"Ted 2" Review (Spoilers)
Also reviews for the latest episodes of The Simpsons, Bless The Harts, Bon's Burgers, and Family Guy.
Ted 2
I will readily admit Ted 2 is not as good as the first film. But the negative reviews have me miffed anyways. No, it's not great. But why is that the standard that movies have to be held to? I can totally go for a movie that is a decent way to kill two hours. Even Seth MacFarlane has taken self-deprecating shots about the film on Family Guy, and it frustrates me to no end. A film with a reputation this bad deserves to be much worse.
And I will give the film this. It had a scene in it ten times funnier than the funniest scene in the first. The "Sad Improv" scene had me dying with laughter so bad I had to stop the movie for a few minutes to get myself under control, so I could continue. I suspect if I had seen that in a theater filled with laughing people, I would have suffered a heart attack. There isn't a ton of comedy out there that I'd describe as a personal health hazard. But "Robin Williams on 9/11," would NOT have been good for me if I didn't readily have the option available to pause the film. "Bill Cosby." "You people are monsters." I needed a moment. Truly.
Similarly, the bit with Liam Neeson and the Trix was patently ridiculous, and "paid off" in the tag. The most ludicrous part of the scene is that Neeson doesn't seem to notice or care that he's actually inexplicably conversing with a talking teddy bear. Ted being the voice of reason there is especially funny because of that.
The tag was great. I want to know the part of what happened to him during the movie that we missed. And I guess Trix are for kids after all. But how? And why? And who had to die for him to learn that?
I didn't love the story, although it struck me as the natural progression of what to explore about the character next. But I'm not rooting for Ted and Tammy-Lynn to have a kid because neither of those two individuals should ever reproduce. Adoption by those two messes is also a red flag.
I guess Mila Kunis was busy, but the movie did something that I think the first movie might have done if they were aware there was going to be a sequel, and that Kunis would be unavailable. It suggested John and Lori simply weren't right for each other. The whole drama of the first movie is John trying to be the man Lori deserves. And seeing Sam smoke bongs in her office makes me wonder why it's entirely Lori's concerns and wants that were important in that relationship. At one point in the first movie John apologizes to her for letting her down and tells her she deserves better. That might have been the right ending for them right then. I'm not saying Lori deserves to be saddled with as big a loser as John clearly is. But it's also not fair to make John pretend he isn't a loser for the rest of his life. Because he totally is.
The court case was interesting, but I felt very uncomfortable with Morgan Freeman himself bringing up the Emancipation Proclamation to defend the civil rights of a teddy bear. It is to Freeman's credit he's game enough to say the line, but if Seth MacFarlane were even SLIGHTLY more racially sensitive, he wouldn't have had Freeman say such a potentially insulting thing to begin with.
I love Patrick Warburton and Michael Dorn dressed up as the Tick and Worf. And totally bullying and beating up nerds.
I thought the recent shot Seth MacFarlane took against Amanda Seyfried on Family Guy was a low blow considering she did him a favor and starred in one of his movies. But the Gollum stuff suggests she is very self-deprecating about her appearance, and probably would have found that joke funny. When I see the rerun to that episode I probably won't be as annoyed again.
I don't believe Seth MacFarlane shows any real loyalty to any of his actors when it comes to celebrity slams. But I will say this for him: He repeatedly casts people who have done solid work for him in the past. Neither Nana Visitor OR Michael Dorn get a ton of current live-action work, but Visitor is a Family Guy staple, and Dorn is a famous guest, so he went to them. Liam Neeson is also getting pretty famous for having small roles in MacFarlane stuff after A Million Ways To Die In The West.
For the record, Nana Visitor is still gorgeous.
Return of the runner of Mark Walberg spitballing name-guesses to Ted at rapid-fire, focused this time on movie last names, rather than female white trash names. Walberg is VERY talented at the auctioneer bit, and it's always good comedy.
David Hasselhoff and Jay Leno seem game about the insults at their expense. David Hasselhoff's humility is especially a pleasant surprise because Ted is ragging on the guy for arguably the worst public moment of his life. I would have liked to have heard William Daniels as Kitt, but I could totally see and understand why he probably turned it down. But Kitt's sentience also raised extra questions about the court case for me. Should Sam be fighting for Kitt's rights now?
I rub a lot of people online the wrong way because of my negative reviews of beloved stuff. But Ted 2 clearly proves I am not actually a picky viewer. I actually think there IS a problem in society and fandom if Ted 2 is considered terrible, and Riverdale and Titans are acceptable. I value different things than many viewers (clearly) because I have no objections to fluff or nonsense. I am gravely offended by the stuff I bash because it IS actually offensive. I don't like a pop-culture where Ted 2 is considered a career low point for Seth MacFarlane, while Riverdale and Titans are still getting more seasons and considered acceptable by their fans. There is something wrong when society says Ted 2 is a bad thing. It's totally not. Although I would probably be in the hospital (or the morgue) had I seen it in the theater. Although some readers of my reviews might consider that an improvement. ***1/2.
The Simpsons "A Springfield Summer Christmas For Christmas"
As the episode was going on I kept saying to myself "I really, REALLY like this." And then we got to ending. And I outright loved it. How great was Skinner having enough common sense and decency to tell the woman to pick her handsome surgeon husband over him? He actually questions her gameplan for choosing him and rightly suggests she makes poor decisions. And just like that the episode makes poor viewing for while you are doing laundry.
Whenever The Simpsons takes an entire episode to do a full-fledged satire of a particular genre, the results are always golden. Springfield Up and 24 Minutes from fifteen years ago were rare highlights in an era of the show that majorly sucked. What frustrates me is that the show always does these kinds of things perfectly. And they rarely do them. I'm not wishing for the show to go to the spoof well too many times, but if something works, why not do it more often?
Did they actually hired an orchestra for this episode again? I very much love that they changed the entire musical style of the episode.
The producer's story of why she hates Christmas isn't as bad a Phoebe Cates' in Gremlins. But it's stupid and horrible for the same reasons. Seriously. Something that messed up was in a blockbuster movie. What was WRONG with filmmakers in the 1980's?
I was trying to figure out who voiced the lady and it was Ellie Kemper. I haven't seen her in a ton of romantic comedies, but she strikes me as the kind of actress who would be perfect for them. That's probably why she was hired. Chris Parnell and Richard Kind also had solid guest roles too. Although I think both of them probably should have been hired on the show long before this. They are both well-known voice-actors with long animated resumes after all.
That was so great on every level. This review was written before I saw any of the other Fox toons tonight. But if The Simpsons didn't just easily win the entire night with that, I'll eat a Hot Pocket. We'll find out for sure in my Family Guy review later on. *****.
Bless The Harts "Invasion Of The Potty Snatcher"
My reviews for Bless The Harts tend to be briefer than the other Fox cartoons but this is going to be a little more in-depth than usual. I very much liked that. And I'll tell you why I did. It engaged in a storytelling technique I personally use ALL the time, but nobody else seems to. I was very unhappy as the episode was going, and not only was the resolution satisfying but it made me realize I'm not crazy for seeing the value in this type of storytelling.
On the surface, for the first fifteen minutes or so of the episode, I thought the episode was bad. And I suspect the episode itself WANTED me to think that. One of the things I dislike most about the show is how heavily is seems to channel King Of The Hill, which when all is said and done, might be the worst Fox cartoon that lasted more than two seasons. And it lasted over ten years and got worse and worse.
The thing I hated that I felt the episode was borrowing from King Of The Hill is that King Of The Hill did a couple of episodes early in its run suggesting that men were smarter and had more common-sense than women. It was an unusual message, and subversive because no other animated family sitcom would ever suggest such a thing with the dumb dads starring in them. But Greg Daniels is a bad television producer. He couldn't simply let one or two clever or subversive episodes stand. He repeatedly took shots at women who took pride in themselves and tried to do anything their mind set out to. The message of Peggy Hill stopped being subversive and turned hateful and antifeminist because I got that the sense that Daniels wasn't actually joking. In The Battle Of The Sexes, Daniels has a side and that side is that he really believes feminists are stupid and terrible people, and deserve to be shamed for believing they deserve dignity and equal rights with men. There is no other way to read Peggy Hill. At all.
And that concerned me with this episode a bit, and confused me a bit too, because the show was created and produced by women. And ultimately it's all right because the message isn't that Jenny needs to be direct like a man. It's that she needs to be empathetic to the woman in the bathroom the way she needs people to be empathetic to her. It's a moment of personal growth and empowerment, and while Wayne's advice isn't actually bad, I don't feel bad it wasn't truly taken, or that it actually mattered to the resolution. And one of my dirty storytelling tricks is telling a story that seems bad as it's going along, but seems amazing in hindsight for what it sets up. And this episode pulled off that entire trick in a single episode. I am crazy jealous of that. Granted, me making people wait for pay-off will be much more rewarding, but I loved the fact that the episode framed itself as a cheap shot against women, and wound up being about how they hold each other up against the world's indignities.
Betty's stuff was unsurprisingly the worst part of the episode, but I very much enjoyed how much Violet and David loved and were impressed by her double-entendres for words that shouldn't be taken wrong at all. Betty actually got a filthy joke out of the word "beaker". I like that Violet appreciated how hard that was.
That was a REALLY good week. ****1/2.
Bob's Burgers "Yachty Or Nice"
I spent most of that episode mildly annoyed (which although better than being majorly offended is still not a great feeling to sit with) but I think things worked out in the end. I liked the revelation that Jimmy actually recommended Bob because he thought the yacht club would like his food, and that would reflect well enough on him to be made a member. I did not care for most of the episode, but I liked that bit a lot. Teddy's end credits Santa song was also good.
The episode wasn't great but the ending gave it some worth. **1/2.
Family Guy "The First No L"
Somebody forgot the paper towels.
That totally worked for what it was trying to do. The super happy unearned ending was as cynical as it should have been.
I like that before Lois can ruin the Christmas, she can't help but do the chores the family has slacked off on. But the fact that they've actually been done should have told the family she was already there and probably the actual Grinch.
For the record, there is no part of Matt Lauer or Charlie Rose that should ever be forgiven. Truly despicable human beings.
Whatever. That was fine. As predicted, Simpsons easily won the night, while Bob's Burgers underperformed, and Bless the Harts was a strong second. ***1/2.
Ted 2
I will readily admit Ted 2 is not as good as the first film. But the negative reviews have me miffed anyways. No, it's not great. But why is that the standard that movies have to be held to? I can totally go for a movie that is a decent way to kill two hours. Even Seth MacFarlane has taken self-deprecating shots about the film on Family Guy, and it frustrates me to no end. A film with a reputation this bad deserves to be much worse.
And I will give the film this. It had a scene in it ten times funnier than the funniest scene in the first. The "Sad Improv" scene had me dying with laughter so bad I had to stop the movie for a few minutes to get myself under control, so I could continue. I suspect if I had seen that in a theater filled with laughing people, I would have suffered a heart attack. There isn't a ton of comedy out there that I'd describe as a personal health hazard. But "Robin Williams on 9/11," would NOT have been good for me if I didn't readily have the option available to pause the film. "Bill Cosby." "You people are monsters." I needed a moment. Truly.
Similarly, the bit with Liam Neeson and the Trix was patently ridiculous, and "paid off" in the tag. The most ludicrous part of the scene is that Neeson doesn't seem to notice or care that he's actually inexplicably conversing with a talking teddy bear. Ted being the voice of reason there is especially funny because of that.
The tag was great. I want to know the part of what happened to him during the movie that we missed. And I guess Trix are for kids after all. But how? And why? And who had to die for him to learn that?
I didn't love the story, although it struck me as the natural progression of what to explore about the character next. But I'm not rooting for Ted and Tammy-Lynn to have a kid because neither of those two individuals should ever reproduce. Adoption by those two messes is also a red flag.
I guess Mila Kunis was busy, but the movie did something that I think the first movie might have done if they were aware there was going to be a sequel, and that Kunis would be unavailable. It suggested John and Lori simply weren't right for each other. The whole drama of the first movie is John trying to be the man Lori deserves. And seeing Sam smoke bongs in her office makes me wonder why it's entirely Lori's concerns and wants that were important in that relationship. At one point in the first movie John apologizes to her for letting her down and tells her she deserves better. That might have been the right ending for them right then. I'm not saying Lori deserves to be saddled with as big a loser as John clearly is. But it's also not fair to make John pretend he isn't a loser for the rest of his life. Because he totally is.
The court case was interesting, but I felt very uncomfortable with Morgan Freeman himself bringing up the Emancipation Proclamation to defend the civil rights of a teddy bear. It is to Freeman's credit he's game enough to say the line, but if Seth MacFarlane were even SLIGHTLY more racially sensitive, he wouldn't have had Freeman say such a potentially insulting thing to begin with.
I love Patrick Warburton and Michael Dorn dressed up as the Tick and Worf. And totally bullying and beating up nerds.
I thought the recent shot Seth MacFarlane took against Amanda Seyfried on Family Guy was a low blow considering she did him a favor and starred in one of his movies. But the Gollum stuff suggests she is very self-deprecating about her appearance, and probably would have found that joke funny. When I see the rerun to that episode I probably won't be as annoyed again.
I don't believe Seth MacFarlane shows any real loyalty to any of his actors when it comes to celebrity slams. But I will say this for him: He repeatedly casts people who have done solid work for him in the past. Neither Nana Visitor OR Michael Dorn get a ton of current live-action work, but Visitor is a Family Guy staple, and Dorn is a famous guest, so he went to them. Liam Neeson is also getting pretty famous for having small roles in MacFarlane stuff after A Million Ways To Die In The West.
For the record, Nana Visitor is still gorgeous.
Return of the runner of Mark Walberg spitballing name-guesses to Ted at rapid-fire, focused this time on movie last names, rather than female white trash names. Walberg is VERY talented at the auctioneer bit, and it's always good comedy.
David Hasselhoff and Jay Leno seem game about the insults at their expense. David Hasselhoff's humility is especially a pleasant surprise because Ted is ragging on the guy for arguably the worst public moment of his life. I would have liked to have heard William Daniels as Kitt, but I could totally see and understand why he probably turned it down. But Kitt's sentience also raised extra questions about the court case for me. Should Sam be fighting for Kitt's rights now?
I rub a lot of people online the wrong way because of my negative reviews of beloved stuff. But Ted 2 clearly proves I am not actually a picky viewer. I actually think there IS a problem in society and fandom if Ted 2 is considered terrible, and Riverdale and Titans are acceptable. I value different things than many viewers (clearly) because I have no objections to fluff or nonsense. I am gravely offended by the stuff I bash because it IS actually offensive. I don't like a pop-culture where Ted 2 is considered a career low point for Seth MacFarlane, while Riverdale and Titans are still getting more seasons and considered acceptable by their fans. There is something wrong when society says Ted 2 is a bad thing. It's totally not. Although I would probably be in the hospital (or the morgue) had I seen it in the theater. Although some readers of my reviews might consider that an improvement. ***1/2.
The Simpsons "A Springfield Summer Christmas For Christmas"
As the episode was going on I kept saying to myself "I really, REALLY like this." And then we got to ending. And I outright loved it. How great was Skinner having enough common sense and decency to tell the woman to pick her handsome surgeon husband over him? He actually questions her gameplan for choosing him and rightly suggests she makes poor decisions. And just like that the episode makes poor viewing for while you are doing laundry.
Whenever The Simpsons takes an entire episode to do a full-fledged satire of a particular genre, the results are always golden. Springfield Up and 24 Minutes from fifteen years ago were rare highlights in an era of the show that majorly sucked. What frustrates me is that the show always does these kinds of things perfectly. And they rarely do them. I'm not wishing for the show to go to the spoof well too many times, but if something works, why not do it more often?
Did they actually hired an orchestra for this episode again? I very much love that they changed the entire musical style of the episode.
The producer's story of why she hates Christmas isn't as bad a Phoebe Cates' in Gremlins. But it's stupid and horrible for the same reasons. Seriously. Something that messed up was in a blockbuster movie. What was WRONG with filmmakers in the 1980's?
I was trying to figure out who voiced the lady and it was Ellie Kemper. I haven't seen her in a ton of romantic comedies, but she strikes me as the kind of actress who would be perfect for them. That's probably why she was hired. Chris Parnell and Richard Kind also had solid guest roles too. Although I think both of them probably should have been hired on the show long before this. They are both well-known voice-actors with long animated resumes after all.
That was so great on every level. This review was written before I saw any of the other Fox toons tonight. But if The Simpsons didn't just easily win the entire night with that, I'll eat a Hot Pocket. We'll find out for sure in my Family Guy review later on. *****.
Bless The Harts "Invasion Of The Potty Snatcher"
My reviews for Bless The Harts tend to be briefer than the other Fox cartoons but this is going to be a little more in-depth than usual. I very much liked that. And I'll tell you why I did. It engaged in a storytelling technique I personally use ALL the time, but nobody else seems to. I was very unhappy as the episode was going, and not only was the resolution satisfying but it made me realize I'm not crazy for seeing the value in this type of storytelling.
On the surface, for the first fifteen minutes or so of the episode, I thought the episode was bad. And I suspect the episode itself WANTED me to think that. One of the things I dislike most about the show is how heavily is seems to channel King Of The Hill, which when all is said and done, might be the worst Fox cartoon that lasted more than two seasons. And it lasted over ten years and got worse and worse.
The thing I hated that I felt the episode was borrowing from King Of The Hill is that King Of The Hill did a couple of episodes early in its run suggesting that men were smarter and had more common-sense than women. It was an unusual message, and subversive because no other animated family sitcom would ever suggest such a thing with the dumb dads starring in them. But Greg Daniels is a bad television producer. He couldn't simply let one or two clever or subversive episodes stand. He repeatedly took shots at women who took pride in themselves and tried to do anything their mind set out to. The message of Peggy Hill stopped being subversive and turned hateful and antifeminist because I got that the sense that Daniels wasn't actually joking. In The Battle Of The Sexes, Daniels has a side and that side is that he really believes feminists are stupid and terrible people, and deserve to be shamed for believing they deserve dignity and equal rights with men. There is no other way to read Peggy Hill. At all.
And that concerned me with this episode a bit, and confused me a bit too, because the show was created and produced by women. And ultimately it's all right because the message isn't that Jenny needs to be direct like a man. It's that she needs to be empathetic to the woman in the bathroom the way she needs people to be empathetic to her. It's a moment of personal growth and empowerment, and while Wayne's advice isn't actually bad, I don't feel bad it wasn't truly taken, or that it actually mattered to the resolution. And one of my dirty storytelling tricks is telling a story that seems bad as it's going along, but seems amazing in hindsight for what it sets up. And this episode pulled off that entire trick in a single episode. I am crazy jealous of that. Granted, me making people wait for pay-off will be much more rewarding, but I loved the fact that the episode framed itself as a cheap shot against women, and wound up being about how they hold each other up against the world's indignities.
Betty's stuff was unsurprisingly the worst part of the episode, but I very much enjoyed how much Violet and David loved and were impressed by her double-entendres for words that shouldn't be taken wrong at all. Betty actually got a filthy joke out of the word "beaker". I like that Violet appreciated how hard that was.
That was a REALLY good week. ****1/2.
Bob's Burgers "Yachty Or Nice"
I spent most of that episode mildly annoyed (which although better than being majorly offended is still not a great feeling to sit with) but I think things worked out in the end. I liked the revelation that Jimmy actually recommended Bob because he thought the yacht club would like his food, and that would reflect well enough on him to be made a member. I did not care for most of the episode, but I liked that bit a lot. Teddy's end credits Santa song was also good.
The episode wasn't great but the ending gave it some worth. **1/2.
Family Guy "The First No L"
Somebody forgot the paper towels.
That totally worked for what it was trying to do. The super happy unearned ending was as cynical as it should have been.
I like that before Lois can ruin the Christmas, she can't help but do the chores the family has slacked off on. But the fact that they've actually been done should have told the family she was already there and probably the actual Grinch.
For the record, there is no part of Matt Lauer or Charlie Rose that should ever be forgiven. Truly despicable human beings.
Whatever. That was fine. As predicted, Simpsons easily won the night, while Bob's Burgers underperformed, and Bless the Harts was a strong second. ***1/2.