Friday, August 28th, 2009
07.00 Arrested Development
08.30 Andy Richter Controls The Universe
10.00 Harvey Birdman
10.15 Michael And Michael Have Issues
11.00 In Plain Sight
Arrested Development. Season 2, Episode 13. "Motherboy XXX" Rescuing George Michael.
Another classic. Either side of the Maggie Lizer two-parter are two of the finest, and funniest, episodes of AD. This one is a real gem. It contains some of the best physical comedy of the entire series, and a host of classic moments.
My personal favourite? All the 'burger king' gags, particularly when the narrator echos Tobias' sentiments about the place being "a wonderful restaurant". One of the best moments in the entire series, and a perfect example of what Arrested Development is.
But the episode is full of laughs. I really love the little kid who runs up the Bluths, on more than one occasion, begging to be taken away, but nothing tops the sight of Buster tumbling through the skylight.
Superb.
Andy Richter Controls The Universe. Episode 4. "Grief Counselor"
My bad. I thought they had stopped with the Andy-likes-Wendy stuff. Wrong. Here's an entire (sweet) episode built around it, when Wendy kisses Andy after a night out and he wonders what lies behind it.
All of this is mildly-funny. But very sweet.
Much, much, much better is the stuff with Byron and Jessica: coming to terms with the fact that they may have killed some people, by being mean. Hilarious, wonderful stuff. The scene where Byron arrives in Jessica's office, all upset, and leaves - minutes later - completely cheered up and blaming Jessica for the death of their coworker is a classic.
Harvey Birdman. Episode 12. "Trio's Company" Harvey meets Gigi. Harvey represents Inch High, Private Eye.
Hilarious. Gigi is one of the best recurring characters that the show ever had and the case-of-the-week is priceless. I particularly love the bit where Harvey negociates up to a much more serious crime. For his plaintiff??!!!
Michael And Michael Have Issues. Episode 3. "Matchmakers"
"Michael And Michael Are Dicks" would be an appropriate name for this. Watching them try to play matchmaker it becomes obvious that they aren't trying to be mean. No. They're just dicks. Pure and simple. And some of the one-liners are priceless.
But even the visual comedy is top notch. When Michael and Michael attack the guy who dumped the girl and challenge him to explain himself, the scenes of them trying to back away, and get out of the room, as he poors his heart out are truly, truly funny.
In Plain Sight. Season 2, Episode 15. "DON'T CRY FOR ME ALBUQUERQUE" Mary is shot.
Seldom have seen a mainstream, light, action show deliver a story where everything is so grey and vague. But still 100% satisfying.
Mary protects a witness who may, or may not, be very nice. And may have over-reacted and created the situation that led to her own shooting. Or maybe not. The show offers no easy answers.
But it sure delivers a great story. Best scene? Stan opens a can of Whup-Ass on the idiot who put Mary in jeopardy.
Highlight? Arrested Development (skylight)
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Arrested Development, Andy Richter Controls The Universe, Harvey Birdman, Michael And Michael Have Issues, In Plain Sight
The Big Bang Theory, Arrested Development, Andy Richter Controls The Universe
Sunday, July 19th, 2009
03.30 The Big Bang Theory
12.00 Arrested Development
12.30 Andy Richter Controls The Universe
The Big Bang Theory. Season 2, Episode 20. "The Hofstadter Isotope"
Two very solid ideas here: Penny dating someone who is just like Leonard (which is guaranteed to annoy/hurt/confuse him) and the guys go to a bar to find women.
Both ideas are old sitcoms ideas, but they are handled well here.
BBT does a good job, I think, of making nerds/geeks funny without making fun of them. It seems to follow the Frasier template in that these guys are funny because they are so caught up in their own world and we don't have to think any less of them because of that, we can just chuckle at their behaviour. Especially when taken out of their own environment, such as here.
Arrested Development. Season 2, Episode 1. "The One Where Michael Leaves"
Relentless, frantic-comedy. An absolute tour de force of short scenes and quickfire gags. Although there were many, many truly hilarious episodes in Season One, I don't think there were any episodes with quite so many jokes, delivered so fast.
Andy Richter Controls The Universe. Episode 3. "France" The one with the cat.
My favourite episode of ARCTU. It's the first episode where everything about the show is fully in place. The rivalry between Andy & Keith (and between Andy & Byron) seems less serious now and much more friendly. Keith has his own storyline here and - as of this episode - he's a likable main character with a genuine romantic interest in Wendy. After the first two episodes the show (wisely) drops all references to Andy having a crush on Wendy.
Paget Brewster really makes an impression here. Not just because she is utterly gorgeous/sexy but because she has impeccable comic timing. Witness the scene in her apartment where Andy & Byron are competing for her affections.
However, this being said, she still can't steal the episode from Andy Richter. This is the one where Andy desperately tries to get a free trip to France, but inadvertently gets his boss' cat drunk and lost in the air vents of the building. Yes, as Andy says, that age old dilemma. Richter is hilarious as his character gets more manic and desperate as everything spirals out of control.
Best bit? Andy falls through the ceiling, rebounds quickly and tries to have a casual conversation with Byron. Possibly my favourite moment from the whole series.
Highlight? Andy Richter Controls The Universe (the one with the cat)
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Scrubs, Breaking Bad, Andy Richter Controls The Universe, Catweazle
Saturday, July 4th, 2009
07.00 Scrubs
08.00 Breaking Bad
09.00 Andy Richter Controls The Universe
11.30 Catweazle
Scrubs. Season 8, Episode 4. "My Happy Place" The Janitor is back on staff, or is he? Cox doesn't trust Turk as a surgeon, or does he? JD and Elliot are dating again, or are they? Kelso is hanging out at the hospital. Or is he? (Actually he totally is. I just wanted to link the plots in some way.)
I was nervous about this episode because the last one was so, so awful.
Imagine my relief! It's bloody brilliant. Not only are all the stories really, really good, but they run in perfect parallel. So, at the mid-point, when JD reaches the 'big question' of the episode, all the main characters, in each plotline, are reaching the same 'big question'. I love that stuff. And this show does it really well, and this episode does it better than most.
Also, it's great to see JD and Elliot holding hands and acting like a couple at the very end. Their Big Talk was extremely well written/performed. I love Scrubs. It's gets crazy silly and wacky and when it pauses to deal with emotions and stuff, it tends to do it perfectly.
Breaking Bad. Episode 2. "Cat's in the Bag..." Walter and Jesse try to figure out what to do with the dead body, and what to do with the half-dead bad-guy who tried to kill them.
Black comedy at it's best. The first episode had a great Hulk Out moment (with Walter and the kids who were making comments about his son) and this one has another one: there's a scene where Walter turns to his wife (because he is sick of her questions) and he very forcefully tells her to back off. It's a fantastic scene in a fantastic episode.
Aaron Paul gets more to do in this episode and he forms a great team with Bryan Cranston. Anna Gunn gets more to do, too, and she's gets more likable (as a character) the more screen time she gets. But this is still Bryan Cranston's show all the way.
The climax is amazing: the decomposing body comes falling through the ceiling. Never seen that one before! A television classic in the making, here, folks.
Andy Richter Controls The Universe. Episode 2. "Second Episode" Andy is forced to share his office with a third new guy, so he takes a day off and parties with guys from his college.
The second episode holds over the idea that Andy has a crush on Wendy but, apart from that, the series is now up and running as it will exist to the end.
Much of the comedy comes from what Andy sees in his head, but - without that gimmick - this is still a very funny show with a fantastic cast.
Many great moments in this episode. My personal favourite is the part where we get to see two versions of A-Day-At-Work-Without-Andy. In Andy's head we get to see everybody wracked with grief and guilt, and in the real world we see a group of people who are pretty sure that Andy is, in fact, at work because somebody was definitely talking to him that morning about his new shoes...
Catweazle. Episode 1. "The Sun in a Bottle" An 11th century wizard is transported to the 20th.
The first ten minutes, or so, show us life for Catweazle back in his own time. Pretty soon he's running for his life, from the Normans, so he casts a spell and... Poof! He's lying in a puddle, on an English farm, circa 1970.
He befirends a boy, named Carrot, who - at this stage - doesn't belief his stories of time-travel but agrees to hide him from the adults. Thereby setting up the premise, and central conflict, of the series: None of the adults know about Catweazle.
Geoffrey Bayldon is superb in the lead role. Thanks to him Catweazle is full of innocence and awe, yet wily and cunning when he has to be. Catweazle is funny and interesting from the get-go, but especially when he comes face to face with 20th Century objects.
And the series' catchphrases make a few appearences here: 'elec-trickery' and 'Nothing works!'
It's easy to see why the premise would appeal to children. It's about a boy who has a secret magical friend that nodody else knows about. Richard Carpenter was a genius. He really came up with something special here.
And, as for the adults, who could resist the antics of Bayldon? The best actor every to NOT be Doctor Who, surely? (Actually he played The Doctor recently, but you know what I mean.)
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A Breifing With Michael: One Year Ago
Andy Richter Controls The Universe, Arrested Development, Are You Being Served?
Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
10.00 Andy Richter Controls The Universe
10.30 Arrested Development
11.00 Are You Being Served?
Andy Richter Controls The Universe. Episode 1. "Pilot" Andy is forced to share his office with a new guy called Byron and he schemes to get Byron fired...
Hilarious.
The first episode is a comedy treat. One of the funniest pilots I have ever seen. For instance, it makes a better/funnier first impression than the pilot of Arrested Development. Since so much of the humour in that show comes from knowing stuff that happened in previous episode. Andy... is a self-contained treat week after week. The high concept of the series (Andy imagines things and we see them) is quickly/cleverly/cleanly established before the credits have rolled.
Even so, the Andy... pilot has a few elements that are not part of the series as a whole. Andy has a huge crush on Wendy in this episode (and the next) and that's something that they didn't carry forward into the series. Also, while Keith and Andy are friendly there seems to be a lot of hidden resentment (on Andy's part) that is - wisely - forgotten as the series goes forward. From the third episode onward the show is about a group of five friends and there's no hidden conflicts/subplots between them.
All five regulars make a great impression here. Jonathan Slavin comes closest to stealing the show out from under Andy Richter. But he doesn't succeed. C'mon, it's Andy Richter! He's always going to be the funniest one in the room.
Arrested Development. Epispde 13. "Beef Consommé" George Sr. has his day in court.
Being the 13th (and final) episode of the series original order from Fox, this could well have been the last-ever episode of the show. As such, it would have served as a fitting finalé. The Marta storyline is concluded, George Michael finds out that Maeby isn't really his cousin, and Tobias is finally free of his Never-Nude disorder. Whew!
Michael Paul Chan (of The Closer) makes his first appearance as Judge Ping and Henry Winkler gets the biggest laugh (for me) when he enters as their lawyer and tells the Bluths that he's been delayed because he had another hearing but, good news, he thinks he'll get off.
All three brother lose Marta in the end, but - rather than being a downer - this conclusion serves, in an odd way, to unite the Bluth boys as never before. Had it been the ending, it would not have been a totally awful place to leave it.
Are You Being Served? Episode 1. "Are You Being Served?" A reorganisation withing the store means the Men's Department has to share a floor with the Ladies' Department for the first time ever...
Delightful opening episode, with a hilarious performance from Mollie Sugden, lots of double entendres and lots of natural conflict built into the premise.
The first episode zips along very nicely as the characters adjust to their first morning sharing a floor together. It's a strong cast and each one nicely carves a niche for themselves as the action moves rapidly from squabble to squabble.
Mollie Sugden makes the best impression. She's wonderfully pompous and larger than life. And very funny. John Inman (the other huge star of the show) is somewhat subdued in this first outing.
The dialogue is peppered with references to removing trousers and putting bras on display as the show quickly finds it's feet with regard to the type of humour it wants to employ.
The concept has lots of in-built conflict. Mrs. Slocombe and Miss Brahms are new to the floor, a floor with has always been exclusively for the Men's Department. Therefore there's a battle for control of the floor space between Mrs. Slocombe and Mr. Grainger (head of the Men's Department). Grainger's underlings, however, aren't exactly full or respect for the old codger. Mr. Lucas (always my favourite character in the show) is full of disrespect for everything and everyone, and Mr. Humphries is the only character in the whole series with a realistic world-view. Humphries doesn't openly disrespect the absurd status quo of his workplace, but it's clear from his subtle comments that takes nothing very seriously.
Two superiors are added into the mix (Peacock and Rumbold) and the concept is complete. The show's staff hierarchy can also be seen as parody of the British class system.
Highlight? Arrested Development (a sort of ending)
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