Tessa Needs To Think Again

Suburgatory, S02E10

Ryan and Tessa made their love public, and Tessa was induted into the group of the football girlfriends.  George, Noah, and Fred formed together to make a rock band, and the dynamic was in danger when George wanted Shela to be their vocalist.

I am really loving the reboot of Ryan and Tessa dating.  Last time, it was like they were just having this fling where they just made out and nothing else really.  Ryan was so cute when he was literally shouting about their love in the halls.  I didn't see anything wrong with that until Amber came along to introduce Tessa into the "football girlfriends club."

I could see that entering that cult of girls only living to pump up their jock boyfriends would rile Tessa up enough that she would conduct a rebellion.  Usually, I'm on board with her outrages at school and all, but this time I couldn't ignore that she is now Ryan's girlfriend and shouldn't try to screw up things for him.  Sure she felt like she was liberating all those girls, but it felt more like she was doing it all for herself.  She had barely dipped her toe into Ryan's world before she abndoned ship and started destroying things.  I was pretty afraid of what was going to happen once she "freed" all those girls from the sweatshop.

However, when Ryan and the other players arrived to the pep rally without their paper banner and no enthusiasm from the bleachers, I was cracking up at Ryan's rage.  Lisa was so right that Ryan would be on kill mode when he saw all of that--he was shouting for the person responsible like he was going to tear them apart.  I was laughing so hard, especially when Tessa ran for dear life from the gym.  I was scared that even when she confessed her responsibility for the failed pep rally that he might still throw her into some lockers or something (not really, because Ryan's a sweetheart).  I was, though, afraid that he wouldn't forgive her because he made it clear that Tessa had barely given any effort to fit in with his friends and experience his world.  I really wanted to shake Tessa then when she tried to make what she did seem all right because it's what she always does.  Ryan didn't really have the vocabulary to shoot her down, but I still enjoyed him telling her to "think again, thinker."  What was important is he got across that he was pissed and what she did was not cool.

I was taking more of Ryan's side when he grabbed her in the hall after their fight and cutely said "interception" (Tessa didn't care for it, but I liked his goofy attempt to make up).  Instead of staying mad at her, he made her a paper banner for her to run through with her name on it.  It might have been of poor quality and unnecessary because she was just going to class, but I think that was just about the nicest thing he could have done to smooth things over and make Tessa walk in his shoes for a second.  I was a little angry he had to convince her a bit to do it, even if it was silly.  Geez, Tessa, show a little more remorse for mocking his way of life and not really seeing that it isn't all terrible.  Anyway, I loved when she ran through and looked like an idiot, but she enjoyed it.  And Ryan cheering her on about math--wonderful.  Tessa might have been a bit of a jerk in this episode, but as long as they were able to get a little closer despite some problems along the way, it's all good to me.

George's story was just silly.  I was surprised, though, that they were all good musicians.  I expected them to sound like a bunch of random dads trying to be rock stars--in other words, like they had never played an instrument in their lives.  But they were pretty good.  Shelia wasn't bad either, but I was just as displeased that he let her into the band as Noah and Fred were.  Like, the point of the band was to have some fun and not be bothered by the pressure of the women they loved, and yet George threw that all away so that he could make a band that sounded amazing.  Good thing that Shelia dissed Dallas, so that George could see the damage his new band was doing.  Casting aside his friends is one thing, but treating Dallas like a groupie or something was starting to cross the line.  Anyways, I just really didn't want to see George and Shelia hanging out.  She's just so overbearing that I can't stand to see George around her.

This was good episode, but I was just really loving the start of Ryan and Tessa.  They had me worried that they were going to let their differences throw them for a loop straight from the beginning, but now they have made me a bit more confident that they can work through their issues where they don't particularly agree.  I really want to see Tessa make more of an effort to accept Ryan and change a little instead of him doing all the changing and compromising for her sake.  Now that this relationship is in round two, I can't bear for it fall apart again.

Not The Best Halloween Story

The Cleveland Show, S04E01

Donna and Cleveland forbid Junior and Roberta from dressing up for Halloween, so to teach their parents a lesson, they dressed as their parents and went out to cause trouble.  Cleveland took Federline to a football game so he could be the designated driver, but the boy ended up stealing a wooden doll from Stoolbend's rival town and causing a riot.

Compared to last year's Halloween story, I didn't like this one as much.  I suppose because it didn't really have too much to do with the holiday.  Cleveland's story was about football/town rivalry, Donna was getting arrested for prostitution, and Junior and Roberta did a prank (which is a little more in the spirit of the holiday) but it didn't really lead to anything significant.  I will say that it is nice that they didn't make a cheesy horror story instead, but it being mostly about football and riots was kind of lame.

Rather to continue to go on about what I didn't like, I'll point out my favorite parts.  One was when Cleveland was trying to get a hold of Toonces, the driving cat.  That was great!  Toonces was one of my favorite SNL skits ever!  And I liked that the cause of Toonces' death was not the more likely car accident, but feline leukemia.  It was just unexpected and good (in a dark kind of way).  Cleveland was also funny when he told Federline to go after he had ruined their night sufficiently:

[Cleveland] Let him go.

[Tim] No one's trying to stop him.

 Junior also had a pretty good line when Chet had a knife to his throat:

How did you find my throat?

 Lastly, I enjoyed the insanity that Rallo was left to himself while he was bleeding to death.  It became a running gag in the episode and at the very end Rallo was seen as a ghost saying:

Hi, I died--just kidding.  I'll see ya'll next week.

This kind of echoes that running gag in the show that Rallo is often left unsupervised by parents (and siblings) who really couldn't give a damn about what kind of danger he gets into.  But although I liked this, I was annoyed that they pretty much left Rallo out of the story.  Last year was good because we got to see him be scared to death along with Cleveland.  But anyway.

This was probably better than most episodes I saw last season, so I can't be too mad this was their premiere.  I'm actually just looking forward to the episode they're supposed to have with Bruno Mars in it (love him!).  So until that happens, I can be all right with a few stupid episodes until then.

All Of Marks Dreams Come True...For Randall

Ugly Americans, S03E02

I have to say that this show is pretty disgusting most of the time, but I enjoy the unique concept of it.  You have to love Mark trying his best at the Department of Integration with all of these wacko monster and alien-like people.  What made this episode different from most was that he wasn't spending most of his time trying to fix someone else's problem, but rather was trying to stop Randall from achieving everything he wanted in life, including becoming Senior Social Service Coordinator and being the star of his own football team.  In other stories, Callie pimps out Leonard so she can raise enough money for a new car, and Twaine reveals his gambling problem.

Mark is by no means my favorite character on the show, but I appreciate his tolerant demeanor and ability to see good in all of the miscreants that has to reform so they are suitable members of society.  That being said, I hate that Randall takes no heed of what kind of consequence his actions have upon his roommate and best friend, and this time was no exception.  No wonder when Randall's newly equipped arm encouraged Twaine to make him a ringer for Mark's team and he got Mark's dream job that Mark started digressed into a possibly alcoholic and suicidal maniac who was desperate enough to steal football plays and join Grime's team.  I feel like when Mark was juiced up on steroids for a while he managed to get a little revenge on Randall, but not enough before he returned to his senses.  Mark needed to beat the crap out of him, really, but I guess even with his body pumped full of drugs, he's not going to get that far.  Pity.  At least Randall lost his arm in the end.

Speaking of his arm and the crappy work done on it, that Croatian guy is lucky he didn't get arrested for practicing medicine with no American-based license.  Whenever Mark can walk again, he should drive both legs into that guy's chest.  Can believe he tried to fix Mark's leg with a saw and some mustard.  Eww.  I shudder to think about the infection and the misshapen bone regrowth.

In Twaine's story, I'm reminded of how he's almost like a child in the way that he is so stupid about how the world works.  He has all this money in his desk and other places, which I wonder if it's all for bets or if it's just always there because he's the boss.  Either way, he lost all of it, I'm sure, while ignoring all the signs that he was going to lose from his bookie.  I loved that his bookie became a sort of therapist for him, saying that his need for friendship was causing him to gamble so much.  He even agreed to be Twaine's friend, but he was still going to take the money from him.  The bookie, unlike Twaine, was no dummy when it came to getting paid.  My favorite conversation between him and Twaine was after the bookie explained to him the horrible odds against the bet Twaine wanted to make with a million dollars:

[Bookie] As a bookie I'm compelled to take your bet.

[Twain] Is there a second half to that sentence? 

[Bookie] No, that's it.

The Callie story was good too.  I thought she might have had more of a problem getting Leonard to earn her enough money for her car, but she got it as fast as Leonard seemed to adapt to the prostitute lifestyle.  Her pimp walk was excellent and so was her general skills soliciting another person for profit.  I liked when she scared off the other pimp trying to recruit Leonard from her.  I was surprised that she ripped up his contract as soon as she got what she wanted and didn't milk him for all that he had.  She may be a conniving devil, but at least she's all business.

On a sort of random side note, I just have to saw how I love Doug.  He's kind of useless, but he is a cute koala man.  I liked when he said his dream was to fly, and Randall helped him achieve it by giving him a sky glider.  Although he is more or less a person, I still think he might be better suited for a zoo.

Very glad to see this show up for a third season, even though I have to cringe a lot when I watch it.  I like that they keep adding different and strange characters for Mark to add to his reform group, so it keeps things from being too predictable.  I think if you can get around the disgusting things, a lot of people would enjoy it. I know I do, and I hope it will make it to their fourth season next year too.