11.00 It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia
01.00 The Larry Sanders Show
01.30 Curb Your Enthusiasm
02.00 Son Of The Beach
It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia. Season 3, Episode 8. "Frank Sets Sweet Dee On Fire" I loved Melrose Place. I devoured it. It was the über-soap. It spat out storylines with reckless abandon, changing direction every few weeks, and it was a delight. Always Sunny reminds me of that. Aside from the fact that it is very, very funny I love this show because no two episodes are remotely alike. It completely recreates itself every single week and I am in awe. This week, the characters decide that they want fame more than anything else. Dee and Mac spend the episode trying to get into a nightclub, while the others run about town posing as a TV news crew in search of the big story (which somehow involves putting kittens in deadly peril).
There are many wonderful comedy moments. Every time the camera cut to Dennis dancing like a demon I cracked up. Particularly after the stand-out scene where Dee verbally abused the bouncer. I also loved the local access TV show of the dancing men, which the gang loudly derided but couldn't manage to turn away from.
The Larry Sanders Show. Episode 1. "The Hey Now Episode" Before The Office, there was The Larry Sanders Show, where comedy and drama held hands on a weekly basis. The first episode filmed is a pretty good introduction to the world of late-night TV host Larry Sanders and his 'friendship' with sidekick Hank Kingsley. The other characters get put to the background somewhat in this story, as Larry takes umbridge at Hank's catchphrase and asks him to stop using it. The mid-portion of the episode is deadly serious as the two men have a bitter conversation and leave the dressing room in silence. Larry walks around for a while. Upset. The camera follows him. But there is no dialogue.
Right from the get-go you know that, while this is a funny show, it is not just a funny show.
Curb Your Enthusiasm. Episode 2. "Ted and Mary" Solid episode. Larry and Cheryl befriend Ted and Mary. However, Larry likes Mary more than Ted and wants to hang out with her. His 'like' takes on 'crush'-like proportions and - pretty soon - Larry has transformed himself into a man who loves to go shopping with women, just so he can hang with Mary. It's great fun watching Larry and knowing (because he's right about social conventions) that he is doing something wrong. And that it will blow up in his face.
Son Of The Beach. Episode 2. "Two Thongs Don't Make a Right" Less over-the-top than the opener, this episode is still very funny. A kid goes missing on the same day that the Mayor has banned thongs on the beach. Notch stands up for the thong and - in the process - loses his job. But, guess what? He still goes after the missing kid! What a guy!
Timothy Stack can make any line funny. And he does. But there are other laughs to be had. Best bit? The little boy (trapped in an underground cavern) is praying for rescue. He offers up the promise that he will never again look at top-shelf magazines, or want to see naked girls, if God sets him free. At which point Jaime Bergman (clad in her yellow bikini) falls from the sky in front of him! Hilarious.
Highlight? The Larry Sanders Show (it's just as much about the friendship as anything else)
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Thu, Nov 27, 08 - Always Sunny, Larry Sanders, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Son Of The Beach
Sat, Aug 16, 08 - Curb Your Enthusiasm, Greg The Bunny, Good Morning Miami, Veronica Mars
04:30 Curb Your Enthusiasm
08:00 Greg The Bunny
08:30 Good Morning Miami
10:30 Veronica Mars
11:30 Veronica Mars
Curb Your Enthusiasm. Episode 1. "The Pants Tent" It's amazing how quickly things go wrong from poor Larry. Only a few minutes into this first episode (three scenes or so) and he's annoyed his best friend's new girlfriend, been offensive to his manager's parents and made his wife's friend think she caused him to have an erection. And from there it all spirals out of control. Much as I love the show, and love watching the show, I also love thinking about how the show is made (improvised dialogue from detailed scene outlines). It's clever. And it means we get a plot-driven show every week. There is always something happening in every scene. Every scene advances a plot, or allows it to collide into another plot, or something. Whatever. There is always something new happening. Often very funny.
Greg The Bunny. Episode 9. "Greg Gets Puppish" Another so-so episode. When this show is funny, it's very funny. And when it's not funny, it delivers episodes like this one: in which Greg embraces his puppet heritage. There are few gags floating around, yes, but a lot of the dialogue is just to drive the (boring) story and it leaves you unsure what to make of it all. Is it meant to be comedy with a message? Or are they just bad are doing satire? The ending is another one of those soft and fuzzy they sometimes do on this show: where friendship wins out over differences. An odd episode. I don't watch Greg The Bunny for touchy-feely crap.
Good Morning Miami. Episode 5. "Swan Jake" Pretty good episode. Important one for the characters: Jake finds out that Gavin isn't so bad and starts to feel guilty about wanting to steal Dylan away, Lucia tells Dylan that Jake likes her and suggests a little test. All of this advances the storyline and helps make Jake more likable than he was in earlier episodes. The supplot, meanwhile, is hilarious. Frank thinks that Penny has a crush on him, and acts accordingly. This being a sit-com "acts accordingly" means he drapes himself across her desk and invites her to feel his over-developed thigh. Lots of laughs.
Veronica Mars. Episode 1. "Pilot" I don't think I've ever seen a pilot with so much backstory, so skillfully delivered. Veronica is quite an interesting lady and - prior to this first episode - she has led quite an interesting life. Rob Thomas weaves her history into this first episode, and still manages to deliver a clever case-of-the-week which shows Veronica at her best: clever, gutsy, framing people, switching police evidence and derailing trials as she sees fit. It's fun to watch her in action. We like her because she is clever and good (and the best TV Heroes are clever and good) but we like her, too, because she is sad and full of pain. In rapid succession we see what happened to Veronica to make her this way: her mother leaving, her friend being murdered, her own rape and her boyfriend dumping her. All of this, plus her status as an outcast in Neptune society, makes Veronica who she is on the day we first meet her.
She reminds me of Harry O. Battered by life, but not beaten.
Veronica Mars. Episode 2. "Credit Where Credit's Due" This time out the case-of-the-week takes up many more scenes, and the backstory barely appears at all. The case (credit card fraud) is interesting, clever and it involves one of the regular characters. It serves to strengthen the bond between them, which was forged in the final scene of the pilot. Lots of other character stuff is carried over from the pilot. The animosity between Logan and Weevil is a perfect example. And it's not just the character stuff. We get to understand the world of Neptune a bit better. It's a vicious place. And justice in Neptune is rough. We saw that in the pilot, where Veronica played fast and loose with the law to get Weevil's guys off the hook for a crime they committed, as a means towards getting a better quality of life for Wallace. This time out we see the story come to an end when Weevil and his club have punished the person who committed the crime. That's how the story ends: with frontier justice.
Highlight? Veronica Mars (pilot)
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Fri, Aug 15, 08 - Back To You, My Boys, The Closer, Curb Your Enthusiasm
02:00 Back To You
02:30 My Boys
03:00 The Closer
09:00 Curb Your Enthusiasm
Back To You. Episode 15 (Episode 9, in production order). "Date Night" Wow. Possibly the best episode. Hilarious from start to finish. Unlike many episodes, the chemistry between Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton is sparkling, and the supporting cast/plot is simply superb. In the main story, Kelly is dating a younger man and Chuck is teasing her about it being a younger version of him. "You're obsessed with me," he declares. It's fun to watch him being all arrogant and even more fun to watch her go to extremes to prove him wrong. She gets revenge by trapping him in a date with someone he does not fancy. And, being a sitcom, they all end up on dates in the same restaurant. What makes it work (and very funny) is the way Kelly reveals that she is obsessed with Chuck, while he (in a lovely twist) really connects with his bookish date.
Meanwhile, back at work, there are some wonderful scenes with the rest of the gang. Marsh, Ryan and Gary in the make-up room is one of the funniest scenes I have ever seen. It's the old guys-talking-like-women gag, this time played out in a make-up room at a TV station. And, boy, does it ever work. These three guys know exactly how to play it and I was in hysterical laughter from start to finish.
My Boys. Season 2, Episode 9. "John, Cougar, Newman Camp" Another solid outing (much funnier than last week) which builds to a predictable (and kinda sad) cliff-hanger. It's a been a great season (half-season?) and the various plot-threads have played out wonderfully over the episodes. The writers have skillfully brought all the regular characters on a journey this season and we leave all of them in a new place. That's good TV, that is.
I'm not unhappy with the cliff-hanger, god no, I'm just unhappy with what happened in that cliff-hanger and curious to see how things will advance from here.
The Closer. Season 4, Episode 5. "Dial M for Provenza" After two serious (and heartbreaking) episodes in a row, the show (wisely) delivers a funny one. Funny? It's frakkin' hilarious. Provenza (a great character played by the wonderful G.W. Bailey) takes center-stage and the wonderful Jennifer Coolidge guests as his nemesis. Coolidge only really does one thing but she does it really, really well and she is perfect for this role. There are many, many comedy highlights and the episode nicely distracts us from the turmoil in the private lives of several of the regulars. A turmoil which, I'm sure, we will return to in future episodes.
Curb Your Enthusiasm. "HBO Special" The good thing about CYE is that it's not really about a famous writer and the scrapes that he gets himself into, it (like Seinfeld before it) is about the minutiae of everyday life and - more importantly - someone obsessed with the minutiae of everyday life. This first episode (pilot?) is less about the big concert that Larry is about to give/perform is more about the way one behaves with regard to restaurant meetings, name pronunciations, wakes, friends who have affairs, etc. etc. It sucks you in, makes you believe that everything on screen could be true and the ending, which ties everything together, is very good.
Highlight? Back To You (so funny)
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