ugh too many quotes, i don't wanna choose.
- OK, Community is brilliant, but this week's episode reminded me that sometimes this show gets a little too caught up with that brilliance and fails to let me connect with it in any other way.
Actually I think I should say that while it's great TV, its attempts at emotional growth or character development are pretty lame, and pretty freaking repetitive - the ending "moral" or "lesson learnt" is almost always Jeff declaring the group his family, or deciding he wants to be a friend; a lot of characters end up going "aw, you're my friends, really". I'm not asking for all TV shows to attempt emotional growth or at the very least prove their characters' capacity to be sweet and to enjoy one another's company, but if Community continues to say it wants this, if it keeps having storylines that end with a lesson being learnt, the writers are calling attention to it, and now I'm getting frustrated that for all its trials and how much it likes calling attention to the 'family dynamic' or how Jeff 'grows' or becomes softer/sweeter (and this is something that's happened what, ten times? how often does this man regress?), this show pretty much fails to give any sustained or varied character development.
This is a resolution I came to in the second episode of this season, but last week and this week pretty much proved it. I like seeing progress, and as enjoyable and funny and genius as this show is/can be, I'm not getting progress from it at all.
I'm sorry for being a downer - it's just that something about this show hasn't been getting it right for a while now, and I needed to be able to explain it to myself.
In other news, though, Shirley Bennett is quickly becoming my favourite character, which is unbelievable, but I think it's got a lot to do with how she manages to escape the character-mauling that Annie and Britta seem to deal with in alternating episodes. I also love how sympathetic she is despite her devout Christianity and mild craziness. And her bitter, sarcastic asides in the episode where Annie and Britta were fighting were so great. - 30 Rock, on the other hand, proved that it can get sweeter storylines pretty well when it wants to. I mean, it doesn't always want to - e.g. all of last season (ugh). I keep saying this, but the Jack-Liz friendship, the way both of them get something out of that friendship and from knowing each other, is one of my favourite things about this show. Last season they completely side-stepped it and ended up forcing scenes with the two of them interacting for the sake of getting its two leads to interact, and that interaction pretty much consisted of them talking at each other and then saying something funny.
That's why I'm loving this season. Their friendship is back, and they're being friends again, where each character's input and support is genuinely influencing the decisions the other is making. This week's Jack-Liz storyline in the taxi captured that so well, too - Jack needs to get things right and solve problems, but by the end that shifts to him wanting to solve her problems, and she needed that, too. And their hug! Aww.
Also, the episode was super-funny. Jonathan's "I hate that bitch" on the other end of Jack's phone was maybe my favourite thing about it, but Frajer! was awesome, too.
(I also want to note that last week's live episode was funny and enjoyable and I loved all the cameos (Matt Damon and Julia Louis-Dreyfus were my favourite people in the whole thing), but I hope they don't do it again. The laughter beats threw me off.) - This week's The Office was weird because I should dislike it - it's absurd, unbelievable, and therefore mostly unlike the subtle, softer, sweeter nature of the humour that I loved this show for - but it's also ridiculously funny. I had to pause to laugh because I was laughing too hard, and oh my god, when's the last time that happened with this show? Meredith was brilliant, Kelly's "fuck me" was brilliant, Timothy Olyphant is someone I have never seen before in my life but now I want to see him a lot forever, Jim and Dwight were annoying each other and being stupid and hilarious brothers, Dwight was supportive of Pam in his own terrible way, Dwight was REALLY FUNNY again (!!! oh god, his penis museum joke surprised me and made me choke on air), Ryan was appropriately douchey, hooray! Even Michael was firm and boss-ish at the end of the episode, which I really liked - I like when he's competent.
Basically - Mindy Kaling, thank you for this episode, a lot. (And I get why this is ridiculous, coming from you - The Injury is incredibly funny, but it's also the most over-the-top episode from S2. And I'm not insulting you for it!) - Modern Family this week probably had one of its funniest episodes. Loved it! Cam/Mitchell's was the weakest for a change, and even that had a few great moments (the actors really, really helped - that storyline was predictable). And Jay/Gloria/Manny was the best for a change, which was so great - Gloria's "Jay!"ing, her murdering, her leaving the rat's head out for a warning, the neighbour going "Lucky guy" to Jay and Jay going "just wait." ahhah! Super enjoyable.
The Dunphys are my favourite family, by the way - between Phil and how fantastic the kids are being this season (Luke! Haley! Alex! all of them are wonderful, but especially the first two), I'm pretty much delighted with any time we spend with them. - Oh, Cougar Town, you are delightful and funny and also kind of heartbreaking. Thank you. I mean, really. Andy's "I do not know"? when Laurie asks why Smith doesn't love her? WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY HEART AND WHY IS IT NOW IN TINY LITTLE PIECES? And Grayson saying he was sad and that the cul-de-sac gang was great, aww. And Ellie asking Jules why she still tries to help Bobby! And Travis telling Ellie he is pretentious because of her! (Travis' friendships with all of his mother's friends is kind of delightful, by the way; I love that they've influenced him, too, because that's such a great distinction to make and one that shows don't usually try to get across.)
- Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert's Everybody's Talking 'Bout Sully is both hilarious and ridiculously catchy. I love them a lot.
- I feel like I had non-TV things to talk about, but they're mostly along the lines of "studying a lot. am bored and tired and annoyed."
- I totally watched Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing in YouTube clips for around an hour this afternoon - so talented, so classy (and god, the moves she pulls off in heels?!). I love black and white movies because their beauty and enjoyability is almost completely reliant on their stars' talents and charms. It's simple, unpretentious, and gorgeous.
Also, I find Cheek to Cheek intensely romantic (and that's not a word I like to use) - the way the notes climb at and my heart beats so that i can hardly speak, oh my heart. I can't be the only one who gets a little heartclutchy at these things, right?
-- rachu