06.00 Worst Week
06.30 Cavemen
07.00 Banacek
Worst Week. Episode 3. "The Monitor" Nick Kroll joins the cast as Sam's friend - Adam - called in to fix the painting damaged in episode 1. Each episode tends to be a lot less funny than the one before it, but the show continues to be ingenious and Sam is still a likable (if very unlucky) hero. Kroll is a standout and so is RonReaco Lee as Melanie's brother who - at one stage - wakes to find Sam standing over him with a pillow. Having written off all of Sam's previous attempts to - as it appears - kill him, he finally freaks out when he sees this. Very funny.
Cavemen. Episode 7. "Nick Work, Andy Jerk" Nick Kroll is usually the best thing about this show, and he's very good in this episode, but the most laughs come from Sam Huntington as Andy gets a really strong storyline. He's gotten himself a job, knee-deep in corporate America, and he doesn't quite fit in. Andy (being Andy) runs around trying to make friends with everyone. Which leads to meetings on "personal space" and so forth. Very funny and (as is often the case with this show) very insightful. Meanwhile, back on the homefront, Joel and Nick have a fight over Kate and Nick's treatment of her. Eventually Joel moves out and Nick becomes a total slob. While it covers ground familiar to anyone who has ever seen a sit-com before - to the show's considerable credit - it manages to raise several good laughs. All in all, with it's dead-on social commentary and successful jokes, this is one of the very strongest episodes.
Banacek. Episode 1. "Detour To Nowhere" An armoured car vanishes from a desert highway! An inexplicable mystery if ever there was one. It can only be a case for... Thomas Banacek! One of the coolest investigators to ever grace a television screen. George Peppard brings his usual smug charm to the role and gives us a TV hero unlike any other. The movie opens with a solid mystery and delivers great characters: the very cool Mr. Banacek, a rival investigator (and romantic interest) and a limo driver who is more than he appears. Christine Belford is beautiful and has great chemistry with Peppard. Their romantic dance is the best thing about the first half-hour of the movie. A location switch (from Boston to the desert) only makes things better and Banacek goes up against various small-town types and uses very impressive logic to hone in on the location of the armoured car. The story delivers one truly great twist (the person listening in on the phone call at the end), misleads you as to the identity of the main bad guy and provides a solution at the end that is genuinely satisfying. Through it all Banacek is arrogant and smug but (thanks to Peppard) 100% likable. One of my favourite detectives.
Highlight? Banacek (cool)
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Sat, Oct 11, 08 - Worst Week, Cavemen, Banacek
