You Had Me At Meat Tornado

Here’s what I watched on Wednesday and Thursday night.

Off the Map – “A Doctor Time Out” (B)

This was a better offering this week. The main the patient story – a pregnant wife with a husband stuck under a tree – started slow (not a fan of the mud slide thing), but certainly picked up towards the end of the episode with some great character moments.

Up until this point in the series Zach Gilford (I’m contractually obligated to mention him in every review. I signed this contract with myself) has been relegated mainly to comic relief, which is a shame because Gilford is really a terrific dramatic actor (for proof just check out the Friday Night Light’s episode “The Son”). So naturally I was happy to see him get a chance to flex his dramatic muscles in this episode. His scene with the pregnant wife at the end of the episode was well done, and a nice change of pace for his character.

We also got to see Tommy do some flirting with Ryan this week (played by Rachelle Lefevre – come on Twilight hits), which I was a fan of. I liked her “you have to take your shirt off to move a tree” comment. It’s actually kind of a relief to see a character on one of these shows not completely obsessed with sex (and willing to call out the genre for some of the ridiculous reasons it comes up with to show people naked).

Both actors seemed to have great chemistry with each other, so I wouldn’t mind seeing the two of them paired up more. On a strictly character basis these two are an interesting match anyways, with Tommy being a bit of a man whore and Ryan being raised by missionaries (this doesn’t guarantee she’s religious, but she seems to have her head on straight). The show seems to be dropping hints in this direction, so I’m going to go ahead and call this relationship now – that is if Ryan isn’t used as a wedge between Keeton and Lily first (who says they can’t do both).

The last big discovering in this episode was that Keeton lost a wife and a child just a couple of years ago. It certainly made his character a bit more interesting, and I think in the end it’ll help bring him and Lily closer together (despite her “he isn’t what I thought he was” comment in this episode) as both of them have recently lost someone.

 I think I’ll just resign myself to the fact that these two won’t spend an episode apart any time in the near future. I guess I can’t blame the writers for this – breaking them up for an episode may lose some of the momentum. It’ll be interesting to see who they bring along with them on the jungle trip next week.

Cougar Town – “Lost Children” (B)

I asked for more Tom and they gave it to me. I’d like to thank the writers of Cougar Town for what I can only assume is their loyal support of this blog. It means a lot to have such amazingly talented individuals as fans (Bill Lawrence I’m looking at you... hopefully... please).

Alright, there may be an outside chance that they came up with the idea of using a recurring character one more time on their own. I’m willing to admit that because I’m both a reasonable and humble individual – who can run a mile in three minutes and write poetry so breathtaking you’ll feel like you just touched the face of God.

Anyways, I’m glad Tom’s back – and for a whole episode too. I just love how mean they are to him, especially the ending where they made him go hide with no intention of ever looking for him. Is it weird that I take this much pleasure in a character being tortured?

I also liked that the show started calling itself out on its own conventions. Jules being bossy, Trav never being at college, and even the name of show were all referenced throughout the episode (I’ve said it before but if you still don’t watch this show because of its name you are seriously missing out). Grayson’s impression of Travis had to be my favourite of the references.

GRAYSON: Hey, I’m moody and sarcastic, and I’m home for the tenth straight weekend because I don’t understand how college works.

I also have to quickly mention Laurie’s “beef and bubbles” detective show idea. Busy Philipps’ delivery was hilarious and I love that Bobby got choked up after hearing it.

“Lost Children” was a good episode. Maybe not as laugh out loud funny as last couple episodes from the series, but still – you could do a lot worse.

Community – “Celebrity Pharmacology” (A-)

DEAN PELTON: I gotta tell you Annie – this is greatest chemical dependency program I have ever watched.

Dean – that was the greatest chemical dependency program anyone has ever watched.

Wow that play was funny. By the intermission, when they had the kids chanting “we want drugs” I didn’t think it could get any better, but then they put Chang on stage and gave what was probably one of the best lessons on drugs I have ever seen. I mean all comedy aside that was actually a pretty ingenious way of teaching kids about drugs.

Clearly the star of this episode was Chevy Chase. He doesn’t get to play the lead in this show very often, but he certainly took advantage of the opportunity here. Pierce was basically a quote machine – he even made the other characters funnier just by his presence.

PIERCE: There’s a rapist in the hallway.
ANNIE: That’s my landlord. And if he wanted to rape you, you’d be raped.

PIERCE: Let me answer your question with two of my own. What are you doing in an apartment above Dildopolis and when did they add a second location?

PIERCE: (to a group of school children) Ain’t no party without drugs!

PIERCE: Fired! Next time I’m at Dildopolis I will not be coming upstairs to say hi.

I also really loved their opening rehearsal. The writers on Community really know how to work this cast of characters. From Brita thinking that Annie was complementing her when she said that she didn’t respond to anything appropriately, to Abed thinking pot just made people “custom paint their vans and solve mysteries”, the whole sequence was like a highlight reel of all the hilarious eccentricities of these characters.

This show seems to be going through a creative high at the moment. The concepts of some these recent episodes have been downright brilliant, and the writers certainly deserve a lot of credit for coming up with some of the most creative episode ideas on television right now.

The Office – “The Seminar” (B-)

I wasn’t the biggest fan of this week’s episode of The Office. I think it’s because the A story, revolving around Andy and his attempt to throw a small business seminar, just didn’t do it for me. Kevin’s segment of the seminar just seemed a little too stupid for me. The part where he started throwing up because he jogged around the room for a couple of minutes just felt like a desperate ploy for laughs. Kelly’s short segment of the seminar was good though and Ed Helms did a great job with Andy this week – it just wasn’t enough to save the whole storyline for me.

The B story of this episode was actually a lot more entertaining, and it was all thanks to the wonderfully funny Ellie Kemper. Apparently Erin and Gabe play scrabble to see who picks their movies and poor Erin has never won a game. It was hilarious watching them all play scrabble, especially how Erin couldn’t grasp all the word suggestions coming from Oscar and Pam. Pam’s “it doesn’t have to just be cow stuff right” comment made me laugh out loud. I also loved Gabe’s theory on why Erin was doing so much better this game.

GABE:  The only thing I can think is Erin is living out some sort of Slumdog Millionaire scenario, where every word she’s playing has a connection to her orphan past.

The ending was sweet too, with Andy swooping in at the end and gaining some major brownie points with Erin (although I’ve gotta say, Gabe is not unlikable and this certainly isn’t a Pam/Roy situation). Her reaction to his movie suggestion was awesome.

ERIN: There’s a Shrek 2!

It’s funny but Erin is one of the most enjoyable characters on the show these days. She has great chemistry with a lot of other characters and her dim-wittedness is endlessly lovable. I think it’s because she’s such a relatively new character that everything she does feels so fresh, even when dealing with characters who’ve been around since the show’s inception.

Now I can’t finish this review without mentioning the Ricky Gervais cameo this week. The scene was really well done. I’m glad they had him playing his original character David Brent. It was awesome to see how quickly he and Michael bonded. I love how his “that’s what she said” comment impressed Michael so much it prompted a hug from him. It was good that they got this cameo in before Steve Carell leaves the show – it just seems fitting for some reason.

Parks and Recreation – “The Flu” (A)

Where do I even start? Seriously – I have no idea how to condense how funny this episode was down into a single review. Almost every main character in this episode had at least one laugh out loud moment – many had more than one. Here are some of my favourite moments by character:

Leslie

-          “I think my allergies are acting up... I’ve already vomited like 5 times today”.

-          Watching her wear her jeans like a scarf as she attempted to escape the hospital.

-          After Tom asks her if she wants a ride to the hospital: “Was I wearing a tiara when I came in here, because if you happen upon it will you have Lady Pennyface retrieve it and send it post hence”.

-          This exchange:

LESLIE: If I was sick would I be doing this?
ANN: (as she just sits there) What are you doing?
LESLIE: Cartwheels... am I not doing them?
ANN: No...

April

-          “My blankets are on the floor”. Awesome.

-          “Help, this slutty nurse is trying to smother me to death with a pillow”.

-          April responding “That’s the most I’ve ever liked Ann” after Ann freaks out on her.

Ron

-          Visiting April in the hospital: “Here, I didn’t know what to bring you so I just got some magazines and lipstick... women’s stuff.

-          As he looks for someone to replace April with: “Now I know I’m not going to find someone who is both aggressively mean and apathetic. April really is the whole package”.

-          “You had me at meat tornado”.

Andy

-          His super straw – hilarious.

-          After Ron asks him to fill in for April: “Do I have to tuck my shirt in, because honestly that’s a deal breaker”.

-          “Leslie, I typed your symptoms into the thing up here, and it says you could have network connectivity problems”.

-          Watching him and Ron run away giggling after setting off a car alarm.

Chris

-          Telling an old man struggling down a hospital hallway “way to go buddy. Way to go” as he runs off.

-          “The microchip has been compromised”.

-          The entirety of his complete physical breakdown montage.

-          This exchange with Ann:

ANN: Hey have you seen Leslie?
CHRIS: I had a dream, that she came into this room, stole all my flu medicine, told me not tell you, and then disappeared through that hole in the wall.
ANN: The door?

Next week I may just type out the script. Honestly, I don’t think it would make that big of a difference. Either way, great episode.

30 Rock – “Operation Righteous Cowboy Lightning” (B)

Not a bad episode this week. The story focused around Liz and Tracey dealing with Angie’s reality show coming to the set. The story itself was more of a medium to present all of Tracey’s hilarious one-liners. I loved that Tracey literally phoned it in during rehearsal. I also laughed at what Tracey “wasn’t” going to be doing if Liz hadn’t needed him that night.

TRACEY:  I wasn’t going to buy two blimps and crash them into each other to see what sound they made.

So randomly hilarious. I also have to mention the great Lost shout out when Tracey included Charles Widmore in the group of rich guys with their own islands.

I found it interesting that both Tracey and Liz feel as though they saved the other one`s respective career. Normally we only get Lemon`s perspective on this one, but Tracy made a good point to. Plus it gave them a great excuse to start talking about hugs and boob pressing, a topic we can all get behind.

The other sub-plot had Jack filming a celebrity telethon for a disaster that hadn’t happened yet. Robert De Niro’s cameo was hilarious – the string of fake disasters they came up with for him were all pretty entertaining. I also liked watching Jenna beautifully sing what the song-writing software had written for her.

Well that’s it. Did you think Parks and Rec was as funny as I did? Did Community help you say no to drugs? Do I have an unhealthy obsession with Zach Gilford? Let me know what you think in the comments.

See you next week!