Best Episode of the Season: Up All Night Season 1

June 13, 2012

jmunney Best Episodes of the 2011-2012 Season, Best Episodes of the Season, Television, Up All Night Leave a comment

Season Analysis: Up All Night established itself as consistently slightly better than mediocre.

“First Birthday”

You know that awkward situation when what is supposed to be a gathering of your friends and family gets out of your control, and you catch strangers becoming just a little too intimate with every nook and cranny of your house?  I don’t know that situation, because I have a big family and I see most members of my family either frequently or at least every so often, and they are generally considerate enough to let me know when someone I don’t know will be joining the festivities.  But I was able to imagine the uncomfortable scenario Will Arnett’s Chris had gotten himself into by agreeing to a joint first birthday party for Amy and neighbor couple George and Terry’s baby due to his inability to say no, and then discovering that George and Terry had invited every last one of their cousins, aunts, and uncles to the Brinkleys’ home.  More important, I was definitely able to relate to Chris and Ava’s desire to end the party when their guests would have preferred to stay put.  I like parties, but I also have things to do, and it is hard to do those things when people are just hanging around.  Chris enthusiastically kicking everyone out was a small-scale victory in his learning how to say no, but it was a significant one, and one that could inspire anyone who has had party guests who have stayed just a little too long.

Fuse Top 20 Countdown – 6/12/12

June 13, 2012

jmunney Fuse Top 20 Countdown, Music, Television Leave a comment

Our hosts didn’t seem to know which songs were on the countdown.

Original Version
1. fun. ft. Janelle Monáe – “We Are Young”
2. Carly Rae Jepsen – “Call Me Maybe”
3. Gotye ft. Kimbra – “Somebody That I Used to Know”
4. Maroon 5 ft. Wiz Khalifa – “Payphone”
5. Pitbull – “Back in Time”
6. Rihanna – “Where Have You Been”
7. Justin Bieber – “Boyfriend”
8. Flo Rida ft. Sia – “Wild Ones”
9. One Direction – “What Makes You Beautiful”
10. Karmin – “Brokenhearted”
11. Nicki Minaj – “Starships”
12. David Guetta ft. Sia – “Titanium”
13. Train – “Drive By”
14. Ellie Goulding – “Lights”
15. The Wanted – “Glad You Came”
16. Jason Mraz – “I Won’t Give Up”
17. Jay Sean ft. Pitbull – “I’m All Yours”
18. Neon Trees – “Everybody Talks”
19. Demi Lovato – “Give Your Heart a Break”
20. Jennifer Lopez ft. Pitbull – “Dance Again”

Original Version
1. Somebody That I Used to Know
2. Starships
3. Titanium
4. Lights
5. Where Have You Been
6. We Are Young
7. Call Me Maybe
8. Brokenhearted
9. Give Your Heart a Break
10. Wild Ones
11. Back in Time
12. Boyfriend
13. Everybody Talks
14. Payphone
15. What Makes You Beautiful
16. Glad You Came
17. Dance Again
18. Drive By
19. I’m All Yours
20. I Won’t Give Up

Best Episode of the Season: Happy Endings Season 2

June 12, 2012

jmunney Best Episodes of the 2011-2012 Season, Best Episodes of the Season, Happy Endings, Television Leave a comment

Season Analysis: After catching my breath from all the laughter, I realized that Happy Endings had suddenly become one of the best comedies on TV.

“Big White Lies”

The natural speed of Happy Endings is hyper-drive.  So, when any episode forces its characters to put together a whole to-do in a short amount of time, then Happy Endings is spinning in its wheelhouse.  For the sake of avoiding going out for tea with Daphne, a slightly off-putting childhood friend (played by Mary Elizabeth Ellis, natch), Penny panics and blurts out ever more elaborate fibs, which eventually involve Alex (who’s supposed to be gay), Brad and Jane (who are supposed to be pregnant), and Dave (who is supposed to have a terminal illness – but refuses to play along), but not really Max (who is happy to play along anyway, and decides that he’s lost his money to Bernie Madoff).  The stakes could not possibly be any lower: when Penny ultimately admits to Daphne that she was just trying to avoid her, Daphne is hardly, if at all, offended.  Those low stakes were exactly the point: these meta-minded friends were all too willing to put on a Three’s Company-esque charade, and could not slow down their hyper imaginations for just a second to realize that there was no real cause for concern.  There was no point to this half hour, except for pure comic brilliance.

Best Episode of the Season: Archer Season 3

June 12, 2012

jmunney Archer, Best Episodes of the 2011-2012 Season, Best Episodes of the Season, Television Leave a comment

Season Analysis: Brought to life by one of the most – if not the most – talented voice casts in the business, Archer is a truly unique animated vision, thanks a great deal to its retro vibe, which seems almost accidental, yet also integral.

“The Limited”

“The Limited” – the wildest, fastest, most hilarious, most joke-filled, most hilarious, and best episode of Archer’s third season – was practically Shakespearean in its comedy.  As in the Bard’s yukfest The Comedy of Errors, if something could make the situation in “The Limited” any funnier, then that something happened: there is an ocelot loose, the train will not slow down because Cheryl’s family owns the train and she wants to break the travel time record, a Nova Scotian separatist movement exists, etc.  Also, just as Will Shakespeare employed doubles and mistaken identities, so did Archer include villains disguised as Canadian Mounties at the same time that the actual Mounties appeared.  But Archer ups the ante even further, as its characters are not plainly the Renaissance stock comedic characters of the clown, the straight man, and the put-upon fool – they are bursting with their own idiosyncratic, slightly absurd, personalities: Sterling Archer is a spy who fancies himself the star of his own spy movie (a silly attitude to have when you are actually a spy) and thus he takes a self-aware view of his own life, in which he makes highly literate, obnoxious comments (“Thanks, Freddy Foreshadowing”) and leaps at the chance to live out a classic action-movie scenario, and pays the price for it (a standoff on top of a speeding train can be quite hellish for all parties involved).  In general, the spies of Archer are all too self-aware for their own good, which means they are self-aware enough to be absolutely fascinating for viewers, and with all that there was to be acutely aware of in “The Limited,” there was almost too much to be fascinated by.

Key & Peele: Season 1 Sketch of the Year

June 11, 2012

jmunney Best Episodes of the 2011-2012 Season, Best Episodes of the Season, Key & Peele, Television Leave a comment

“Obama’s Anger Translator”


Like many classic comedy sketches, Obama’s Anger Translator germinated from a simple seed of an observation: Barack Obama practically never betrays a hint of heated anger, even though his job has given him plenty to get worked up over.  Jordan Peele’s virtuosic Obama impression and Keegan-Michael Key’s talent for portraying the unrepressed id were the perfect combination for illustrating this point.  One could argue that this was a partisan bit tailor-made for Obama supporters, but whenever your opinion of the President or the job he has done, it ought to be admitted that he has faced an intense amount of disagreement, enough that it would be understandable if he started nonsensically spouting out random Michael Jackson lyrics.

Best Episode of the Season: Key & Peele Season 1

June 11, 2012

jmunney Best Episodes of the 2011-2012 Season, Best Episodes of the Season, Key & Peele, Television Leave a comment

Season Analysis: Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, with their astute social and personal insights inspired by their biracial backgrounds, delivered the best new sketch comedy series since Chapelle’s Show.

“Episode 1”
Key & Peele’s first season included an impressive number of sketches that were instant classics or at least very amusing.  However, there was no episode among the first eight that was made up entirely of those sketches that fit those categories; on the other hand, there was also no episode in which it felt like Key and Peele had taken the week off.  Thus, we ended up with a collection of good-to-great episodes, in which none stood out much more than any other, except for the first episode, thanks to its novelty.  Their targets and routines were established quickly and decisively: the roles black/biracial people take on depending on the situation (two black men on their phones toughening up their demeanors as they walk by each other), gender politics (husbands going to great lengths to make sure their wives are out of earshot when they call them bitches), their friendship-based stand-up interstitials, the pop culture parodies for the hell of it (the parody reality cooking show Gideon’s Kitchen), and of course, their take on our first black – but actually, like them, half-black/half-white – president (Obama’s anger translator).  Key and Peele’s comedic voice is practically required listening for members of the American present day.

Best Episode of the Season: The Walking Dead Season 2

June 9, 2012

jmunney Best Episodes of the 2011-2012 Season, Best Episodes of the Season, Television, The Walking Dead Leave a comment

Season Analysis: Was that farm that our survivors spent season 2 stuck on some sort of Möbius strip?

“Beside the Dying Fire”

If it wasn’t clear from the series’ beginning, then Season 2 of The Walking Dead made it abundantly clear that a zombie TV show is a very different beast than a zombie movie.  To be able to maintain a reasonable degree of serialization, having a massive zombie attack with the same level of momentum week after week is simply not going to work. So, while The Walking Dead does not have frenetic, claustrophobic horror every single second, it does have decent acting (though spotty characterization) and philosophical explorations of the disintegration of society (though those questions often only scratch the surface).  But when a major zombie horde actually does overrun one of the survivors’ temporary strongholds, it tends to be entertaining.  Hershel’s farm had felt like a town that could not be exited after entering it, so it was a hugely necessary kick in the pants to have it destroyed.  The best moments of “Beside the Dying Fire” – Rick revealing that everyone is infected as well as losing his shit by declaring that this group is “not a democracy”, Andrea getting separated and being saved by the hooded figure with the katana – were satisfying mostly in that they promised new directions for Season 3.  But after a season that chased its own tail, I was happy to have exciting previews.

VH1 Top 20 Countdown – 6/9/12

June 9, 2012

jmunney Music, Television, VH1 Top 20 Countdown Leave a comment

It was NOT time for Calvin Harris to leave the countdown!

Original Version
1. Carly Rae Jepsen – “Call Me Maybe”
2. Maroon 5 ft. Wiz Khalifa – “Payphone”
3. Jason Mraz – “I Won’t Give Up”
4. Gotye ft. Kimbra – “Somebody That I Used to Know”
5. Nicki Minaj – “Starships”
6. Ellie Goulding – “Lights”
7. Train – “Drive By”
8. fun. ft. Janelle Monáe – “We Are Young”
9. Gym Class Heroes ft. Ryan Tedder – “The Fighter”
10. John Mayer – “Shadow Days”
11. Ed Sheeran – “The A Team”
12. Daughtry – “Outta My Head”
13. Carrie Underwood – “Good Girl”
14. Rihanna – “Where Have You Been”
15. Karmin – “Brokenhearted”
16. David Guetta ft. Sia – “Titanium”
17. Pitbull – “Back in Time”
18. Demi Lovato – “Give Your Heart a Break”
19. Neon Trees – “Everybody Talks”
20. Grace Potter & the Nocturnals – “Never Go Back”

Jmunney’s Revision
1. Somebody That I Used to Know
2. Starships
3. Titanium
4. Lights
5. Where Have You Been
6. Good Girl
7. We Are Young
8. Call Me Maybe
9. Never Go Back
10. Brokenhearted
11. Back in Time
12. Give Your Heart a Break
13. Everybody Talks
14. Payphone
15. Shadow Days
16. The A Team
17. Drive By
18. The Fighter
19. Outta My Head
20. I Won’t Give Up

Portlandia: Season 2 Sketch of the Year

June 7, 2012

jmunney Best Episodes of the 2011-2012 Season, Best Episodes of the Season, Portlandia, Television Leave a comment

“Sanitation Twins”


Marcus and Madeleine Harris – the Sanitation Twins! – are here to tell you, Portland, about all the new and exciting recycling bins!  Like many an attempt to ease and simplify, this effort becomes comically complicated, as seemingly everything and anything (broken umbrellas, lotion, fingernails, eggshells, etc.) can be recycled, a bewildering array of colors (periwinkle, fuchsia, rose, canary, chartreuse, cobalt) are required for each particular recycled group, and each individual element of a whole (coffee cup, sleeve, stir stick, and lid – and lids with lipstick are treated differently than lipstick-less lids) must be separated.  The humor of “Sanitation Twins” does not let up for a second, as it is not just about the bizarre complications that can arise from good intentions.  Fred and Carrie have created thoroughly well-thought out characters in Marcus and Madeleine, as demonstrated by their back-and-forth banter when they go off-script – lack of timing issues such as when they fail to say “We’re twins!” in unison, yeller vs. yellow, Marcus holding onto some old tapes that Madeleine is trying to force him to get rid of, and the discussion about whether or not the fingernails could be Einstein’s.  The ending punctuates another joke to the whole affair, sparking the question of, “Isn’t this all so pointless?”, as the recyclables can only become clean air, fresh water, or good vibes, while the other NINETY-SEVEN percent is dumped into the ocean.

Best Episode of the Season: Portlandia Season 2

June 7, 2012

jmunney Best Episodes of the 2011-2012 Season, Best Episodes of the Season, Portlandia, Television Leave a comment

Season Analysis: Is hipster culture in Portland too narrow a scope for one show?  Well, that was exactly my fear when I first heard about Portlandia, and Season 2 did not alleviate that fear completely.  So, while Fred and Carrie may struggle to consistently put together great episodes, they still have plenty of great sketch ideas up their sleeves.

“Cat Nap”

A male-female indie rock duo that dresses like Devo is struggling to break out when they discover success by incorporating their cat in their act and adopt the name “Catnap.”  JAYDE from the band “JAYDE speaks sevYn” uses Kickstarter to ask for donations for her next music video (which features, among other things, “the wise man who knows nothing”) while an ad for Catnap’s album pops up.  Guest star Miranda July stops by to play the co-owner of a boutique shop with only two shirts in its entire inventory.  That band with the cat is kidnapped by an obsessed fan (played by guest star Kristen Wiig) named Gathy.  That’s Gathy, not Cathy.  Gathy with a “G.”  Could there be a more Portlandia-esque episode of Portlandia?  Well, that last part is more of a goofy Kristen Wiig-ism, but otherwise, this episode was so hipsteriffic it hurt.

Older Entries Newer Entries