No Drill Can't Stop The Gala

Parks and Recreation, S05E13

Leslie and Ben came up with an idea to throw a fundraising gala to fund the Pawnee Commons, but things looked bad when Leslie had to spend her last hours to finish up what was needed for the event in an emergency preparedness drill instead.  Andy also took the test to be a police officer.

I can't wait until the Pawnee Commons gets made.  I am so over Jamm putting a monkey wrench into Leslie's plans at every chance he gets.  He latest dick move to make the emergency drill extra long so that she couldn't manage the gala before it started was such a spit in her eye.  However, even though Leslie was deperate to get out of there, it had its moments of being funny.

My favorite part of her being trapped in the drill was when she had to talk to animal control.  Brett had me cracking up with the way he didn't understand whether he was to kill the birds for real or not.  Leslie finally just gave up on him and asked him to pretend like they never talked.  It got better when Leslie was angry that Jamm hadn't done his part in the drill to ask the buses to be shut down.  I loved when she muttered that she should have had animal control kill him:

[Brett] Oh, who you want me to kill?

[Leslie] No one.

[Brett] I'll kill 'em.  Soon as I'm done with these birds.

I like how ready Brett is to kill anything, man or beast.  If I was her, I would have let Brett do away with Jamm.  He was being such a jerk.

I also liked that Chris got infected in the drill, thanks to Jamm, and when he got killed, he was so damn positive about it.  He proudly said he was dead with a big grin and a thumbs up.  Freaking loveable Chris, with his crazy ass.

Another great thing about Leslie being occupied with the drill was that she wasn't able to do her interview.  Instead, Ron went on the show and with an unconscious Joan at his side, he took calls for people about all sorts of things, while promoting the gala.  My favorite piece of advice he gave was for some woman who had a terrier.  After giving her a tip on the scratches the dog made to the legs of the table, he added his two cents about small dogs:

Next thing you want to do is ditch the terrier and get yourself a proper dog. Any dog under fifty pounds is a cat, and cats are pointless.

I'm not much of a cat person, so to hear Ron say so matter-of-factly that cats are useless really made me laugh.  He should get his own talk show.  He was brilliant.

The last great thing about that story was after Leslie had gotten free and the gala was going great.  Leslie expressed how she couldn't wait to marry Ben, and Ben told her they should indeed get married right then and there.  That was a nice surprise!  I thought we would have to wait until the season finale or so to see them seal the deal.  I hope that nothing goes wrong with their impromptu wedding, though.

Andy's story went pretty much as I expected.  I felt like he was going to do awesome on his test because he seemed pretty damn prepared.  It was disturbingly cute when April gave him a dead rabbit with its legs removed as a good luck charm.  However, I liked Andy's response to it:

Baby, you are so creepy.  I love it.

Match made in heaven, those two.

It was also expected that Andy didn't do well on his personality part of the test.  He was answering the questions all kinds of wrong ways.  He was being really honest with his answers, the kind of honest that's dangerous.  However, that one officer remarked that Andy's perfect score on the exam and his miserable score on the personality test was a shame.  I think so too.  I thought maybe Andy would be able to slip by.  I'm curious to know what Andy will do next.

I really liked this episode.  Leslie didn't get trapped by Jamm as long as he wanted, and all of her friends came through for her and made the gala a success.  Next week, we are going to finally see Ben and Leslie get married, if they play their cards right.  I'd hate to see someone or something get in the way of that.  It's a shame that Andy didn't pass the qualifications to be a police officer, but I feel like there's hope for him yet.  He has a set of special skills that I think should be useful for some occupation, police force or not, and I really want to see him find his way to something that is perfect for him.

Rump Saves Belle, But Wants Death For Others

Once Upon A Time, S02E12

Emma and the others tried to save the life of a mysterious newcomer to town, even though they were worried that he might have discovered Storybrooke's secret.  Dr. Whale deserted his duties at the hospital, still haunted by his past where he tried to bring his brother back to life.  Rumpelstiltskin tried to jumpstart Belle's memories in vain and received a gift from Cora to help him locate his son.  Cora found Regina and convinced her that her only goal was to repair their broken bound as mother and daughter.

I was pretty distracted by Hook getting run over and Belle getting shot and losing her memories to think too much about what problems a stranger could bring to their town until Rump very expertly laid it down to the group of Emma, her parents, Red, and Grumpy.  He not only let them know that this guy Greg could have seen him tossing fire around, but suggested they let him die.  I liked that they didn't immediately reject Rump's idea, as cruel as it might have seen.  I mean, the guy did run over a person, so it's not like Greg was completely innocent.  Although, not so guilty that he deserved to be killed by them.

Rump had instantly healed Belle, of course, but when Whale asked him to do the same for Hook who was suffering from internal bleeding, Rump did not give one damn.  I mean, why would he?  He kicked Hook's ass and was ready to choke him if Emma and Charming hadn't stopped him.  Still, it was funny that Whale thought Rump would be decent enough to save his enemy's life.  Um, did he just meet Rump yesterday or something?

Belle, with no memory, might as well have just met Rump because she has no emotional attachment  to him now.  It was sweet that he had kissed her while she was sleeping (perhaps in an attempt to cure her with true love?), but despite that I'm sad that Belle and Rump's romance has been put on hold, when she woke up from the kiss and screamed, I had to laugh.  He seemed like such a pervert!  Since I know it's not true, it was funnier than I expected.  Plus, he just hurried out of the room like he had done something really wrong.  Poor Rump.

The situation hit a sadness peak when Rump came back with the chipped cup that Belle had held dear.  I thought maybe he was onto something there, but Belle fought back against him so hard as if he was trying to inject her with poison or something.  You can't blame her when he's talking about him living in a castle and magic when none of those things make sense to her.  At that point, I knew that Rump was going to fail, but I didn't think Belle would throw the cup and shatter it!  Oh, no!  I felt like a piece of their relationship had been shattered.  It was pretty awful to see those shards on the floor and watch Rump leave defeated.  Thank God, I guess, that he's leaving town so he doesn't have to go through the torture of reminding Belle of a past that has been erased from her mind.

When Rump did decide to leave town, I thought it was going to be on pretty good terms.  Like him just packing his bags and disappearing before he killed himself over Belle or killed Hook for revenge.  Strange enough (or perhaps not so strange since she's not a prisoner to Storybrooke), he decided to not go alone and take Emma.  What?  Emma does specialize in finding people (family trait, I suppose), but why her?  Even if he had a favor to cash in, it seems sort of a waste to bring Emma when he has that globe from Cora to tell him Bae's location.  I mean, it seemed like before Belle got shot, he was going to leave on his own in the first place.  Maybe I misread what he was doing and he was only testing his talisman at that time.  I dunno.  But if taking Emma wasn't bad enough Rump also announced that he was going to kill the whole Charming family if Belle was hurt in his absence--damn!  To me, that came out of nowhere.  Since when did he need to threaten their family like they had done something to him (it should be the other way around)?  Maybe that was his way of asking them to watch over her for him, but it just looked like he was just so angry at them.  I'm actually pretty frightened for them all (although his threat did make me laugh).

We finally got to see Regina and thankfully she hadn't fallen into her mother's hands.  Or so I had thought.  Cora didn't have to do very much before she had Regina crying on her shoulder and taking her advice about how to get Henry back.  Regina, you freaking idiot!  Your mother doesn't even know what the word "sincere" means!  I was a little proud that Regina was just going to take her mother and make her explain how Regina was innocent, but then Cora used her feelings for Henry to make her into her puppet again.  Damnit!  Not looking forward to the "ideas" that Cora had mentioned. Regina's going to end up losing Henry for good with that old hag's help.

There's not much I wanted to say about Whale's past.  I really couldn't care less with all the other more dire things going on.  Who has time to worry about Frankenstein lamenting about turning his brother into a monster?  The only thing that was interesting was him meeting Rump.  Not really sure why Rump wanted to learn Whale's technique for rising the dead.  Maybe it was all just a ruse to get Whale to meet Regina and for Regina to see that reviving Daniel wasn't going to happen.  Not sure.  But anyway, I couldn't enjoy the look into the past when I was so worried about what was happening in the present.

In the end, it looks like everyone should have listened to Rump (as pretty much always) because Greg had indeed seen Rump's magic.  I really wonder what the consequences of that will be?  I mean, who the hell would believe what Greg had seen without proof?  I can't imagine what he saw being enough to convince anyone else.  Unless, as Henry had suggested, there are other people from other worlds in the Storybrooke world that they just don't know about and Greg is from one of them.  Who knows--the possibility is just endless.

This episode was a lot less sadder than I anticipated.  I was worried that I wouldn't be able to watch Rump interact with Belle who has no memory of him or herself.  Their love problems were less pronounced by Emma's group trying to decide to kill or save Greg.  Unfortunately, they probably would have been better off killing him now that he knows what Rump can do.  There was also little time to worry about Belle when Regina was falling into her mother's hand again with hardly enough resistance.  I think when you consider Emma's going on a road trip with Rump and Regina's succumbing to her mother's ploy, Belle's memory lost doesn't seem so terrible.

Archer Does Bob's Burgers

Archer, S04E01

The team at ISIS found Archer, but due to his memory loss, they tried to gradually remind himself of his spy life by staging a fake attack on his life.  When the fake attack turned into a real attack by the KBG agents after Archer, Lana and Archer had to work together to hold them off.

It feels like it's been forever since the season finale.  I didn't remember at all where we had left off, so I didn't know what to expect.  However, I was absolutely thrilled when I saw it started at Bob's Burger shop.  Freaking awesome!  I mean, I don't like that show so much, but to see that Archer was going to parody it when Archer is voiced by the same guy as Bob (H. Jon Benjamin is such a good actor), was amazing!  Archer had this mustache that oddly suited him as he flipped burgers in Bob's outfit and was talking to Louise, Gene, and Tina drawn in this show's style.  It got even better when Linda popped up and she was the same voice as from Bob's Burgers.  The kids didn't talk at all, but I sort of liked that (because you know those kids have never been quiet for that long in their whole lives).  I absolutely loved the way the were drawn too--the art style on Archer is really pleasing to the eye, so it was interesting to see Linda actually attractive.  Like, in this universe, I could see how Archer might marry her even with three kids attached.  Haha.  Another thing that was funny was that he was talking about the kids and he couldn't remember Tina's name.  That was on point.

I think I forgot how violent this show is.  It has to have been a while.  Watching Archer as Bob murder four guys with a spatula and coffee pot was great.  It made me think if they did this on Bob's Burgers, I might like it tons more than I do right now.  I just wonder since Archer did marry Linda is he just going to leave her forever or is he going to stay with her (at least on paper?).  Probably not, now that I think about Archer.  He's not the type to do the decent thing.  Unless he was just thinking about their safety in general because Archer is a magnet for death and destruction.  Oh, and it was funny how after Archer had killed all those guys you saw a slight smile on Louise's face.  Now that is really like her character--the real Louise would have been praising Archer up and down and asking him to teach her those moves.

I was so impressed by the beginning that I didn't really care too much what happened in the rest of the episode.  I sort of hoped that Archer wouldn't remember because he's an asshole.  Not that he wasn't a bit of a jerk as Bob, but he wasn't as bad.  But I couldn't imagine how the show would work with him continuing to think he needed to go shopping for cheese and stuff.

The only thing I liked was that Barry was shown.  I forgot how much I like him.  He's freaking crazy and apparently still stalking Archer from outer space.  Damn, when he gets down finally, Archer's going to get his ass kicked again.  Hopefully, they'll realize that Barry is monitoring their movements before it's too late.

Um, got to say I loved this episode because of the parody.  I watched it for a second time and I was still laughing and enjoying the cross-over.  I think this was really necessary to get me invested in the show again because I'm still having trouble remember what happened last season.  But right now if they keep doing cool surprises like they did in this premiere, I think I can still go along with this show no matter if I'm not quite up to speed yet.

Stewie Finds His Soulmate

Family Guy, S10E19

Lois got she and Peter separate beds after suffering another injury after he rolled over her in his sleep.  Peter, unable to sleep properly without someone to cuddle, asked Quagmire to be his substitute in that manner.  However, Peter started living with Quagmire completely, living his life with him in an intimate way that looked like they were a couple.  He finally went home after Lois agreed to sleep in the same bed with him and confessed that she missed cuddling with him too.  Stewie met his soul-mate with a wicked girl named Penelope.  Brian, after watching the news of the international terrors Stewie and Penelope had perpetrated together, told him that she was a bad influence on her and should stop seeing her.  When Stewie told Penelope about Brian's thoughts, she demanded that Stewie kill him.  Stewie couldn't do it, so Penelope came to do it herself.  After an intense battle, Stewie bid farewell to Penelope and admitted to Brian that he was right about her.

I had to agree with Lois' decision to not sleep with Peter in the same bed since he didn't seem to think her breaking numerous ribs was a problem, nor did the doctor want to admit that Peter had any fault in her injuries.  If that wasn't bad enough, he was really annoying with his plume pen writing at night where he would actually say "dip" each time he dipped his pen into the ink.  It might not have been a bad idea for her to get her own place entirely if he was going to be that obnoxious.

It was also smart of her to leave Peter be for a while after he decided to sleep with Quagmire.  It was kind of weird when they first laid together and Peter was taking off Quagmire's boxers with his foot.  At least let him take it off himself.  Eww.  But I think when Peter moved into Quagmire's and they had a montage about how their were interacting with each other every day, it was kind of sweet (if you imagined they were a couple).  It's funny that just snuggling in the same bed could make them that close. I could have stood to see more of how their relationship deepened (besides that "giggity band") before Lois came to get her man back.  I'm glad that Peter didn't make too much of a fuss about it since, as his wife, I would hope she would be his top choice for spooning.  I felt bad for Quagmire that he was stuck to Peter's back and crushed just like Lois had been at the beginning.  Not sure if I can call that karma or not.  Or ironic.  But it is a little funny.

Stewie's story was okay.  It was interesting to see him find another person like himself who was perhaps a bit more evil.  She, unlike Stewie, didn't have a dog best friend who could convince her to stop creating havoc for kicks.  I liked when Stewie had to make a 20s theme with his tidal wave destruction and he chose flappers dancing on surf boards on the waves.  That was cute.  I'm just surprised that Brian figured out what Stewie and Penelope were up to so quickly, seeing as they were doing everything by themselves.  It was even better when Stewie defended his actions by saying it was nothing new for him:

[Stewie] I’ve always been about world domination.  What the hell did you think I was talking about when I said, “Victory shall be mine”?

[Brian] You have not said that in a very long time.
[Stewie] Well, I’m back on it.

I laughed at that because I had forgotten that Stewie did use to say that.  This episode reminds me of when Stewie killed Lois (in a simulation) because Brian questioned whether he had gotten soft about being evil.  Truth be told, I don't miss that Stewie too much because he's funny enough without being a mastermind trying to take over the world.  With Brian usually by his side, there's hardly any time for him to be thinking about killing his mother and such.

It was cute when Stewie kept coming up behind Brian and trying to kill him different ways, but just couldn't kill him.  We've seen enough episodes to know that Stewie doesn't give a damn about anyone when push comes to shove unless it's Brian, so it would be a little out of his character for him to off Brian now, even when he met the love of his life.  It wasn't surprising that a girl  who surpassed Stewie in evil would go off to finish the job herself.  I liked that before she arrived, the mail carrier kept looking like he was listening in on Brian and Stewie's conversation and even waiting at the door to for them.  However, he had just been killed by Penelope and was standing there dead.  Nice.

What I noticed about the Stewie and Penelope fight was that she really came prepared.  I mean, she had all kinds of gadgets and weapons ready to slash and fry someone to death.   My favorite part of their fight was when Penelope shrunk a car and Stewie later threw it at her and enlarged it to full size while it was still in the air so it would fall on her.  Too much happened that I can remember it all, but I did like her blade in her shoe.  I just kept wondering when Stewie would reveal some weapon on himself because he was a little disadvantaged.  Finally, at the end he pulled out a knife from his ankle and told her to stay away from his dog.  Aww.  He does care.  Plus, Penelope kissed him and sent him flying so the cord around him would be tied around a light pole.  It's possible she might return one day.  But I kept wondering how Stewie would get down from there.  Then again, a baby like him that can fight on top of a moving truck is capable of anything.

It was stupid at the end they had Brian ask Meg about her day, but she just opened her mouth and no sound came out.  Come on now.  Stop shoving it our faces that you don't give a damn about Meg's character.  You might as well kill her off instead of treating her like a roach.  Seriously.  It's hardly funny anymore.  It's like that damn chicken Peter fought or those vaudeville guys.

Not the funniest episode, but not bad.  I wish I could have enjoyed the guest star, but I'm not too familiar with her work, so it wasn't anything special for me.  I did like to see that Stewie could fall in love for once, instead of watching Brian's many desperate one-night stands.  That's getting old.  I wish that there had been more jokes that I enjoyed, but I guess it the stories were interesting enough that it didn't matter too much.