Being Jill

Suburgatory, S02E16

Tessa, wanting to have something good on her college application, asked Jill to take her on as her intern.  To Tessa's dismay, her new boss was less impressive and more exhausting than she had imagined.  George tried to follow the therapist's advice to distract Noah from his feelings for Carmen until they died out.  Dalia also gave Mr. Wolfe advice about how to feel better about his breakup with Chef Alan.

Of course, I can give Tessa a lot of credit for being ambitious by jumping at the opportunity she saw in working for Jill.  It's good that she's motivated to get into college and all, but I didn't like the way that she basically pushed Dallas aside, who has been so great to her, the second she thought that Jill might make her look more accomplished.  Maybe so (because let's be real--the crystal store isn't going to wow admissions personnel), but I wish that Tessa had thought to speak to Dallas first before she nearly begged Jill for the job.  I don't like seeing Dallas hurt like that.

Unsurprisingly, Tessa did not like Jill as a boss.  I don't know why she would have thought it would work.  I mean, she babysat for Jill and Noah before.  She couldn't have possibly thought that Jill was less terrible than she seemed.  I would just look at that crib made out of bones (or tusks?) and realize that I was going to work for someone crazy and most likely insensitive.  My favorite crazy thing that Tessa was tasked to do was to interepret Opus' review for Jill's new book.  That was the stupidest and most pointless thing I could imagine Tessa doing for her that involved writing.  It was a good way, however, to teach Tessa that she might have been a bit jumping the gun when asking to work for Jill.  I don't think I've seen Tessa look so mad in a long time.  Seeing her writing up "Opus'" review with so much hatred, I wouldn't have been surprised if she later went to Jill and shoved her own book up her ass.

My favorite part of the story was the very end after Tessa had seen Jill for the self-loathing and pitiful woman that she really was.  By then Tessa wasn't admiring Jill's success or anything and realized that she had been pretty terrible to Dallas.  I'm not mad at Dallas for making Tessa straight out tell her that the person who could teach her how to be a good person was Dallas, not Jill.  I really loved how Dallas pulled that compliment out of Tessa and graciously took Tessa back as an employee.  If she didn't, it would sort of contradict that compliment.  Still, I think that Tessa is lucky that Dallas has a heart of gold.  She could have easily been petty and immature about taking Tessa back, but instead she welcomed her with an open arm.

I didn't think much at first about George doing his best to get Carmen out of Noah's mind.  It just felt like with Noah being married, that was the most sensible thing to do.  However, his persistence and tendency to defend Jill was mostly about his own issues about Alex leaving him long ago.  I wouldn't have ever thought that George and Jill might have something in common, but I liked that this story showed that they do.  It had just looked like George was trying to do right by his friend, but he was really sympathizing with Jill and trying to protect her (and himself).  That's pretty interesting.  Luckily, George isn't as bad as Jill, but we might see more sides of her (like her being her own biggest critic) as Noah continues to pursue Carmen.

I felt a little relived that Carmen didn't have romantic feelings for Noah.  It made his public announcement for divorce and that ridiculous shower scene between him and Carmen seem silly.  I don't get the impression that Carmen is the type to hide her feelings, so I think that she would have made it clearer if she had liked Noah from long ago, even if he were married.  Noah, looking a little swept away by "love," doesn't want to give up.  I feel sort of bad for Carmen, who no doubt, has to endure Noah's courting for a while.  I know he's going to do a lot of outrageous actions to win her over, and I hope he doesn't succeed.  Noah's not such a bad guy, but I still think that he's more trouble than he's worth.  Carmen, being employed to such unstable people, has enough on her plate without having to date Noah.

It was weird to see Dalia helping out Mr. Wolfe, but I get that she sort of identifies with him because Evan broke her heart too.  It was sort of cute to see her taking Wolfe to the salon and giving his hair a new look.  I don't know if Wolfe has any other friends, so Dalia might have been the only one to at least give him the kick in the pants not to mope about his breakup.  The one thing that stands out most in their story, though, is when Dalia was "crying."  The noise she made sounded like a robot was malfunctioning.  It's impressive that she's taught herself how to cry without tears, and yet it's also a little frightening.  I feel like Dalia, who suppresses her emotions so easily, is one day going to explode.  I would not like to see that.  I'd much rather her have like a few seconds to cry for real and get out her pain rather than go psycho one day from never truly expressing her emotions.  Maybe Evan will come to love her after all and Dalia's emotional time bomb will be defused.

I liked this episode all right, but it was far from my favorite.  It's nice to have a break from "What's Ryan and Tessa's problem this week," but I didn't like having to see Tessa try to climb her way to success by stepping on Dallas a little bit.  It's fortunate that Jill was the worst person she could have interned for because it gave Tessa a reality check about how valuable being under Dallas' wing really is.  I don't think it was fortunate that George gave Noah the okay to go pursue Carmen.  If she's smart, she'll stay away from that train wreck.  I think it was cute to see Dalia helping someone with whom she has something in common with, but I'm more worried about her than I am with Mr. Wolfe.  She's obviously still hurting, and I want to see her heart mended as soon as possible.

You Gotta Be "Ruthless"

2 Broke Girls, S02E09

Caroline and Max hired an intern to help them set up their shop, but Max's reluctance to be a hardass boss made their intern lazy and take advantage of them.

I'm surprised that Caroline and Max have gotten as much done as they have, even when one of them isn't showing up to work on time.  I would have never guessed they would try to hire an intern, but in theory, it was a great idea.  I liked the idea more when Andy suggested it as well, making it seem like he and Caroline are a great match.  I thought they would get a lot of crazy people answering their ads, but it looked more like Caroline and Max were the crazy ones, making young girls work in their rat-infested store.

Speaking of rats, they were quite funny in this episode.  The first one we saw, Caroline beat the hell out of it with a paint roller, to my surprise.  She may be annoying, but at least she can kill a rat.  I need a friend like that because I would have left that store right then and there.  Before Caroline squashed it to the floor, there was a funny line from Max after Caroline asked Max why she thought the rat was male:

He looked at me kind of rapey.

That, along with the rat coming in and of doors made it really creepy!  So much so that you didn't feel that bad when Caroline was murdering it.  I'm really surprised that after that powerful beating she gave it, she didn't have blood and paint on her face.  Go figure.

Later, when they were collecting the chairs from the junkyard it was hilarious to see Max flinging the rats off of Caroline.  Wow.  I'm not sure what I would have done in that situation (besides run for my life), but I'm pretty sure that touch those nasty things would have been at the very bottom of my list.  I have to give Max more credit, even though I give her a lot already.

Ruth (who I guess I recognize because I watch SNL) was a good character just because she made Max so powerless.  I would have expected Max who gives her customers the business for wearing Bill Cobsy-esq sweaters would be able to tell a college girl to get off her damn phone and set up some rat traps.  But I get that Max didn't want to be a tool.  It's a shame that it took her lifting up a heavy object and throwing some rats before she had the conviction to kick Ruth to the curb.  I would have liked to see Max be powerful through ordering around the intern from the beginning.  It's not often we get to see Max in a position above someone else.  Maybe they'll hire someone else (maybe with big boobs Max can identify with, haha) and Max will get a second chance.

I liked this episode.  It somehow feels exciting to see them working in their shop and picking up ghetto chairs that they'll have to restore.  Usually I'd be getting annoyed with the slow process, but I'm enjoying it.  I wonder what they'll have gotten done by the next episode. 

Is the Killer Sugar? Or April?

Parks and Recreation, S05E02

Leslie was on the fence about how to vote on a sugar tax after she found out that she might cause some businesses to lay off some employees if it were passed.  Chris and Tom helped Andy train so that he could meet the running requirements to be a cop.  Ben struggled to get the interns at his office in line with little help from April.

There were quite a few good things about Leslie's story.  The first would be the size of the cups, which were ridiculous.  The small was 64 ounces, while the regular size was 128!  They managed to top that with a child size of 512 ounces, which was sized for what a child might weigh if liquified.  I love it because it does echo the insane size of drinks (and pretty much most things) in American fast food.  I also thought the concept of "zero water," was funny because it had 300 calories and the "zero" only referred to the fact there was absolutely no water in it.  I'm pretty sure something like that wouldn't fly in America, but when you think about what is allowed to be sold maybe it could be a real item.  I mean, we do drink and eat a lot of sugar and are the fattest country in the world.  It's nice to see the writers poke at that with humor, but also remind you that it isn't really a joke if you stop and think about it.

Another part of that story that was great was when Leslie was at the forum.  One guy stood up and had a really funny comment:

I think we should tax all bad things.  Like racism and women's vaginas.

I think I really love when she takes an issue to a public forum.  That's when all of the crazies come out to say whatever thing they damn well please.  It's a complete circus.  But unfortunately for Leslie, it made her doubt that she would be doing the right thing by favoring to let the tax pass.  But fortunately for us, it led her to seek counsel from Ron, which is always a recipe for comedy.

No surprise that Ron had tried on numerous occasions to get Leslie fired.  I really liked that he said that one of the reason was because she was bubbly.  Leslie tried to defend herself against Ron's complaints about her going over his head and such:

[Leslie] I was a dedicated public servant.[Ron] Right.  That was the worst thing you were.

You can always depend on Ron to show his dislike of working hard in a government position.  Despite that he was annoyed by her, he respected her conviction and grew to accept her.  Aww.  But something just as funny was when Leslie was talking about how her decision on the sugar tax might have created enemies that could potentially become friends.  Ron's door was open and he shouted:

Let's keep down out there!

before he used a remote to have his door automatically close.  Ron is so freaking cool!  That's on my list of things I would want if I had my own office.  And I would probably be saying the same thing before I shut my door too.

The Chris and Andy story was more sad than it was funny.  I just felt bad for Chris realizing he didn't have what Andy had at all--someone to love him.  But it was great that Tom suggested therapy for him (although, I think Tom could use some too).  Chris, although upbeat and fit, needs to get that mind in check.  Him falling to pieces over something like a fear of dying alone is a serious problem.  I hope that a therapist will actually help him and not make him even crazier than he already is.

The Ben and April story was painful to watch at most times because Ben kept trying to buddy up to all of his young interns.  From the beginning, I wondered why April would help him a little, but she basically had to humiliate him with caricature drawings before she realized what she needed to do.  I like that she tried to negotiate the percentage of effort she would give when 15 was more than a fair amount to ask.  But the best April part was not until the very end when she finally got on Team Ben and told one of the interns what the deal was:

The light kiss and the slap to the face were my favorite part!  Why did they wait until the very end before we got to see April kick a little ass??  But this is a great start to the saga of April working for Ben.  I'm am looking forward to move scenes like this.  April has well established herself as the one in charge there.  Haha.

In the next episode, I wonder if we will see all those lost jobs from the sugar tax.  I can't imagine it just being just an empty threat.  Things don't work out that easily for Leslie.  I'd like to see the results of Chris' first therapy session, as well as April torturing more interns at her job.  However, I don't want to see Ben trying to act like a college student again and quoting decades-old SNL skits.  That's just way to sad to see.