This Week in Television - Nov. 8-12, 2010

Glee
For once I don't mind the way some of the after school special issues were handled. I still think Coach Bieste looks like a man in drag (and no doubt the students on the show do too), but this was a reminder that she is a woman with feelings, and in the Kurt storyline I like how nothing really changed, because there probably is no way to change the mind of an adamantly homophobic jock. Also liked Mr. Schue's very accurate observation about how nothing screws us up more than high school, and Sue's hilarious comments about the disgusting things she was being forced to picture.

Running Wilde
It was a nice change to have some of Puddle's narration done instead by Fa'ad singing Medieval style couplets, but we've already seen episodes where Steve and Emmy are involved in a battle of stubbornness. I did enjoy the jokes about the manipulation book (the title of which is an acronym spelling "BUY ME") and how Steve had multiple copies of it.

Survivor: Nicaragua
Jeff Probst is such a dick. He's always asking loaded questions at tribal council to intentionally stir up trouble and then acts shocked when the Survivors blow up at each other. And this, along with his reputation for favouring the muscular challenge dominators, gets him Best Reality Host at the Emmys? Marty had a good double-function plan for the vote, but neither function worked. Possibly because he has been one of those people getting in arguments at the last few tribals. But it was hilarious when he exaggerated his walk just to piss off Naonka.

Community
I was just thinking the other day that some of my favourite scenes are when the whole group is together in the study room, and that there hasn't been enough of that this season. Imagine my delight when they aired an episode where they locked themselves in the study room for the whole half hour and did a very solid, satisfying, and funny episode that was simply about the characters and nothing else - not even Annie's pen. I think this one might go down as one of the best episodes in the entire series when it's over. My reaction to the possibility that Shirley may be pregnant with Chang's baby was about the same as Troy's, but I kind of hope it happens because it could lead to a lot of really funny storylines. Apparently you do actually see Annie's Boobs take the pen at the beginning of the episode. I really should pay attention to the background more.

30 Rock
Loved the stuff with Congressman Steve Austin being so shady that he encourages people to think he is either the wrestler or the Six Million Dollar Man just so he'll get more votes, and his campaign commercials with diapers and shotguns were gold. Also some really hilarious lines like "Your mother exploded," and "Lesbian Mario Brothers!" Liz's butt did look good in those jeans, but it was supposedly a butt double and not Tina Fey. FAIL.

The Office
I of course agree with Kelly that Glee is flawed, but not for the reasons she cited. It was funny when, in true middle-aged lady fashion, Phyllis thought Glee was the name of one of the characters, when Michael threw the pizza dough into the ceiling fan, when Creed read the Chinese without translating it, and when Darryl described Andy and Gabe using very simple, superficial facts about each because he doesn't really care about them, but I think they've been doing a few too many episodes away from the office this season. We haven't even returned to the Packer/Danny double-hiring conflict and that was like three episodes ago. Also I'm a little bored with the Jim/Pam/baby storylines.

Fringe
The numbers were an interesting way to connect the "monster of the week" story with the serialized main story. And it's always cool to see the typewriter-mirror communication room. I can see the mysterious device (vacuum?) playing a big part in the season finale, or perhaps even the series finale if they stretch it out that long. There are a lot of pieces to find first. Astrid is the best lab assistant ever, but on the other hand I feel that neither her or Olivia really have any character flaws, or at least none that have ever been explored on the show.

Hero of the Week: Steve Austin from 30 Rock for his campaign commercials and general craziness (casinos on the moon!)

Douchebag of the Week: Jeff Probst from Survivor. You're supposed to be a neutral mediator, not a biased third party trying to influence audience opinions!

Mystery Team

Impressions before seeing it
I think the poster sold me, and reading a quick little review of it that my buddy wrote. Thanks, Corey!

How was it?
Mystery Team is dumb and silly, but the good kind of dumb and silly because you know it's intentional and because it's funny. The main characters are basically three young adult losers who refuse to grow up, solving trivial childish mysteries for kids half their age (they've been doing it since they were kids themselves) and being belittled by everyone they know. That is, until the trio gets involved in a mystery that is very much for adults.

It plays a little like an episode of South Park at times - one of those episodes where the kids are playing some game, playing in adult roles in adult situations without realizing how serious it is - or like Step Brothers, only instead of middle-aged men acting like little boys, it's young men acting like little boys. And since I like Step Brothers and South Park (those episodes I described are some of my favourites), that's fine with me. I am also becoming a fan of Donald Glover (who stars in Community and co-wrote this movie) and Aubrey Plaza (of Parks and Recreation), and it's great to see people from two different NBC comedies starring together. It did get somewhat serious at the end, which contradicted the silliness of the rest of the movie, but I just attribute that to character development and a lead-in to the ending, so I'm not complaining.

Recommendation
Basically just a good, entertaining laugh. Check it out if you like some of the similar titles I mentioned above.

This Week in Television - Nov. 1-5, 2010

Survivor: Nicaragua
I do think it was unfair that Naonka made all the tortillas and everyone else ate them and she got the smallest one, but she should've just said something instead of taking the crazy way out like she always does, which was to steal food. Was it stupid to vote out Alina over Marty? Not necessarily. Marty may be the more strategic player, but at this point he is also desperate and powerless so others can get leverage over him, making him a useful tool.

Community
There was really no reason for the "head mean girl" to be played by Hilary Duff, or anyone famous, but the Robocop stuff with Abed was fun, and Chang's exaggerated reactions to the burns. Even better was the secret trampoline of tranquility (tranquiline?) storyline, although I saw it coming when Pierce's spy copter followed Jeff and Troy. Also really cool to see Troy and Abed in the Morning make a comeback. And, like everyone else, I will continue to refer to Star Burns as Star Burns no matter how many times he asserts that his name is Alex.

30 Rock
I liked the characterization in this episode, illustrating what Liz and Jack mean to each other by keeping them apart, and that neither Jonathan, Tracy, nor Jenna have all of the qualities of an ideal protege - apparently Liz is the only person at NBC who does. The joke about Googling one's self is kind of old by now (Craig Ferguson does it regularly in his monologues), but then they flashback-whipped to Tracy using Liz's office to do it and that made it funny.

The Office
I don't think I really laughed at this episode (except for the beginning with everyone sneezing on Dwight), but I guess it was a good one for Michael's character. We've always known how lonely and needy he is, and it makes a lot of sense that he would enjoy a church youth group, the kind of people who would automatically accept him with open arms. And then in true Michael fashion he gets bored on the bus ride and realizes he just signed up for 3+ months of manual labour.

Fringe
I liked the second half of the episode better than the first half. Briefly visiting the other side in order to prove who she is was a cool way for Olivia to finally admit that she is not Fauxlivia (and her visions of Peter are a clever way for them to keep Joshua Jackson in the episodes since he's only in one universe.) The plot with the Ashmore twins wasn't really that interesting, though.

Hero of the Week: Hero Cat from 30 Rock. Why not, he's already a hero.

Douchebag of the Week: Joshua from Community, for secretly being racist. That came out of nowhere! OR DID IT?

Battlestar Galactica - Season Two

Not that season one was bad in any way, but I think season two was a big improvement, mostly because when I wrote up my post for last season there was really only the one candidate for best episode, and this season has several because of some really cool, high tension storylines.

I haven't really changed my opinions of which characters I like and dislike (although Col. Tigh's wife Ellen is easily worse than he is, but I knew that last season). Even as Starbuck went into a disastrous downward spiral and President Roslin's approval ratings dwindled as she made some difficult decisions, I still liked and respected them as characters, and that is a testament to the show's writers. I suppose I dislike Gaius a little since he is so shady and tends to be morally grey a lot of the time, but he also provides comic relief so I don't hate him. We're also given two more Cylon models and a look into their motives. I was puzzled last season when they seemed to place a lot of emphasis and both love and God, both of which should be irrelevant to a machine, but here it is explained... sort of.

One thing I will say that bothered me slightly is that some of the romantic relationships seemed rushed, like we were only given a short time to see two people fall in love and then were suddenly supposed to just go with it (which I did, because there was no other choice), Lee and Dualla especially. But only a minor complaint, because I am loving this show.

Best Episode: For me, one of the coolest parts was in the season finale, "Lay Down Your Burdens: Part 2", when we jump a year ahead and see where everyone is at, because I've always liked seeing the shocking differences between then and now when you saw nothing in the middle (like in The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time when you go back and forth, or like My Generation should have done better but didn't). However my pick for best episode - and I'm going to cheat a little here - is "Pegasus" and "Resurrection Ship" Parts 1 and 2, a three episode arc in which the Galactica finds a lost battlestar from the fleet, but the commanding officer outranks Adama and a civil war ensues because she is a cold bitch trying to take over the fleet, and seeing the crew of the Pegasus is almost like a Bizarro version of the Galactica crew. Awesome stuff.

This Week in Television - Oct. 25-29, 2010

ABC may have picked up No Ordinary Family for a full season, but I am dropping it because I've had enough of the bland, watered down writing. I'm surprised there were so few new episodes airing this week though, a lot of shows missed out on Halloween episodes.

Glee
I guess this episode was kind of fun, because it's the first time New Directions has done a play (in this case Rocky Horror Picture Show for the Halloween episode) instead of just performing songs, and I've always found the process of casting characters as other characters to be interesting. Kurt was a shoo-in for Frank but it was nice to see that he didn't want the part, given that his character is already a stereotype and that would be too obvious. Sue heckling the rehearsal was great, but Meat Loaf and Barry Bostwick (probably the only two Rocky Horror castmembers who weren't doing anything) had pointless cameos.

Survivor: Nicaragua
At first I thought Marty had made a dumb move, because he could have achieved the same end result by playing the idol and then it wouldn't be in the hands of the opposing alliance, but now that I think about it, this was a better choice for him because it's less selfish and therefore could gain him some respect and trust (and also because it looks like they're merging next week and that totally gives him a better chance, but he wouldn't have known that yet). And I have to say that in all the seasons of Survivor I've watched (which is all of them), I don't think I've ever seen anyone have more fun in a challenge than Alina and Benry in the ball ramp tile smashing challenge. But I'm highly disappointed that Jill went home since I was rooting for her.

Community
Bonus points for the Halloween title sequence! I knew right away that Shirley was Glinda the Good Witch, but it was funny that nobody could tell (Annie guessed Miss Piggy.) Didn't know Chang's, but only because I'm not familiar with figure skaters. Pierce's Captain Kirk costume did indeed "reach a new level of authenticity" when he got all sweaty and puffy. And then, for no reason at all, George Takei ends the episode by doing a favour for people named Kevin. Awesome.

The Office
I can't blame anyone for plagiarism because it was probably a coincidence, but it made The Office look bad when they followed Community by using two of the same jokes as them (a man dressed as Lady Gaga, and people assuming that one's race is part of their costume.) But I did appreciate the role-reversing irony of Todd Packer as a nun (albeit a pregnant one) and Angela as a slutty nurse. I could tell Kelly was Snooki (yet I don't even watch Jersey Shore) and I thought Ryan was "The Situation" to complement her, but apparently he was Justin Bieber. Both costumes still made sense for their characters. Andy and Meredith as Bill and Sookie from True Blood is interesting if you think about the story behind that, which I'm guessing is that Meredith heard about Andy's costume plans and planned accordingly in a twisted attempt to get in his pants. In the past I enjoyed Jim's simple yet still somewhat creative costumes, but that was "independent Jim", so it was kind of cute when the Halperts had their family costume moment. Also funny when Oscar won the costume contest due to the number of nutjobs at Dunder Mifflin (Creed's line about it being the best Edward James Olmos costume he'd ever seen nailed it).

Hero of the Week: Jeff Winger from Community. Still cool as a zombie!

Douchebag of the Week: Fabio from Survivor, for peeing in the pool during a challenge, being crappy at blocking the shots, and generally being an airhead.

HALLOWEEN BONUS - Best Costumes: Troy and Abed as Ripley and the Alien on Community, Michael as MacGruber on The Office, and Becky as Sue Sylvester on Glee. And Dean Pelton made a better Lady Gaga than Gabe, because he is weirder.

This Week in Television - Oct. 18-22, 2010

No Ordinary Family
This week's episode felt like it was trying really hard to be a sitcom. There were a lot of moments that I could tell were supposed to be funny but weren't because, like everything else about this show, they were bland and unoriginal. JJ only looked smaller than the other football players because he actually looks like a high school student, whereas the other guys were clearly in their 20's. And then he makes the football team because of ONE complete pass? Coach, don't you think you should make sure he can do it more than once, as well as test his abilities in other areas? That was even worse than Artie joining the football team on Glee. The only good scene was when Daphne tried to blackmail the variety store cashier and it didn't work because she had no proof.

Running Wilde
I didn't laugh too much at this episode, except for the scene where Steve and Fa'ad discuss their low scale "unnecessoirees" and then lapse into tiredness and Fa'ad steals the idea for a hooker-filled cocaine dome. That scene was great, but the rest of the jokes felt a little lazy and predictable.

Survivor: Nicaragua
Marty's story about being a Grandmaster in chess might have been believable if he hadn't added the part about beating a renowned player twice as a kid. But I guess that's irrelevant when you're talking to "Fabio". I didn't really understand the logic behind either of the votes in this episode, possibly because they edited it that way to make it surprising. Well, I suppose they only wanted to flush out Marty's idol and not vote him off, but I don't get how the other tribe would unanimously vote Eve after Dan kind of talked himself into a hole. Oh, and kudos to Jill for cleaning up at the challenge.

Community
So true that Professor Duncan would waste Anthropology time by showing Youtube videos in class. I know we've all spent hours watching movies in English class (and others, but mostly English) for no educational reason. With the leather pants and no beard, Abed looked more like Michael Jackson than Jesus, and I was expecting one of the characters to point this out but since no one did I guess it wasn't intentional. For an Abed storyline, though, it wasn't that great, although I found it funny when they were watching a rough cut and Star Burns - the editor, I assume - kept looking over at Abed to check his approval. And I liked Britta's line, "I don't even believe in God, but I love me some Abed."

30 Rock
Kudos for getting that one-take commercial filmed multiple times, unless they only did it once and then snuck a cut in there. Jack's solution for Tracy was awesome, and not unlike putting peanut butter on the roof of a dog's mouth for a talking animal movie. Liz's weird/gross/embarrassing stories are always great, and flashbacks of her playing her younger self are even better. Also liked all of the stupid cake typos, even if the bakery staff should've become suspicious at the same person constantly returning misprinted cakes (I know they made a point of mentioning there were two clerks, and that they were ordering from one and returning to the other, but nobody ever switched roles so they would've caught on.) P.S. Happy Blirthday, Jennica!

The Office
It's good that once in a while they do an episode like this, where Michael actually accomplishes something (in this case the hiring of Danny), because we need to be reminded that he does actually have some sales skills and that's why he made manager. Although it was also backhanded in that he "forgot about Packer", which might lead to an amusing firing (or at least a conflict between the two traveling salesmen) in a future episode. I like that Andy was bummed when Creed liked his song - even though Creed (both the character and the actor playing him) was part of a bluegrass band at one point, so he has musical abilities, it's probably not a good thing if Creed agrees with you on something. The best line in the episode was Dwight's about the "Penis Museum", where tickets are a thousand dollars.

Hero of the Week: Britta from Community, for the line above which was QUOTED FOR TRUTH!

Douchebag of the Week: Kelsey Grammer from 30 Rock, playing a version of himself that was pretty evil. FRAAAAJERRRRR!

JCVD

Impressions before seeing it
I am not a fan of Jean-Claude Van Damme. The only other movie of his that I've seen was the atrocious (and occasionally funny) Street Fighter: The Movie, and I am under the impression that his entire career is basically a cheesefest (though good for a laugh, I'm sure.) I wanted to watch this movie because I knew it would be something completely different from the rest of his work.

How was it?
Okay, I have to give credit where credit is due: Van Damme was excellent in this. Even with his English lines, and a lot of English-as-a-second-language actors aren't very good in English (again, see his previous work). But if you had never heard of Van Damme at all and watched this movie, you might think he was a renowned and well respected actor. Maybe part of the reason his performance works so well is because it's so surprising, like part of a master plan to build up a false sense of mediocrity with years of hokey action flicks and then suddenly bust out an Oscar caliber performance.

Anyway, in JCVD our title actor plays himself as he goes into a bank for money for his child custody battle and is soon taken hostage by bank robbers, who then place him in front so that everyone outside thinks he is the crook taking hostages. That part reminded me of Amos and Andrew, but in this case it is revealed through some non-linear editing and multiple viewpoints so I didn't mind. On the other hand, the whole hostage situation wasn't many notches above average, but the movie turned out to have other redeeming qualities.

There is a scene during Van Damme's court case where his daughter, on the witness stand, says "Every time my dad is on a TV show, my friends make fun of me." My first reaction to that was to laugh, but it was also a very sad moment for his character, both personally and professionally, and most of all there is probably some truth to it. Later, Van Damme takes a little break to float up out of the movie (literally) and directly address the camera with a single-take monologue that is honest, personal, emotional, beautiful, and exceptionally delivered. Although I was enjoying the movie up to that point (I love me some French cinema!), the honesty of the monologue and his daughter's quote are what single-handedly saved it. You hear of actors poking fun at themselves in comedies all the time, but here Van Damme is simply poking.

Recommendation
I imagine some people would need an open mind to even want to watch this movie, or at least think they need one, but here Van Damme is not an action star, but an actor, and that makes all the difference. I would at least recommend looking up the monologue scene on Youtube.