Thursday Night Spectacular

The normal Thursday night line up was enhanced a tad this week by this season's first Thursday night football game. So, not only was a I watching Community, Parks and Rec, The Office, 30 Rock, Always Sunny and The League, I was also trying to keep track of the Bears vs. the Niners.

First, the football game - The Niners got their first win in over a month against coach Mike Singletary's former team. Bears QB Jay Cutler threw his fifth and final interception of the game on the final play to seal the 10-6 loss. It is starting to look like the Bears got the short end of the stick in the trade with Denver over the off season. Cutler has thrown a league leading 17 interceptions this season and the Bears have a long road ahead of them if they plan on making the playoffs. The Niners, despite losing 4 straight prior to last night, could still have a chance at the post-season due to the terrible division they play in.

Community - I'm out on this show. Don't care about it, don't think it is particularly funny. I only half-watched but from what I could gather, this episode was about McHale's character and the chick who plays Trudy Campbell joining a debate league. I wouldn't expect to see anything more written about Community on this blog.

Parks and Rec - Pretty hilarious episode. The Parks Department (well, mainly Leslie) is determined to create a contest winning mural that captures the spirit of Pawnee. Tom pays an art student $20 to create his mural for him. It turns out that the student is a budding abstract impressionist and the mural that he paints for Tom is just a bunch of shapes and colors. Anne draws an infantile picture of a park and glues pictures of animals cut from a magazine to it (Great zinger from Tom: "It looks like something a death row inmate would make during art therapy"). Jerry makes a beautiful photo-mosaic of a Pawnee landmark but makes the mistake of referring to it as a murinal (mural combined with urinal) and like always everyone shits on him. My favorite was Donna’s (I think that is the big black lady's name). She recreated of The Last Supper but instead of depicting Jesus and his disciples, her version featured famous Indianans (Larry Bird, Michael Jackson, Greg Kinnear (as Jesus)). The group can't agree on whose mural should represent the department in the contest, so they decide to combine the designs. The result is, predictably, a disaster, but the process brings the department closer together. There is a funny sub-plot about Andy becoming a shoeshine who becomes freaked out by an inappropriate sound Ron (fast becoming one of the funniest characters) utters during a shoe shining session.

The Office - Dunder-Mifflin might be going out of business! In order to keep his staff's minds off the impending doom, Michael orchestrates a rousing game of "Belles, Bourbon, and Bullets", a murder mystery game set in antebellum Savannah. Hilarious southern accents ensue (Andy’s displayed a knack for regional dialects).

30 Rock - I have begun to use the 30 Rock timeslot to enjoy my pre-Always Sunny jay. From what I saw, this episode was about the TGS cast welcoming a new member. I vaugely remember chuckling at a few Tracy Morgan jokes.

Always Sunny in Philadelphia - Sunny got back to its roots with this episode. It didn't waste any energy with elaborate story lines (breaking into the World Series, giving Frank an intervention, going on a road trip) and or settings (courtrooms, baseball stadium dungeons). This episode was all about the chemistry between the characters. One of the best things about the show has always been the little nuances and idiosyncrasies that the characters display from season to season. Here are some examples from this episode: Mac and Dennis pointing out Sweet D's resemblance to a bird, Mac's obsession with the male physique (I refuse to believe that a guy who is so obsessed with choreographed fight scenes and muscle bound men has never scene The Transporter), Charlie's love for felines (by the way, how funny is it that Charlie wears a McGregor sweatshirt. Is he a gym coach?), and Frank's love for trash. The plot for this episode is simple, yet effective (plus it included a sweet message about the importance of friendship (Mac/Dennis = Dynamic Duo, Frank/Charlie = Gruesome Twosome)). After D tells Dennis and Mac that they act like an old married couple they decide to take a break from each other. Mac goes to Charlie and Frank's house, Dennis goes to Sweet D's. D gets a cat stuck in her wall and enlists Charlie to assist in its extraction. Charlie puts more cats in her wall. D goes into the wall after them and gets stuck. Mac and Dennis reunite. The End.

Things I learned from the episode:

The importance of "packing on mass".

Apple skin and seeds are highly toxic.

Cigarette smoke suffocates the bacteria found in apple seeds and skins.

All calico cats are female.

The League - Thankfully, after the third episode, The League seems to be finding its voice. I think the writers may have read the posting where I complained about the wife characters; one is completely gone and the other has been pretty much relegated to the background (although Ruxton’s wife assumed a more central role in this episode). Speaking of my suggestions, the writers also clued us in to one of the teams names; Dr. Andre’s team is called Double Entendre (which absolutely sucks). This episode focused on a Sunday lunch party put on by the afore-mentioned wife of Ruxton (I have no clue what her name is. Something Spanish I think). He invites the rest of the league over because, obviously, if he can’t watch the games, no one can. We find out the Dr. Andre is member of another league ( The Fantasy Football League of Extraordinary Gentleman. Which absolutely sucks.); one in which he dominates and is revered as fantasy football guru. The episode ends with a toddler smearing dog feces (the dog’s name is Kale, which absolutely sucks) on an infant’s face.

Stay tuned for a review on the new Call of Duty game for the Xbox.

Thursday Night TV Extravaganza

Wow. Thursday night was an epic night of television. Two and a half straight hours of hilarity, most of it on NBC. Here is a run down of the highlights:

8:00 PM – Community
Initially I liked this show. I was intrigued by the notion of Joel McHale starring in his own sitcom along side Chevy Chase (who, by the way seems, to be competing with Ed O’Neil for the “Damn He Got Old Award”), some blond chick named after a popular water filtering pitcher, that black guy from the “Bro-Rape” sketch, Pete Campbell’s wife, and an Indian guy with mild autism. In the first episode, Joel McHale was snappy and charismatic. Unfortunately, the show, and McHale’s character, has become much less interesting and the laughs father and farther apart since. Now the funniest and most likable character is Abed, the Indian Raymond Babbitt.


8:30 PM – Parks and Recreation
Most underrated comedy on TV right now. The cast is superb. I had given up on Amy Poehler when she joined the cast of SNL. The move from Upright Citizens Brigade to SNL was kind of like a football player from a successful small college with a great program who is drafted by the Oakland Raiders. Al Davis might overpay to get you, but you are going to be part of something supremely awful. Rashida Jones is great. (Best semi-racist quote from my girlfriend of the night, "She doesn't even look black at all") It is getting to the point where I have to stare at the floor when she is on screen so I will be allowed to sleep in my own bed that night. She is that hot. She also has a pretty kick-ass resume. Check out her IMDB sometime (Here are the highlights: Freaks and Geeks, Boston Public, Chappelle’s Show, The Office, I Love You Man). The unsung hero of the show (and pretty much everything he appears in) has to be Aziz Ansari as Tom Haverford. He absolutely fucking slays me. His 5 minutes of screen time in Funny People was exponentially funnier than any scene with Adam Sandler since The Wedding Singer.

9:00 PM – The Office (Hour-long Jim/Pam Wedding Special)
I loved the first 55 minutes of this episode. It was absolutely pitch-perfect and had more laugh-out-loud moments than I can count. For whatever reason, this episode seemed to use slapstick type humor more often than we are used to from The Office (the vomiting scene at the beginning, Andy ripping his scrotum) but it really worked well. To me, Kevin stole the show. He was hilarious as usual. I could have done without the whole dancing down the isle bit. It seemed like the writers took the easy way out with the end of the episode. It came off as gimmicky and trite. I would have been happier if they had used those 5 minutes to show a few more scenes with Jim’s brothers or Michael and Pam’s mom. This episode raises some serious questions about how the show will work in the future. A married couple in the office creates a whole new dynamic, one that at first glace does not appear particularly funny. But I trust that the people at The Office will find a way to make it work.

10:00 PM - Always Sunny In Philadelphia
I am starting to get worried. I love this show, and have since the first episode, however this season seems to have more chuckle moments than knee-slappers. As much as I like the idea and will probably try it this weekend, the wine-in-a-can bit seemed to miss. But, like always, Charlie saves the day. It is tough for me to hate on an episode that went to credits with me in hysterics.


-Salt The Snail!