discussion, most of which end up being solved with "you're thinking about this show too hard." Years from now there will be people assuming this show is an indulgent guilty pleasure, but a guilty pleasure means it's something you wouldn't normally watch. This is a show practically catered to you. Enjoy it.

Season Wrap-Up: Modern Family, Season 1

Of the new shows that came out this season, Modern Family brought back the family sitcom. It finished its first season last week with a great finale.


This is one of the funniest things I have seen in my life, hands down.

The finale was billed as a three-parter, which doesn't make sense given the previous two episodes were linked together when the family vacationed to Hawaii, and the finale was about a group photo back home. These were all amazing episodes regardless. I really wish I had something negative to say about the past season as a talking point, but it's been a consistent level of comedy from start to finish. Ed O'Neill never lost his comedic touch and the faint glimmers of Al Bundy still live on in Jay Pritchett. Ty Burrel is both adorable and retarded as Phil. Eric Stonestreet and Tyler Ferguson play the best TV gay couple ever with Cam and Mitch and it never stops being laugh out loud hilarious when one or both of them panic uncontrollably. Everyone is just into their role perfectly. Much like Community, the cast outside of the show acts practically like a family, and I think when you have a cast that are very good friends and lob jokes at each other off the set, you get actors that work naturally together. And for a show about a family, that is really essential for selling some of the crazier things that have happened on the show.


I keep my wallet in my front pocket, so that's what that is.

But back to the original point: the family sitcom has grown stale for a while. Watching an episode of The Middle before Modern Family comes on is like night and day, and one thing I've liked about the better new shows lately is they're adapting to a more updated form of comedy. Yes, you're always going to have your 2 And A Half Mens and things you label under Stuff Old People Love For No Apparent Reason, but there will always be people reinventing the wheel. I really don't think a premier season for has gone off this well in a while, I mean they renewed the snow in January, and on average gets 9-10 million viewers each week.

AND YET BETTER OFF TED GETS CANCELE- okay I need to get off that train, but I'm going to be bitter about ABC until the season 2 DVDs are released and I can watch the final two episodes.

Overall, Modern Family has a grounded basis in well-known sitcom stereotypes, but refuses to indulge in them. You can passively watch the show from the distance and point out, "oh that's the bratty kid, that's the nerdy kid, that's a dumb dad," and so on, but it isn't until you sit down and watch that you see that there is a lot of complexity to all the characters, and that is revealed only when they interact with each other. Phil trying to find something in the garage and tripping up is one thing. Phil trying to find something in the garage and tripping up as his wife reads the list to the symptoms of ADHD, matching Phil's actions, is amazing. If there are two or more main characters on screen or playing off each other (whether they know it or not, like the clip above), it's like comedic alchemy. You know the end result will be a work of art, even if you're unsure about the ingredients going in.

Season Wrap-Up: How I Met Your Mother, Season 5

I am sort of on the fence for this season of MIMYM. I might be biased having watched seasons 1-4 and half of season 5 in a row, but this season was very haphazard in how it handled the characters and their interactions.


I am Christophe... Doppelganger.

Let's get the finale out of the way first. There was a lot of charming moments, but also a lot of awkward ones too. The episode felt longer than it was and I was worried that Marshal and Lily were going to put off having a kid for even longer. But in the end, Barney and Ted are still where they are. Robin choosing to stay in New York was an advancement of her character, but a predictable one. And let's face it, "put a baby in my belly" is a very awkward line to deliver in anything. Probably even a porno. But they did it twice.

Despite my complaints it was really funny. Barney's attempt at being his own doppelganger was great, as was his plan to have sex with everyone from every country. The episode was light on callbacks, the only one I can remember off-hand is Ted thinking he can pull off being a blonde (much like the boots). And wow does he look terrible as one. I'm glad someone in the show finally advanced their lives, and Ted's speech about how the gang became their own doppelgangers was sweet, and the fake-out soon after made me laugh but also want to slap the writers for tricking me so well.

I guess I had two major things that didn't sit right with me: I can understand that Lily is seeing what she wants to see cause she's ready to have a child, but at the same time, isn't it kind of cruel to lie and indulge her in seeing Barney's doppelganger? If the situation was that she kept seeing Barney everywhere, then I could sympathize with the rest of the group, but four months? Wouldn't it be more of the right thing to do to admit the doppelganger promise was just silly? It really seems out of character for everyone to lie to Lily, especially Marshal. And about something she has to spend 9 months carrying, moreso when it's an Eriksen kid.

Second thing ties into the rest of the season: Nothing happened. Robin had her ups and downs but ended up single and living with Ted. Ted bought a house but the only mention of it died in the same episode it started. There was a lot of one-shot episodes this season where everyone tried something different, then settled back to usual. Robin was the only one with a dynamic change to her character, but it didn't get a lot of screentime so she still felt like her issues were in the background. Torturing Barney in Slapsgiving 2 was great, but has Lily's father been back or mentioned since? It's a random thought but when I look over this season I keep seeing episodes where something happened, and it was never mentioned again. Nothing was added to these characters.

I think the continued success and seasons of the show might start to kill it. It's still extremely funny, but it doesn't need to constantly reset it self and essentially stalling. Every time Ted meets someone, it's always a different person every episode. He hasn't had a consistent girlfriend and it's easy to forget that the show is all about Ted. I was hoping Judy Greer would be Ted's girlfriend for a while after the end of The Wedding Bride (that and in the hopes of a future breakup episode with the line, "Say goodbye to THESE!"), and yes one episode isn't enough to tell that, but throw me a bone here.

Over the summer I will probably watch through the series or at least this season again just to get a better judgement call on the whole thing. I just don't want to see this show fall to the wayside after 4 strong seasons and one really funny but roundabout season. It's too early to pan it, or to make that decision until season 6. I'm probably being greedy, but I wanted something more, and with the show's namesake, that's not much to ask.

Goodbye Lost, you ruled.

Last Night on Lost

Note: I don't think there are any spoilers in this I tried to not give anything away as some people have not seen the episode


As I am sure you are aware last night was the last episode of Lost. I don’t usually write about this kind of stuff but I feel like adding my 2 cents. First off, I really liked the ending. If you hated it I am sorry you spent 6 years watching something only to decide that it didn’t meet your outrageous expectations. I say outrageous for a couple of reasons.

First on a show like Lost where there are lots of mysteries and strangeness people have built up ideas in their head as to what explains the mysteries and when the writers endeavor to put answers to those mysteries they are not going to be as cool at the answers you have made up in your head. One of the reasons books are usually better than movie because the books allows you some wiggle room for your imagination to fill in the cracks.

Second NO ending is every entirely satisfying! Can you name a single TV show or book that after you partake of the massive journey from the beginning to the end you were totally happy with how it ended? Cause I can’t think of any. Take every Legend of Zelda game, you spend all this time running around solving problems, you defeat Gannon and then either the world is reset or some other crazy thing that basically makes all your effort for nothing, but you had a good time getting to the end (except of water temples). Endings by nature never live up to the events that took place before the ending, because it’s an Ending! There is nothing more after that, there is no more room for interpretation or surprises, it’s over and people have issues with things being over.

Third, Lost was never about the answers. Lost was always about the questions, if you thought it was about the question you are wrong. It’s not answers that make things interesting, questions make things interesting. We (myself included) thought what we wanted was the answers, but the answers either just lead to more questions, or to answers that put a final nail into questions, some answers were good, and they needed to at least touch on the big things, but for them to go through and try to answer everything takes the fun out of it. The “Island” is mysterious and that is what makes it cool, Lost is not House, there does not need nor should there be an explanation for everything. I have heard the argument that this is bad storytelling, people basically bitching that since they wrote things into the plot they had to answer them, I totally disagree, there are thing in the plot that needed to be answered, but there are many other things that are purely there to flesh out the idea that the Island is a mysterious place where things beyond what is dreamt of in your philosophy (Horatio) are possible. Science tries to find the answers to things, with the seeker of that answer embarking on a quest to get those answers through trial and error. TV is not like that, the audience does not try to find the answers, no amount of theory or trial and error is going to affect the answers, we get the answers when the producers and writers decide to give them to use, and since we don’t really “earn” those answers, I don’t consider sitting in front of a TV screen a justification for earning something, any answer is going to be unsatisfying, especially if that answer is different than the answer you imagined in your head. That was one of the best parts about Lost, sitting around sounding like an idiot to anyone that did not watch the show, and trying to figure out what is going on. For me this was half the fun of Lost, I loved watching the show, but after I watched it I couldn’t wait to discuss it with other fans or check the Lostpedia for some crowd sourced info and theories.

Finally, Lost, depending on when you started it was a 6 year trek. If you have decided that you hated the last episode you are doing yourself a disservice. You are letting something be ruined for you because it didn’t live up to your impossible expectations. Lost is over and we got the ending, remember that it is not the ending that is important it’s the journey that got you there, so if you enjoyed watching the show, “let go” and chill out on the ending. I would be too bad to have something you have enjoyed for 6 seasons, be ruined by 2.5 hours of content, and you know what? If you really hated the answers you were given, re-watch the series, and just don’t watch the last episode and the Lost can continue on however you want it.

If you can think of anything as epic as Lost that has a satisfying ending let me know… but I doubt it

Viacom just ejaculated into my Netflix

Sorry for the lack of TV updates, I do plan on doing season wrap-ups this week for a couple of shows and to complain about next season's terrible scheduling (namely CBS screwing over Community by putting Big Bang Theory in the same timeslot). Waiting on How I Met Your Mother's finale to air which apart from Glee ends my TV season entirely.

But Viacom just released a TON of things from Nickelodeon and Comedy Central. All of The State, Chapelle's Show, Reno 911, Rocko's Modern Life, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Strangers With Candy, Upright Citizen's Brigade, Stella, Ren & Stimpy, and a boatload of standup.

And District 9 was added as well.

But really folks, if there's one thing I want to get across, it's that you should all watch Avatar in its entirety, and now nothing's stopping you.