Grid Effect

We here at Grid Effect we’re particularly enamored with the past year in television and film, but in most instances the two mediums at large cater to an audience we simply can’t relate too. For every No Country For Old Men and Flight of The Conchords there’s ten Evan Almighty’s and five Big Bang Theory’s, not to say we always scoff at the commercial pieces, we love Grindhouse and The Office, but those are two exceptions. While these both have their shallow characteristics there is still an emphasis on originality and characterization, the same cannot be said for their mainstream counterparts.

Given this is a TV blog, at this time of year we like to recognize series’ that might otherwise go unrecognized, regardless of how trivial and irrelevant the recognition actually is. We’ll countdown 10-6 today, and finish 5-1 on Monday. To read about last year’s best series as donned by this blog, go here and here.

First off, lets take some time to acknowledge the series’ we excluded, including Entourage, Rescue Me Nip Tuck and Survivor. The latter of which had secured its place on the board until this dreadful last season. And we tend to think that producing the worst season out of fifteen warrants barring you from any top ten lists. Rescue Me and Entourage, last year ranked 10 and 8, respectively fell off completely this year for a variety of reasons.

That’s pretty disappointing when two of the series’ on last year’s list weren’t even up for consideration (AD and The Wire). Each had their moments, but neither series seems to have a clue as to where they are going, and are just meandering around for the networks while they still grab decent ratings. And Nip Tuck’s absence shouldn’t come as any surprise.

10) Weeds
A bit of a sham because we haven’t even seen their most recent season, but the first two were good enough that we’re going to take the liberty of saying we’re confident in the product. A series about ultra-liberal potheads for ultra-liberal potheads might seem like a cliche given the current Hollywood environment, but this series produces the goods with great performances from Kevin Nealon as Doug Wilson, and Mary Louise-Parker and Justin Kirk as Nancy and Andy Botwin. A comedy as much as it is a family drama, this series produces great bits of dialog and plot development like no other sitcom to date. And trust us, had we been privy to season three, it would be much higher than #10.

You know it’s good when we haven’t even seen this year’s season and still have it ranked.

9) Flight of The Conchords
As quirky as it is fresh (the antithesis to Juno in that regard), FoTC follows the lives of two aspiring yet hopeless New Zealand musicians in New York. They get into mostly self-inflicted misadventures and handle all of them with a bumbling beta-maleness that can only be accurately described as impotent indifference. This would have earned a higher spot if it wasn’t for the all too frequent uncomfortable musical bits, but with Bret, Jermaine, Murray, Mel and Dave all churning out consistent comedic bits, the place as worst best series we actually saw in full in 2007 seems appropriate.

Friday Night Lights
God we hate putting this series so low. The first season was probably the best network drama we have ever seen. The exposition on a small Texas town and its football team couldn’t have been less imperfect. But this second season, with its uneven episodes and murder plots and surplus of adult-child relationships, we couldn’t rationally put it above anything else left. It has a glimmer of hope that they can get back on track, but they’ve effectively ruined Landry (probably the best peripheral character from season one) and taken several characters down paths I’m not entirely interested in nor do I find them to be as organic as the first seasons conflicts and resolutions. Right now, Taylor Keitsch and Scott Porter as Riggins and Street are saving that series.

7) Curb Your Enthusiasm
Surprised we decided to rank it this high given the frequency of letdowns for their first season in almost two years. But the last three or four episodes (starting with whenever Cheryl left Larry) completely redeemed the season’s initial outpour of implausibility. We suppose this speaks to the longevity of Larry David and his capacity for comedic development, but really we’re not so sure we aren’t putting it on here solely for the last minute of the season. They need to return for a seventh so we can see that final sixty seconds elongated.

6) The Office
Fell a couple spots from last year, though still remained strong despite all our incessant nitpicking. We like to hold great series’ to a higher standard and not resort to the old, “it’s still better than anything else on television” defense. But in all honesty, it is. Even the best 30 Rock episode, which is a highly respected and critically lauded series, doesn’t produce as many great moments (comedic or otherwise) as does the worst episode of The Office. So, for all the unnecessary declarations of love and relationship quarrels, we’re still placing it here at number six.

Back with the top five series of the year on Monday.

We haven’t watched Survivor in enough detail to do a full on, play-by-play recap. And to be honest, we’re really unmotivated to do so, everything about this season is about as spontaneous as an episode of CSI. That is to say, we can see it coming from a mile away. I guess that’s the gamut one runs with reality television, you put a lot of stock in casting and hope it pans out. If it doesn’t then the budget costs were low and they can pump out another season ready for airing in three to six months.

So when in doubt or lethargy, we do how we always do and just doll out some links about nothing in particular and be done with it.

The Golden Globe nominees were announced today, and since this is a TV Blog I’ll try to keep my film critiques at a minimum since it seems like for the most part they got it right. We will say that the bias for late fall/early winter releases is growing tiresome. They gave some love to A Mighty Heart and Eastern Promises, the latter was an alright genre flick. A tad formulaic and didn’t really bring anything new to the table, but certainly engaging, well acted and decently written. But still, it pales in comparison to 3:10 To Yuma and Rescue Dawn. One question though, we haven’t seen it, but is it really appropriate to put Charlie Wilson’s War in the Musical or Comedy category. I guess that “American Pie” song is really influential, even though it is misplaced in this film, considering the song was released in 1971 and the movie is set in 1980. But hey, why worry about semantics, right?

As for the television side of things, no nomination for The Sopranos for Best Drama and Gandolfini for best actor are the most glaring oversights, but as far as everything else is concerned it seems pretty accurate. I have a few nitpicks, such as the actresses on Mad Men (especially Christina Hendricks) getting shut out of all nominations, and Vincent Kartheiser as well. However, the series is nominated for best drama and Jon Hamm got a nomination for best actor, so it all evens out. Sort of. Other complaints like It’s Always Sunny and Curb getting shut out weren’t exactly surprises. The former is probably unknown amongst the international press and the latter wrapped up their worst season to date, despite how great the last two or three episodes were. We try to be realists around here.

In non-award news, Will Arnett is scheduled to be the voice of the car from Knight Rider in an upcoming movie adapted from the laughable classic. He really is just squandering away all that good faith he built up in AD, isn’t he?

Those-were-the-dayyyyysssss.

Reno 911 is bringing in several noteworthy actors and actresses for their fifth season, I won’t even say their names. As a casual viewer of the comedy, am I the only one who sees this as a bad thing? Usually when a successful series starts bringing in bigger, non-traditional names to generate buzz, it’s when the series begins to decline. See 30 Rock this season. Or so I’ve been told.

The union is starting to cave in on itself and is now pointing fingers. This might signify the end of the working millionaire in Hollywood. We kid, but we’re actually pulling for them to stay on track and not lose sight of the bigger picture. That being, while this strike is going on, that’s fewer coked out wannabe actresses they’re coercing into bed with the “promise” of a line in the upcoming Brett Ratner movie.

Also from the LA Times, several of the late show writers want their employers returning to work so they can lobby for them on a national level. Because right now as far as the rest of the country is concerned, though there is a deficit of quality entertainment (not necessarily a bad thing in this country), this is ultimately a regional/local problem. Any change would probably be for the better, because right now they’re looking to be in dire straits.

To anyone who isn’t a total moron, Kiefer Sutherland getting a surplus of fan mail shouldn’t come as a surprise. Does he have priors or something? How is he getting two months in prison and his 20 something, white female counterparts are rarely exceeding a full day? God. If this was a torture camp he got electroshocked in the nuts and they got off with some minimal water-boarding. We guess it pays to be a whorish, non-attractive, untalented celebrity in this country.

ABC brought the ax down on Big Shots, a tale of four emasculated CEO’s and how they manage to be CEO’s while completely stripped of their manhood. Damn, we really thought that would build an audience.

And finally, PBS is getting into the reality game with an academic tinge: they’re following around the student newspaper at Penn State. Speaking from experience, we can assure you that few things are more profoundly uninteresting, subjective and apathetic than a student newspaper. Never the less, it beats the shit out of American Idol.

Back with a Survivor recap later.

A possibly redeeming episode of Nip Tuck last night, we’ll have to think about it over the course of the following week. We will say this: On a trash TV level, which is the only level the series has ever been enjoyable on, last night’s episode worked.

We’ll get to it in detail next Tuesday, onto the links…

Sounds like everyone approached yesterday’s strike negotiations with a level-head. This is huge, since the Hollywood crowd is seldom reasonable about anything. I envisioned more of a Larry David-Alan Wasserman type scenario.

In lieu of writers? Simple, bring back American Gladiators. I wonder if they’ll have any sort of reunion show, with all the original gladiators, Joe Theismann and the quintessential Italian stereotype in the jumpsuit explaining the nuance of the eliminator to us? Seriously, that guy with the slicked back hair has done more harm to the Italian/American perception than anything that ever happened on The Sopranos.

There better be a reincarnation of the game, preferably on the Wii.

Maybe you haven’t heard, but NBC has picked up Chuck and Life for full seasons. We watched about twenty minutes of the former since the pilot, and it consisted of Chuck and his friend acting completely pathetic with the female lead and some really bad actress brought in as one of the female lead’s coworkers (the names escape me). We don’t want to rush to judgment, so we’ll ask, has it gotten any better? Or has it at least improved within its own genre? We never watched Life but hear good things. Of course, those who watch Chuck have many laudatory comments as well, so read into that how you will.

The presidential hopefuls list their favorite series’ on television. Not sure who I’m voting for yet, but if I go blue the fact that Barack Obama is the only candidate who watches The Wire certainly doesn’t hurt his cause. We’ve always said that if Carcetti reminds us of anyone, it’s Obama. Given Obama is operating on a much larger scale, but the young, upstart politician giving all the veterans the business is essentially what the fictional Carcetti and non-fictional Obama have set out to do. Assuming the parallel is consistent, it’s only a matter of time before the windy city native is swallowed up by the dark side.

Just to illustrate how there is no rhyme or reason to the television industry, HBO grew in popularity after The Sopranos finale. Is it because Curb returned after a two year hiatus? We’re John From Cincinnati’s ratings misleading? Were people not aware that “Made In America” was David Chase’s series finale? No idea, but only the former makes an iota of sense.

We actually saw this live last Friday, and while we we’re amused by it, we found it surprising that the University of Colorado would be self-deprecating to the point of having Cartman mock their politics, which Trey Parker and Matt Stone have done several times on their series. If you include the win that afternoon, it was a great day for the people in Boulder.

And finally, has there ever been more in production banter about a movie than we’re experiencing with the Sex and the City theatrical debut? Honestly, they’re going to flame out with all the over-saturation.

Well, god damn, that was pleasant. Has there ever been a more satisfying season finale to a comedy? My vote would be no, but my bias for JB Smoove as Leon being the highlight of the season is well documented. Even for all the mid-season blunders this year, that final montage essentially compensated for any perceived shortcomings. And, with a last quarter run, we still got about five quality episodes, two mediocre ones and three duds.

This finale, much like all Curb finales (sans season four, I couldn’t stand how much time they invested in showing us The Producers) ended a main storyline, but unlike past finales, this one could actually run into the following season. There stands a good chance The Blacks are still around in season seven, unlike Larry’s Broadway career or the restaurant or Larry’s search for his biological parents or “Aren’t You Evelyn?”, and that is considered around these parts as a high note.

Damn that Tivo guy.

The ending distracted from what was otherwise an entertaining finale. The movie theater experience, Larry’s flirting in the waiting room, the conversation with the administrator (”I’m not an inventor, so much as I am an improver”), the gargling bet with Jeff (”I would have gladly paid that fifty bucks because that was so enjoyable, but you ruined it”), the “Bin Laden” vs. “Ben Laden” and “Is Life too short?” conversations with Richard, “mopy” vs. “Moby” dick and Larry’s scaring off the potential neighbor were all comedy gems, and if these instances were spread out over three episodes we would consider all three episodes a success.

The gerbil rumor, however, was a little too far-fetched. It seems like someone as I’m sure intigrated in the Hollywood community as Larry is, would be above suspicion of such outrageousness. Also, the first thing that came to mind after Larry made up his affliction with the nurse was Mr. Slave and the Lemmingwinks episode. Which was far more unmerciful on our sensibilities, but its animated and prides itself on its outlandish storytelling. Curb prefers to ground itself in reality, or at least a version of it that represents Larry David’s charmed life. Everyone assuming he has a gerbil lodged in his colon doesn’t really hold up to that standard.

Still, I can’t believe this was a finale. The season seemed to come and go in the blink of an eye, and while I complained immensely about several of the episodes, it leaves me with nothing to write about on Mondays. This website might just might reflect a more typical blog for at least one day a week, with multiple, shorter posts throughout the course of the day. Kind of like an elongated version of the Wednesday links.

But not today, if this format is adopted then it will be reflected next week when everyone’s on vacation and unable to read it. Back with a Nip Tuck recap tomorrow.

Didn’t watch Nip Tuck last night, though we did see American Gangster and, while it was certainly an entertaining flick and revolved heavily around symbolic gestures about American capitalism, and told the story of two profoundly unique individuals, both stories were so riveting that they could have been broken down into two separate films, each about the same length as the two and a half hours we saw last night. There were just too many leaps of logic for me to be awestruck with it, which is what I was preparing for given the talent involved (Crowe, Denzel, Scott and Zallian). If forced to give a rating at gunpoint we’d go with a 7/10.

Onto a special WGA strike version of the links…

Doesn’t it seem like they could strike and not picket?

Here’s what we’ve been looking for! A succinct yet detailed synopsis of how virtually every series will be effected by the strike.

Several showrunners, presidential candidates and actors were out picketing/speaking out with the WGA recently, still probably means little to nothing in terms of getting a new deal, but it’s a small moral victory at least. When Marc Cherry backs you, then the world will know your struggle.

Lost only has eight episodes complete for their pending season. Considering how plot heavy the series is, that could be an issue. The American audience is fickle and they like things to happen quickly and abruptly with their television, otherwise they get bored and eventually disinterested. No show embodies this mentality more so than Lost. So if they have an engorging hiatus mid-season, that could really cut into their viewership.

Sounds like the The Office is just collapsing in light of this strike, as I’m sure many series’ are, this series might not survive it given all the film careers the cast is certainly seeking.

Further evidence of Jon Stewart genuinely being a “good guy”: He’s paying his writing staff out of pocket for two weeks. This reminds me of The Simpsons episode where Apu kept giving his wife really extravagant gifts for Valentine’s Day, and every other husband in Springfield resented him for it because there wives felt comparatively under-appreciated. Congrats, Jon, on making your fellow late night counterparts who probably make ten times as much money as you look like self-involved louts.

Leno has decided to picket with his writing staff and is playing the humble man, Steve Carell is doing likewise, not sure if this is earth shattering or anything, but there it is.

With an excess of newfound time on his hands and a bevy of new material, Larry David has reportedly been contemplating doing two more seasons of Curb. This, in a currently downtrodden industry, is some good news.

And finally, over 32 million people watched me lose a large quantity of money on Sunday during the Colts-Patriots game. That is the power of the NFL my friends, its like a fourth branch of Government. One question to ponder for the rest of the day: Why does the Orlando Sentinel give a shit about this?

Back tomorrow with Survivor and South Park recaps.

Welcome back to the work week, hope everyone had a relaxing yet fulfilling weekend. I would like to take advantage of this platform and thank Tony Dungy for using his last two timeouts before the two minute warning last night to save twenty seconds, so New England was able to run out the clock to end the game, instead of kicking a field goal to give me my six point cover. Really, that move of sheer brilliance really capped off the weekend nicely. The Colts, along with Oklahoma State’s implosion didn’t have me in the negative, but they certainly cut in to my net gain. Now, I better quit before Mike Gundy is berating me at a press conference.

(Too early to think of a witty transition, so we’re just abruptly switching to more relevant topics)

This is three in a row now, with interesting and considerably plausible comedic scenarios. We loved the satire on people treating their therapists advice like gospel. All we could conjure up in comparison was Tony’s sessions with Dr. Melfi, and how contrasting they were. While Larry asks his therapist for direct advice as to how he should reconcile his marriage, Tony is confronting his demons and growing overly emotional. The box of tissues sitting next to Larry on the coffee table was a nice touch, as if he’s ever going to unintentionally break down in tears.

The concept of the therapist being held responsible for all of Larry’s problems, and the dictator of Cheryl’s is quite hilarious. It’s hysterical to see the inability on the part of the characters to manage their own lives, and essentially take orders from their therapists, then fault the therapists when things don’t quite work out. All of a sudden they turn into spoiled kids blaming their parents for everything.

The web of deceit continues to grow.

The characters seem a bit more callous this year than usual, Larry from the first few seasons would genuinely feel troubled by accidentally sending someone to prison, nowadays he chats with him in an orange jump suit about the trials and tribulations of his marriage that put him in prison in the first place. Whoever played Dr. Bright did so magnificently, because the absurdity of dragging your therapist around to be berated by friends and family actually seemed believable. His assessment of Larry being a pussy and his explanation as to why he thought Cheryl would be someone who would enjoy an ultimatum were probably the highlights of the episode.

One preference would have been to have Leon go along with the scheme to pretend to mug Cheryl’s therapist. This would have changed the plot entirely, because Dr. Bright getting arrested set up the “we have to stop now” turnabout, but seeing Leon involved in anything is a positive since it gives him more screen time, the whole conversation was just a tease on the part of the writers.

In all, we got a solid episode with some laugh out loud moments and I think I had a grin permanently plastered on my face throughout half hour. We’re very much looking forward to the season finale, and actually wondering if Larry will be single going into (potential) seventh season.

Nip Tuck recap coming tomorrow.

Eventful weekend even if we skipped Jacksonville this year. Though, admittedly, watching the game on television (which was actually entertaining, usually it meanders for three hours and then you’re just thankful its over) and seeing the overhead shots of The Landing was painful, we got through it with only a few tears shed. Definitely a good television weekend, what with OSU, FNL and Curb all producing astounding results, we had plenty to entertain ourselves with despite skipping what’s usually the best weekend of the year.

Another solid episode of Curb last night. Even if it strains credibility that Larry David wouldn’t use the nomenclature in the title to convey his point or the doctor would be so reactive from the misunderstanding, there was plenty of substantive material here to make up for credibility issues.

Larry probably leads the most chaotic, tedious dating life of any near billionaire on the planet. This episode was like a giant half hour nod to Curb episodes past and Seinfeld, so when he went to pick up his opthamologist date and her living room was designed like a waiting room, and she conducted every aspect of her life like she does her profession, I shouldn’t have been surprised. I kind of get the impression Larry David conjured up this divorce plot just for this unspoken joke alone. Also, that is probably why it worked so well, it was never addressed in any manner, other than Larry’s self-realization.

One of Larry’s many attempted explanations.

Stemming from that concept, the misunderstanding when he asked the doctor to read the note she had written for him was probably one of the more creative puns we’ve ever seen on television. Not that for a second we believe anyone would use such suggestive phrasing as (explanations are in parenthesis so there are no misunderstandings for anyone who didn’t watch the episode), “I’m sick of all these brothers and sisters running around (his date had her siblings living with her), You can’t tell me your life wouldn’t be better without the Blacks (Larry has a black family living with him with the family name ‘Black’)”.

Again, the phrasing was weird, so I thought they were going to go the way of the Seinfeld episode where we found out Larry’s girlfriend was not only an “anti-dentite”, but racist and xenophobic to boot. Instead they went for the “Porno Gil” callback where Larry couldn’t read his friends directions, and a random stranger asked if a doctor had written them, since its universally known that they have shoddy penmanship.

But this was a great episode in which all the parts wove together nicely for a fitting result. And really, that’s all we ever expect from Curb. The series has proven it can thrive without Cheryl Hines, even if Larry cannot. I was surprised we didn’t see or hear from her at all, sans some archived footage. Is it sad or impressive that I could pinpoint the episode and what was transpiring in all of those scenes?

Other notes:

-JB Smoove was in rare form again. Or rather, it’s becoming more commonplace for his performance to outshine virtually everyone he’s on camera with. From the “stabbing” of Auntie Ray to the kazoo reference, he didn’t get as much screen time as usual, but what he had he used well.

-We were surprised they could get Ben Stiller for such a small cameo. Did they just agree to get whoever happens to be rolling by the studio then just throw there name into the fold after they found out who that would be? That was probably the smallest cameo in the history of cameos, especially considering how noteworthy the cameo is.

-The bald subplots never grow tiresome. As it seems to be Larry’s and George’s biggest insecurity.

-For those who may have not recognized, the woman playing the opthamologist was none other than Sue Ellen Mischke, played by Brenda Strong.

Another strong episode, even with the leaps of logic. That makes 3 of 8 this season that have been top-tier Curb’s and sets up the series to bat .500 for the year. Six seasons in, for any series but especially a sitcom, that’s a pretty strong percentage.

Sorry for the late post. Our boss is in Vegas, so we came into work an hour and a half late. In addition to some actual work that needed caught up on, we’re running a little behind schedule. Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend and it was at least slightly more eventful then mine.

It seemed the Curb writers were about ten steps ahead of me in getting to an unmarried Larry David. And it was all that we imagined it would be. Larry David seems to have some sort of subtle obsession with Xena: Warrior Princess. Remember when they referenced it in Seinfeld? Jerry’s dad claimed it to be the only show he watched, yet another peculiarity. This was definitely a return to form and counts as the second really commendable episode this season. No suspending disbelief, no outlandish premises, just great situational comedy.

“I’m not a cool guy, but would you mind letting me waste a couple hours of your time?” Is unquestionably my next pickup line.

The phone call from the plane did seem a little bizarre, it wasn’t really clear if he couldn’t hear Cheryl because of a poor connection or because the TIVO guy was talking into his ear, or if he was just willfully ignoring her. My assumption is it was a combination of all three. She did call from a plane phone, the Tivo guy was pretty insistent on getting his attention and Larry, at least subconsciously, probably didn’t want to have the awkward, heartfelt moment with Cheryl. I couldn’t help but laugh at the circumstances. What’s particularly great about these developments, is that neither of them seem intent on getting back together.

As great as the episode was, the hospital conversation with the doctor and Leon really stood out. The concept of long balls, something I’m not even sure an average guy could tell you if he is or isn’t afflicted with, is the type of peccadillo that only this show would bring into light. Leon’s presence wasn’t needed, the scene stood on its own, but it was certainly welcomed as he was the one who brought up the ailment of “long balls”. The doctor putting it technically while Larry tried to ascertain whether or not his scrotum length was abnormal was a great counterbalance.

I’m not sure how long this will play out. If it will mimic the strife of Larry David’s actual marriage, then it will probably run into next season. If not, and they want to keep Cheryl Hines on staff, then they might rekindle before season’s end. I suppose its all determinant on where the real life David’s stood by the time they wrapped up production. Here’s hoping it continues, Cheryl Hines is a great foil, but doesn’t bring much to the comedic table. At this point in the series, we really don’t need a foil for the hijinks of our anti-hero of sorts. I kind of like the concept of Larry David operating uncontested.

Everyone’s reaction to the news, including Larry’s, whose more concerned about proving a hostess at an Italian restaurant wrong then saving his own marriage was overtly cynical. In actuality, Larry asking the favor of Cheryl seemed like a reasonable request since she was the one who left, but since human emotion is going to play a role, practicality doesn’t always win out, thus we often perceive Larry as a dimwit. And why everyone sided with Cheryl, including said restaurant. Jeff and Suzie have yet to do so, it will be interesting to see if they’re at all conflicted.

Other notes:

-Is Richard Lewis really a “special guest”? And why couldn’t the guy, who had the gall to borrow $10,000 from Larry, not also have the same gall to tell him to invite Richard free of charge?

-The matching wits with the guy that owned the “no fly zone” underwear company is about the sort of retaliation I expected from him. Then his defeated exit out when the guy produced the mint, tissue, pen trinity was an appropriate follow up. Larry David doesn’t seem terribly materialistic, but if he needed some sort of comparative symbol to restore his masculinity, why not point out the bank account discrepancy? Certainly its vast. But, admittedly, the complaining about his new rival’s product was hysterical, “like there’s some great clamoring for underwear with no fly”.

-A couple continuity nitpicks: wouldn’t at least Funkhouser’s daughter side with Larry over Cheryl? Considering his sterling reputation within the lesbian community, I figured that was a given. Additionally, Funkhouser called Larry his best friend earlier this season. Maybe stealing the flowers from his mother’s memorial halted that friendship?

-Just one more nitpick: In the “Shaq” episode in the second season, Larry claimed to be a Knicks fan and to hate the Lakers. This episode, he was TIVO’ing Lakers games and avoiding it at the restaurant on his date with Lucy Lawless. At least he’s not fair-weather, because while the Lakers are still better than the Knicks, they’re nowhere near worth jumping ship for.

-Speaking of Lawless, she was incredibly charming in this episode. I could even side with her outrage on Larry’s presumption that they were going back to her house for sex.

If every episode from here on out proves this original and structured. Then it will completely redeem what has been an uneven season to date. These past few episodes Larry might have been so egregious in order to make Cheryl’s leaving seem justified. To be honest, we’re kind of optimistic that this was indeed the case.

Welcome, welcome. Hope all had a great weekend. If you’re a sports fan it was almost impossible to have a bad one. If you live in Florida, specifically in Tampa, you’re probably still hungover because out of nowhere you’ve managed to control your own destiny and actually cherry pick a national title game on a transitional year in college football. If you live in Ohio, specifically Columbus, then you recognize that this season is eerily similar to 2002. Oh, and in both college football and professional baseball, you’re prepared to see your team come in second place yet again (2006 OSU football and basketball, 2006-07 Cleveland Cavaliers, 2007 Columbus Destroyers).

Anyhow, enough rehashing my gambling debts. To the meaning of the post…

A couple comedic threads lifted from Friends episodes of all places last night. One with Tim Meadow’s wife’s dog (Rachel once purchased a dog reminiscent of her childhood, that could be easily mistaken for a different species) and another with coitus while under the weather (Monica trying to get pregnant and coercing Chandler into sex). They do seem to be stretched for material, but between Leon’s misadventures and Suzie’s translation tactics, the episode was definitely an improvement over last week.

One does get the sense that Larry David and the rest are sort of going through the motions, but sometimes that pans out in their favor. Originality isn’t the lone form of success. It probably also helped that David Steinberg was directing, and JB Smoove has really become a highlight of this short season, so the supporting cast is helping. Is anyone curious as to why Tim Meadows didn’t play himself? I figured spending over a decade on SNL would give someone, at the very least, enough name recognition to appear as an exaggerated version of himself on Curb. Guess not. Also, we still can’t really figure out why Vivica Fox has taken this role.

But so many of the jokes just felt far-fetched and, honestly, desperate. I’ve always been a Larry David apologist. Even after the much maligned Seinfeld series finale I defended it like people were insulting my grandmother. But last night, is there really any way Tim Meadows’ character mistakes Larry’s hand-drying as derogatory sign-language? Or that Leon and Larry just don’t look at their phones to see if one person or the other is lying about not receiving any phone calls? Or for that matter, would Tim Meadows really believe that Larry was actually on the receiving end of his return call? I guess that could be explained that they both felt guilty for fucking each other over, so they decided to let bygones be bygones? But this sounds out of character for Larry and Leon.

Never the less, Larry’s dismissal of Leon’s prospective employers and Leon’s trashing of Tim Meadows was hilarious. Probably the highpoint of the episode, if not Larry’s confiding all his petty issues with Jeff, which never fails to deliver. Jeff seems to be the only character that he is honest with, and watching him air his grievances in a comfortable setting is a change of pace from the dismissive Cheryl or hostile everybody else. Honestly, who else would listen to someone bitch about their toaster and take them seriously other than a person you’re giving 10% of a goldmine too?

One can just see the registering of being unfairly blamed on Larry’s face.

The thing with the exterminator and his mock high school date with Larry was somewhat out of character for this series. But it climaxed well with the exterminator stomping the rat dog to death, believing it was, in actuality, a rat. Considering the overly PC LA schoolyard was traumatized earlier when Larry took out a spider in a similar fashion, I would have liked to have seen the backlash after the exterminator took out a dog in the auditorium.

Ultimately it was a decent episode, and reminded me more of seasons past than any episode yet this season (sans “The Anonymous Donor”). It just seems that right now, the good is narrowly outweighing the bad, something I thought I’d never say about this comedian or this series.

The comedies over the past four or five days will be sharing posts in order to shorten the amount of time I spend writing here while I should be working, or at least pretending to work. We’ll have a post later tonight or early tomorrow reviewing the latest episodes of The Office and South Park as well.

But first thing is first, It’s Always Sunny got back on the right track last Thursday after a derailing of sorts the week before. For the most part, I though these episodes were more abnormal than anything I’ve seen from them in three seasons, which counts for a lot with this series (The “diaper time” thing was especially unsettling). Meaning, the gang seemed acutely oblivious about their goals.

I probably preferred the “Selling Out” episode, simply because the writing and acting seems at its pinnacle when they’re all backstabbing each other for marginal personal gain, but the “famous” episode had its high points. Namely, Dee getting the short end of the stick yet again, and the issues with excessive perspiration afflicting Mac instead of Charlie. However, little could be done to top the reintroduction of Charlie Day’s wife playing the manager at a local generic restaurant chain, and Dennis’ callous indifference towards her. Just a great hour of comedy.

In Curb, well, it seems that we’ve hit a rough patch. Last night’s episode entitled “The Freak Book” had a few absolutely laugh out loud moments, but they were intertwined with too much monotony, and frivolous yet unidentifiable arguments. I really didn’t understand the need to stretch Larry’s conversation with the bartender to over two minutes, considering they didn’t even reference it past the exchange with Ted Danson immediately afterwards. This, among many other mind-numbing scenes, had me checking the clock every five minutes.

Larry being ostracized, much like the freaks in his book.

It seemed this episode wasn’t going to be salvageable, until Larry caused an absolute semi-drunken scene because of the car service while Ted was opening his presents. Him and Jeff laughing hysterically at the freak book reminded me of Mac and Charlie in their penny suits after they stole Frank’s money. This along with the Jon McEnroe “partying” scene that had me in stitches (A similar scene with Johnny Mac takes place in Mr. Deeds with the tennis pro playing himself and showing Adam Sandler “The real New York”. Still remains the only noteworthy scene in that movie) almost saved the entire episode and earned a positive review.

As a side note, I wonder if Larry David inserted the Heather Mills joke as a way of empathizing with Paul McCartney, another uber-rich celebrity going through a very public divorce. The last time I can recall them using an off screen voice as a plot device was in the first season episode, “The Interior Decorator” with Diane Keaton leaving a couple phone messages. The Heather Mills voice was particularly awful, just a harpy, unmerciful thick British accent. Maybe the two of them will start a club, ” The borderline billionaires being taken to the cleaners in a divorce for no apparent reason” club. While I would hate giving up that much money I earned, I would love to be a member.

Still enjoyable, just not what it once was. Either way, it’s a good way to wind down at 3am after driving for eight hours.

Back later with more comedy recaps.

This was indeed the oddest episode of Curb I’ve ever seen. You know that’s the case when the most normalcy is applied when Larry defends Suzy. But good God, man, the thing with the toilet paper, Cha-Cha monitoring Larry’s bathroom activity, the barber beating Larry with the towel, the chef spiking the doggy bag of food and Leon’s bizarre lecture on self-respect…I’m at a loss. This was more like an It’s Always Sunny episode than any Curb I’ve watched. Did it work? Well, I don’t recall laughing once, but that could have been the result of being too distracted with the goings on to find any humor in it.

Is that Larry David or Branch Rickey?

Maybe I need to watch again, because we like It’s Always Sunny ’round these parts, but it was just so unexpected. If I wanted to see an episode of television revolving around a lead character’s bowel movements I’d watch South Park, usually the comedy on Curb is a tad more obscure or challenging in its observations, like a debate over who deserves a “thank you” after a couple treats another couple to a meal when only one of the giving spouses is gainfully employed.

Come to think of it, I probably didn’t like it. First off, I don’t really need these prolonged conversations with Tia Carrere. I understand Larry is just trying to dismiss himself from regular exchanges with her, unfortunately I’m hoping for the same. We’ve seen Larry do this several times in the past and its never been so drawn out. Maybe its the actress, maybe we’ve seen it one too many times…I don’t know. Either way, they shared about five scenes together and the only one that made me chuckle was the one over the phone, and even that wasn’t addressed until Richard referred to Larry as a “pervo”.

Not to be a completely discouraging, there were some things I appreciated last night. Namely, Larry’s description of barber shops, his confrontation of the “skinhead” (which, though predictable, was funny in its own right and reminded me of the third season finale where Larry is envious of all the senior high school students who shaved there heads as a sign of solidarity for one of their classmates with cancer) and Cheryl’s disbelief that Larry would use the non-environmentally sound toilet paper behind her back and the argument that ensued between her, the Blacks and Larry. Also, Larry’s repeated use of the name “Auntie Ray” does admittedly have me in stitches.

Still, I have to wonder that if between this and the flower stealing episode last week, has Curb seen its better days? We haven’t ever seen two mediocre episodes like this in this series, let alone back to back. I’ll still advocate for a seventh season (which is how many I believe Larry David worked on Seinfeld for) just to see the divorced years, but this doesn’t really stack up to what were accustomed to from Curb. And the plots seem too far-fetched and incredulous for what the series usually brings. I have no doubt its difficult to create innocuous social situations for Larry David to fret over, and they definitely set the bar really high in the first four seasons (sort of unfair to blame them for that), but at some point were going to need more believability and less desperation.

That’s a long-winded title. The longest I can recall at that. I guess its appropriate since Larry is now a notch below a sadist. Usually I can defend Larry’s unpopular actions, but stealing flowers from a memoriam for a woman hit by a car is indefensible. The show treated it as such, though, and it led to some comedic high jinks that made it forgivable. Still, it just seemed…harsh, for a Curb episode.

Not to say I didn’t enjoy it. Marty Funkhouser is one of the more offbeat side characters. Whereas everyone burst into hysterics when dealing with Larry, he has a stoic delivery and looming persona that manages to be threatening and non-threatening at the same time, and it’s a nice change of pace. His basic decency which sometimes delve into overt sentimentalism (though this was not one of those instances) often clashes with Larry’s self-serving behavior. So when Larry opened the door to see Funkhouser coldly standing there immediately after Larry stole the flowers, we assume he knows about what transpired. But know, that’s just his natural look, and given how large he is, it can be quite intimidating. Especially when he’s trying to force a sweaty $50 bill on you.

Larry was in rare form last night. Voicing complaints about over-usage of free store and restaurant samples, stealing flowers he gave to a dean of admissions at a middle school (that he took from the memorial) and dismissing Funkhouser’s claim that they were best friends (maybe my favorite exchange of the season). Even when he is in the right or thoughtful in some way, he still takes an earful from someone (this time its the displaced family he brought in and his wife about only bringing back ice cream for Cheryl and forgetting about the family).

The scene in the perfume store was a bit heavy-handed, with Larry just screaming insanely about the inefficiency of two checkout lines as opposed to one line for two separate counters. It reminded me of the first season where he was lecturing everyone in the waiting room about the appointment time-sign in conundrum at the doctors, which was much funnier because everyone was following the credo of being silent in the doctors office, and he answered his own questions to further mock his beleaguered psuedo-audience’s adherence to the unwritten rule (funny how selective he is with these unwritten rules).

Other notes:

-That was an odd reaction from Jeff following Larry’s accidental sabotage of their meeting with the school dean. Has he ever lashed out like that? I can recall a few such instances where he might have shown contempt, but since he is an employee of Larry’s (and a meal ticket, essentially), he always bit his tongue.

It appears as though the ban has been lifted

-Speaking of defending Larry, is anyone going to demonstrate any appreciation for him bringing in a displaced family? Not that people should be fawning over his generosity or anything, but a little acknowledgment would go a long way, particularly from said family.

-I like how Larry preordains in the morning that he wants sex, then spends the entire day working towards it, then reverts back to his normal personality the following morning. Is this what happens when you’re married and faithful in your fifties?

-Can’t throwing a worthwhile sum of money on the ground be enough of a deterrent to get anyone out of an uncomfortable situation in public?

All in all, a good episode. They’re certainly trying to be innovative, and not just going through the motions like they were seemingly doing last season.

My apologies to those who were expecting a review of Sunday’s episode yesterday morning, but I felt like that Emmys post was sufficient enough to cover me throughout the entire week, much less just Monday morning. Besides, this was a top ten episode of Curb and I wanted to collect my thoughts.

They open with Larry, Cheryl and the Blacks (again, that is their last name, please don’t email me) moving into a new house. Throughout the six seasons of Curb, Larry and Cheryl have lived in four different houses, and despite some light footage in the season two premiere, we’ve never seen them physically move into a house. For good reason, as I now see. This episode didn’t really kick off until the Blacks cousin, Leon (played by JB Smoove, most notably from SNL), who resides in LA and was nowhere near the hurricane, manages to finagle a spot in Larry’s new home. I imagine this is an example of Larry’s white liberal guilt, or maybe he was simply too tired to deal with the situation.

This episode was cameo heavy. Including Smoove, we also got another appearance from Gina Gershon as the temperamental dry cleaner and Barbara Boxer playing herself, hob-knobbing with celebrities, which I’m sure isn’t a far stretch to how she regularly spends her days. Her introduction to Larry and Ted Danson triggered the line of the night. In reference to Ted Danson having his wing of the NRDC listed as “donated by anonymous”, yet having all of his friends tell everybody he is responsible for it, Larry describes the ruse as, “It’s fake philanthropy and faux-anonymity”. It’s really self-deprecating, like the exact opposite of Kanye West, the Danson is so willing to play himself as such a self-satisfied, passive aggressive prick.

All these things come to a heed when Cheryl finds a noticeable cum-stain in the bed Leon spent the night in, assuming he is responsible Larry takes a day to decide whether or not to kick him out, but Jeff admits to being the responsible party, claiming he drank too much wine and apparently couldn’t control himself. The indifferent but nervous look on his face when confining the Ted and Larry about summed up how I figured he would deliver to such a confession.

With Ted and Cheryl now gossiping with each other, Ted leaked the guilty culprit to Cheryl and she subsequently bans him from the house. Seems harsh but fair. Suzy, of course, overreacts and counters by banning Larry from her house, but temporarily lifts it so he can use her restroom when returning Jeff’s sunglasses, only to later accuse him of beating one off on her daughter’s teddy bear. There was no final word as to whether this is actually true, but in my mind it already is.

The thing with the baseball jersey, for the life of me I couldn’t figure out why that was a subplot, and when they showed Larry playing war with Leon in matching Joe Pepitone jerseys after he apologized for accusing him of leaving the cum stain, I figured that would be the climax (really no pun intended, the phrasing just works) of the subplot. But it was a nice finishing touch to have the story come full circle, with the first guy they wrongfully confiscated Larry’s missing jersey from, chase him back to the NRDC building, where he couldn’t get special permission to be let into the building because his name had been changed to “anonymous” on the wing he donated money for.

Writing about these episodes is somewhat of a drag, there is so little to add to any of them, and they’re all so convoluted (in a good way). Larry seems to offend most of his audience, and maybe I’m simply deranged and abnormal, but I tend to agree with him more often than not. Who is so conceited that they donate something anonymously then tell everyone their responsible for it, but still pretends they don’t want credit? Why should anyone expect to have their laundry stolen from a dry-cleaner? These are the life-altering questions Curb asks its audience.

Anyhow, definitely a top ten episode and a significant improvement on the first (which outside of the Newlywed game and all exchanges with Richard Lewis, I didn’t much care for). People seem to be under the impression Curb was on its last legs in the fifth season. While there were some forgettable episodes, I still thought the humor was original enough that it sustained a high level of presentation, and really had nothing but laudatory things to say about it. But if this episode was any indication, everyone dissatisfied with season five should enjoy season six.

Maybe back with a belated Emmy’s follow-up, otherwise a season finale review/recap of Rescue Me tomorrow morning.

I should probably give the sixth season premiere to the best consistent comedy on television its own post, but if you want your own post, then don’t schedule your return from a two year hiatus on the same day the NFL returns and the horrific VMA’s.

In the interest of full disclosure, outside of Curb, football took precedent last night. I was advocating for HBO programming as my fantasy matchup was essentially already determined, but you try to presuade three testosterone induced twenty-something males to flip from an NFL game that is quenching their thirst for blood to a show called Tell Me You Love Me and we’ll see how you do. Once you succeed then you can give me shit about it.

Despite being overruled at that moment, I attempted to watch the pilot after the game and nodded off about twenty minutes into it. In that twenty minutes, however, I saw several pretentious arguments, a man have the most narcissistic jerk-off session in the history of television (seriously, he might as well have been looking at his reflection in a mirror) while his wife peered nervously out the bathroom door at him (are married women really naive enough to believe their spouses never pound one out?), two sets of external genitals and really nothing all that enlightening or interesting. Also, given that I’m something of an insomniac, it’s probably a bad sign that this put me to sleep.

The basic premise is we are introduced to three couples each respectively in their 40’s, 30’s and 20’s all struggling with different aspects of their relationships. They all separately decide to see a senior-aged psychiatrist and we are privy to her private life as well. Beyond that, going into details seems somewhat pointless because we’re not planning on following this series. Sorry. If it gets any better then tip us off and we’ll give it another viewing.

Curb, on the other hand, got started off on the right foot. This season’s plot revolves around Larry and Cheryl taking in a displaced African/American family after their city was ravaged by hurricane Edna (not Katrina). And this is what makes this series better than any other comedy out there: every plot advancement is a joke, or at least comedically situational. Everything in the show targets laughs and ignores melodrama. Why does this seem so rare nowadays?

Larry agrees to this after answering honestly in the newlywed game that he wants to sleep with Richard Lewis’ girlfriend, Cha-Cha, (or he would prefer to over any of his other friends wives/girlfriends), when apparently you’re supposed to simply say your wife. Funkhauser went before him and acted accordingly because he’s a tool, and Larry went before Jeff, who was never backed into the same corner.

Even beforehand, Larry decided to subsequently inoculate himself of any blame from skipping parties by showing up the next day, pretending that he got the date mixed up. In addition to this we got a penis cake, about five minutes of Lewis-David banter, a disparagement of golf, Ted Danson and a Mary Steenburgen who looks younger now than she did in Back to The Future III.

A few qualms, that in no way effected my overall enjoyment of the episode: It’s obvious they’re setting up Larry to clash with the new family he brought in, especially Vivica A. Fox, who upon being asked not to smoke in the house, put the cigarette out in the penis cake that Larry was enjoying. Something about it seemed overly harsh and confrontational. I mean, he is helping your family recover from the unthinkable, being asked to take the cancer stick outside seems like a reasonable request. It wasn’t him that exposed your kids to the penis cake.

Also, when Ted Danson arrived at Larry’s house the day after their party, claiming to have gotten the dates confused, it didn’t really jive, considering Larry’s house was being cleaned out in the morning, after the fire, and it was presumed that their party was scheduled for the evening, or at least the afternoon, not first thing in the morning.

Still, a great episode with several memorable lines (”Your last name is black, that would be like if my last name were Jew”) and a great concept for the remaining nine episodes. It has been almost two years since their last season, so anything less would have been surprising.

Just a quick note, and this transition is as odd as the one last night (going from Curb Your Enthusiasm to interviews with Iraq war veterans), but if you want to see the actual sacrifice of this war, one that most of us are unfamiliar with, watch Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq, as James Gandolfini interviews ten permanently injured soldiers as they share their stories. Their injuries range from amputations to brain trauma to blindness, and while it’s a difficult, and thankfully apolitical hour, it is well executed and provides more perspective than all the Bush is evil/Bush is a saint documentaries currently available.

My apologies for the last paragraph, I’ll never do that again, but it really is a dramatic, moving hour of television that should be acknowledged.

Peculiar episode on Sunday. Definitely damn funny, but it was a first time for many things. Bret and Jermaine’s first experimentation with illegal drugs, their first opportunity (and presumable achievement) at a “man-man-lady” threesome (though I’m sure Mel has always been a viable option) and the first time the show completely disregarded any type of continuity.

A couple episodes ago, Bret was overly-squeamish about promiscuity, this episode he was gun-ho about a potential “lady-lady-man” threesome and running out the door of Mel’s apartment for emotionless sex? What gives? For the most part I don’t give a shit. Like stated about Entourage yesterday, comedies should ultimately be judged on the creativity of their humor, which Conchords is still excelling in, not on plot points. Look at a series like Curb Your Enthusiasm. In the pilot, Sammy, Jeff and Suzie Green’s child was an infantile boy (never shown on camera), in his first actual appearance on the series in “The Doll”, he had morphed into an 8-10 year old girl.

Still, that and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (whose first episode is up online, by the way) are the two best comedies still making new episodes. Just find a way to make me laugh, and all will be right with the world. I was just taken aback by it, but having an eager Bret in that situation made for better comedy that a timid one, so we here at Grid Effect applaud them for the decision.

But that misses the focus of this episode, as Kristin Schaal proved she isn’t better in small doses. From her interrogation of the “new fans” to her bathroom inspection of Bret (all while respecting his boundaries) she was definitely a highlight. It would be preferable if she was prominent in the last two remaining episodes. Speaking of Mel…

Am I the only one who watches these episodes worried about what’s going to happen to Dave? Seeing him cooped up in his crowded basement playing Solitary (or so it appeared) while his wife served dinner to two men that she wants to sleep with and their dates only solidified my concerns. Is it still a comedy if this guy slits his wrists? It was further explained how she cost him his career (which was hilariously inflected and delivered by Schaal), can’t they just divorce or something?

The musical numbers left something to be desired. Its at the point now where I’m just uncomfortable watching those if with a group of people. This time it was a mock anthem to “all the ladies of the world” and an acid trip parody. Yawn. But I’ve made my peace with the (in my admittedly unpopular opinion) sub-par music, and enjoy the other twenty-five minutes of the episode.

Other notes:

-I love how the only song they perform on for audiences on the show is that “Who likes to rock the party?” track. And we generally only here bits and pieces of it before they’re cut short, this time by the host of a world music night.

-Dave offered up the always bizarre wardrobe this show doles out. This time it was a t-shirt with a mouse screwing another mouse in a mouse trap from behind (that’s some redundant shit right there), and a blouse.

Maybe back later today with a review of that online It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia episode.