September 2011
7 posts
5 tags
Pilot Roundup Part 4: Whitney, Charlie's Angels,...
Whitney
I’ve talked a lot about how difficult it is to judge a comedy based solely on its pilot. Most shows are moderately funny, so you really have to look at the characters to see if it’ll last. Looking at Whitney, however, you don’t even have to look that far. This show is funny in the worst way - it’s so unfunny, I didn’t even laugh at how bad it is.
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3 tags
Breaking Bad S04E11 "Crawl Space"
I haven’t written anything all season about Breaking Bad, and that’s partly because of episodes like this. A lot of this season has been set-up, and I mean that in the best way possible. The show has been entertaining and excellent - any show would kill for a season like this. But, we all know, Breaking Bad isn’t content with just that. We all knew there had to be bigger and...
5 tags
Community S03E01 "Biology 101"/Parks and...
Parks and Rec and Community are the best sitcoms on television, and have been for a while. Since they come on the same channel on the same night (and now, back-to-back), it’s easy to try and compare them and find thematic links between the night’s episodes. Tonight, though, both shows aimed for something similar, and succeeded each in their own way. Both episodes were of about the same...
3 tags
Pilot Roundup Part 3: Revenge
Revenge
Of all the bad things I can say about Revenge, the worst I can say is it doesn’t have a heart. We need to empathize with our main character, and there’s none of that here. Overall, even outside of her character, there’s no real pulse to this pilot - it feels dead already, like a network exec wouldn’t let any one part of the solidly produced episode go wild....
4 tags
Pilot Roundup Part 2: The Playboy Club, New Girl,...
The Playboy Club
Chicaaaaaaaago, Chicaaaaaaaaago…..
Let’s start with this first, just because moral concerns trump writing concerns. Since Playboy is still an actual brand, this show conforms exactly to what Hugh Hefner wants everyone to think of him, which he states nicely at the end (and a few characters take pains to mention): he was awesome for giving women such a great...
4 tags
Pilot Roundup Part 1: 2 Broke Girls
Let’s do it.
Two and a Half Men
I know this isn’t a pilot, but I want it in writing: I tried. I really did. I did not laugh once. This isn’t out of some haughty elitism; I watched an episode at a supposedly fresh start and it was terrible. Every joke I expected the show to make it did, and then a few times more for effect.
2 Broke Girls
How generic is the title card? Geez. I...
2 tags
Louie S2
Louie, along with Breaking Bad, has been this summer’s darling. It has been at least as strong as Season 1’s breath of summer fresh air, and Louis C.K. actually was rewarded with an Emmy nomination for S1, which he will surely lose this Sunday to the entire cast of Modern Family. The critical discussion has been all over the place, probably fittingly, as the show itself is...