Matchmaking And Dog Therapy

Suburgatory, S02E11

Tessa was asked by Shelia to help find Lisa a boyfriend, and after seeing Lisa dating a little boy, Tessa tried to find a match for Lisa online.  George fought with Yoni over the best way to help Yakult, and Dallas began to take Yoni's side in the matter.

One of my favorite things about Tessa's story was that although she had to spend a lot of time with Shelia, the focus wasn't about how the two got along, but whether Lisa could be hooked up before she "ran out of time."  I was worried for a second Shelia was going to grill Tessa and judge Tessa up and down for being with her favorite child, but luckily she seems cool with Tessa enough to think that she needs to be involved in another Shay's future.  It was weird that Tessa was put in the position of matchmaker, but not presumptuous (as it was when Lisa was doing that in the past) since Lisa was pratically begging Tessa to do so.

I guess I can't be too surprised that a simple dream about Lisa being a spinster cat lady scared her into thinking that if she didn't get a boyfriend soon, she'd be alone forever.  I just wish Lisa would use those brains I know she has to think about how rash that seems for someone her age.  Unless she thinks she's never going to leave Chatswin where there aren't enough guys to appreciate her, it's jumping the gun.  Rather than be amused that she was dating someone still in middle school, I just felt bad for Lisa.  She looked even more desperate than usual.  It's crazy that she has confidence about other odd things and yet has not a bit about her own value as a girlfriend.  I'm sure her mother doesn't help in that area (she made it clear by stating that boys were exactly lining up for her).

I got scared that when Tessa accidentally invited her ex to be Lisa's date that Tessa might fall for him again.  Luckily, she was so damned bored with him.  I loved that.  Then I thought Ryan might feel threatened and he did in a way that I didn't expect.  He was only threatened by the quality of Scott's hair.  Too cute.  My favorite part of the whole episode was when he told Tessa that she had to leave him for Scott because of how silky his hair was.  Tessa told him no and gave him a little kiss.  Aww!  God, I love them together!

I also liked that Lisa realized that she was wasting her time with Scott and AJ because with Malik she had already felt what love was like.  That better mean that she'll reconsidering taking Malik back.  The way they broke up was ridiculous.  She gave up way too quickly on him.

George sort of gave up quickly, too, when battling with Yoni.  Yoni is fake as hell and has some weird grudge against George (I guess maybe because George is the only one who sees through his bullshit?), but I sort of like him as the role of George's nemesis.  I couldn't be too mad that Dallas was falling for all of Yoni's pseudo healing tips when every other woman in Chatswin was eating up every word out of Yoni's mouth, but it was frustrating that George was being made to look like a monster.  All he really had to do was really show that he cared about Yakult and he would have won Dallas' trust a lot faster.  Oh, well.  It was sort of funny to see Yoni driving George crazy.

The best thing about that story and my second favorite thing in the episode was when George was taking Yakult for a walk and had Dalia with him.  She opened up to him about her thoughts of religious conversion and school.  It's so cute how they are bonding like that!  It was even better when George and Dalia teamed up to expose Yoni as a fraud to Dallas--so good.  And I like that Dalia thought that fetch was a game George made up for her and Yakult to play.  Dalia is really brilliant at making the most of her screen time.  George's victory wouldn't have been half as great if Dalia wasn't involved.

This was a really good episode.  I don't think it was hilarious or anything, but it was adorable.  There weren't a lot of Ryan and Tessa moments, but that one at dinner with Scott was more than enough to placate me until next time.  Hopefully Lisa will consider the special thing she had with Malik and start getting him back in her life.  I don't need to see her hanging around with boys like AJ again.  George is really becoming an irreplaceable existence in not just Dallas' life, but Dalia's as well.  I get a real kick out of George and Dalia bonding, and I'm interested to see what kind of way Dalia might open up to George next.

Where Has Abed Gone?

Community, S0316

After Annie set up Troy and Britta on a lunch date, she and Abed spent time in the Dreamatorium.  They argued about Abed's control issues and the accuracy of his scenarios about their friends.  After Annie messed with Dreamatorium's engine so that Abed would think of others before anything else, he began to imagine a soap-opera-esq world where Annie was the administrator of a hospital school and Abed played the parts of all of his friends.  Annie spent the time trying to talk to the real Abed and couldn't find him until she became Abed herself.  After finding Abed in a locker, chained to the wall, she learned that Abed was just worried about being alone and unneeded by his friends.  Abed in turn, learned a little about expressing empathy.

I guess because of last week's mystery text that Troy sent to Britta, Annie thought it was a good idea to try to hook them up.  Even if she saw something there, it wasn't that significant that she needed to push them along a bit.  It confused me for a while until Abed (in the form of Jeff) suggested that Annie had played matchmaker in order to somehow get herself and Jeff together.  She denied that as a motive, but I have to agree with Abed because nothing else makes much sense.  Perhaps Troy and Britta would have had a connection on their own, but since Annie decided to have a hand in it, Abed was justified to feel a little threatened by her action.  Whether his scenarios of them dating would ultimately turn into disaster had any merit was debatable.

I liked how Abed was playing the parts of everyone in the hospital school, but he himself didn't really exist there.  He made everyone else seem a little sillier than they were in real life (like Jeff just wanting to get into Annie's pants).  However, I don't think that he made anyone look too stupid.  The most interesting thing was when he became Annie and Annie became Abed.  I was beginning to think that the real Abed was lost forever.  Annie was pretty terrible in playing along with his scenario, so I thought she would fail to ever find Abed.  After all, each time Annie tried to imagine Abed in that world, Abed denied that she had.  Annie didn't do a very good Abed, but it was funny to see her try.  What wasn't very funny was to see the real Abed chained inside of a overly spacious locker.  As much of a child he was being trying to rule over others in his own way, I was affected by his vulnerable side.  How could you not feel for Abed when he worried that he would be cast aside when people grew tired of him and that he spent most of junior high school inside of a locker?  Saying "aww" just isn't enough.  I wasn't sure that Annie would convince him to come out of the hospital school world, but she did a good job of making him feel as human as the others are.

With the Annie and Abed story going on, it was easy to forget what was going on in the real world.  I didn't even really think about how Brita and Troy's date must have really gone.  Obviously, it wasn't anything to talk about because there seemed to be no change between the two.  Troy was still genuinely concerned about Abed more than anything else, so the balance of the group seemed to be have been preserved.

Although Annie seemed to raise her value as a friend to Abed, her contributions to the apartment are obviously still not appreciated.  During the "Troy and Abed in the Morning" scene, Abed went into a breakdown upon seeing how Annie how changed their bedroom.  Had she learned nothing when she messed with the Dreamatorium's engine?  I just loved how Troy tried to comfort him and Abed just stood around making a noise like a robot that was going to explode soon.

Really interesting and creative episode.  I wouldn't have thought that Annie could spend multiple hours with Abed just by herself, nor would I think that their time together would make a significant impact upon him.  It was nice to see that Abed can grow and learn to show more empathy toward his friends.  Not too sure how I feel about Troy and Britta getting together, but we'll have to see how that goes.  Hopefully after all that happened in the Dreamatorium, Annie will at least keep her nose out of it from now on.

Leonard Nimoy, The Voice Of Sheldon's Conscience

Big Bang Theory, S05E20

Penny surprised the boys with a Star Trek toy to make up for all of the free food she has taken from them.  Sheldon decided to open his box after his Spock figure told him in a dream that playing with new toy was the most logical thing to do, but he broke it within a minute and switched his broken toy with Leonard's.  Raj also tried to find a woman to wed, but found himself contemplating whether being alone is worse than a phony marriage.

I will say that Penny, as much as I don't care for her, really knows how to please a nerd.  I was skeptical at first that she would actually get a gift that Sheldon and Leonard would love, but she passed the test with flying colors.  If anyone, though, was going to give into temptation and open the box, I would have thought it would be Leonard.  But I guess when Spock appears to you in a dream and tells you what to do, you better throw away all the "codes of geekdom" and open the box.

It was incredibly funny when Sheldon was talking to his Spock figure and the voice coming out of it was actually Leonard Nimoy.  It also liked that Spock kept changing positions when the camera moved away from him.  This was almost better than Nimoy being there himself.  It's interesting that Sheldon won't listen to most people's opinions, but a dream Spock (not even the flesh kind either) is someone's words he can't easily ignore.  Even though I can hardly see Sheldon being categorized with the rest of the human race, this manifestation of his conscience through an action figure (although it supports the theory he's more than a little insane), make Sheldon less of an ass than he seems.  I mean, it's Sheldon's dream, so when Nimoy was shouting at him to do the right thing and return Leonard's unbroken toy, it had to be Sheldon's guilt gnawing at him.

The best part of Sheldon battling with his Nimoy conscience was when Sheldon was defending his choice to switch the boxes.  Leonard would never open his box and never know what Sheldon had done:

[Sheldon] Everybody's happy.[Spock] Well, I am unhappy.[Sheldon] I thought where you come from they don't have emotions.[Spock] I come from a factory in Taiwan.

 I think that I could watch Sheldon and little Spock talk to each other all day.  Despite the understanding that Spock and Sheldon seemed to have reached, Sheldon still leaves the broken toy with Leonard, and then lies over and over again to cover what he has done before he finally tells the truth.  Sheldon was the most honest when he told Leonard that he didn't want him to be happy with his toy and hoped he'd break it.  Damn, Sheldon.  Did you learn nothing from Nimoy??

I felt bad for Raj and the story about his failure of a matchmaking.  I wasn't surprised that his parents thought he was going to come out to them because it sounded that way to me too.  I was surprised that in New Delhi everyone already thinks that Raj is in the closet.  It's sad that Raj has to defend himself so much, but it's no wonder with his metrosexual tendencies.  I don't know why Bernadette and Howard thought it was a good idea to give him a little "rich girl" puppy he could carry in his "man purse" (Raj, really??).  Either he will forsake human contact for puppy love or he'll just repel more women who think they don't have a shot because they will think he he is secretly into men.  Fine, Raj is lonely and maybe a dog might take awau a little of his troubles, but this isn't what I meant at all by tossing him a bone!  Come on!  Raj could date someone.  Even if it's not true love.  A puppy, indeed!

Good episode, though.  It's been a couple of weeks since I've seen this show, so I wasn't sure if I actually missed it.  If they had more episodes like this one, I probably would anticipate Thursday a little more.