Why Are Those Even Together?

 The Cleveland Show, S04E10

 Cleveland got his parents tickets to a George Clinton and P-Funk All Stars concert after Freight Train failed to show up to the special anniversary dinner Cookie arranged.  Feeling neglected by her husband,  Cookie suddenly ran off with George Clinton shortly after meeting him on the stage.  Freight Train tried to hide his feelings about that by declaring her dead to him.  Junior also lost the floor model he had used to play "office," so he faked his way into a job at a real office.

I don't know how many times we can see a story about FT and Cookie before it's just been overdone (it's about there for me already).  FT has been screwing around on Cookie for years, and she always takes him back.  Granted, this time it looked like Cookie was living a pretty sweet life with George Clinton, but I think even after a while she would have gotten bored with it and wanted her neglectful husband back.  FT, despite him going to the trouble of making a funk band to win Cookie back, is never going to change.  So he broke up with some (I know he couldn't have possibly called all of his women) of his cheating partners--we all know that next time we see him, he'll be back to his old tricks.  He just wouldn't be FT, otherwise.  So watching the story I was just waiting for it to be over, so FT could go back to treating his wife like crap again.  Waste of a story.

There were a few parts that I liked, though.  One was just that we got to hear George Clinton's music.  It has been so long since I've heard it.  It gave me a nice nostalgic feeling.  I wished they could have used more of it throughout.

I also liked some lines.  The first was when Freight Train was trying to report to the police that Cookie had been kidnapped, and they doubted that someone who wasn't that great like FT hadn't driven her away:

[Freight Train] Come on, Cleveland.  Once again, police are no help to a black man.
[Cop] We are both black, sir.
[Freight Train] All cops are white on the inside!

I liked this line because it's a good example of someone playing the race card when it's not valid at all.  I sort of like when people do that jokingly, as in this story, but not if they are for real.  Then they just sound ignorant.

The last line I liked was when Cleveland was telling FT to go win his woman back and kept talking about the cheeseburger he was going to eat.  He kept changing his mind about how he was going to eat it until he finally decided:

And I'm going to have a cheeseburger.  And you know what, no tomatoes.  Actually, avocado.  That's a good fat.  Like me.

 In Junior's story, there wasn't much that I particularly liked.  It was just weird that he managed to slip into an office, unhired, and got promoted for a job he didn't even know about.  This was evident when he first got to the office, stapled a file and then shredded it for no reason.  Junior's just lucky that his chunky frame makes him look older than he does. 

Oh, and it was really stupid of him to pay for Roberta to be his wife.  Roberta is such a waste of space most of the time, and she proved that by going off on Junior at the picnic.  And really, what was the point of her doing that?  If she had agreed to help Junior and got paid, why did she need to embarrass him and risk jeopardizing his fake job?  I really wished he had used that fist to punch her across the face.  Rallo was okay.  He just needed a swing and he was cool.  Haha.

I didn't really like this episode.  I don't need to see any more stories about FT upsetting Cookie and then managing to win her back for some reason.  In reality, it would be a much better story if they both just agreed to stop acting like the worst couple in the world (or divorced).  Unfortunately, the side story about Junior was also lacking.  It didn't really add anything to the episode beyond stressing the fact that fantasy and reality are one in the same for Junior.  It was a little interesting, but nowhere near funny.

Never Go To Max's Gym And Never Let Jane Sleep On It

Happy Endings, S02E19

I'm not sure which story I liked better this time.  On the one hand, Dave went to Max's gym and met a bully he was ill-fit to fight against.  On the other hand, Jane became super relaxed after she listened to Penny's advice (oh, you should never do that) and took the time to think about her decisions rather than acting immediately.  We also learned that Alex was a former bully herself, but that really isn't so surprising when you remember that she comes from a family of apparently strong women (I wonder what her mother is like).

I was no different than Max's friends with their dubious faces when he announced that he goes to a gym.  It's less because I think that Max is horribly out of shape (he's all right), but mostly because I've seen him imitate a bear for several days, and he doesn't seem to commit himself to anything that might take a lot of physical energy.  Also, when Jane was questioning what activities he participated at said gym, Max plainly kept avoiding answering her question.  At the actual gym, Max was seen lying on a workout bench just reading.  So that's his workout.  Love it.

I was hoping we would see more of Max's non-workout, but instead Bobby Moynihan guest-starred to torture Dave at his new gym.  No surprise that Dave and his hippie-like pacifism prompted him to avoid direct confrontation with his bully Corey and to speak to the manager.  Really?  A man of his age is going to tell on him as if they are in grade school?  I wouldn't have blamed Corey for popping Dave one then and there.  Instead, he just waits until Dave shows up at the gym again after he clearly threatened Dave not to come back.  The best thing about Dave and Corey was that Max found Corey's aggressive actions toward his friend to be sexy.  Oh, Max.  I'm glad that Corey was too busy making all the other gym members miserable to spare a glance at Max because that would have been messed up if Max went out with him. 

I was ready to change my opinion about Dave being a weak, sorry-excuse-for-a-man when he challenged Corey to a fight.  However, I assumed that Dave would be on the ground within a few seconds of it.  It was also weird that there were a group of random people witnessing the event.  Were those Corey's friends?  Or were they people from the gym?  Anyway, Dave didn't get a chance to redeem himself as a man because Derrick jumped out of the crowd and knocked Corey the hell out.  Well, I guess that's one way to end a story.

Speaking of Derrick's return to this show (I assume he hasn't been around for a while because I had to look up when he had first appeared), he was pretty hilarious.  I liked when Dave asked him whether he was actually paying Max to train him.  After saying that he wasn't he had some pretty good lines:

[Derrick] Actually, he owes me 900 dollars.  Drama! Seriously, how do I get him to pay me?  I'm behind on rent.  It's like real drama.[Dave] Probably not going to see that money, buddy.

Later, he, Max, and Dave had a funny discussion about the difference between Corey's brand of fat and Max's kind of fat:

[Derrick] Well, you know, you're both fat.

[Dave] Yeah, he's kind of a strong fat.

[Max] Yeah--right.  I'm strong, he's fat.

[Dave] He's strong, you're fat.

[Derrick] Fat is fat.

I happen to think that Max does look like he would be strong, though.  Maybe Corey is a little more muscular, but I think that if Max had to fight someone, he would have some powerful moves.  He at least wouldn't be like Dave and passive-aggressively fight someone.

Jane's story also had an interesting guest star.  John Ross Bowie (Kripke! from Big Bang Theory) played Michael, who was utterly humiliated by Jane for suggesting they plant berries in the community garden.  I love how Jane can cut down someone and analyze something so thoroughly that even an innocent idea like berries can eventually cause everyone unforeseen disaster.  As much of a controlling "fascist" that Jane is, she is perfect the way she is.  The only part of relaxed Jane that I liked was her first moment of revelation in the middle of the night, and she encourages Brad to try sleeping on a matter too.  He isn't impressed at first and responds:

Bitch, it's 5:30!

 But Brad was enjoying the benefits of a looser leash around his house, able to eat nachos on their couch.  When Jane nearly grabbed all of them and shoved them into her mouth, I really wanted to have some so badly.  But once there wasn't anything like nachos or any kind of food in the house and Brad's outfits started to look bi-polar, he had to get the girls' help to make Jane snap out of it.  I thought Alex might use funnier examples to upset Jane enough that she could no longer relax, but the issues weren't that great.  What was great was when Brad was still pro-Chill Jane and the neighbor who gives them hams comes to complain about several things since Jane had become lax, including someone starting a math tutoring business from their home (is that really such an obscene matter??).  Losing his free hams (I wonder how long they have been getting those?  And where is this man getting them from?) was another nail in the coffin for him.

I mention the hams thing mostly because it ties into one of my favorite TV endings.  Definitely this week's ending was my favorite so far in this show.  They played Ice Cube's Today Was A Good Day while Jane and Brad enter their condo as if they are the president and the "first gentleman."  While they are doing this hilarious slow-motion walk of triumph, the old neighbor hands Brad his ham.  And all is right with the world.  It's so good, I have to post it here:

Now that we have seen Max take interest in someone else, I wonder if he's going to get serious any time soon.  I just love his relationship because he's such an unusual guy. I'm trying to predict who will be the center of the next episode, and I think it might be Penny and/or Alex because they didn't have a large role in this one.  However, Penny did just have a birthday episode and before that Alex was running away from Dave.  Perhaps it's time for a Brad-centered episode.  One of my favorite ones of his was when he lied to Max about needing time to hang with the "brothas."  If they could make a different story about him that is just as funny, I would be quite the happy viewer.