Sometimes It Takes A Punch In The Nose

The Mindy Project, S01E02

Mindy, after being frustrated by their incompetent nurse at their practice, asked for Beverly to be fired and to be given the responsibility of finding her replacement.  Although, Dr. Shulman granted her that right, Danny couldn't trust her and made sure that he was part of the hiring process as well.  The two had completely different ideas of who would be a good employee.

Again, I feel like there was a lot of funny things in the episode, but it didn't make me exactly laugh out loud.  For example, I liked how Mindy was narrating her life on the train as if she was in a movie and then later was interested in a scenario Danny had come up with about stepping off a train and being sent into the past.  It's funny that she sort of lives in a fantasy and can look at the world in terms of it leading to her next big romance.  But again, it was exactly laughable, just entertaining at the moment.

Another interesting thing is the amount of guest starts from sketch comedies that appear on this show.  This episode marks the second appearance of an SNL member (this time Seth Meyers) and former MADtv member Ike Barinholtz.  I like this trend and wouldn't mind seeing more people like that.  The appearance of Barinholtz seems to be a possible reoccurring character, as his character Morgan got hired in this episode.

Morgan is about as crazy as the woman they fired, Beverly, so it's kind of dumb that he ended up being her replacement.  However, if he can supply some extra comedy, I'm all for him.  He was pretty funny during his interview, especially when his name "Ransom Tookers" was questioned:

You wouldn’t ask a black woman named "Destiny" if that was really her name. This feels racial.

I also liked when he fixed Mindy's nose and kissed her on the forehead.  He may be a potential loose cannon, but at least he can seem to reset a broken nose.  At that point, I was glad that Mindy hired him just because I felt like maybe the guy just needed to be given a chance and at least Mindy had some heart to give him one.  Plus, I feel like Mindy could have a little power over him, unlike Beverly who seemed to act like her own boss.

Speaking of when her nose got broken, I was really surprised by that.  I figured that Beverly might do something crazy, but I never thought it would be that violent.  Mindy has the worst luck.  But I think I like that the pattern of this show seems to be things going from bad to worse before they end things with slightly better than she started off.

The  last thing that I thought was amusing in this episode was when Mindy was on the train with Danny again and she pretended like he was her husband and was the one responsible for her injured nose.  It was kind of wrong of her to imply that he had hit her, but I liked it because Danny is a jerk and needs to be taught a lesson.

I'm still not a 100 percent on board with this show, but I feel like I'm getting there.  However, I might stop writing about this show and switch to Ben and Kate, which I've also been watching, but hadn't anticipated it being funny as well.  So we'll see which of them ends up being more my favorite, and rather than writing about both, I'll just do one of them.  I'm still rooting for Mindy, though, because there's just something about her that I really like.

Who Doesn't Love Memes? South Park, Apparently

South Park, S16E03

I wondered if the big joke yesterday was going to be about the upcoming election, but instead it was about the certain fads that go along with memes.  I'm not fully acquainted with those (having just recently understood what "meme" even means), but the general idea of the story wasn't entirely lost to me.  Stan and the others found out what is popular and cool with the masses one day, will soon be lame and irrelevant the next.  The boys find a rain of sunshine amidst this grim reality that their favorite meme ("Faith Hilling") may be looked upon as a relic, but there's nothing wrong with sticking to what you love, especially if you can somehow bring it back with a bang like Cartman was able to do in the end.  

There isn't much that I absolutely loved about this story, as it was poking fun at the futility of trying to stay on top of what is "hot" with memes, but I think I liked that they made it seem like following trends like "planking" or what have you, had the possibility of getting you killed.  Luckily, it never came to that where the boys were concerned, but that film the students had to watch in class was pretty ridiculous.  The train gag at the heart of that film that appeared several more times in the episode (including the end) was less funny each time, though.  

I think what missed the mark for me most was that I didn't know some of the references (not unusual for me at all).  The one that bothered me the most was the one with the cat that kept saying "Oh, Long Johnson."  I've never been a fan of "cute" animal videos in the first place, so not only did I not know of this cat's popularity, I also didn't care.  But it, unlike some of the other internet fads, it wasn't just mentioned but was used as a part of the rising danger against the humans (super intelligent animals who were able to create memes of their own--bah), so I was had to endure that irritation throughout most of the episode.

This was a good episode that captured a moment in time (like many episodes of South Park in general) and made it more amusing than the actual thing itself (the number of memes and their various popularity are not that interesting alone).  I learn about some fad/news through this show, and I'm grateful that they "educate" some of us about current yet, stupid or infuriating matters.  Years later, I think I could look back at this episode and others and recall "history" with a laugh.  It's much better than looking through old magazines or newspapers.

Archer and the Ocelot

In S03E6 of Archer, the ISIS crew gets on a train to turn in a Canadian terrorist.  I really hope that they will get enough money to stop being bounty hunters, as they have been since the last episode (which was a good one).  Cyril is still lacking as a field agent and unsurprisingly lets their criminal get away.  I'm not sure what was going on with the whole George thing and all the implications that Archer and Malory are racists (I'm not debating that), but I didn't see it (or I wasn't paying attention enough).  For the episode being on a train, I thought it might be a little more interesting.  It wasn't. 

The only thing that saved the episode for me was that Carol had some private cars attached to the train, and there was an ocelot in one of them.  I vaguely remember this animal, but I can't recall where and why it was part of the story.  I loved that Archer completely ignores the mission and heads to hang out with it, later happily announcing to Lana that the creature remembered him.  I don't care much for animals, but for someone as selfish as Archer to care about something else is entertaining to me.  It reminds me of his relationship with his "son" Seamus (which is adorable).  I loved him walking around the cars with a steak for the little guy.

The Mounties' Mexican stand-off was pretty lame.  As usual, Archer's seemingly wild guess was right; the terrorist backup crew posed as Mounties so they could board the train without being detected.  But in the end Archer just gets them out of the situation using a grenade (the ocelot helps out a bit to distract the two Mountie groups).  And things eventually progress that Archer and the terrorist face off on the top of the moving train.

I liked that this episode showed some of the realities of fighting on top of a train, like dust hitting you in the eye and the extreme wind you would have to endure.  It wasn't much of a fight and somehow the ocelot got up there again (luckily wasn't harmed).  It all ended when Lana pulled the emergency brake or something.

So I would have said this was a pretty boring episode, but when they showed Archer sitting in a Mountie car after being arrested for bringing in an exotic animal, I had my only laughs. The ocelot was in there too, and they were talking to each other.  Archer kept yelling at the poor little guy.  I loved it.  I mean, it is funny when Archer just does whatever the hell he wants and ends up on top somehow, but I also enjoy seeing his softer side because it so rarely comes out.  I could watch a whole episode about him and his ocelot pal. 

So, the episode wasn't a complete waste, but it could have been better.  I really, really hope that they will not be chasing after some other criminal for money in the next episode and have a more spy-like mission.