Crossing The Stalker Line

How I Met Your Mother, S08E15

Barney became obsessed with finding out who Robin was stalking during her days as Robin Sparkle.  His travels to Canada and investigations of her past lovers led him to another segment of the Robin Sparkle story.  Ted met a girl on a train who later found him at work.  After learning their meeting wasn't a twist of fate as he had thought, Ted had a hard time convincing Lily and Marshall that the girl wasn't a stalker.

It's unfortunate that with so many guest stars in this episode that I didn't really know or care about the majority of them.  I liked the idea of them making a Robin Sparkle behind the music thing like you would see on VH1, but it wasn't as funny as I had thought it would be.  My favorite part was when they talked about Robin announcing that Robin Sparkle was dead and how the celebrities there reacted.  Jason Priestley started complaining about Paul Shaffer's stomach growling during that time and how disgusting it was.  Shaffer later commented directly to Priestly:

I'm sorry, Jason Priestley.  I didn't realize you were the Queen of England.

I liked how the two of them drifted away from talking about the tragedy of Robin's career fall and more on something frivolous as someone's stomach making noise during a shocked silence.

After all the running around and "mystery" around who Robin had been obsessed with back in the day, by the time she revealed that it was Shaffer, I didn't care anymore.  I guess that was because I was disappointed with that latest (and probably final) chapter of Robin Sparkle.  It's a shame because the Robin Sparkle stories used to be some of my favorite parts about this show.  I don't know.  Her transition into grunge music just didn't do anything for me.

Ted's story just kept getting creepier and creepier.  I wouldn't say that it was much better than the Robin Sparkle story, but it wasn't bad either.  I mostly liked that Ted was being delusional, as usual, and refused to listen to Marshall and Lily's reasonable points.  My favorite thing in this story and the whole episode was when Ted was trying to illustrate how a big romantic gesture can be perceived as stalkerish or touching depending on if the recipient of the gesture is in love with the giver.  I loved when he redid Marshall's first attempt to ask Lily out in a stalkersih light.  Marshall looked so creepy in the shadows, and I loved seeing Lily scream and mace him in the eyes.  I feel like I haven't laughed that loud at this show in a really long time.

It was a little surprising that instead of Ted being a stalker, it turned out that he had a stalker of his own for over a year.  It was like each time Jeanette said that she had something to tell him that she wasn't going to reveal initially, I just wanted Ted to start running as far away as possible. Unfortunately, he decided to take what he could get and not send Jeanette packing even after finding out she had followed him to a bookstore in addition to other places that she hadn't mentioned yet.  I can't call Ted a complete idiot because I guess he just needs some kind of affection, whether it's with someone crazy or not.  At any rate, Jeanette won't be around forever, so I can excuse him setting aside reason for a little fling.

Also, I felt like Lily had been lying about the first time she met Marshall from the beginning of the episode.  She was way too quiet about Marshall's telling of the story that I knew there had to be more.  I didn't expect that she was faking a reason to see him and knocking on every door to find out where he lived.  For Lily, that seems like absolutely something she would do.  And it sort of pales in comparison to some of the other nutty stuff she's done since then.  But I liked how Marshall used the same line Ted had to make it seem like Lily's actions were all right when previously he was yelling at Ted as if his friend was a madman.

I liked this episode, despite that the Robin Sparkle story wasn't as great as the others had been.  I guess there weren't enough Canadian jokes or they've just done enough of them in the past that poking fun at Canadians doesn't really work for me anymore.  It's weird that Ted got involved with someone clearly stalking him, but at least he's not so naive about it that he doesn't even question whether everything happening between him and Jeanette is as coincidentally as it seemed.  Although it's a waste of hims time to bother with a nutbag like her, I say let Ted have his fun so he can ignore for the moment that he hasn't found the one just yet.

Let's Get Roger Locked Up

American Dad, S08E01

After hearing Hayley singing at his attic lounge, Roger became dangerously obsessed with Hayley.  Stan wanted to buy a new car, but couldn't find anyone to pay him at least 15,000 dollars for his old car.

I just have to say that Roger is so insane.  Like, it's weird to be saying that after everything else he's done, but when he was targeting Hayley he outdid himself a little.  First of all, he shot her and still showed up in her hospital room to bring her the disgusting gift of Christina Aguilera's larynx, which he played like a kazoo!  Eww!  Then he proceeded to knock out Hayley and kidnap her.  It was really gross watching him cuddle up on her with no clothes (though he usually is naked when he's himself).  It just looked like he was humping her, although Roger has mentioned that he has no genitals (but how does he have all that sex?).  Well, I didn't think it would get much worse from there until he decided to take Jeff's skin.  Ugh...  Seeing him in Jeff's skin was so gross!  Roger really needs to go to a place for the criminally insane.  I often think that he will end up killing them all one day (like he tried to do in a different episode in a sort of spoof of that movie Alien or whatever).

 The side story where Stan was stubbornly trying to sell his car wasn't funny until the very end of it where the lady was trying to escape the lion and crashed the car.  It was sick, but in a funny way, how the lion pounced and attacked her while they were both on fire until they both burned into ash.  That's not how I expected Stan to get over his car not being worth what he wished it to be at all.  I'm thankful for that story even though it wasn't hilarious just to distract me from how creepy Roger was.

I liked this episode even though it was disturbing.  It's interesting that Roger can get even more insane than he already is and all it takes is for him to fall in love.  I'm glad, though, that he got over Hayley in the end (when it was sort of far too late by that time).  I also think it was great that they started their season with a story about Roger because whether it's funny or creepy, it's still much better than stories about the other characters.  I can't wait to see what horrible things Roger is going to do the rest of this season!

When You Need Something Done, Get A Kid

Bob's Burgers S02E04

Bob became obsessed with beating Jimmy's score on a video game machine he leased for a few days before Linda sent it away.  He continued to play when he found it at a children's arcade, despite that he was getting carpal tunnel and was lying to his wife about it.  I can see how Bob wouldn't want Jimmy to get away with locking "BOB SUX" into a machine forever, but I couldn't ignore the idea that Bob was working harder and not smarter.  I guess Bob really does value his pride above most other things.

I don't know if Bob is just too old to realize or what, but the score Jimmy got on Burger Boss was likely to be beaten by a kid in no time, especially if it was taken to some Chuck E. Cheese knock-off.  I would estimate like a week at best before someone came along and wiped that score out of existence.  Also, Bob is such a terrible player, I don't know why he would want to spend time doing it himself (how satisfied could he be bragging to Jimmy a month later that he took off his score?).

I do like that a kid named Darryl came to help Bob play the game better.  What was even better about him was that his voice actor was Aziz Ansari (one of my favorites).  What's funny about the little geek that he played was Darryl reminded me of Kevin G from Mean Girls, a movie I happened to see like a day after this episode.  I hadn't seen that movie in many, many years, so I had forgotten Kevin, but when I saw it again, I had a Darryl flashback.  I wished that Darryl's training could have been a little funnier (I think the best was when he was trying to make Bob stop popping pills and questioned whether he was high).  It was like the more I watched Bob train, the more I wanted him to just give up.

It wasn't until Bob had hallucinated that Darryl's bully was a video game character and his kids had ratted out his "sailing lessons" scheme that finally Bob gave up.  And by giving up I mean that he gave Darryl some money to erase Jimmy's high score.  Well, duh, Bob!  He knew Darryl was a superstar when it came to playing video games--why not just use the kid in the first place??  I know they have to fill up the story, but I'm still gonna point it out.  Maybe if I was enjoying Bob's ride down obsession and deception, I might have ignored reason.

I was disappointed the kids didn't have much of a role in this story, besides crashing other children's birthday parties.  I think it would have been better if they were discovered to be uninvited guests rather than them simply getting bored with the endless birthday cakes and sneaking into a yacht club.  I'm not going to get into how stupid Linda is for believing that they were all taking sailing lessons at night.  It was a bit her own fault that she was embarrassed like that in the end.

Pretty disappointed that an episode with Aziz didn't turn out to be funnier.  He is so hilarious, but I guess being on this show, I couldn't expect miracles.  It might have been better if Darryl had somehow interacted with the kids (those crazies with him might have been a good formula for comedy).  I will say that the 8-bit version of the theme song was the only time that I liked the theme (semi-video game geek myself).  Wish it could always be like that.

Even With Cookies, Grimm Ain't Sweet

Grimm, S01E15

After not seeing Grimm for a good couple of weeks, I felt like watching it hurt my head in terms of how the plot moves in comparison to other things I watch.  Nick having to step into the world of creature (I'll try to refer to them properly by "Wesen") addiction and busting two reptile-like guys was a pretty routine development for this show.  Each time we get to see Nick uncover that some of the Wesen are involved some way or another in the murder of someone in town.   Also typical of the show, we got to see more mysteries, but no more pieces of the puzzle.  The connection between Captain Renard and Adalind continued without giving us much of a reason as to why, but we found out that they are trying to get Hank so they can get to Nick.  But why??  I  don't know what it is about this show that infuriates me so that they create these questions without leaving us some kind of bread crumb trail to the answer.  Most likely, we'll just get to know all at once, but it brings a more important question of whether I will still care by then.

I liked the idea of Wesen having their own kind of drugs they were able to get high on, but would instantly kill humans if they smoked the same thing.  They all used these elaborate and antique-looking horns to inhale, which made the act seem even more exotic.  My favorite thing was when they went to the "crack house," full of all of these red-lit tents of Wesen getting high.  Apparently, there are tons of them all over America, and they're not even really illegal since they're all smoking mold.  I thought Nick would be pointed out as a narc right away, going to a place like that, but I guess everyone was too busy smoking up to notice there were two guys sifting through each tent.

I had to notice again that Monroe does a lot of dangerous things for absolutely no pay.  Nick may be a Grimm and perhaps he has some duty to that side job of his, but he's a damn cop!  After Monroe (and Rosalie this time) fill in all the gaps in his investigation, Nick possibly fights someone and then takes all the glory later (I assume).  Monroe had to play bodyguard in addition to the later drug bust he assisted with--Nick needs to be paying him!  Usually, Nick just milks him for the information and then tosses him away, but when the guy has to stay at a stranger's house and possibly fight off some attackers, that's way beyond helping a "friend."  But I suspect that Monroe didn't mind too much and that Rosalie may become his sweetheart (Huh, didn't see that coming.  Guess there are some perks to helping Nick).

Let's talk about some other "sweethearts."  Hank will soon be obsessed with Adalind, thanks to some enchanted cookies or something.  Do they really need to play around with Hank in order to get to Nick?  I could go along with this scheme better if I had some kind of idea of why it was necessary.  It just seems like a pointless sidestory right now.  Also, I think that it's good that Adalind is an attractive girl (and perhaps Hank is a moron) because anyone showing up at my doorstep at night with homemade cookies would be looked upon as a stalker (this day and age you don't take free food from others so easily).  Must be nice to be able to do something that shady, but have little suspicion raised about you because of your appearance.  That whole "I need to pay you back for saving my life" crap shouldn't hold up at all.  But Hank surely isn't portrayed as the sharpest tool in the shed.

As much as I hate that Adalind is working in the shadows for Renard for maddening unclear reasons, I liked the cookie thing for one reason: Sergeant Wu.  Thank goodness for him bringing humor to this show when I'm sitting there pulling at my hair or scratching my head.  For some reason, Hank brought one of his cookies to work ,and Wu suggested that it would be nice it he shared that gigantic cookie with him.  I was rolling with laughter when Hank only made this face at him:

If it were me, I'd probably not think about stealing his cookie, but Wu was like "the hell with you!" and took the damn thing away.  I didn't think his face would explode with warts and he would nearly die after eating it, but I was totally unprepared for the way he was hoarding the cookie after his near death experience.  I suppose he didn't realize how much danger he was in, not being conscious for most of it, but if he's so oblivious to the danger of the cookie, why they hell is he storing it in his couch cushion??  Either that cookie has made him insane or he has a bad habit of putting snacks in the same place he sits.  So I assume that the same thing won't happen to him again, so is he going to also be obsessed with Adalind or will he be obsessed with Hank (please, let it be the latter because this show could use a laugh)?

I thought that Juliette was going to dump Nick's lying ass, but instead she wanted to learn how to use a gun.  Well, I'll give her half credit for not being a complete idiot.  Obviously it will be dangerous for her to stay with Nick, so a little preparation on her part only seems smart.  Still, Nick's attempts to cover up why the beaver family is laying gifts upon them like they are gods that need offerings to prevent their wrath are laughable (almost in a good way).  I enjoyed how the guy kept coming back to offer a pie or fix the door, and Nick barely had to convince Juliette why this was nothing to be concerned about.  I guess when people are praising you, you ask a lot less questions than when they are throwing fruit at your house or stalking you.  This can't last forever.  Someone who hates Nick will surely find out his location and make trouble.  They better because this show needs all the interesting bits it can get.

I may have to just give up wondering when I'll know what a reaper wants to do with the Wesen connections he has and what it means for Nick.  Instead, I'll turn my attention to whether Monroe might start up a romance with Rosalie and what that cookie will do to Wu.  If I try too hard to think about this show, I think my head will explode from all the holes I could pick at it.