Mon, Mar 17th, 2008
06:50 Seinfeld
07:15 Scrubs
07:40 Flight Of The Conchords
08:05 The Return Of Jezebel James
08:30 Unhitched
01:00 The X-Files
02:00 Lost
Seinfeld. Season 9, Episode 3. I was recently reading how the storylines become more fantasy orientated in these last two seasons and - sure enough - here’s an episode with a high fantasy content. Something you wouldn’t see in earlier seasons. Kramer puts up a screen door. On his appartment. And, before long, the hallway is a bit like Anytown, USA with kids playing ball and covering his place with shaving foam. Most of this happens off-camera, but it’s still happening and it’s definitely taking the show off into fantasy realms. Which is great. Because it’s very, very funny. Jerry starts to express his emotions, also. So much so that he tells George he loves him, and ends up proposing to Elaine. While she is eating a banana. Wonderful.
Scrubs. Season 6, Episode 18. A less-hot-than-is-usual-for-Scrubs friend of Elliot’s shows up. JD is jealous of her, and throws a spanner in the friendship. There are lots of laughs along with way, but the underlying theme here is the friendship between the two main characters. And how they have been neglecting it. It’s a sweet sentiment, in the middle of a hilarious episode. And there’s a great cliff-hanger ending, too. Keith proposes!!!
Flight Of The Conchords. Episode 3. Very funny outing in which the two guys get mugged and... one of the guys runs away! Throwing his friend to the wolves, so to speak. Great musical numbers and laugh-out-loud comedy.
The Return Of Jezebel James. Episode 1. Parker Posey is great, but the laugh track sucks. I’m not sure what exactly the "fake people" were "fake laughing" at anyway. "Fake jokes", maybe? The episode is full of things that - at a distance - could be mistaken for jokes. A grumpy waiter, a babbling heroine, callbacks to stuff menioned earlier in the story. All things that could - in theory - be funny. Except they weren’t and I didn’t laugh. Not once. It’s a good central idea (sisters bond when one has a baby for the other) but the execution is rubbish.
Unhitched. Episode 2. I can’t believe I didn’t notice it last week! This is a Seinfeld-clone. And a pretty bad one, too: Based on this episode, which has none of the charm of the pilot. Jack/Jerry dates a girl. He liked her a lot, but she has a flaw. And it is driving him crazy. Freddy/George is socially inept, so he befriends a bouncer in an attempt to get into nightclubs easier. Kate/Elaine meets a nice guy, who turns out to be an idiot. Tommy/Kramer does lots of "hilarious" inappripriate things, like dating a sex addict (at her intervention) and disfiguring Jack’s date. Ho hum. Whatever charm I saw in the pilot, is gone now. It’s trying to be Seinfeld and it’s not.
The X-Files. Season 8, Episode 13. The story of Dana Scully’s Pregnancy. Not just in terms of alien babies, murderous doctors and large conspiracies, it’s the story (told on flashback) of how she set out to have a child: going to an IVF clinic and asking Mulder to be the male donor, etc. While the present day story makes no sense, is too simplistic and contradicts itself as it rambles onward, the scenes between Mulder and Scully are magical. You get the feeling that Scully has a boundless love for Mulder and is mature enough to handle it, while Mulder who (based on this episode) feels the exact same way isn’t quite up to the task (yet) of dealing with his feelings. The scene where he tells her "Yes" is beautiful. And the final twist at the very end is great.
Lost. Missing Pieces 5. Juliet tells Jack that Ben sent her to spy on the women in the camp. The best of the Missing Pieces so far. There is a lot to mull over here.
Highlight? Seinfeld, the real one!
Seinfeld, Scrubs, Flight Of The Conchords, Jezebel James, Unhitched, X-Files, Lost
