Worst Episode Ever. April Fools!

Ugly Americans, S02E17

Mark prepared to propose a proposal to Callie on April Fools' Day, but the DOI was under lock down due to Mark's predecessor's escape from jail.  Barney had swore murderous revenge on all of them, so they were taking precautions by escaping to a cabin out of town.  Mark found it hard to believe that their emergency was real and resisted sharing their panic until he started to see his friends dead in the woods.  He also learned that Callie used to date Barney and was likely still in love with him.  When Mark, Grimes, and Callie were captured by the madman, they were forced to participate in a twisted dating game show, where Barney seemed to have won Callie's heart again.  Mark fell into a jealous rage and tried to kill the man, but his friends stopped him by letting him know it was an elaborate prank after all.  While all of this was going on Leonard and Randall tried to get back to town to cash a lottery ticket.  They managed to escape from some rapist, hillbilly pig people, but when they tried to redeem the ticket, the clerk refused to accept it because it was ripped in half.

I thought it was kind of half-assed of Mark to want to ask Callie to be engaged to be engaged.  For someone who always pretends to be so responsible, it just sounds like a shallow commitment to trick someone into thinking they were actually serious.  I did like that when he brought up doing it that Randall did seem a little worried that Mark would move out of the apartment one day.  But with them one stage below engaged, I doubt that Randall has to worry about that any time soon.  Even though I thought his proposal was pointless, I still thought Callie would appreciate the gesture, but she barely paid attention to him when he asked her in Randall's van.  I wonder if they weren't all trying to trick Mark would she have been a little more happy about it.

Once Mark made it known that he didn't care for pranks and suspected that the whole DOI emergency was a ruse, I knew that no matter what happened that he was going to be right.  I also assumed that Callie would propose to him in the end since she was a little too disinterested in Mark and his ring in the car.  I feel like she would be the tiniest bit more concerned that her boyfriend was making such a grand (or not) gesture of their love.  However, I enjoyed watching the horror movie-like setting unfold.  It was an interesting idea that Callie's ex was a much better match for her than Mark, and I liked how he was doubting that they belonged together at all (since he was the exact opposite of Barney).  It was also nice to see Mark get mad and stabby.  He rarely lets his temper get the best of him, and it's even rarer that he would resort to violence to solve a problem.  He must really love Callie to get that upset.

I know that they were pranking Mark, but did Eric really use to be a human?  I mean, obviously the guy they paid to play Barney hadn't really worked at the DOI in the past, but I could believe that ridiculous story that someone killed Eric and he was rebuilt as a robot.  He's not made out of anything organic, so someone had to put him together.  So for what purpose was he built?  I usually don't pay attention to his character at all, but that scene where they explained his origins made me curious about his actual story.  But who knows if they will ever address that.  It's only important to people as random as me, I guess.

I actually thought that Leonard's winning lottery ticket was an April Fools' joke too, but it was real after all.  I'm not surprised that Randall became a part of it and tried to swindle him out of the ticket.  What was an interesting turn of events was when those hillbilly pigs captured them.  Never saw that coming.  Glad we didn't have to see too much gross stuff in that department.  I could just laugh at their horrible predicament without having to witness the creepy, sexual things they were exposed to.  Sucked that after all that mess, the clerk refused to honor the ticket.  He made things worse by saying that if Leonard had taped the ticket together first, he might not have noticed it was torn and accepted it.  Oh, well.  Leonard would have surely been a bastard as a millionaire.  He's not the most grounded person to begin with.

For some reason, this episode made me feel like it was a season finale.  That could be possible since they just started the season where they left off before.  I don't think that there's anything really special about Mark and Callie's engagement to engagement, but maybe for them that's a huge step (since I get the feeling that Callie was pretty serious about the reason she was with Mark didn't amount to much more than getting used to him being around).  I didn't have a lot of laughs in this story, but I still liked that everyone worked together to fool Mark.  Despite it being a predictable development, I enjoyed the ride to the obvious conclusion.

There Aren't Enough Robots To Make Homer A Good Employee

The Simpsons, S23E17

Old Man Burns finally "cuts out the fat" (not literally because Homer isn't eliminated) from his power plant by firing everyone at the plant, basically, and implementing robots.  This is brought on by all the costs Burns will have to pay to cover all the health issues his employees have after their last checkup.  I will say that I'm amazed that the plant lasted a day with only robots and Homer Simpson around.  Homer isn't the best person to be left by himself.  Have you learned nothing from the time you let him house sit, Mr. Burns??

 I liked a lot of the jokes in this episode.  I won't really detail each of them.  It was pretty funny when Homer tried to get off alcohol and was unintentionally drinking and eating things that contained it including mimosas, Mike's Hard Lemonade, and cherries jubilee.  I'm kinda glad they took it down that road, rather than him going murderously deranged (like in the The Shining Halloween parody) after going a few days (minutes, really) without his favorite beverage.

Probably what I liked the best was when Homer was trying to chat up the robots as if they were humans with office humor like "Working hard, or hardly working?" but was getting no response.  His anger and increasingly loud voice had me chuckling.  I love how mad Homer sometimes gets over his inability to notice that he is pretty much angry at nothing (or just his own stupidity). 

Besides the laughs, I had quite a few moments of surprise and wonder.  One of such was when it was revealed that Moe is so ugly ("pug fugly"--haha) because he got stomped on by an elephant Mr. Burns was riding the first day he came into town (isn't he originally from Springfield?  Never knew he moved there).  It was also nice how Moe said he would have to grow to be beautiful on the inside, but Marge remarks that he never did, and they return to the present where Moe is being his usual unpleasant self.  Gotta love Moe.

I was surprised, too, that Homer could actually get the robots to communicate.  Of course, he did mess up several times before he had success, but I would imagine that he would just give up after a while, despite having a manual right in front of him.  I guess Homer isn't as useless as he appears.  I was further surprised that he chose to play a baseball game with the robots when he changed their movement paths.  I really thought he was going to send them all to Moe's so they could be his drinking buddies (since all of his unemployed friends wanted nothing to do with him anymore).   Huh.  We haven't really seen Homer care about baseball in a while.  We certainly haven't seen him play in a while (remember that classic episode where all those famous players guest starred?).

It was classic Homer when he decided to drill holes into the robots heads, in order to make them a little more human-like.  Now, I would have figured he would have done that in the beginning to get them to communicate, rather than read a book.  Homer threw me for a loop again when he ran to Mr. Burns for help when the robots revolted.  Granted that Mr. Burns, as the owner of the robots, might have had the information to stop them from destroying Homer, Mr. Burns has never really come to anyone's rescue when his doorbell has been randomly rung.  Despite me thinking that Homer was crazy for thinking Mr. Burns would help, I liked this scene for one reason:  the hounds.  When one of them came charging at the army of the robots, they sent that little animal flying!  I'm not one who enjoys animal cruelty, but nothing tickles my funny bone more than seeing a animal getting flung or thrown someplace like that hound.  He was just smacked away like he was some kind of bug.  Good stuff.

I think this was a rather good episode that sort of echoes the unemployment problem in the United States.  I can't say that it's because everyone's jobs are being replaced by robots (such a freaky future where there are nothing but robot workers sounds frightening), but definitely there are more people fighting to get the lowest of jobs after being laid off nowadays.  If only this was a world where Homer Simpson-like employees could show the company or boss that it's more costly to get rid of your employees than replace them (if you're going to leave it up to technology for the most part), we Americans would be better suited to turn the economy around.  Get to work, Homer Simpsons of all parts!!

Damnit, That Is A Scary-Ass Robot!

Family Guy, S10E16

This episode was mostly about Peter and Chris going to a fat camp where some of the boys were strangled to death by a mysterious killer, but the Stewie and Brian sidestory was the stronger of the two for me.  Although, unlike most episodes lately, I thought this one was funny overall.  And best of all, the end sort of tied the two stories together.  I don't mind if these kinds of stories run parallel to each other without intersecting, but I like them better when the writers think of a way they can connect in some way.

I didn't expect Peter to make Chris enter the hot dog contest (nor for him to win--I mean, they didn't really train or anything), but I guess a story with Chris in it was overdue.  The best thing is that they addressed that Peter was just as overweight as his son, and he joined Chris at the fat camp for teenagers.  But did anyone else notice that Barry from American Dad was there too?  I asked my sister if that was him, and she just thought it was my imagination, but if you listen to the voice, it's the same guy.

I don't know how I felt about Patrick coming back.  Since this wasn't the first time I have ever watched this show, I knew it couldn't be that easy that he was the killer they were looking for.  It was funny that when Peter was suggesting Patrick might be the killer, he mentioned his role in some musicals, and they showed how bad he was at patter singing (which I didn't know what that style was called--I always learn things from this show).  Even though the murders had nothing to do with Patrick, he disappears at the end for some reason.  Did he run off to kill more fat guys?  Will he show up in another episode?  Hopefully his next appearance will more exciting than last Sunday's.

I didn't have a clue who the killer was until they noticed that the kids getting killed looked like Chris.  I guess I totally forgot about Yamamoto, the only person it could be.  Glad it wasn't someone random, but not someone so obvious that they were practically yelling it (like him leaving hotdogs behind each time he killed--that would have been cheesy).

Now, about Stewie's very rational fear of the Queen album cover.  Oh, my God!  That is one freaky robot!!  I'm not a fan of Queen, so it was the first time I was seeing it too.  I'm sure if that album was laying around somewhere, I would turn it over so I wouldn't have to look at it.  This made the fact that Stewie nearly crapping his diaper each time Brian brought it out even funnier because I understood his fear.  Apparently, Seth MacFarlane had been disturbed by this robot back in the day (according to his twitter).  I can't believe how far Brian went to scare Stewie, though.  I never thought he would manage to get the image inside of the lotto ticket.  Man, those writers are clever.  The jack-in-the-box one was a little more predictable because there was no way those writers were going to do what you expected (thus the lotto ticket) and have the scary thing inside of the box.  That would be too easy.  Overall, I thought Brian did an excellent job of screwing around with Stewie.

I even thought it was funny that Stewie was almost going to kill himself because he was so afraid of that robot coming to get him.  Luckily, Brian stopped him before we had to see baby brains on the walls and gets Stewie to realize that it's just some art, not some kind of message of the future.  Finally, things came full circle when Stewie was able to use the album cover to give Yamamoto a heart attack and save Chris.  However, I didn't like how the actual robot gave Stewie a thumbs up.  Eww--that thing is so unsettling!  But I applaud Family Guy for recognizing this and exaggerating it in a humorous way.

Oh, yeah.  I almost forgot about my favorite cutaway.  Peter was talking about understanding scary teens.  At first it looks like he might reveal that scary teens just want love, but once the boy shows his vulnerable side, Peter beats the crap out of him.  Whatever I might say about this show, it is genius in throwing out violence when I least expect it.

This might be my favorite episode yet this season.  Although, I can't remember all of the others, so I might have to contradict myself later if I take the time to look at the older ones.

Winston Wins My Heart By Cutting Down A Child

New Girl, S01E14

 Well, it's finally happened--I found an episode where I liked Winston.  For once, he wasn't just an afterthought on this show, offering a few almost funny lines from time to time and boring stories.   I thought it was a fluke the first time he got me to chuckle, but he was pretty consistently hilarious this time.

Before I get into Winston, I want to talk about Schmidt and Cece continuing seeing each other.  I was surprised that Cece is addicted to Schmidt, despite he is pretty repulsive.  The sex is obviously good between them, but when he was comparing himself to a river and her being a canoe, I wanted to gag a little.  Yet, somehow it failed to send her packing.  I wanted to feel bad for Schmidt, but his mouth wouldn't stop making me cheer for Cece to run far away.  I did feel a little for him when he had to stay in her car while she went to a party, but it soon went away.  I guess in the next episode they will announce their relationship to their friends.  As long as Schmidt doesn't run up the wall and give them way too much information about the nature of their sex as he did in the Chinese restaurant, he might have a chance to get approval, rather than incredulous protest, from the others.

Now onto Winston.  He had me grinning when he said he liked meeting the girls Schmidt brought home by pretending to be his downlo lover.  Oh, God, how I would like to see that!  But I was really laughing when he and Nick were talking about the meaning of the cactus Julia had sent to him.  Nick, obviously a person who over-analyzes things, thinks that the plants means that Julia wants to break up with him:

[Winston] Who told you that? Did the cactus tell you that? Is this one of those fortune-telling cactus?

Later, after Jess describes a bully problem in her class, Winston says that he used to be a bully as a kid.  Not a stretch at all.  He seems like that type, with his lack of emotions and need to compete with others.  Obviously he has grown as a person, but he still has that mean vibe about him.  That being said, I was pretty shocked in an amused way to see Winston leap out of his seat in order to look at the crescent moon outside.  While Jess questions why they are so excited about seeing it, Winston longingly looks into the sky and says that he hopes to live there one day.  Wow.  Where did that comes from?  It's the first time I've thought he was kinda cute besides the one time he bonded with a child at Schmidt's Christmas party.

Winston was also good as the support for both Jess and Nick in this episode.  Jess had broken a bitchy, evil student's robot arm after the little brat asked her several rude questions including why Jess' voice was so deep and why did she break up with her last boyfriend.  She needed Winston's help to fix it and all he brought were his "good scissors."  Ha.  With Nick, Julia did end up breaking up with him (finally--knew they wouldn't last, especially after Valentine's Day) because Nick's voicemails made her realize that was what she really wanted.  So Nick was in a very, very fragile state and needed a friend by his side.  Schmidt was too busy sneaking around with Cece, so Winston had to do.  Nick was so scary, it was hilarious.  He was way too cheerful and uncharacteristically positive that you knew he was going to explode with despair and possibly rage that no one wanted to be on the other side of.

This forced Winston to come to Jess' science fair at her school along with Nick.  It's interesting that two guys who definitely weren't there to see their own children were allowed to walk around, as crazy as they were being (Nick anyway).  The best thing that happens there is that Winston steps in to say what Jess can't say about how "difficult" the bratty student, Brianna, is:

[Winston] Your daughter sucks.  She is a demon seed, she is the spawn of Satan, and I do believe I speak for the entire human race when I say that people like her should not be building robots.

[Brianna's Mother #2] Who are you?

Applause!  I can't believe Jess didn't give him five for that.  Who cares about being professional; that girl is horrible!  She's obviously smart, so why does she need to act like an asshole?  Anyway, this is one of my favorite moments in New Girl so far.  It's right up there with the awkward threesome with Remy.

The last good thing Winston did in this episode was snatch his "good scissors" (what are they doing laying around for children to get??) from Nathaniel:

 Eh! Get my scissors outta your mouth! What is wrong with you??

No wonder the kids in class didn't like him.  I was happy that this boy, though, seemed to be free from being the class target, and Jess had become the point of ridicule.  I didn't care much for the youtube video Brianna had made of her, but I loved that Jess got further revenge on Brianna by making her sing with her in front of the class.  That'll teach her!  I hope that girl doesn't pop up in any more episodes, even though I want to see more of Jess at her job.  I feel like someone as child-like as her would have some interesting adventures with her students.

Oh, and Nick walking around with the cactus plant he had abused in his dazed-out, happy mode was wonderful.  He was even sleeping with it.  I kinda want him to keep that mangled plant for while.

Great episode.  The Valentine's Day one set my expectations low this time, so it was nice to be blown away for a change.  I knew this show couldn't disappoint me for too long!