Bobby and Angie's Non-Future, Travis' Bleak Future

Cougar Town, S03E07

Bobby imagined that he was going to finally settle down with Angie, only to see that she hadn't considered their relationship to be exclusive nor anything above superficial.  Jules was excited to have her first real set of wedding photos until Travis offered to take them and showed her his horrific style of photography.  She worried further that a career as a photographer was one that would ensure her son would struggle in life.  Ellie teased Laurie with a Simon, but eventually let her know that everyone is stupid about something in life.

I was not expecting Angie to be the one that put a cork in the romance for she and Bobby.  He's such a loveable oaf, you forget that he has a past of numerous affairs while married to Jules.  I guess it's a little karma for him, but I felt bad for him.  He was on top of the world (literally kicking his heels), and Angie showed him in a big way that she was just interested in having fun.  Luckily, Bobby came to his senses and stopped sleeping with her eventually.  He's not made of steel, so it's expected that he would succumb to pleasure a few times, but in the end his heart took over and he ended it with her.  Sad to see Angie go, but she was doing Bobby no good.  Maybe she'll realize that losing him was a mistake one day.

I never thought Travis' photography would amount to more than a class, nor was I thinking that his taste of subjects would be things like open sores and severed body parts.  Although, twisted family begets twisted children, I guess.  I can't believe how much she loves Travis that she couldn't disappoint him right away.  After looking at his portfolio, it's a given that anyone would want proof that he could actually take more elegant and romantic photos.  Instead, Jules lied that she wanted him to do it, and then lied again to tell him she didn't.  Only after Angie talked him about his actual talent did Jules feel comfortable enough to hire him once again.  She's a damn fool.  One random picture that he took that seemed okay (the one of her sleeping) wouldn't be enough to convince me, nor the ramblings of an unbalanced teacher like Angie.  She may win an award for supporting her son in a pointless career of his own choosing, but she's probably going to regret the photos she gets for her wedding later on.

I felt Laurie's pain with that Simon.  I could never be as skillful with one as Ellie in a million years.  But I'm glad Ellie didn't just torture her with something she was better at, but also showed her own intellectual weakness (basic math that doesn't go beyond reducing the nanny's pay for damages).  She may have a bitch coating, but in the inside, she's all marshmallow fluff.  I think that she really likes Laurie a lot more than she'd like to admit.

This episode was good, but I wish that we had more scenes of Grayson being a dad and sucking at it or something.  I did like how Jules and Ellie wouldn't listen to him about being a parent as he was too new to put his two cents in about Travis.  I hope that Bobby won't be all depressed in the next episode, but I'm sure that Andy will be there to stroke his hair (most likely literally).  Really hope there will be a better Ellie-centered story in the future--I'm getting tired of her being sort of an afterthought.  When she's not in the spotlight, I can't seem to find the story to be all that entertaining.

The Shopping Network Scam

South Park, S16E02

Somehow a kindly gesture from Stan's grandfather turns into a quest to find the origin of all of the overpriced jewelry sold around America.  Typical of this show, a simple matter is taken way out of proportion and the boys manage to get themselves in the middle of it.  At least this time, there is a sort of happy ending and Stan learns that it's better to give than to receive (at least if his grandfather is going to give him a gift he doesn't want in the first place).

I liked that this episode dealt with the sort of a scam that the shopping networks operate in order to fleece customers out of their money.  It's true that many elderly people, such as Stan's grandfather, buy items on there with their retirement/social security money and don't realize that they are paying much more than necessary.  Stan finds out that his bolo tie is worth no more than 15 dollars, and at the worst price is worth about a 7-layer burrito from Taco Bell.  Through the worthlessness of his own gift that has real gold and diamonds, he figures out that old people are targeted by shopping networks on TV.

I rarely watch those sort of things except a few seconds when flipping to another channel, but this episode did a good job of expanding upon the annoying points of shopping channels.  I think that the host displaying the different products, Dean, was particularly funny.  He was even better when he had to deal with Stan calling in to tell him that he should kill himself.  My favorite part might have been when Dean was trying to stay professional on air while Stan said things like:

You're the definition of evil--kill yourself.

Stan was not playing around with that guy.  Even when Dean suggested that they might have to sue Stan if anyone did kill themselves, Stan still didn't give a damn.  It was great.

I didn't care too much for Cartman's own shopping network until he had to stock up on more supplies (I'm surprised he got anything from the playground at all) at a discount jewelry store that used the same tactics on him.  There's nothing better than karma catching up with Cartman, although sometimes it takes a while.

Rather than be amused by the cycle of jewelry from the American pawn shop all the way back to an Indian sweatshop where they recreate the same jewelry from pieces sent to them from the smelting factory, I wanted it to be over with.  The showed the process for much longer than I cared for.  It did emphasize the pointlessness of Stan trying to point fingers at someone for his grandfather getting deceived, but it didn't do much for me as a joke.

I thought it was nice that Stan gave his grandfather a picture of the dog he had loved but couldn't remember its face anymore.  They, of course, undercut the sweet moment with a joke (Stan's grandfather said his bolo tie was gay just like Cartman had said earlier), but I still liked the moment.

As messed up as it is to tell someone to kill themselves, I couldn't help but laugh when Dean had nothing but elderly callers telling him to end his life in the same fashion that Stan had done.  Since they had turned the camera away from his face, we sort of knew that he was going to do it in the end and a little before the episode finished, he finally did it.  A grim ending, but pretty typical of this show, so it was good to see that they aren't ever going to change.

I didn't like this one as much as I did the first one this season (mocking the TSA with toilet safety was genius), but it was still pretty good.  With a lot of shows approaching their season finales very soon, it's great to know that South Park will be around to pick up some of the comedy slack.