I love the 80s. I grew up in the 80s. This show is about growing up in the 80s and it is rad. This is a retelling of the childhood of Adam F. Goldberg the creator of the show as he grew up in the 80s and his obsession with filmmaking and recording everything with his camcorder. The early seasons for this show were quite interesting and remarkable, however as the series tears on it has grown a bit stale relying on an 80s stereotype for each episode.
Grade: B-Category Archives: Comedy
Mr. Mayor
Ted Danson has just finished The Good Place and already has found a new prime time show. He stars with Holly Hunter and Bobby Moynihan in this comedic look at politics in Los Angeles. This show is basically an L.A. version of the Michael J. Fox show Spin City. I liked that show and I like this show, however it is not reinventing anything or breaking a barriers.
Grade: C+
The Great North
A woodsy Alaskan family with a fishing operation plunder through the struggles of life after the matriarch passes away. It really doesn’t sound like a comedy but in every essence it is. Nick Offerman, Jenny Slate, and Will Forte bring this animated series to life. I fear that this show will continue to place Offerman in a stereotypical manly man role, but I do love him in this genre. I really have not been able to get into many of these adult centric cartoons lately, however this one is unique and hits the notes that make me tingle with delight.
Grade: A
Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist
I love musicals. For a large portion of my life that is all I was about. I loved TV shows like Cop Rock, Glee, and the occasional musical episode from regular shows like Buffy or even Grey’s Anatomy. What I didn’t like about them is the lack of reasoning for spontaneous singing and dancing. This show solves this problem. Zoey has a brain defect that sees everyone’s emotions through them performing extraordinary show stopping numbers. Everyone in the show is great at singing and the numbers are great and the lead Jane Levy is fantastic. My favorite part of the show though is the inclusion and celebration of the LBGTQA community.
Grade: B+
New Girl
In the season four opener four months have passed for the New Girl roomies. Everyone is single and have attended troves of weddings this summer. Jessica Biel guest stars in this season four first episode, as a wedding guest at yet another wedding and poses as competition for Jessica’s(Zooey Deschanel) prey, the best man. This season has been lauded as the return to the energy and fun of season one with everyone single and Schmidt (Max Greenfield ) going after Cece (Hannah Simone). If this season opener is any sign of what’s to come then I am disappointed. This show can do so much but it jumped the shark last year with Jessica and Nick (Jake Johnson) becoming a couple. This should have been a last season situation, but now we have to live through the awkwardness of this for this season, which they will keep referencing, which dulls the comedy.
Over all the show was good though and I will continue to watch, but I do think there is room to improve.
Grade: B+
Red Oaks
Some might compare this show to Caddyshack, I would say they are wrong. This show is not as funny as Caddyshack, but I don’t think it is intended to be as funny as Caddyshack. This is a jungensbild, a coming of age story. The story of the right of passage when a boy realizes that he has worth and becomes a man. The story centers around David, played by Craig Roberts, who has taken a job as the assistant tennis pro at the Red Oaks Country Club owned by Paul Reiser’s character, Getty. David’s Parents parents played by Richard Kind and Jennifer Grey also add to the turmoil in his life by not having a loving relationship.
There are the pot smoking valets and the rivalry with the golf pro, but the most fun part of the show I think will be the retro feeling it has from the 80’s. How fun to have an 80’s country club series with Jennifer Grey no less. I do hope that Amazon does choose to continue production of this pilot, I for one want to see how David turns out.
Grade: A-
Selfie
(SUNG TO THE TUNE OF MY FAIR LADY’S “WOULDN’T IT BE LOVERLY”)
All I want is a show that’s good
With characters that can be understood
With no pretentious plot
Oh wouldn’t that be watchable
Lots of jokes to make me laugh
Lots of action and those who can act
Act Stan, Act San, Act Uta—
Oh wouldn’t that be watchable
…..I would go on but I think I would put more into writing this parody than the writers of Selfie did on the entire pilot episode.
The concept is taken from Shaw’s Pygmalion or for you musical theatre buffs My Fair Lady. It is an attempt to modernize the story. Girl, Eliza, is stuck in a social media rut with tons of likes but no real friends in comes Boy, Henry…no they did not change the first names from the original…some might think that is clever…I think it is lazy…. Boy helps girl to be the life of the party. That’s it.
The only saving grace of this show is Karen Gillan who plays Eliza. You may recognize her from Doctor Who and most recently The Guardians of the Galaxy (where she is really unrecognizable). I will watch this show one more time if it doesn’t improve I will stop. If it does I will let you know. You can watch it on Hulu or watch the premiere on ABC TUE SEPT 30 8|7c.
Grade: C-
A to Z
On October 2nd NBC will air A to Z. This is the complete story of Andrew and Zelda’s dating history. I caught the pilot episode online. Overall the show was good. Andrew (Ben Feldman) works for a online dating company who’s boss cares more about monthly subscriptions than people finding their true love. Andrew believes in destiny and meets Zelda (Cristin Milioti) when she comes to his office which just happens to be across the office park from her office. He friends her on Facebook and uses his social connection to ask her out. He realizes during the date that Zelda was the destiny girl that got away at a concert. She tells him it wasn’t her when it was….mayhem ensues.
Feldman (a young Scott Baio) and Milioti have great chemistry. I’m not sure if I have enough patience though to stick with this show for their 8 month courtship though. The script is good, though not great, needs to be beefed up a bit. A cubicle worker and a lawyer show is not that creative. I need to know what makes them both special. I’ll give it a few episodes before I tune out.
Grade: B-
Louie Season 4:1 & 2
Comedian Louie C.K. is my hero. He has taken the entertainment business, that says you need to follow these rules and has said that ‘s nice but I want to do it this way…and he is getting away with it. Why? His work is art. He takes his sitcom out of the normal paradigm and doesn’t settle for trite. The first episode has a great scene with Charles Grodin that makes the audience wait along with Louie for him to finish his lunch before he can be engaged in conversation. (It was great to see Grodin again.) The second episode features Jerry Seinfeld and Yvonne Stahovski (who also premieres the sam night in Fox’s 24) and just to land a joke about how the rich keep getting richer off the poor. This episode really is what Louie is all about. He puts his own work out there without the rich middle men taking their 99% of the show. I wonder how much longer it will be before Louie is one of them?
Grade: A+