Season one of Broad City is over. I feel as though I just met a super rad chick, then we became best friends, then she got a fantastic job opportunity in another country. I’m super proud of her but bummed that I won’t be seeing her for a while. “WE DIDN’T HAVE ENOUGH TIME TOGETHER!” And while I contemplate my jealousy for the new people in Broad City’s life, then hate myself for that jealousy, I sit back and remember that the show is not a person and that Broad City has been renewed for a second season. Phew.
Comedy
Email Roundtable #39 – Television Sick Days
Our good pal Jane isn’t feeling so hot this week and this endless winter has resulted in more than a few sick days for most folks. That got us thinking: what do you like to watch on TV when you are stuck at home or laid up in bed? Katie and Kerri chat about Television Sick Days in this week’s Roundtable.
LOL’ing
Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson of Broad City
It’s been a funny few weeks of TV-watching. The Olympics have been on, forcing most of my favourite shows into hiatus, yet I’ve been laughing out loud more than usual. This was the week that I finally checked out Key and Peele (a sketch show that critics and friends alike have been saying I really should watch.) Would recommend. Not usually a fan of late-night television, I decided to watch Jimmy Fallon’s first episode on the Tonight Show for the novelty of sharing an experience with those who probably do care who the host of the Tonight Show is. I was pleasantly surprised. Would watch again. I also re-watched Extras on DVD, and like clockwork, laughed at David Bowie’s impromptu song about Andy Millman. The phrase “See his pug-nosed face” never fails to amuse.
While enjoying this sampling platter of comedy TV, I found two shows that I’m really excited about. Both are half-hour comedies and both are on Comedy Central. Very few TV shows consistently make me laugh out loud, and even fewer make me LOL while recalling past episodes. Even though using the phrase “LOL’ing” makes me sound like a dumb-dumb, I stand by it, because LOL’ing is exactly what makes me fall in love with a comedy. I can appreciate a show that makes me smile inwardly, but loyalty is forged through the act of laughing out loud. Continue reading
I Hate to See ‘Em Leave, But I Love to Watch ‘Em Go
I’m really looking forward to it. More for history than anything else. Jay Leno will say goodbye to The Tonight Show this week. For good, so we are lead to believe. We can do the autopsy of the Leno administration – that he was likeable but vanilla; almost so mainstream that it almost went in a roundabout way back to edgy-ness. Rather, I like to look at the last five minutes, the goodbye and good times that have yet to be uttered. Its one of my favourite things TV has to offer; the comedy show goodbye. Not the last episode of a sitcom, although those are really fun too. When comedians are forced to be earnest, I find it compelling. This is no time for Bieber zingers, this is stuff that can be said over an instrumental version of Sarah McLaughlin’s “In the Arms of the Angel”.
Improv on TV
For this week’s blog, I searched out improvised content on TV. “Improv on TV” is a contradictory statement. Television is an edited medium and improv is spontaneous. As a result, the two don’t seem like a good pairing. Putting good improvised comedy on TV can be problematic, but when it works, it’s something really special. (If you need proof of the magic, skip down to the review portion of this entry where there is a clip of a talking monkey.) Continue reading
How Community Saved Christmas
It no doubt means more to me than it does to you. It represents a return from an absence of depression. That’s sort of what TV has always done for me. A few Christmases ago, it was the worst Christmas ever. My forty watt bulb burnt out and my debit card was lost in the ample snowy tundra of northern Manitoba. As a result, my Xmas dinner was the last 4 eggs in my fridge. I watched in darkness – a uncompetitive pro basketball game. As it hovered in the minus forties outside, I was left muttering the words of some Dickensian miser. So by the time the next Christmas rolled around I vowed to have a buxom holiday affair. That fall roared out an artistically successful year of Community. Issues arose so I missed the first couple of episodes, but was keen enough to keep them on my clunky VHS tape. Then it struck me: miss every episode live but keep it on tape and then binge on Christmas Day. I had to work that 25th. No problem as “work” included giving away a pick up truck. It’s not really work to make sure that Tricia Mymko of Denare Beach Saskatchewan has a new F-150 and a story to go with it. That was the day the usual brutal December temperatures gave the town respite, as it was 0 degrees Celsius.
Revisiting Kenny vs. Spenny
‘Tis the season for watching re-runs, cooking shows, and Storage Wars marathons. This Canadian prairie winter has been especially bitter and depressing, so I’ve been revisiting shows that are guaranteed to make me laugh. Kenny vs. Spenny was a show that watched a lot in my late teens, so when I saw that the first three season are on Netflix, I found a warm blanket and queued up a couple of episodes. Continue reading
I Never Met a Meta I didn’t like or Meta? Didn’t Even Know Her…
I love shows about shows. From Dyke Van Dyke to 30 Rock I find the manic activity that comes from putting on a show to be fascinating and fun. I find plays about plays, movies about movies, even meta music videos such as Blink 182’s Rock Show to be good times. Continue reading
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Season 9
The Gang Squashes Their Beefs
Well, that season didn’t last long. I guess It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia never lasts more than 15 episodes, but this year’s 10 seemed awfully short. After watching the season finale, “The Gang Squashes Their Beefs”, I was left with anticipation for the next episode instead of a feeling of completion. There were a lot more beefs (and potential story lines) that were started than wrapped up. Continue reading
Channel Surfing 2 – My Week in TV
What the heck is happening on Homeland?
I am a fickle and high maintenance beast when it comes to television shows, it seems. When something is exciting and new I am all over it but when it gets a little stale I almost immediately stop caring. I demand my entertainment to be ever entertaining and constantly shifting. I never want a show to become predictable comfort food. But, at the same time, I rarely want a show I have come to love to become something altogether different from what it was when that love-affair began. I want the shiny new boyfriend and the husband that cooks and cleans all at the same time. And so, I am in a really, really weird spot with Homeland. I’m not receiving anything exciting and new from the show and it also isn’t, fundamentally, the show that I used to love anymore. Continue reading
The Golden Age of Television 