Baskets: A Weird and Wonderful Show

Baskets, currently in its 3rd season on FX (Tuesdays, 10pm EST), is one of the strangest and most delightful shows to come around in a very long time.  Starring Zach Galifianakis as twins Chip and Dale (yes, like the Disney chipmunks), it's a show that is played straight but is in actuality laugh-out-loud hilarious.  Chip is a struggling rodeo clown, an irresponsible louse who can't seem to get his life together.  He's a graduate of a French clown/mime school, and his French wife lives nearby but only uses him for money and American citizenship.  Dale is the former dean of a career college, who in season 2 begins to lose control of his life as well when the college shuts down and his wife leaves him.  Chip's sidekick is Martha (Martha Kelly), a strange loner who becomes attached to Chip after working on his insurance claim when he crashes his scooter.  She's an insurance adjuster at Costco (that's a thing?), and she's been wearing a cast on her arm for 3 seasons now (this is never explained).  She's quietly infatuated with Chip, but he only uses her for rides around town. 

The real revelation of this show, however, is Chip's mom Christine, played by Louie Anderson.  Yes, you read that right.  A large male comedian is playing the mother of Zach Galifianakis.  Christine is a lonely widow, who fills her time shopping at her beloved Costco and doting on her sons (also including her rarely-seen twin adopted sons Cody and Logan, who are both famous DJ's that travel the world together).  Christine is proud of Cody and Logan's success but highly disappointed in Chip and Dale.  In season 2 she begins a long-distance romance with Ken "the Carpet King" and eventually buys the rodeo where Chip once worked.  Until watching the show, you would never guess that Anderson would be so believable as a woman.  The character is sweet and naïve, but at the same time a bit brash and controlling over her sons.  We feel for Christine when she is ashamed of her body during water aerobics class, and we cheer for her when she flies to Denver on a whim and surprises the "Carpet King", whom she had met before when his daughter and Chip ended up in jail together.  The character of Christine is vivid and real, like your favorite aunt or a memorable acquaintance from church.  It also helps that the makeup and wigs worn by Anderson have become much more believable since the somewhat crazy drag-ish looks of season 1.  Most importantly, though, Christine is very funny.  My favorite scene of the series is still Christine joyfully walking through Costco, making corny jokes with the staff and eating free samples.  Anderson rightly won an Emmy for the role after season 1.  Hopefully this character will live on for many seasons to come.

Besides Anderson, the rest of the cast is pretty terrific too.  Helped by the smart deadpan writing, Galifianakis gives Chip and Dale a manic energy that clashes hilariously with Martha's dull, motionless sarcasm.  In season 3, the Baskets Family Rodeo is taking center stage.  It remains to be seen if this plot shift will negatively affect the show, but with these skilled actors and writers at the reigns I have high hopes. 
      

Saturday Night Live: What Happened to this Once-Funny Show?

Saturday Night Live is an iconic sketch comedy show that has been a staple of late-night tv for more than 40 years now.  The ratings are better than they've been in years and it continues to rack up critical praise and awards (mostly for its most well-known cast member Kate McKinnon), but the quality of the show has suffered greatly over the past couple of years.  Currently I'd go so far to say that the show (most weeks) is terrible and completely unwatchable.

The biggest reason for the popular revival of the show is Alec Baldwin's portrayal of President Donald Trump.  His impression is spot-on and hilarious, however Baldwin is not a regular cast member.  During the run up to the election Baldwin appeared on the show as Trump almost every week, but lately he appears once every few weeks at most.  The show had the same problem with Melissa McCarthy and her wildly popular appearances as former White House press secretary Sean Spicer.  Spicer is no longer a part of the Trump administration, so it wouldn't make sense for McCarthy to keep making appearances.  SNL has tried to compensate for the absence of these stars with other political sketches, but lately these skits have become more and more tired and repetitive.  A recent episode featured host Jessica Chastain railing against Trump during a fake game show sketch, but the bit was completely devoid of humor and quickly turned way too serious for a comedy show.  The show no longer tries to hide its left-leaning stance, and this has become a big problem.  It's fine for a comedic show to make fun of those in power, but its not okay for it to profess only one political viewpoint.

Another huge problem with the show is the terrible writing.  The cold open and the first sketch or two of the show are generally pretty funny, but afterwards the skits tend to quickly bottom out.  On last night's Will Ferrell-hosted episode, an entire way-too-long sketch was built around one awful joke (a fighter pilot referring to himself as "Clown Penis").  Groan.  The current cast is to blame as well.  Most of the women on the show have the chops to handle anything that's written for them (the always-funny McKinnon, versatile Cecily Strong, underrated Aidy Bryant, and new featured cast member Heidi Gardner).  However, Melissa Villasenor is worthless; why did they hire her back for a 2nd season exactly?  Leslie Jones is terrific in her Weekend Update appearances as herself, but she has a complete inability to remember her lines in written sketches.  However, the show continues to feature her heavily because she's a fan favorite.  Most of the men on the show are completely unmemorable.  There are countless interchangeable white guys that do nothing to stand out (Alex Moffat, Luke Null, Mikey Day, Beck Bennett, Kyle Mooney, Pete Davidson).  Bennett can occasionally be funny, and Mooney sometimes shines in weird out-there sketches, but otherwise they are all pretty terrible.  Kenan Thompson has been on the show for a record-breaking 15 seasons (!), but this is mostly due to a mix of the show needing a regular African-American cast member and his inability to move on from the show.  There's also new African-American featured cast member Chris Redd.  The show may be looking to Redd as an eventual replacement for Thompson, but so far he's done absolutely nothing to stand out.

Finally, Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che are the worst duo to anchor the desk in years.  Jost can sometimes be funny but mostly comes off as conceited and jerky, while Che looks completely uninterested in what he's doing.  The show's recent decision to promote Jost and Che to co-head writers is head-scratching to say the least.  I would recommend reinstating the funny Cecily Strong to the Weekend Update desk.  The show previously removed her from this role after one season, citing the fact that she's better in sketches, but why can't she do both?

The popular McKinnon is probably looking to leave the show in the near future to launch a full-fledged movie career (most likely after the current season), so the show really needs to beef up its cast fast, or I imagine that its popularity will soon drop off sharply.  And I will stop watching it completely.

TV Reviews: The Resident and 9-1-1

Over the past several days, I've had the opportunity to watch two high-profile new medical/action shows, The Resident (Mondays, 9pm EST on Fox) and 9-1-1 (Wednesdays, 9pm EST on Fox).  One is must-see appointment television, and the other is merely watchable.

Let's start with The Resident.  I'm calling this show Grey's Anatomy Jr.  It basically steals many aspects of the long-running medical show, for better or worse.  Dr. Devon Pravesh (Manish Dayal) is a new doctor  at the prestigious Chastain Park Memorial Hospital, top of his class at Harvard.  He's excited for his first day, until he meets his supervisor, the hotshot Resident Dr. Conrad Hawkins (Matt Czuchry).  All of the nurses, especially Nicolette aka Nic (Emily Van Camp) swoon over him.  He takes charge in high-pressure situations and is always right about everything.  Throughout the pilot Conrad constantly reminds Devon that learning medicine isn't the same as practicing it in real-life, blah blah blah.  "Throw everything you've learned out the window".  I've heard this quote on a thousand shows over the years, and it sounds just as cliché as it always has.  The more interesting part of the show involves chief of surgery Dr. Randolph Bell (Bruce Greenwood).  He has some sort of condition making his hands shake (Parkinsons?), and instead of stepping aside he continues to perform surgeries, sometimes killing patients in the process.  In the opening scene of the series he severs a patient's artery and kills him during a routine appendectomy, but the other doctors in the operating room cover for him, simply because he has so much power in the hospital.  Later he blackmails another young doctor, Dr. Mina Okafor (Shaunette Renee Wilson) into performing a surgery using a new medical "arm" that he invented, while pretending over video watched by high-profile hospital donors that he is actually performing the surgery.  Dr. Okafor has practiced with the arm for months, and Dr. Bell is physically unable to use it due to his tremors, but he is the face of the hospital so he gets his way.  My biggest problem with The Resident is that it's too familiar.  It feels like any other medical show that I've seen.  It tries to mix the best parts of ER and Grey's Anatomy, with middling results.  There are "exciting" fast-paced emergency room moments like on ER, and hospital hookups and hotshot young doctors like on Grey's.  Also, I find it hard to believe that Conrad, merely a Resident doctor, would hold so much sway over his colleagues and be so respected, no matter how confident he may be.  The one part of the show that could set it apart from other medical dramas is the unethical, medical malpractice nightmare caused by Dr. Bell.  As long as the show doesn't paint him solely as the hospital villain and develops the character more, then I'll continue to watch for this part of the plot alone.  In addition, Dr. Okafor is one of the most interesting (but so-far underdeveloped) characters on the show.  She is highly skilled but possesses zero bedside manner.  At one point she walks into the hospital waiting room and approaches three different families, in quick succession telling them "He's stable", "It's still touch and go", and "He's dead", then quickly leaves.  Moments like this make me want to know more about her.

Next, I have to discuss one of my favorite new shows in a long time, "9-1-1".  It seems that producer Ryan Murphy has another hit on his hands.  Quite simply. the show follows first responders in all different jobs: a police officer, a fire/paramedic team, and even a 911 operator.  Through these characters the viewers watch some of the most insane medical emergencies I've ever seen on television.  The pilot begins with the rescue crew trying to save a newborn who was flushed down the toilet by a teenage mother (?!).  I was both cringing and watching in awe as the crew broke down a wall, cut through a pipe, and slowly pushed the newborn out.  They are then forced to transport the baby's mother (suffering complications after the birth) to the hospital in the same ambulance as the baby, despite objections by some of the team.  We then see a woman being choked by a snake and a scared little girl calling 911 from inside her house as home invaders break in.  These emergency scenes are often ludicrous, but still edge-of-your seat entertaining.  After the pilot I almost immediately watched episodes 2 and 3, where even wilder things happened.  My mouth was on the floor watching an insane roller coaster accident, and in another episode when a children's bouncy house was picked up by high winds and landed on the edge of a cliff with several kids inside.  These crazy scenes would mean nothing if the first responders themselves weren't fully developed, interesting characters.  As portrayed by top-notch actors, they definitely meet the demands of the crazy situations that the show puts them in.  There's tough policewoman Athena (Angela Bassett), whose husband has just come out as gay.  This plot seemed a bit hokey to me at first, but the story was developed more in epsiodes 2 and 3, so I'm giving the writers the benefit of the doubt here so far.  Then there's the fire/paramedic team led by Bobby (Peter Krause), who the viewers have yet to learn much about so far, other than that he's a recovering addict.  Also on the team are "Chimney" (Kenneth Choi), an earnest veteran who wishes that he was given more responsibilities, and "Hen" (Aisha Hinds), a tough woman who also happens to be friends with Athena.  I won't give away what happens to Chimney in episode 3, but it had me gasping in disbelief.  Finally on the team there's newbie Buck (Oliver Stark), a hotshot young firefighter/paramedic who uses his position to constantly flirt with and sometimes hook up with women, many of them patients and victims.  At first he clashes with Bobby and is fired for his irresponsibility, but he comes back to the team soon enough (as we knew he would).  Finally, one of the most interesting characters on the show is 911 operator Abby (Connie Britton).  Her calls often begin the high drama emergency scenes where the show really comes alive.  She cares for her elderly mother with Alzheimer's, and she's been alone for years after a long-ago breakup.  She soon befriends her mom's home health nurse, and the show is hinting at a future relationship with much-younger Buck (I'm not sure how I feel about this).  The show points out that Abby (and actual 911 operators) often don't ever find out how emergency calls actually end, because the callers hang up when police, firefighters, or paramedics arrive at the scene.  This for me was the most interesting takeaway from the show.  If the show can keep up the high-octane emergencies and continue to develop the characters, then I'm in for the long haul for this one.

TV Review: The Assassination of Gianni Versace

This afternoon I finally watched the premiere of the 2nd season of the crime series American Crime Story, titled The Assassination of Gianni Versace, airing Wednesdays at 10pm EST on FX.  Each season focuses on a different well-known, true crime in history.

The critically acclaimed first season, The People vs. O.J. Simpson,  focused on the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, and the subsequent "Trial of the Century" of O.J. Simpson.  The series ended up focusing mostly on prosecutors Marcia Clark (Sarah Paulson) and Christopher Darden (Sterling K. Brown) rather than O.J., and was praised for the standout performances of Paulson and Brown.

July 15, 1997: The show opens with beautiful shots of Gianni Versace's Miami Beach mansion.  We see Versace (Edgar Ramirez) eat breakfast in his fancy courtyard, decline to give an autograph to a passerby, and then take a walk into town, stopping to purchase a copy of Vanity Fair featuring Princess Diana on the cover.  We also see stalker Andrew Cunanan creepily watching the mansion from afar.  Versace returns home, begins to unlock his gate, turns to see Cunanan approach him with a gun, and BAM!  Versace is gunned down right in front of his house.  Well damn, they got to the juicy part awfully fast...

We then flash back to 1990, where Cunanan (in teensy weensy underwear) jumps into bed in the middle of a young couple just waking up.  Is this a polyamorous situation?  I'm not sure.  The three playfully joke around, and Cunanan announces that he has an upcoming date with the famous fashion designer Gianni Versace.  Later Cunanan walks up to Versace in a club and tries to talk to him, but he's repeatedly rebuffed (the Versace family denies that this meeting ever took place).  Cunanan also talks to another friend, who criticizes him for not being completely out of the closet.  "You say that you're gay around gay people and straight around straight people", the friend says (I'm paraphrasing here).  Flash forward again to 1997, where Versace is pronounced dead at the hospital.  Reporters camp outside the mansion, and soon Gianni's sister Donatella (Penelope Cruz) arrives.  She changes her mind about taking the Versace company public, in favor of keeping it in the family.  We also see detectives interviewing Versace's boyfriend Antonio D'Amico (Ricky Martin) and learn that they've been in a 15-year, somewhat open relationship.

Even in the pilot episode of Gianni Versace, I can clearly see that the standout performance of the season is going to be Darren Criss as Cunanan.  He exudes a creepy but somehow charming energy whenever he steps onscreen.  The pilot episode was pretty slow paced and somewhat light on plot, even for Cunanan, but I'm still looking forward to seeing where Criss takes this character.  Cunanan murdered 4 other people before reaching Versace's mansion, so there is much more of this man's story to tell beyond Versace's killing.  There is also much to tell about what led Cunanan down the path to becoming a creepy stalker/murderer in the first place.  Best known for appearing on Glee (like American Crime Story, created by uberproducer Ryan Murphy), the role of Cunanan is definitely unlike anything Criss has undertaken before, but I'm thinking that the performance will lead to buckets of awards and a much higher profile for the actor. 

Versace himself appears to be a bit of a side character in the show.  I'm not sure how much we'll see of him in future episodes (will we see his rise to wealth and success in flashbacks?), but the show would be smart to focus mostly on Cunanan going forward.  The show is supposed to be primarily about crime after all, not fashion.  Even as a side character, Penelope Cruz seems to be enjoying her Donatella Versace role.  She actually plays the character pretty straight (much unlike Maya Rudolph’s laugh-riot portrayal of Donatella on Saturday Night Live), and she has her uniquely deep voice down pretty well.  Finally, Ricky Martin as Versace's boyfriend Antonio plays the devastated and shocked partner well in the pilot episode, but it remains to be seen if his acting chops will hold up throughout the season, or where his part of the story is going.  All in all I think this is going to be a good season, although probably not quite as must-see as The People vs. O.J. Simpson.  I definitely want to see more.

Friday Night TV Binge

Often (ok usually) on Friday nights I will spend some time catching up on tv, because I'm tired from the work week and...I don't have much of a life.  Tonight I thought that I'd share some thoughts on (some) of the shows that I watched during my binge.

1.  Top Chef

We open the episode with Bruce finding out that he's a new dad.  He and his wife are adopting a baby, and the birth mom just went into labor.  He's sad that he can't be at home to meet his new son, but all of the contestants stay up late in their fancy reality tv house to celebrate.  Of course Padma and last season's winner Brooke knock on the door at 6am the next morning announcing that it's time for their next challenge.  How does Padma look so gorgeous early in the morning?  How early did she have to wake up to become so tv-ready?  These are important questions that need answers.  As for the contestants, they are tasked with making a breakfast dish featuring Nutella, while still in their pajamas.  They fight over limited kitchen space, and Carrie wins with an egg dish that includes Nutella (?).  It looks weird, but if Padma says it was delicious then I'll go with it.  Next the chefs find out their main challenge, an Olympics inspired head-to-head battle between three teams of three (for gold, silver, and bronze medals of course).  The all-male trio sweeps with three gold medals, and Tanya and Claudette end up in the bottom 2 after fighting over having to help each other during the challenge.  They're really both to blame, but Tanya ends up going home after the judges determine that even though her dish tasted better, her knife skills were weaker (Tanya's portion of the battle was specifically about precision knife work).  I was on Tanya's side until she yelled at the guys for celebrating their win too loudly and told Carrie that she's too privileged and needs to get "Woke" (umm ok).

2.  Catfish

This show has been a guilty pleasure of mine for a while now.  Super charming Nev and much less-charming sidekick Max help (usually) trashy people meet their online loves in person, and they almost always turn out to be completely different than expected (surprise).  And this season Nev's super adorable wife appears via Skype to give her thoughts, with their super adorable baby daughter sometimes appearing in the background.  In this episode weird girl Kim wants to meet her online emo boyfriend Matt, and she's introduced to Nev and Max by her ex-boyfriend (?).  At the beginning of the episode I couldn't quite put my finger on who Kim reminded me of, but soon I realized that she is clearly a grown-up version of the creepy girl from The Ring.  She even creepily covered her face with her hair several times during the episode.  The team does their typical hardcore investigating (Googling phone numbers and looking up online profiles) and discover that Matt seems to be who he says.  They meet with Kim to share their (mostly) positive findings, and she reacts by walking outside, bending over, and burying her head (only her head) in the backyard hammock.  Nev is very confused, as am I, but it turns out that this is her reaction to being overwhelmed with excitement.  Nev calls Matt, and he agrees to come meet Kim the next day.  But before the meeting we discover that Kim has a not-at-all-cute 2-year-old daughter who she's been keeping secret from Matt, because he doesn't like kids.  The meeting is super uncomfortable for everyone.  Kim keeps hunching her shoulders and turning away from Matt nervously, and at one point decides to go for an awkward run down the block.  Matt is upset that Kim lied about having a daughter and decides that he just wants to be friends.  But he brings the kid a stuffed animal (aww).  Clearly it's not about the kid; he just doesn't want to be around this weirdo.  The update at the end of the episode reveals that Kim is dating someone (God help him), but she and Matt are still really close.  She'll be traveling from California to Florida to visit him soon (did he agree to this?).  The End.

3.  Scandal

This show has been off the air since November (ugh midseason breaks are the worst).  This final season has really been all over the place.  Olivia has changed from a hardcore political operator with a heart to an evil bitch that kills people to get her way.  Not cool.  The show left viewers on a cliffhanger after it seemed that (SPOILER ALERT) Olivia's evil father Rowan had shot and killed Liv's bestie and right-hand woman Quinn (on her wedding day while pregnant no less).  We open the episode to find Rowan burning a body (whose face we can't see) in the trunk of a car.  The rest of the episode is all about Liv and company grieving over their friend.  At one point Huck discovers that an antique hairpin was discovered on the body, and he doesn't remember Quinn wearing a hairpin when she was dressed for her wedding and disappeared a few days ago.  With everything crazy that has happened on this show, it's pretty odd that nobody seems to question that the body may not have even been Quinn.  Huck suspects Liv of the murder at one point, which unfortunately this season would be a logical assumption.  Liv knows but hasn't told anyone that her dad is the killer (I guess because he has some dirt on her, like the fact that she kills people too).  The grieving scenes continue, and the ashes are turned into bullets per Quinn's wishes ("so I can be fired at my enemies", I like how she thinks).  The acting was pretty top notch in this episode, especially from Kerry Washington as Liv, but it all seems kind of pointless because I really don't believe that Quinn is actually dead.  The actress (Katie Lowes) is on maternity leave, and I suspect that Quinn will be back with her friends before the show wraps this spring.  The episode ends with each of Quinn's friends firing a bullet of her remains (?!) at the ground as they remember her, as we're shown scenes of Quinn with them from earlier episodes.  All in all this was a decent episode, but I think it will end up being pretty worthless in terms of plot.  I'll eat my white hat if I'm wrong and Quinn is actually dead.           

      

Past Their Prime: TV shows that need to call it quits

For my 2nd post, I thought that I'd discuss some current sitcoms that are past their prime and probably need to throw in the towel.  Sometimes a long-running show declines gradually over time, and sometimes a new plot development is so outrageous that it immediately alienates viewers and becomes a "jump the shark" moment (think the Conners' lottery win on Roseanne).

1.  The Big Bang Theory

This show is a huge success for CBS (it recently birthed the spinoff Young Sheldon) and still the highest-rated sitcom on tv, but I've been seeing some signs of declining quality for a couple of years now.  I mean, this was bound to happen by season 11.  The birth of Howard and Bernadette's first child was enough, but now she's pregnant again?  The only way that a show can survive the introduction of a baby is by promptly shipping them off-screen once born.  Murphy Brown's child was rarely seen throughout the later seasons of the show, which was believable since this was primarily a workplace sitcom.  But too many episodes of Big Bang this season have revolved around Howard and Bernadette as frazzled parents, which usually isn't very interesting to watch (maybe just because I'm not a parent, I don't know).  In general, the show has struggled a bit with allowing the characters to grow up without changing the dynamic of the show.  At this point Raj seems a little pathetic as the only single character left (I say this as a single person), but everyone else has become a little too closely tied to their relationship.  We're seeing more and more scenes between the couples and fewer scenes of all the friends together, which is really where the show thrived early on.  Speaking of which, it has never been believable to me that Penny's only friends would be Amy and Bernadette.  True, it's normal for nerds to be friends with not-as-smart people and introverts to be friends with extroverts, but I would think that Penny would have at least one friend whose personality is more closely aligned with her own.  The show has already been renewed for season 12, so here's hoping that CBS will allow it to bow out with some dignity next year instead of continuing too far past its prime.  This isn't to say that the show isn't still funny, it just doesn't quite deliver the belly laughs that it once did.  12 seasons is too much for even the best shows. 

2.  Modern Family

Here's another sitcom that is definitely past its creative peak.  I mostly blame the writers for this one.  Early on the show was hailed as a worthy sitcom successor to Frasier, with its mix of witty dialogue and physical comedy.  The characters and family dynamics were fresh and interesting.  An openly gay couple with an adopted Vietnamese daughter?  An older man married to a much younger Latina woman?  We hadn't seen sitcom families quite like this on tv before.  After about season 5 or 6, though, the show started to seem a bit stale.  The jokes slowly became not as funny, and the upper class lives of many of the characters began to feel out-of-touch with the typical American family.  The show could take some cues from The Middle, an underappreciated sitcom about a lower-class family that actually acknowledges the financial struggles of most Americans.  Now in season 9, the biggest problem on Modern Family is that the young adult characters are simply not growing up.  All 3 Dunphy kids (the children of Phil and Claire) are out of high school yet still living at home and  not building lives of their own.  This was believable for Haley, the ditzy and flaky oldest child who ended up dropping out of college during her first year, but not Alex, the brainy and independent second child.  Why has Alex not been written out of the show (or at least reduced to recurring status), since she supposedly lives on campus?  Because she (Ariel Winter, the actress) makes a lot of money on the show and doesn't want to give up her cushy gig, that's why.  Ditto Manny, Gloria's eldest son, now in his freshman year of college.  He's sensitive and smart, and has never been popular.  The show acknowledges this, and several episodes have revolved around his attempts to leave the nest and be more independent, yet in almost every episode he's seen at home with his mom instead of away at college, where he also lives on campus.  I think it's time for this show to call it quits before things become even less believable.

3.  The Simpsons

Ok, this show is the definition of continuing far far far past its prime.  For most of its early seasons, The Simpsons was must-see tv.  Each episode was jam-packed with jokes and endless sight gags.  Season 4 in particular is probably one of the best seasons of any show EVER.  Partly thanks to a certain writer named Conan O'Brien, this show delivered such classic episodes as "Marge vs. the Monorail", "Last Exit to Springfield", and "Whacking Day".  But it's impossible for any show to sustain this level of quality for 10, let alone 29 (!) seasons.  I can't blame the writers.  They're trying their best, but every conceivable interesting story from the town of Springfield has already been told, sometimes more than once (yes, Bart has gotten an elephant twice).  There have still been some decent episodes in recent years ("The Saga of Carl" in season 24), but they are becoming fewer and much more far in between the mediocre episodes.  It's a shame that the show is now a bit of a laughing stock and is repeatedly compared to newer, fresher animated sitcoms like Bob's Burgers, but these newer shows would not exist without The Simpsons.  If only it had ended with dignity many, many years ago.  But it goes on and on, slowly diminishing its legacy as one of the greatest TV shows of all time.
   

This is Us: as close to perfect as a show can get

I have a blog!  As many of you know, I'm just a little obsessed with tv.  I watch way too much of it, and I always have an opinion about what I'm watching.

For my first post I thought that I'd discuss one of my favorite dramas right now, This is Us.  Once in a while a show comes along that just fills up your soul and makes you forget about all of its flaws.  You just get sucked up into it and go along for the ride.  That show right now is This is Us, currently in its 2nd season.

For those unfamiliar, This is Us follows triplets Kevin, Kate, and Randall and their so-perfect-they-can't-be-real parents, Jack and Rebecca Pearson, over multiple time periods from the triplets' birth up until their mid-30's (present day).  Kevin is a somewhat egocentric actor who can't seem to settle down and (this season) struggles with drug and alcohol addiction.  Kate and her new fiancé Toby, after meeting at an Overeaters Anonymous meeting, are on a mission to lose weight and get healthy.  Randall, seemingly the most well-adjusted of the three, lives a comfortable upper-middle class life with his wife and two young daughters.  Adopted by Jack and Rebecca after their third natural child died at birth, Randall has anxiety issues and is still grieving the loss of his biological father William, who died of cancer at the end of season 1 after reconnecting with his son.

If this all sounds kind of depressing, well...it usually is.  This is Us is known for making its loyal viewers cry on cue week after week.  But it's a comforting, cathartic cry (most of the time).  Why is this show so loved by its fans (myself included)? 

1.  Jack and Rebecca

As the parents of the "Big Three" (in my opinion, a much better title for the show), Jack and Rebecca are the glue that holds the Pearson family together.  Played by Milo Ventimiglia and Mandy Moore (yes, Mandy Moore 😍), they are young, struggling parents trying to do the best job that they can.  But they don't have to try very hard, because they're PERFECT.  I want to go back in time and be raised by these two.  Seriously.  Jack dotes on daughter Kate and constantly reaffirms to her that she's loved, despite her self-esteem issues caused mostly by her weight (awww).  Rebecca looks out for precocious son Randall and does her best to ensure that he isn't excluded because of his skin color (he's African-American).  In season 1 the show portrayed Jack's bout with alcoholism during the Big Three's teenage years, but nothing can take away from his status as a perfect dad and family man.  When it was revealed that (SPOILER ALERT) Jack died suddenly soon after recovering from his addiction (the details of which still haven't been revealed), viewers were shocked and devastated.  The perfect couple is no longer, and Rebecca has moved on with Jack's best friend Miguel (can I get a "boooooo").

2.  The Music

The mostly folk/soft soft rock soundtrack of the show only adds to its warm, fuzzy aura.  Cat Stevens, Paul Simon, and some newer up-and-coming artists provide an environment ripe for maximum waterworks when the show delivers its typical gut punch towards the end of each episode.  After hearing Cat Stevens' "The Wind" in an early episode, I immediately downloaded the song and have been listening to it often ever since. 

3.  Randall and Beth (the 2nd best couple on the show)

Randall and longtime wife Beth are the modern tv couple that every real couple should aspire to be.  They're funny, they respect each other, and they love each other unconditionally.  After Randall suffered an anxiety attack in season 1 partially due to stress at work, he and Beth switched roles.  He now stays at home while Beth is at work.  There was no ego involved or questions raised; they simply did what needed to be done to keep the family going.  And they're constantly trying to do more to help others and share their good fortune.  In season 2 they took in troubled foster child Deja and slowly helped her feel like part of the family.  These two are saints, period.

4.  The Richness of the Characters

I've always said that one of the main advantages of tv over movies is more time to develop characters.  This is Us does this on a weekly basis.  The unique format of the show, interspersing present-day plots with scenes of the triplets as babies, young kids, or teenagers, allows the viewers to get to know them more and more with each episode.  After just a little more than one season, I feel like I know these characters and understand their motivations.  It helps that the younger versions of the Big Three aren't just typical kid or teen actors.  They have the chops to match the talented Ventimiglia and Moore.  The ten-year-old versions of Kevin, Kate, and Randall in particular are perfectly cast.  I could watch a show focusing only on this time period and be completely satisfied.  The standout here is 10-year-old Randall (Lonnie Chavis).  The young actor effortlessly portrays a brilliant but nervous child who is trying to find his place in his family and the world.

Well there you have it.  I could go on and on about other things related to This is Us, such as William's death, Kate's whininess, Miguel ("boooooo"), and more, but I will save it for a later post.

Thanks for reading, and please check back for more posts!