TV Roundup

Wouldn’t it be great if I studied Chinese or practiced the guitar or cleaned my apartment in my down time? Yeah. Right. After teaching English and being a downtown spectacle all day, sometimes the best recourse is to spend a few hours before bed losing your mind in a TV show. And if I’ve come to do anything well in life, it’s staring at TV screens. Let’s discuss some recents:

Samantha Who (Season 1)
I’m embarrassed to admit I watched this one, but if I didn’t include it on the list, people might think I’m not a well-balanced individual. Of course, the fact that I can’t speak highly of the show nullifies my attempts to prove otherwise. And there you go. I like the idea of a recovering amnesiac who, episode by episode, uncovers more evidence that she was a total B before she turned sweet and naive, and episode by episode, falls back into old habits, but… it’s more tiring than it is funny. Christina Applegate’s character is like that nice but way too energetic girl in your class who you have to admire for her attitude but who drives you absolutely crazy. TV’s not supposed to drive you crazy, or if it is, it’s supposed to do it slowly and discretely.

The Office (Seasons 1-3)
Tomfoolery in the workplace is funny. Everyone loves being on the giving side of a prank, and it’s great to watch a show where people can take office pranks to extremes that would get normal people fired. This is why The Office should spend less time on romances and more time screwing with Dwight. I was very hesitant to give The Office a try, though. There is a Facebook application that posts random The Office quotes on your profile, but the quotes often end up being ridiculously long transcripts between two or even three characters. How is that even a quote anymore? Any show that has to retell that much information as a highlight can’t possibly be very good. And after watching the first two episodes, I couldn’t even stand Steve Carell. But then you realize all the other characters on the show find him rude and obnoxious, too, and suddenly everything he does is hilarious. It always helps to be in on the joke.

Arrested Development (Seasons 1-3)
Jason Bateman as Michael Bluth is the perfect straight man. Unlike Zeppo Marx, who was normal beyond forgettable, Bateman used the role of the normal one to smugly hand out insults that his spoiled, lazy, and seriously warped family members either don’t understand or absorb in amusing ways. Arrested Development is like a more mature, better-produced Malcom in the Middle, where, afterwards, you breathe a sigh of relief, “Thank goodness families like that don’t exist,” or, “Thank goodness the media hasn’t found mine.” Even the narrator gets time to joke around and contradicts what characters say or comments on how unfortunate it was to have to censor a particular word. It’s too bad Fox canceled the show, forcing the writers to rush the end of the story in Season 3, because it tainted what was otherwise a very clever and smart sitcom.

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (Seasons 1-4)
I am obligated to draw parallels between Seinfeld and Sunny in Philadelphia. Hey, you can’t write a review if you don’t. Those are the rules. While both shows are about a small group of friends who, by doing very little, still manage to ruin many people’s lives, Jerry’s gang at least had good intentions, and any bad luck incurred was purely accidental. The characters in Sunny in Philadelphia, on the other hand, are rude, selfish, horrible people whose every attempt to work as a team ends up in betrayal and sabotage. Did I mention they are horrible people? The reason this show works is because things rarely (or barely) work out for these people. They may win their bar back, but it involves breaking each others’ knees and drugging each other with cough syrup. And you say to yourself, “You know what? I don’t feel sorry for these people at all. In fact, their demise is kind of funny and well deserved. Ha!”

27 September 2008 | Anything Goes | Comments | Home
tags: movies, reviews

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