Lisa "Cantwell" Them All

The Simpsons, S24E15

Lisa's new substitute was exactly what Lisa had wished for in a teacher, except that she hated Lisa's guts.  Lisa, while racking her brain to find out how she rubbed the woman in the wrong way, continued to be bullied by her new teacher.  Homer went too far with Ned and made him punch him in the eye.  Ned tried to make things right with Homer, but Homer refused to hit him back and make the two of them even while Homer still felt like the better man.

What I liked most overall about Lisa's story was just the idea that even an apple-polisher like Lisa can meet a teacher that doesn't like her.  She might be smart and obedient, but that doesn't mean as a student she's always going to be the star.  I mean, I thik even Mrs. Hoover began to dislike Lisa after a while.  There have been plenty of times that Lisa's made her miserable with her overachieving.  Still, I feel like usually one wouldn't hate Lisa from just a few seconds with her.  I liked that no matter how hard Lisa tried, Ms. Cantwell just couldn't be won over.

Another great point about this story was that Ms. Cantwell was voiced by Tina Fey, giving her an authentically smart-sounding voice.  Hearing her play a teacher reminded me of the movie Mean Girls, where she had to deal with some not entirely likeable girls.  I think this role couldn't have been played better by anyone else.

There few a few specific things that I liked from this story.  The first was when Marge pretended to put a chincilla coat on Lisa to make her fall back to sleep.  It's funny that she doesn't mind making Lisa faint in horror in order to make sure her child is well-rested.  The next is my favorite part where Mrs. Krabapple put Bart into Ms. Cantwell's class.  Bart's entrance was accompanied by demonic-sounding music, and her few minutes of absence gave him enough time to make the room look like a disaster.  I loved how Bart was just circling around in a lawnmover for no reason--what the hell?  That was more than enough to justify her early resignation.  Plus, she still refused to like Lisa, even if she could get Bart's terror to end.  Now that's some deep hatred.

My favorite line also came from this story.  Apparently Ms. Cantwell thought that Skinner and Chalmers were partners:

You two are the worst-dressed gay men I've ever met!

This was just a good story all around.  I even liked that the reason she hated Lisa was because she looked like a pretty, party girl.  It's weird that anyone would mistake Lisa for that type of girl when she's such a bookworm wouldn't even know how to handle a book about partying.

Homer and Ned's story was also good, but not as good as Lisa's.  It was mainly shocking to see Ned punch Homer in the face when he's probably needed to do that on a million other cases where Homer was doing much more terrible things to him.  I suppose Ned was already on edge from his parents being in town, and we all know that his parents are the cause of his anger.  Homer could have just been the icing on the cake.

Speaking of his parents, I swear that we saw them when Ned and Edna got married and they didn't look as old as they did in this episode.  They should look pretty ancient, considering that Ned is even older than Homer, but it's just weird to see their character designs change so recently.  I don't know.  That bothered me at first.

One of the funniest things about this story was just seeing Homer get along so well with Ned's parents.  It was like they were old friends.  Homer's already annoying to Flanders, so to see Ned pissed off even more when Homer was laughing and getting high with his parents was amusing.  All of Ned's sources for rage were right in front of him.  It makes sense that he might throw a fist or two.

My favorite part was when Ned was having trouble sleeping.  He reluctantly took what he referred to as an "sleeping aid," but was just some graham crackers and milk.  I loved that!  Only Ned would be able to make that work for him like that.

One last thing I laughed at was the end where Ned and Homer were praying.  Homer didn't even realize what he was doing on his knees:

This is praying? Let me out of here!

That joke reminds me of some seasons back when Homer was horrified that he was reading a real bible, not the fake one he kept his flask in.

This was one of my favorites episodes so far.  I guess I can always say that it could have been funnier, but that's just a hazard of coveting the earlier seasons that I can still laugh at today.  It was great to see Lisa being tormented by a teacher who refused to like her instead of seeing teachers treat her like a prized jewel.  It is messed up that a teacher would single out a student like that, but since it was Lisa it made the situation funny.  It was even funnier that just a glimpse of what horror Bart could add to the classroom was enough to get Lisa's bully to leave the school.  Ned lost control and finally got a little revenge on Homer, but it worked against him because it made him seem like the aggressor rather than the victim.  I liked, though, that Homer joined forces with Ned's parents and got him to that boiling point.  Since they initiated such an interesting story, it's a shame that they can't visit Ned a little more often.

Best Parent Trap Since Parent Trap

New Girl, S02E08

Jess' parents joined her and her friends for Thanksgiving, and she tried one last time to get them back together.  Schmidt fought with his cousin in a manly competition made by Winston for the right to be the true "Schmidt."

Um, I feel like this episode just kept getting better and better.  I had an easy time ignoring what Schmidt and cousin were doing for the most part because Jess' scheme and Nick's role in it was just so wonderfully funny.  I didn't expect that I was going to love the story of Jess' parents making their first appearance but Jamie Lee Curtis and Rob Reiner completely drew me in and had me wishing they could be around for every holiday.  My favorite moment with her parents was when there was a flashback of one of Jess' many attempts to parent trap her parents.  She made them think she was in danger so she could lock them in a room with romantic music.  I loved Bob's response:

Oh, damn it, Jess, that’s the second time today.

I cannot believe that she tried that many times to get her parents back together and was still trying to do so as a grown woman.  It was adorably naive, but not at all out of character for Jess.  It's amazing that her parents haven't given up listening to anything she says when she's been scheming for so long.  I would have always assumed that Jess was doing another parent trap any time both of her parents were involved in anything.

Probably my favorite thing in this story was that Nick revealed that he was a younger version of Jess' dad.  I laughed when she hinted that they would get along:

Nick, you’re gonna love my dad so much.  He’s so unhappy.

But I had no idea that when Bob and Nick were sitting on the couch talking sports that it would be like looking at Nick's future.  Their similarity wasn't just funny, but it also sort of gave another reason why Jess probably likes Nick in the first place.  It's not uncommon for girls to sort of like a man that reminds them of their father a little bit, and Nick certainly fits that category.

There was another indication that Nick probably likes Jess more than he even knows because Nick was getting crazily attracted to Joan within just a few minutes of pretending to flirt with her.  When Nick couldn't stop himself from sort of hitting on Jess' mother, I was laughing so hard.  It was definitely my second favorite part of the story.  It was a little weird, but I easily got past it thinking that Nick likes that kind of woman, which is roughly the same kind of woman that Jess is.  Plus, it was just cute to see him sort of falling for an older lady.  If I didn't like Jess the best, I would have said that Nick should have gone for Joan.

Lastly, I like that they poked a little fun at Twilight.  I mean, Nick basically created the same story without having any idea that it had already been made with vampires.  So to me, that doesn't say much about the complexity of Twilight if a moron like Nick can write the same thing.  I just love that Bob was there to tell him that his story had already been done (and it's so like Nick to not have heard of Twilight at all, but weird that he would enjoy writing such a romantic story).

The Schmidt versus Schmidt story was kind of dumb, but it had its good moments.  All of those were about Winston.  It was kinda funny that the last battle came down to kissing Winston, but I liked best when Winston had them doing a wheelbarrow:

[Cousin] All day. I can do this all day, Winston.
[Schmidt] I got all day, too!
[Winston] Hey, how long can you do this for?
[Cousin] I can do this all day!
[Schmidt] Yeah, I got all day, too!
[Cousin] Winston!
[Winston] Why are you yelling at me?

I don't know why but when they were yelling his name is was really funny.  Later, I liked how when emotions were bubbling over with Jess thinking her parent trap had finally worked when it hadn't and all the other issues at the table, Winston was the only one concentrating on the untouched dinner:

When can we start eating?

And somehow that was just as funny as when he very softly called out:

Turkey.

I just liked that he was so calmly, but sadly calling out to the food that Jess was angrily tossing into the sink.  It was kinda cute.


I don't think I would have changed anything in this episode--it's definitely in my list of favorites of all time.  It's certainly one of the best Thanksgiving stories that I've seen on TV lately.  I like that there was some hints of why Jess and Nick would make a great couple as well as plenty of laughs.  There was little food shown, but I don't mind that at all.  Seeing this sort of makes me hate the holidays a little less.

Cinderella's Revenge

Grimm, S01E20

Nick had to handle the murder of a woman named Mavis, who had been killed by a bat-like Wesen.  The suspects were the woman's family members, especially those who had asked her for money just before her death.  When one of Mavis' daughters turned up dead with her stepdaughter's godfather Spencer at the scene, Nick arrested him, despite there was no evidence to prove he had did it.  Nick finally learned that the real killer was Lucinda, the stepdaughter, from Spencer's confession at the police station.  Nick went to stop Lucinda from killing the second daughter with a Grimm weapon that Monroe brought him, but it was Spencer who finished her off.  However, Spencer took her life at the cost of his own.  Juliette also got Nick some more information about the car crash that killed his parents.  Instead of finding closure, he got the name of only still-living suspect who might be able to explain his parents' death.

The beginning of this episode was so long (aka revealing a Wesen-related murder) that I wasn't even sure I was really watching an episode of Grimm.  That actually was a good thing because I am unusually inattentive during the murder scenes.  I tend to ignore that part because it's typically short and slightly unimportant (because you know that Nick's going to be dragging his ass before he figures it out), but this time their spin on the Cinderella tale was interesting.  Especially because it was set after the couple had supposedly had their happy ending, but instead were experiencing financial trouble and had to beg the stepmother for money.  I was so invested in the strained relationship between Mavis and Lucinda's family (Arthur and Spencer) that I almost forgot about the existence of the Wesen and the Grimm world at all.  Thus, when a bat creature popped out from under Mavis' bed, I actually jumped in my seat.  I really forgot I was watching the kind of show that Grimm is. 

I, of course, thought that the Wesen that killed Mavis was Spencer for a second, but when I thought about how he was best friends with Lucinda's dad, I knew there was no way that her dad wasn't a bat too (I doubt anyone could go such a long time without knowing their best friend wasn't as human as they appeared to be).  I understand that Lucinda wanted to get her "rightful" inheiritence by getting rid of her step-family, but I don't know why it took her so long to do so.  Either Arthur must have been making such good money that she didn't feel a need to bother with them or either she just was so traumatized by her father's passing that it never crossed her mind to eliminate them until her supposedly wealthy husband looked like he was going to be penniless.  I dunno.  I just would think that after all the years of her step family's abuse, she might have used her eyeball-popping screech once or twice before Arthur came into her life.  And speaking of her husband, I feel really bad that she dropped him like a bad habit once she went on her money-grubbing murdering spree.  But I did like the idea of the Cinderella type being the villain, while the stepmother and stepsisters were the victims.  No matter what they did to Lucinda in the past, I'm sure it wasn't horrible enough to deserve a brain-splattering death.

Monroe didn't have many scenes this time, but I liked when he and Nick were in the Grimm trailer, looking for information about the bat Wesen.  It was cute how excited Monroe was to try out the device that would cancel out the bat attack.  I'm surprised that Nick was nice enough to let him do the honors of trying it out.  When it comes to using Monroe, Nick rarely gives his "servant" any perks to helping him.  I just thought that the weapon was a little cumbersome to use.  I mean, you had to put it on a stand and then crank it.  It's not something that's very mobile, that's for sure.  I couldn't see that being very useful if they had to chase Lucinda throughout the rest of the night.  Lucky for them that Spencer took care of her.

Concerning Spencer, I think he was a damn loyal friend and good godfather.  He might have been a bit of a busybody, but he kept his promise for a long time.  I mean, Arthur seemed to not know his left foot from his right without Spencer there to tell him what to do.  Maybe he was just like that since he invested his money in the wrong person, but from what was shown in the episode, he seemed like a pretty helpless guy most of the time.  Spencer was the rock that made sure Arthur gave Lucinda everything she wanted so she would fly off the handle.  He even went as so far to kill her to stop her from killing more innocent people.  It's not as if he could turn her and tell the police everything she had done--he tried to do that with Hank there and he thought he was insane.  That was a great scene, by the way.  I thought Nick would be exposed as a Grimm, but Hank didn't believe Spencer for a second.  I almost wished he had because I would love to see Nick have to explain that one.

I must admit, though, Nick was smart to submit the Grimm weapon as evidence of Lucinda's crimes.  There would be no other way in the world that he could have logically explained the way Mavis and Tiffany were killed.  Still, is it safe to leave that kind of powerful weapon at the police station?  I kind of worry about what Renard might do with that thing.  He's no stranger to the Wesen world, so he might have a use for it one day.  Hell, Nick might have a use for it one day (who knows when another bat might cross his path?).  How smart is it to get rid of the one thing that could handle those creatures?  Even though Nick just started using the tools Marie left him, it seems that they are his best bet to effectively take care of murderous Wesen.  Yet he's just throwing them away like he has enough know-how to survive without them.  If this show was slightly more realistic, Nick would have been dead from almost every episode so far.

My biggest complaint about Nick digging into his past again was why couldn't he do the digging himself?  Why is it that Juliette is better at getting information from the police than her own cop boyfriend?  This is like the second time or so this has happened and it still puzzles me.  Either Nick is a shittier investigator than I thought or Juliette must have some past with the police that I failed to remember.  What Nick found out also had me a little confused.  I don't know why only now he found out that his parents' accident had been reclassified as a murder, but he never knew.  Granted, it happened while he was a child, but you would think once he became part of the law force that he would check into that once or twice.  It's just dumb.  Unless it just was all too painful for him to think about it again.  I could buy that if I had seen Nick agonizing about it more.  We rarely get to see Nick's emotional side, so I don't buy his internal pain at the moment.  Besides that, I'm slightly interested in the last living suspect, Akira.  I don't know what he'll be able to tell Nick, but it's curious that there is still someone around who can shed a little light into Nick's past.

This was one of the better adaptations of the fairy tales that Grimm has come up with (not the best but still good).  I almost wish that I could have seen the story before it had gotten to the point where murder was involved.  There wasn't much development this time, as far as any of the overall mysteries, but at least Nick has gotten interested in his parents' death again.  With that being explored again there's a bit of hope we might glimpse into Nick's emotional depth.  It'd be nice to see him as something more than a bumbling, lucky fool with a pretty face.

Award For Most Uncomfortable Dinner

Mad Men, S05E07

Megan's parents came to town, and we saw that their have an unhappy relationship.  Megan came up with a great pitch that gained them the Heinz account.  Peggy thought Abe wanted to propose to her, but he actually wanted to move in together.  Don was given an award for his letter that spoke about smoking's hand in cancer and other health risks.  Megan's parents, Sally, and Roger all accompanied Don to the award dinner.  The night revealed a lot for those who attended it.

I wondered what kind of parents that Megan had, considering her personality.  They seem to not be much of a reflection about Megan's character, as they have a history of bickering and making each other miserable.  It was clear that Marie was starved for affection, but luckily she was more impressed with Roger than Don and didn't do anything inappropriate with her own daughter's husband.  From what I've learned about Emile, he just seems dispassionate about the way his own life has turned out and takes it out on others.  Even his daughter isn't exempt from his negativity.  It's no wonder that Marie, who claimed to be once full of life and adventure, would end up fooling around with Roger, with his renewed look on life.

I don't think much is wrong with what Roger and Marie did (because they are adults), but I wonder if Sally will get over walking in on them while Marie was pleasuring Roger on her knees.  Maybe she'll appreciate staying with her grandmother a bit more than going to the "dirty" city to hang with her dad's kind of people.  Before that happened, I thought that Sally and Roger were so adorable together.  He was pretending she was his date, and Sally acted as his encouragement so he could work the room.  I think Sally was having fun pretending to be an adult (nice dress, conversation about business) until she got a glimpse of some of the other things adults did.

Don may not be the father of the year, but I still think he's a great dad.  He has all the opportunities to be absent his children's lives, but he's there for them a decent amount.  I just loved how he was stunned by seeing Sally in a beautiful and more grown-up dress, but told her to tone it down.  Emile made Don's fear of his daughter growing up too quickly worse by saying that all girls eventually "spread their legs and fly away."  Thanks to that funny misquote, I'm sure that Don will be keeping a closer watch on Sally whenever she's around.  It was really sweet after he got his award he claimed that seeing a beautiful girl who would be ready for makeup one day, but not today, made him happier than being honored.  Aww.  It's gonna be rough for him when she starts to get rebellious and nothing he can say will make her listen.  I think Sally is a good person, but she's definitely got a curiosity that will probably make her a wild teenager.

Instead of worrying about his daughter leaving childhood, Don should be most worried that his image is indeed as negative as Roger warned it would be before he wrote the letter.  At the dinner, Ed told him that no one wanted to work with him there at the party because he's not the trustworthy type.  I can't argue with that.  For Don, business is business.  I don't think that he ever considered any of the clients to be his real friends and would actually stick his neck out for one of them.  And why would he?  With slimeballs like Heinz, I wouldn't promise my loyalty to them when they are just as likely to cut off their business for the smallest thing that dissatisfied them.  There's only so much ass-kissing one can do for a customer before it becomes counterproductive.

Speaking of Heinz, I was almost glad that Raymond's wife let it be known that they were going to fire SCDP because I've had it with him taking advantage of them.  He wants so much, but gives so little back.  And sure, that's the nature of their business, but it's been a while since they've had such a shitty client.  I prepared to watch Don get a little revenge on Raymond, which I could have cheered on, but Megan smartly decided to give the pitch she had been working on with Don and they secured the account.  Way to go Megan!  However, she increasingly looked less and less thrilled about her success, the more Don and the others applauded her.  I thought she was really passionate about copywriting, but it looks like that's not where her heart is.  Emile further suggested that Megan is settling for a different kind of success, but not the kind that she has always dreamed of.  Now I'm wondering if she'll try her hand in acting or performing again, despite that she's made a significant mark in their advertising firm.  I worry that Don, who seemed excited that he and Megan could work together so well, might not be so supportive if she decided to give up on advertising (or Megan may stay in the business and be unhappy but too scared to quit).

As far as Peggy goes, I thought that Abe was going to dump her.  When he asked her to move in, I thought she was disappointed.  I think that only when Joan praised her and made it seem very romantic did Peggy see what a wonderful gesture it was for him to ask.  I mean, I thought Peggy would be ready to punch Megan in the face for winning over Heinz when Peggy had failed at it, but she was so satisfied with her love life that she was genuinely happy for Megan's achievement.  Wow.  Peggy's mother, of course, wasn't happy at all, but that was no surprise. I just didn't think she'd be such a stubborn bitch to tell Peggy that if she was lonely to just keep getting cats until she died.  Because being a cat lady is much better than "living in sin" with her loving boyfriend.  Maybe she'll never get married once they move in together, but at least Peggy will have someone there to love her and take care of her.  Is a cat going to make her feel good after a horrible day at work and make sure she doesn't drink herself to death?  Peggy's mom needs to get the stick out of her ass and stop trying to push her ideals onto her daughter (her mom ain't no saint either!).

I wonder if Don can do something to change his business perspective so that they could draw in more clients who can trust their firm.  Hopefully the dissatisfaction that Megan seems to have with her job won't start to tear at her marriage.  I don't care too much about what happens to Peggy as long as she's concentrating on her own life.  I like the new Roger, and I'm eager to see if he can turns things around in his professional life.  With a lot of things going to the dump with everyone else, it would be nice to see someone making some positive strides.

Lord Of The Coins

Grimm, S01E13

A theft at a jewelry leaves another dead body for Hank and Nick to investigate.  What makes this story more interesting than most is that we learn a little about Nick's unknown past (did he ever mention his parents were in a car crash?), and we get to see another side of Captain Renard, though not the kind that reveals any of the questions I have.  The whole quest to get the coins that bring you power and whatnot just reminded me of Lord of the Rings.  When Hank was trying so hard to keep them, I just was waiting for him to come out with "My precious..."

Anyway, Nick found out that his parents were mostly likely killed by a creature named Soledad.  He not only made Nick an orphan 18 years ago, but also ruined the relationship between another eagle-like creature named Farley and Marie.  Huh, so Grimm sometimes date the creatures?  I know not all of them are bad, but it seems kind of backwards.  Then again, Monroe is like Nick's best friend (if his friend was like his assistant against his will).  I found that this information could have been more intriguing but for some reason it wasn't.  I guess because we only got to hear it from Farley's side, and he's not the best storyteller around.  We can't, of course, have Marie give her side now that she is dead, but I wish there was something to add to that background story.  Juliette, instead of Nick, confirms that Farley was indeed living in Rhinebeck around the time his parents were killed.  I didn't know his girlfriend was such a sleuth.  I just think it's odd she is able to get that information so easily.

Nick also gets a good bit of information about the Soledad's kind after he enlists Monroe to translate some journals in German for him.  That's none too surprising, but again I just feel bad that Nick uses him so unashamedly.  The second Monroe finds something that interests him (antique cameras and such), Nick pretty much kicks him out.  The reason I even mention this typical Monroe abuse moment by Nick is because Monroe had a pretty funny line about Soledad-type creatures:

They ate a baby.  That's rude.

Sick as that is, his definition of "rude" cracked me up.  I could have used a little more Monroe comedy this time to offset all of the "drama."  It's not that it was too intense for me, but it would have helped me keep engaged with the story better.

What I liked most of all was Captain Renard becoming possessed by those coins.  I knew he would already know what those coins would do, but I didn't think that he would be able to be taken in by their power.  I guess not even reapers are impervious them.  Hank sure wasn't.  I liked how ambitious he became and how good he looked in his police uniform.  And  that guy has a pretty nice body!  We got a good look at it when he was absentmindedly rubbing the coins between his fingers in his room.  I'll admit that scene was a little creepy, but getting to check out his great abs distracted me from that fact pretty well.

Luckily for him, Farley took the coins away from him before he went mad with power.  I have to hand it to Nick that he was able to get into Farley's room before the creature could escape with them, though.  I don't have much confidence in Nick's skills as a detective, but he has his moments.  I guess eagle creatures aren't much of fighters because Nick smacked him down once and took the coins.  If anyone has been watching this show, Nick can't fight for crap, so if Farley had fought a little harder, he would have probably won.  The stupid thing is that Nick took them back to Marie's trailer of Grimm goods and hid them.  I just know that someone is going to find that place and get those coins or some horrible weapon from there.  That is not a secure place!

The last thing I want to mention is that Nick watched a film that showed Hitler was a creature.  What the hell??  When I saw that I was like "Really, Grimm writers?"  There's something stupid about that, and I'm not sure what.  I guess it shouldn't be surprising that historical figures could be creatures in the Grimm universe, but I feel like it was an unnecessary reveal.  They ended the episode like that as if it would make you gasp.  I would have rather they did something with Renard at the end instead of that.  Or something that would reveal more about Nick's past.  I would have rather that Farley mentioned it in his story than the way it came out as if the viewers were wondering about Hitler's humanity.  Thanks for answering a question no one asked.

This week's episode didn't deal with Juliette and Nick's relationship, which is a shame.  And there was nothing else about why Renard pretty much knows about everything going on in the creature world.  I loved him speaking French, by the way.  It would be nice to know what it is that makes him multilingual and with whom he was speaking in Paris.  I feel like with this show I keep shouting for answers, but get almost nothing in return.  Seriously, Grimm--it's time to give us more than what we see.  You're not so thrilling of a show that I won't drop you.