Review: Mad Love Episode 1.09 "Pub Quiz"

CBS

Today is a great day to cancel Mad Love.

The follow text conversation took place between 7:41 and 7:57 CST

Jeramy: The fact that you didn't rip Mad Love apart makes me doubt you. Strongly

Blake: It is better tonight.

Jeramy: Are you watching the same show I'm watching?

Blake: It is charming. Certainly not the best, but not horrible.

Jeramy: It is horrible. The laugh track makes it worse.

Blake: Yeah, the laugh track is bad, I will give you that, but the show is not nearly as bad as you think. It is a solid 5.

Jeramy: It's a solid -5. You only like it because Sarah Chalke makes you moist.

Blake: Yep.

Jeramy: I don't know who's worse... cliché fat guy, cliché straight guy, or the two barely distinguishable chicks.

Blake: Fat guy is funny and the chicks are cute. Straight guy is horrible.

Jeramy: Fat guy isn't funny. The chicks aren't naked enough to be a draw.

Blake: Well, I disagree. It won't matter though, it will get axed.

Jeramy: The cliché wackiness is making me reach for my gun.

Blake: Haha! Sounds like you should write the review tonight.

Jeramy: Don't worry dude, Sarah will be doing softcore porn in a few years.

Jeramy: ...which will be better scripted than Mad Love.

Blake: I hope so.

Happy Endings Review: 1.01 "Pilot" & 1.02 "The Quicksand Girlfriend"

NBC

Today is not a good day to cancel Happy Endings.

This is a special review, not only is it of two episodes, but the first two episodes of a new series! I know, exciting stuff.

Let me get this out of the way off the bat, the show is actually very well done and extremely funny. Unfortunately, it also comes at a time when the market is saturated with a ridiculous amount of 'romantic, group of friends' sitcoms. How I Met Your Mother, Mad Love, Traffic Light, Better with You, Cougar Town, and Perfect Couples have all aired this year and all have very similar premises.

So while there is the overwhelming sense of deja vu here, the series still manages to feel fresh, which is no small accomplishment.

The basic premise of the series is Dave (Zachary Knighton) is left at the altar by Alex (Elisha Cuthbert). Blah, blah, blah, blah. Look, every review you see out there for this show is going to go into these people are and the crux of what we learn in the pilot. The truth is, the series only gets good when it gets past that point and lets the brilliant writing take hold.

Don't get me wrong, the series is not perfect, but it is already a better show than Perfect Couples was before it was cancelled, and has plenty of room to grow.

But is the show already Destined to be Cancelled, like it's NBC counterpart?

Well the truth is a little sad, but it very well could be. Launching a show in mid-April is never a good sign and next week it will be moving to 9:00 CDT, which is a very untraditional slot for a sitcom. It will be interesting to see how the ratings do, but initially it seems to be the perfect coupling (excuse the pun) with Cougar Town for a potential Tuesday comedy block next season.

It is at this point that I usually wrap these things up with bringing in a joke from earlier to tie things up nicely in a little package.

I guess for this one, I will just have to skip the Happy Ending.

Although seriously, give it a try next Wednesday night (I just couldn't end on such a terrible joke, despite evidence to the contrary, I am better than, but only by a little).

-Blake

Read Blake's other Wednesday Night ABC Comedy reviews for The Middle and Modern Family.

The Middle Review: Episode 2.19 "The Legacy"

ABC

Today is not a good day to cancel The Middle.

Everyone gets a trophy, and that isn't always a bad thing.

That was the basic plot of tonight's episode, but I can't help feeling that it is also about the show itself. Yeah, this is going to be one of those meta reviews. Deal with it.

The Middle is the closest spiritual successor to ABC's family sitcoms of the 1990's on the network. And I love it for that. I grew up watching shows like Home Improvement and to a much lesser extent Roseanne, shows that rarely ever made me laugh out loud (or LOL if you are sixteen years old), but kept me smiling throughout the episode. And The Middle does this, every week.

In football vernacular, it would be like taking an offensive lineman in the first round of the NFL Draft, which is a middle of the country way of saying that it is solid, but not flashy. And this episode was no different.

But is that enough, is it enough in today's TV world to simply be solid? Apparently, the answer is yes as the show has already been renewed for next season, and the show has done quite well in the ratings. I just have to wonder 

though, how much can viewers in the New York or LA related to a lower middle class family that has to deal with hand-me-down clothes from cousins or that one really poor family with the kids that belong more in a prison than a school? Both were well executed plot lines in this episode.

The bottom line is that for me, constant smiles and the occasional chuckles is enough, and that is exactly what "The Legacy" delivered, as have most episodes of this meat and potatoes show. What do you think, is this enough for you, or do you need to be on the floor laughing constantly?

Maybe I will get a trophy for number of rhetorical questions.

I should, this review was not very special, but a solid C. And I'm okay with that too.

Mediocrity! Yeah!

Sports Show with Norm Macdonald Review: Premier episode

Comedy Central

Today is not a good day to cancel Sports Show with Norm Macdonald.

Coming in to fill the long suffering 10:30 eastern time slot (airing right before The Daily Show), Sports Show with Norm Macdonald joins/replaces Comedy Central's first foray into the world of sports news themed comedy Onion SportsDome, which is "on hiatus" while Comedy Central undoubtedly decides whether to kill it by axe or by fire. The network is essentially replacing a failed sports comedy show with a different sports comedy show. Given the history of the "spocom" (a term I am officially coining) being, well, nonexistent, this seems like a really stupid move.


The biggest problem with Sports Show is the star, "Canukomedian" (another term I'm officially coining) Norm MacDonald. Don't for a moment get the impression that I'm dogging Norm... he would have this same problem no matter what he did. You see, while I'm a huge fan and consider him to be one of the funniest comedians working today, there is a crowd of people who really just don't get him. I'll call these people "morons" (yet another term I'm officially coining). In fact, this group of people cost him the job most similar to his role as host of Sports Show... that of SNL Weekend Update anchor: NBC exec Don Ohlmeyer pressured SNL producers to cut Norm from Weekend Update because he was "not funny". Meanwhile, many people consider Norm to be the best WU host ever. Different strokes, I guess.

Sports Show should naturally cater to the sports crowd, which is a sizeable bunch... but narrow those viewers down to those that also understand Norm Macdonald's comedy and... I don't know if there are enough eyes to keep the show on the air.

All that being said, SS needs to step up to the plate and hit a grand slam walk-off home run on its first at-bat. It needs to throw a ninety yard hail-mary for a touchdown. It needs to <insert generic sports cliche here>. Bottom line, it needs to not only avoid sucking but actually be good in a way that SportsDome was not. So, does it? The answer is a resounding...


Maybe.

The first episode is hilarious. The opening headline-style monologue frequently required me to hit pause to get past my own laughter. Norm is brutal, just like he was in his Weekend Update days. Nearly every one of the jokes hit to some degree, which for me almost never happens. The only gag that didn't work as well was one that relied on a clip heavily featured on another Comedy Central show Tosh.0, but that was still pretty funny even if you'd seen the clip before. The "Norm goes undercover as an NBA star" skit after the first break was pretty funny and the shows close was just as good as its opening. I loved the show and if keeps it up, I'll be watching it as long as it's on the air.

Getting down to brass tacks: is Sports Show funnier than SportsDome? Absolutely. SD was hit-and-miss at best, SS is much more consistent. If you like Norm Macdonald, you'll love Sports Show, sports fan or not. If you don't find Norm funny at all, then you'll hate it. Comedy Central has ordered 8 episodes... I guess we'll see which side wins.

HIMYM Review: Episode 6.20 "The Exploding Meatball Sub"

CBS

Today is not a good day to cancel How I Met Your Mother.

This episode spells the end of the seven episode "Marshall's dad died" story arc, and I'm glad. Don't get me wrong, it was an excellent storyline full of poignant, funny, and unusually sad (for a comedy show) moments, but it's been a bit too persistent for my tastes, at least as a central theme.

The main storyline in episode 6.20 revolves around Marshall revisiting his disdain for his job at GNB and ultimately quitting. This is a bit odd for me, considering he claimed to enjoy his job a scant twelve episodes back (at the black tie fundraiser). You could blame it on the loss of his father making him reevaluate his blah blah blah, but in reality this is WAY too soon for him to go back to "I want to save the world" Marshall from "Money is awesome" Marshall. It smells of writers not thinking things out longterm.

Two subplots reflect this main plot. In the first, Ted claims that Lily and Marshall never challenge one another while Lily claims that Ted and Zoey challenge each other too much. They both profess to be happy with the way things are, but in a twist absolutely no one sees coming, they finally admit that things aren't all they're cracked up to be. Lily even makes a move that seems pretty out of character to me (and a little shocking when you really consider the ramifications).

That's enough of the bad, let's get to the good: the second subplot involves Barney dealing with Marshall leaving GNB. Even though they tie it in with Barney's father drama, it's still the highlight of the episode and provides much of the humor. The writing throughout is still top notch (Tommy Boy is hilariously referenced near the beginning of the episode) and the acting is great. HIMYM has managed to achieve something few sitcoms do... to successfully inject drama into the series without missing a beat. You're dealing with the death of Marshall's father, which was set up so beautifully it's almost brutal, as well as the Barney's dad saga which has been going on for a few seasons, and the show is still as funny as ever. It absolutely deserves its recent two year renewal.

All that being said, it makes Mad Love (which follows it) look absolutely awful by comparison. Don't listen to Blake... that show isn't long for this world. It's essentially the Go-Bots to HIMYM's Transformers... a cheap, obvious knockoff that will not stand the test of time.

-Jeramy

Mad Love Review: Episode 1.08 Paw and Order

CBS

Today is not a good day to cancel Mad Love.

This is one frustrating show.

By the eighth episode of a series, you can usually start to see everything start to gel. The writers get a good handle on the characters. The actors start gaining chemistry with one another. Basically, the whole show finds its footing . . . or it doesn't.

I am not ready to say that Mad Love is not going to discover these things, but it took a giant step backward from the momentum it had gained over the past several episodes.

This weeks plot was N-42 on the sheet of sitcom B-I-N-G-O the writers must have been playing, which is an overwritten way to say that it was boring. Kate (Sarah Chalke) has to dogsit her bosses dog, it doesn't like her and of course it runs away. Of course, after the dog is found it is a case of mistaken identities and they have to pull the ol' switcheroo (0-89 on that sheet, if you are keeping score).

The bright spot of this series so far has been the wonderful acting of the two supporting roles, Tyler Labine as Larry Munch and Judy Greer as Connie. Even they were unable to rise to the occasion this week as Connie tried to get used to her new boyfriend while openly fawning over Larry (I-22) and ultimately getting dumped by said boyfriend with the realization by her that she has feelings for Larry in the end (G-71). Wow, none of that was expected.

Am I being rough on the show? Absolutely. The talent is present to make this show much better than what tonight showed. The principal cast is strong and the show runner, Matt Tarses ([Scrubs], Sports Night), has the talent to lead them to that point.

That being said, time is running out. The ratings have been pretty consistent with How I Met Your Mother, and it would seem like a natural companion for that series, but with several other bubble sitcoms and a fresh stock of pilots on CBS, Mad Love has to be better than this.

And for the record, I think it will be, but what do I know, I just lost my own game of B-I-N-G-O.

-Blake

Castle Review: Episode 4.20 "The Dead Pool"

ABC

Today is not a good day to cancel Castle.

It was another "carrot" episode on Castle this week, which is both great, and horrible. For those of you who have never seen an 80's style workout montage, using a carrot basically means to tempt someone with something. In our case, it the continuation of the will they, won't they of the leads, Richard Castle and Detective Beckett.

And you know what, I did it.

This is why I watch this show. Every week I tune in and couldn't care less about the murder of the week, I want to see the chemistry between Castle and Beckett and that I just hope will be resolved, even if I know it won't this week.

As Jeramy pointed out in his last post, the two of us know a little something about TV, and one of the things we know is that you do not do anything as major as resolving romantic tension in mid-April. Now this time next month during May sweeps, the expectation will change, but not now.

So for what it was, a carrot episode, it was very good. The central story this week centered around the murder of an ascending young swimmer. Everything about this story put me to sleep. This felt like something I could have seen in any one of millions of CSI clones that have come and gone over the last several years. I expect more zany stories from Castle.

Fortunately, the B story of Castle mentoring a young writer, whom Beckett ends up having great chemistry with, is good fun. The resolution feels rushed, but it is sweet enough to keep that us chasing the carrot.

Overall, it was a rather disappointing episode of a usually great show. Even more disappointing is the fact that the show will be preempted over the next several weeks for Royal Wedding coverage.

I will not be reviewing that, but give me Stana Katic over Kate Middleton.

-Blake

(For those of you looking for a star rating, thumps up, or any other ridiculous way of quantifying my thoughts, you won't find one. I don't believe in giving arbitrary ratings on singular episodes. Don't be lazy and infer my rating based on the above thoughts. Critical thinking people, let's be grown ups.)