NewsRadio 5.1 A remarkable episode which finds a tasteful way to...

NewsRadio 5.1

• A remarkable episode which finds a tasteful way to deal with off-camera real-world tragedy, and write a beloved character off the show.
  
• The comedy is understandably strained, but there is humour here.
  
• Mostly, however, it is just a sad episode. These characters - these people - are grieving. And - laughs or not - that can be difficult to watch.
  
• I deliberately took a two-year break from the show because I wasn’t ready to move on the season without Bill. I just wanted to keep the character alive a little while longer, I guess.
  
• But now I’m watching it again. So, season five… here I come!!
  

8/10

NewsRadio 4.22

Titanic. Light on laughs, but what an audacious idea for a sitcom episode. Frequently visually stunning. 8/10

NewsRadio 4.21

Not loving the idea of the tour groups, but the Bill and Lisa stories hit the mark and are very funny.  Also: Baywatch references! 8/10

NewsRadio 4.20

So much happening. So many jokes and running gags. Great cast chemistry, too. Deliciously inventive from start to finish. 9/10

NewsRadio 4.19

Brad Rowe. The ending is the best bit here, where it cleverly (unexpectedly) ties both storylines together. Very funny. 8/10

NewsRadio 4.18

Tom Gallop. A truly wonderful episode. I laughed and laughed and laughed until I cried.

Using a death as a fodder for comedy is incredibly brave, but it works and is never offensive or in bad taste.

The characters and writing are nothing short of superb, and every scene (every moment) is crafted to perfection. A joy.

10/10

NewsRadio 4.17

Balloon. Delightfully absurd and hilarious from start to finish. Both the a-story and the b-story originate in character behaviour, with Jimmy and Bill being absolute gold mines of odd decisions. The cast excels, as ever. And I particularly love the episodes which demonstrate how much genuine fondness the team has for their oddball boss. 10/10

NewsRadio 4.16

A pretty even episode, with both storylines being strong. The Dave/Lisa relationship is one of TV’s best, because it’s flips normal sitcom romance conventions. He’s the one broke it up, and there’s no will-they-won’t-they vibe in their story arc. Refreshing. 8/10

NewsRadio 4.15

Michael B. Silver . First half of this is mostly just Dave Foley and Phil Hartman, and they are on fire. So good together. Really funny. The b-story doesn’t work quite as well. 8/10

NewsRadio 4.14

Security Door. A perfect example of why the show works so well: something really simple provokes a series of extreme and/or funny reactions from the regular characters. This might be the episode where I felt the most empathy for poor Dave. 8/10

NewsRadio 4.13

Robert Hegyes . The first two-thirds, with plenty of insanity in the office, are good. But that final third (where Dave loses the election) is real gold. 8/10

NewsRadio 4.12

Phil Hartman is nothing short of magnificent in this episode, where Bill becomes the boss. There are several truly hysterical moments, and they pretty much work because of the way Hartman delivers the material. Not that he’s the only one carrying the episode, this time out pretty much everyone has a moment to shine. The water hitting Joe Rogan (from the broken pipe in the kitchen) is one of his best ever moments on the show.

Plus: the script is full of quotable lines.

And: it ends on a cliffhanger. Perfect. 10/10

NewsRadio 4.11

Bob Odenkirk, David Cross, Brian Posehn. Cool to see an episode where the guest stars get so much to do, and are so funny. It almost doesn’t feel like an episode of NR because of this. But Dave’s incredulity is firmly is place, and anchors the show so strongly you don’t feel cheated. 8/10

NewsRadio 4.10

Bill’s Baby. The main storyline has a lot of laughs, but the best scenes are the ones at Jimmy’s bachelor auction. So funny. Especially when Joe buys him. 8/10

NewsRadio. Season 3, Episode 20.

NewsRadio.  Season 3, Episode 20.  "Our Fiftieth Episode"  Bill is committed to an asylum

I'm going to lavish praise on three aspects of this episode.

1. Phil Hartman & Jon Lovitz: together: wonderful.  They are a perfect comedy pairing.  Their scenes together are hysterical.

2. While Bill is away from work, Lisa and Joe take over the running of his show: with Mr. James interfering.  You see Mr. James has been conducting market research and - as a consequence - keeps tinkering with the show.  His tinkering makes the show worse and worse.  Even better: we can see that the 'market research' is meaningless (Beth is making stuff up!).  What a wonderful, wonderful comment on network interference.  I wanted to applaud, I really did.  (Knowing a little of the background to NewsRadio's relationship with NBC helped me appreciate these scenes all the more.)

3. Bill is in the asylum and - after much prompting from his crazy buddy - recounts the plot from an episode of Family Matters. To rapturous applause from the inmates.  Again, here's some wonderful commentary on the state of television.  Family Matters is perceived as low-brow nonsense, while NewsRadio is perceived as one of the smarted shows ever to appear on TV.  One is a beloved stable of pop culture, and the other - despite five seasons on-air - is relatively obscure.  Sigh.

10/10

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Friends, The Closer, House, Castle, NewsRadio, Taxi

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009

05.00 Friends
05.30 The Closer
06.30 House
07.30 Castle
02.00 NewsRadio
02.30 Taxi

Friends. Episode 12. "The One with the Dozen Lasagnas" Paulo makes a pass at Phoebe, Ross tries to avoid finding out the sex of his unborn baby, Joey and Chandler buy a foosball table.

Very-much driven by the ongoing storylines, the show is - by this stage - very different to other sitcoms on the air. David Schwimmer continues to get the biggest laughs in the episodes and our sympathy is with him all the way.

The Closer. Season 5, Episode 15. "Dead Man's Hand" Brenda investigates when it appears that a fellow officer is being beaten by her husband.

A change-of-pace episode that completely fails to work. The idea of Raydor would come to Brenda to investigate this seems crazy. Everything about the early part of the story is strained and impossible to swallow. And, then, when the murder takes place the viewer at home instantly knows what has happened and has to wait ages for the cops on screen to catch up. I hate when that happens.

Mary McDonnell and Brooke Langton make great guest stars, but the material is weak.

House. Season 6, Episode 9. "Wilson" Has cancer returned in Wilson's friend, and former patient?

A change-of-pace episodes that is a real treat to watch. The focus is on Wilson most of the time, so we get to see House's crazy patient roster from an outsider's perspective. And it's funny. And it does wonders to make the entire world of this TV show all a bit more real. In this episode we can see a more normal hospital, and a more a normal doctor at work, and House is just this eccentric guy running around all the time breaking the rules. It's a great new perspective on things.

And that's only for a few scenes. Most of the episode follows Wilson and his patient (Joshua Malina) as they grapple with the mysterious illness, and the ramifications of the treatment. There's lots and lots to watch here. Is Wilson too nice? Is House right about the Joshua Malina guy? And will that guy get back with his (gorgeous) wife? (Katherine LaNasa)

It's a great episode, on many levels, and the final scenes are terrific.

Castle. Season 2, Episode 11. "The Fifth Bullet" Guy with amnesia.

Wow! A great story. Marc Blucas plays the guy with amnesia, who is carrying a book with a bullet from a murder scene around with him, and has Anne Dudek as his wife. Lucky bastard.

Blucas is superb in the central role and the story keeps you constantly wondering. For ages I didn't trust him. Thought he was some super-cool hitman with ice in his veins playing a con on the cops for some reason. As soon as Dudek showed up I was rooting for him to be innocent and for them to get together.

Castle did some great detective work in this one (the plastic bag leading to the dog was genius) and he and Beckett were quite adorable on several occasions.

NewsRadio. Season 3, Episode 10. "Christmas" Dave lets everyone go home early. Bill enlists Beth to help him with a radio advert.

Good episode, with plenty for everyone to do. Even Catherine, the weak link in the cast.

Dave and Lisa's arrival at his parents empty house is a bit odd. It comes from nowhere and there's really nothing that Dave did to deserve this. Or am I missing something? Surely, for it to have meaning (even comic meaning) he should have brought it down upon himself?

Taxi. Episode 10. "A Full House for Christmas" Poker game with Louis' brother Nick.

Very dramatic episode. It's also funny, of course, but the a-story here is deadly serious: two brothers fighting and one trying to get the other one to do something for their mother.

The fact that Louis isn't the nicest person you'd ever meet keeps this from being schmaltz. And the poker game is very tense.

Highlight? Castle (great story)
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Arrested Development, The Incredible Hulk, The Closer, NewsRadio

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

05.00 Arrested Development
08.00 The Incredible Hulk
09.00 The Closer
01.00 NewsRadio

Arrested Development. Season 2, Episode 18. "Righteous Brothers"

After some messy episodes in the latter part of the season (due to the Fox cutback on the episode order, I suspect) the show goes out on a high note to end the second season.

George Michael and his cousin, Maeby, finally share a passionate kiss. At which point the house starts to sink into the ground under them. Only on Arrested Development. Wonderful.

The Incredible Hulk. Episode 9. "Never Give a Trucker an Even Break" David gets mixed up with a stolen truck.

Kenneth Johnson wrestles with footage from the movie Duel and almost succeeds in turning it into an episode of The Incredible Hulk by playing much of it for laughs, in the hope - I suppose - that we won't notice.

Unfortunately, most of the footage from Duel clearly shows one person driving the car and Johnson's script requires two people to be in the car most of the time (although he finds interesting ways to make his actors disappear from sight).

Even if the inserted footage worked perfectly you are still left with a bad story: David meets a girl and they steal a truck. There is a chase. They get caught and end up back where they started. But they escape. So there's another chase along the same stretch of road, with them in a car this time. End of episode.

Jennifer Darling is wonderful, of course, but she can't save the episode.

The Closer. Season 5, Episode 4. "Walking Back the Cat" Fritz asks Brenda to do him a small favour. Quietly.

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. A side-splittingly hilarious episode of The Closer where all of the comedy is driven by the characters. The chemistry between Brenda and Fritz drives much of the laughter, the chemistry between Provenza and, well, everybody else, drives the rest...

It's a joy to watch something this good. It really is.

And the ending is funny, clever and romantic. It hangs on the idea that Fritz really understands his (crazy) wife.

NewsRadio. Season 3, Episode 13. "Led Zeppelin Boxed Set" Matthew inadvertently hits Bill, and becomes... King Of The Office.

The subplot involving Jimmy and Three Card Monte is nothing to get excited about, but the main story (where Matthew becomes a jerk) provides a few good laughs.

Highlight? The Closer (funny)
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Arrested Development, The Incredible Hulk, Mission: Impossible, NewsRadio

Tuesday, August 25th, 2009

07.30 Arrested Development
08.00 The Incredible Hulk
09.00 Mission: Impossible
01.30 NewsRadio

Arrested Development. Season 2, Episode 10. "Ready, Aim, Marry Me"

After an episode that I don't much care for, comes an episode that I consider one of my all-time favourites. Martin Short is a great guest star and his character (Uncle Jack) is one of the best ever featured in the series. The episode contains some of the best-ever Tobias material and highlights Jason Bateman's considerable skill as a straight-man, mostly in reacting to lines delivered by David Cross.



The Incredible Hulk. Episode 7. "747" The one on the airplane.

A complete departure from formula, and a damn fine episode as well.

David takes a flight to Chicago. However, one of the pilots has plans to drug the remainder of the flight crew and parachute to safety with some very expensive cargo. Luckily, for everyone on board, David notices some very odd things (great script by Thomas E. Szollosi and Richard Christian Matheson) and sticks his nose where it doesn't belong. Cue: a fight, and a transformation and pretty soon the Hulk is running rampage on a passenger plane. Cool!

Things get even better when David must take the controls and land the plane. It's a situation we've seen many times over, but The Incredible Hulk puts a great spin on it, as David fights off a second transformation as he fights to control the plane before it crashes.

Superb.



Continuing a trend from the previous episode, this one has another gorgeous guest star who has appeared in every show I've ever watched: Sondra Currie. Some of the close-ups on Currie are so tight you'd imagine you can feel her beautiful red hair tickling your nose. A concept that bothers me not at all...

Mission: Impossible. Episode 81. "The Code" Trying to break a code to stop an invasion.

From watching this you learn two things: Paris has balls of steel, and Jim is very, very smart.

Leonard Nimoy is a joy to watch as Paris goes undercover as an arrogant dictator/revolutionary type. With nothing more than a wispy beard he bluffs his way with two high level bad guys and it's fun to watch him in action. Balls of steel, my friend, balls of steel. Jim Phelps, meanwhile, uses brain-power as well as technology to break the code that will bring the bad guys plans tumbling down around their nasty ears. Boo! Hiss!

The guest cast includes greats like: Michael Constantine, Harold Gould and A Martinez. And the ending is classic: the IMF gather around to listen to events in the office of the bad guys. A shot rings out. One bad guy has shot the other. Who fired the shot? "What does it matter?" says Jim and they drive off.

NewsRadio. Season 3, Episode 12. "Rap" Bill learns about rap music, while Lisa copes with being called 'cute'.

A 'cute' episode. The stuff with Lisa and the girls in the office follows a predictable route. As does all the stuff with Bill (with Phil Hartman's performance making it funnier than the material).

Episode highlight? Beth explains the meanings of words like 'cute', 'sexy', 'beautiful', etc.

Highlight? The Incredible Hulk (Superb tension as David fights a transformation while landing a plane.)
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NewsRadio

Tuesday, July 21st, 2009

04.00 NewsRadio

NewsRadio. Season 3, Episode 11. "The Trainer" The gang discover that Dave is Canadian. Bill joins a gym and fights with Ben Stiller.

The main story here is a testament to the strength of NewsRadio. It's a very slim idea for a story, but it still makes for an amusing episode. Good strong characters, and a great cast, mean you drop flimsy ideas into the mix and they can carry it to 22 minutes of comedy. Dave is revealed to be Canadian, not American. There's plenty of laughs to be had as each one of the ensemble reacts to this shocking revelation. Then, in the second half of the tale, we get to see Dave's reasons for keeping this a secret. Dave might be the 'normal one' in this ensemble, but he's still quirky/odd enough to make this amusing.

Ben Stiller guests in a plot that takes Bill to a Health Club. A standard ploy of sitcoms: bring in a funny guest star to carry an episode. Stiller is always reliable. And he's well-paired with Phil Hartman who plays Bill as relentlessly suspicious and grouchy.

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Tue, Jun 16, 09 - Royal Pains, The Closer, NewsRadio

10.30 Royal Pains
11.30 The Closer
12.30 NewsRadio

Royal Pains. Episode 2. "There Will Be Food" Ballerina keeps fainting.

Lots to like here.

1. Hank is a genuine nice guy hero. One character describes him as the Robin Hood of medicine at one point and it fits. Considerable kudos to Mark Feuerstein for pulling this off. A lesser performer might not have been able to make us like Hank as he runs around saving the world and being everybody's best friend. But Feuerstein makes it work, even in these cynical times.

2. The show is funny. Hank and Evan deliver a lot of one-liners.

3. The story of Evan wooing the ballerina was genuinely sweet. Genuinely cute. I loved seeing how opening smitten he was, and watching him cook for her and feed her was a blast.

4. Jill gets much more character work in this episode. Her character gets the sort of fire, passion and disdain that would/could have been tiresome in a lead character. The writers/producers have made some very wise storytelling choices here.

The Closer. Season 5, Episode 2. "Blood Money" Rich guy kidnapped.

The show casts Miguel Sandoval as a missing man, waves his picture around and then tries to make the viewer believe that the guy is dead? Huh? Crazy. It's a safe bet that everyone watching knows what Miguel Sandoval looks like and isn't going to believe that his character is dead... before the actor appears on screen.

Crazy. Surely, once a famous face was cast they could have, you know, not shown his picture so prominently during the first half of the episode? I mean, not only did they show it, they did a close up on it.

Consequently I was way ahead of the detectives on this one, and I was bored.

A pity. Because, taken at face value this was a strong story. A total change of pace for the show (which usually opens with a long sequence set at a murder scene). Also the story is very, very good and the final two/three seconds are really superb.

NewsRadio. Season 3, Episode 9. "Stocks" Mr. James offers Beth some stock tips.

NewsRadio is an exquisitely staged programme. When you watch the episodes more than once, you really start to appreciate how they fill each shot with bits of business and activity. The show, unlike any other sit-com that I can think of, excels at the art of the walk-through gag. Or whatever it is called. I'm referring to those moments when another character walks through shot, comments on the action in the foreground, and keeps on moving. This episode is full of that stuff.

Highlight? Royal Pains (lots to like)
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