Somehow Better As A Play

American Dad, S08E10

The show was presented as if it were a play.  Francine threw Stan a birthday party, not realizing the dark family secrets the celebration would bring up.  Hayley was keeping a secret from Avery who slept with the family maid, Edna, in his heartbroken state.

This isn't the first time I've seen a cartoon do something like this, but every time I have seen it, I remember enjoying it.  This episode was no different.  I liked all the touches they added to make it feel like you were in the audience watching a play, such as the lighting and someone coughing being shushed.  I really liked how they did the lighting for when Stan's car was coming and going from the house, in particular.  Another thing I enjoyed a lot was them substituting glitter or confetti for the splashing water and for the blood.  It was also cute to see them use the pool, which was just made out of cardboard or something.  It was little things like that that made me like this story even more.

The stories were pretty dramatic, but I did find a few things to laugh about.  One of such was when Stan was brought home for driving recklessly by a police officer:

He was eating crab and driving.  He'd be spending the night in the cooler if there was anything illegal about what he was doing.

That was my favorite line.  I just liked that he got pulled over in the first place while he was sobbing and stuffing his face with crab legs.  Somehow it seemed like he was going to be arrested for something that silly.

I also found the end to the Hayley story to be unexpectedly funny.  I mean, it was terrible that Edna had suffocated a baby right when Avery and Hayley had gotten back together, but their reaction to the baby's death was so over the top with anguish.  The lighting went red, they were screaming, and they ripped out their hair and clothes.  It was definitely one of those times I didn't want to laugh, but I just couldn't help myself.  They were doing a great job of bad acting.

There was one other thing that wasn't quite funny, but mentionable.  When Francine tried to keep the party going with their guests, she had someone start a record of Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit."  Her songs are not anything you want to play at a party unless it's a drinking-out-of-sadness sort of affair.  I just liked the irony of that moment.

Oh, and it was so weird to me that I happened to fall asleep a little before Stan went outside to find his father and son swimming in the pool.  When I woke up again, Patrick Stewart was pretending to be asleep himself and the episode was pretty much over.  The timing of that was hilarious to me, although it was just because I randomly dozed off.  Patrick Stewart was sort of amusing as the host of this play.  Even when he was making cheesy puns of "Act Two" with a sneezing sound.

I really liked this episode, even though the stories were pretty sad overall.  I liked how Stan was misinformed about his broken family and in the end he started one of his own by ending his life.  Despite the dark nature of the story, I enjoyed that it came full circle.  The story about Avery, Hayley, and Edna was equally tragic in nature, but the little time we spent on them allowed me to find a little humor in the grandness of the emotional conclusion.  I couldn't say anything that bothered me in this episode.  Wish they would do more like this one!

Ticking Clock

New Girl, S02E09

Jess decided to find out how many eggs she had left after her friend Sadie suggested that her age was putting her at a huge disadvantage to get pregnant.  Nick tried to finish his zombie novel, but was procrastinating at the zoo and interrupting Winston's sleep.  Schmidt failed to satisfy his boss in bed.

This episode wasn't as much funny as it was a little sad.  You had Jess freaking out about not being able to have any good eggs left by the time she met someone she loved to father her child, Nick wandering around drunk at a zoo in an attempt to live the life of a writer, and Schmidt defeated in the place he's most confident about--the bedroom.  You even had to feel a little bad for Winston because he was just trying to get to sleep and Nick kept bugging him with his novel (although, I think he just needed the support from Winston).  I just kept hoping there would be a little ray of hope at the end for them all (not so much Schmidt, though).

It was good that Jess ended up being a better egg producer than she feared, but it was sad that Cece found out that she was on a much shorter clock than her friend.  And when she talked to Robbie about having kids, he was imagining it a decade away.  Wow.  Ten years??  How old is Robbie?  Or is that just a guy thing and they just don't really feel the pressure to hurry up and have children like women do?  Man, I felt even worse for Cece at that point.  I mean, I don't really love the idea of her even having kids with Robbie, but to hear that he wasn't thinking about kids any time soon at all was disappointing.  It also made me think that if she were still with Schmidt, he'd probably jump at the idea to have her child.  I mean, he was so gun-ho when the two of them had that scare last season.  Also, he was the first to volunteer his sperm to Jess (barf!).  I'd hate to see Cece miss out on motherhood if it's something she really wanted, even if it meant that there would be a Schmidt baby running around.  I think after a while Cece's happiness would outweigh the ick factor of the father.

Nick was kinda funny with his inability to write, but not so much that I laughed aloud.  I think his funniest moment was when Jess came into his room while waiting for Winston to finish reading his novel and he jokingly (maybe?) told her that he knew she would pick him to father her baby.  I also liked that Jess played along with him for a moment and mocked trying to kiss him.  Those two are so cute...  But I was a little disappointed that his process of writing a horrible zombie novel wasn't funnier.  It felt like all the pieces were there, but it didn't really come together.  It was a little funny when Winston was reading a some of it.  I would have liked to hear him read more in that voice of his.

Winston's other almost funny moment was when he suggested that he would be the best father for Jess' baby on the grounds of the best looking features.  I never imagined that Winston would jump in there and offer to get her pregnant, but I guess it was slightly an opportunity to brag about how handsome he was, so it didn't seem too odd.  Plus, all the guys have admitted that they have thought about sex with Jess before, so it's not that crazy.  Although, sex and a baby are two different things.

This episode definitely could have been funnier.  It was a little more serious than I wanted it to be.  I think that now that Schmidt has realized the depths of his love for Cece and Cece is more conscious of her baby clock, the chances of them getting back together is a little higher than before.  I don't know if Jess will get more serious about finding the right guy, but I wish that she could see that Nick could be that guy.  There were little hints of their attraction, as always, but I want another episode where the two of them have to really explore their feelings for each other and do something about it already.

Worst Idea Ever

The Simpsons, S24E03

Marge discovered that her displeasure about a car was due to the fact that she didn't want to stop having children.  Homer was against the idea, but came around to the idea before he and Marge got to the sperm bank where Homer had donated to in the past.  Bart enlisted the help of Lisa's old boyfriends and others to help him find out where Lisa was going off in secret.

I hope I wasn't the only one horrified by the previews of this episode where they let viewers know that it was possible that Maggie would be replaced as the Simpsons youngest child.  I could deal with Patty being openly gay or Flanders being married to Mrs. Krabapple, but there's no way I could sit back and enjoy them expanding the Simpsons clan like that.  That would be the biggest slap in the face ever.  I don't think I could accept another person in that family.  Their roles are too set in for another character to come in and mess up the dynamic.

Luckily, it was just a scare.  After seeing the wall of ugly and disturbing Homer offspring by strangers, Marge and Homer agreed that it was a bad idea.  Man, that really would have been the straw that broke the camel's back for me.  I've being lenient with this show because it's one of my lifetime favorites, but I couldn't accept baby number four under any circumstances (it'd be like Itchy and Scratchy getting Poochie that one time).

There wasn't anything too funny in either story and it was entirely because I was terrified that Marge and Homer were gonna get pregnant in the end.  Some things I liked, though, included when Bart got the help of Nelson, Ralph, and Milhouse to spy on Lisa.  It was a little funny to see a collection of her past boyfriends like that.  Which leads me to another part that wasn't exactly great, but memorable because it was creepy: Father Mike's appearance.  That was freaky to see that priest approaching them singing "tura lura lural."  It was like he was coming to murder them (remember how scaring the kids with that scary story?)!  What was up with that??  Nelson was also kinda cute in his disguise in that scene, but I quickly forgot about that when Father Mike came strolling down the street.  I also liked when Otto walked out of the bus after Bart and Milhouse did, even though the bus was still in motion.

Nothing else was really memorable, but I did wonder why Homer claimed that he bought Marge's necklace with some of his sperm bank money.  I remember clearly that Marge said that the necklace was a family heirloom and she had a drawer full of them in one episode.  So I was a little bothered by that. 

Glad that the unspeakable didn't happen in this episode.  That really would have been the kiss of death for this show!  I don't even like too much that they led us to believe it could have happened in the first place.  At this stage of The Simpsons, they can't afford to be using such horrible ideas.

Crazy For Robin, Crazy For Babies

How I Met Your Mother, S07E22

Ted and Robin were avoiding each other, and the separation started to get to Ted.  He was seeing Robin's face in not only the online dates that Barney sent him on, but also just about everyone he saw.  Barney, getting fed up with many negatives of dating a stripper, tried to set Quinn up with a cushy job at his bank, but she refused to take his handout.  Marshall was taking his preparation for the baby way too seriously and driving Lily crazy in the process.  She eventually sent him off to Atlantic City with Barney.  While they were busy gambling and getting drunk Lily went into labor.

I couldn't stand watching Ted go on dates where all he could see was Robin's face on them.  It's tiring to see this dance between the two of them where they're fine with not really being around each other, but then in another episode, they're not.  I'm hoping that Ted realized that he needs Robin his life regardless if they are in love with each other or not.  With their history of being friends, it's just dumb that they would give up their friendship just because they had a moment (mostly Ted, though) of weakness and thought they should be a couple again.   I had hoped that Ted's lapse into insanity would have been funnier (i.e. others around him wondering why looked out of it), but few people noticed how Ted was talking to Robin in his head.

Barney was also a little painful to watch this week because it was obvious that he couldn't handle random guys on the street suggestively telling Quinn that they would see her later.  I shook my head at him when he tried to casually get her a job in name only so that she could quit stripping.  If she's not willing to quit her job (which is asking her a lot of her), I don't see how it can really work.  Barney's not going to suddenly realize that it doesn't matter how many men have a sexy relationship with his girlfriend--what else can they do?  Unless Barney started stripping himself and could see things better from her perspective.  Even for this show, I couldn't see that happening.  I'm not sure if it's seeing someone like Barney but in female form that rubs me the wrong way, but I don't like Quinn too much anymore, and it wouldn't bother me much at all if she disappeared.  After all, what has she really done that is memorable so far?

I thought Marshall was cute with his overly zealous baby training.  I like that Marshall isn't the type to just think about what he might have to do once they baby comes, but he actually tries it out.  Setting an loud alarm to wake him up at odd times at night and tending to a watermelon baby, however, is really pushing it.  Lily was right to send him away for a while.  I can't imagine having to suffer through parenthood before it's even happened.

I sort of knew that as soon as Barney and Marshall agreed to not look at their phones for an hour that Lily would definitely go into labor during that time.  I didn't care too much about that at this point (just want the baby to get out already and see how that goes), but I did like that Barney brought up the ducky tie again.  I was just as surprised as Marshall to see it again:

[Marshall] I thought you threw that thing away.

[Barney] I did.  It came back.

To see Barney have to wear that wretched thing was more exciting than what I assume will be Marshall and Barney's mad dash back to the city to see Lily give birth.

I have to say this was a pretty boring episode since there was a lot about Ted thinking about Robin and Barney whining about Quinn.  Marshall and Lily's story was the best of the three, but it still wasn't enough to make me laugh or stay focused the entire time.  Next time we get to see little "whatever-its-name-is-going-to-be" be born, but I'm not counting on that being very entertaining with the quality of this episode.

Tessa And Dalia Versus The Dog-Napper

Suburgatory, S01E19

Dallas entrusted Tessa with the task of finding her dog, Yakult, who had been brushed out of house and home by Dalia.  Tessa joined forces with Dalia to find the little dog, who had been taken in by Mr. Wolfe.  Yakult had brought together Mr. Wolfe and his boyfriend Alan, who was reluctant to admit they were in a relationship.  Although Tessa did most of the work to figure out where Yakult was, she easily let Dalia take all the credit for bringing Yakult home safely.  George met a woman whom he had an incredible connection with, but he had no idea that she was carrying Noah's baby.  He eventually decided to overlook the oddity of dating his friend's surrogate mother and started to get to know her better.

We got to see Tessa working at Dallas' shop for the first time.  Her pink uniform wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  I liked the little confrontation between her and Dalia in the store.  Dalia tried to fire her, but Dallas took Tessa's side that there was no reason she should be.  I was happy that Dalia didn't get away with dissing Tessa while she was doing honest work, but I also felt bad for Dalia because she seemed a bit neglected.  I thought she might take it out on Tessa, but it's becoming clear that Yakult is a bigger rival to Dalia than Tessa will ever be.  It's a little bit of an insult that she sees a dog more of a threat than Tessa is.  Haha.

My favorite part of the Dalia and Tessa story was when they were chasing Mr. Wolfe to his condo (Dalia referred to the place as a "welfare hotel"--wow).  It was like they were some kind of opposites-attract detective duo.  I loved it.  I didn't think that Dalia would be able to keep up so well, but she was right behind Tessa and even had the time to reapply her lip gloss as she did.  I hope there will be another time they team up like that because it was great.  Later, Tessa downplayed her role in finding Yakult so that Dalia could redeem herself in Dallas' eyes.   It was so sweet of her, but I had worried that it would turn into a moment of "no good deed goes unpunished."  But Dalia didn't do anything to make Tessa regret her actions.  That was nice and surprising.  I bet Dalia just forgot that Tessa existed again or was just so generally happy that she didn't have the time to be a biatch.  Maybe there is hope for these two to become frenemies in the future.

If someone had told me that Alicia Sliverstone would be on this show, I would have been way skeptical of whether she'd make a good addition.  But the chemistry between her and George is completely believable and sweet.  It was a bit disappointing and weird to find out that she was Noah's surrogate, but I was glad that George didn't immediately want to stop seeing her.  Eden just seems like a ray of sunshine who could brighten up George's slightly cynical, city attitude.  I was gunning for him to get with Dallas, but Eden is a wonderful alternative.  I wonder what other kind of obstacles they might have that could upstage her just being pregnant in general.  I'm sure that will create some comical situations while they date.

Suburgatory just doesn't disappoint.  Can't wait to see what happens with just about everyone next time!