The pilot wasn’t that great, and they’re marketing it as “from the executive producer of Sex and the City“, and the blond chick isn’t too good, but Kat Dennings is awesome. Ergo, I’ll continue to watch 2 Broke Girls.
Plus you can probably rest assured that it’ll stick around because it’ll get decent ratings thanks to the Two and a Half Men lead-in.
Title: “Pilot”
Written By: Elizabeth Meriwether
Air Date: Sept 20th 2011 (available now on iTunes)
Jess, a cute but nerdy girl, is cheated on by her boyfriend, and unable to stay with her best friend, she moves in with three guys she found on Craigs List.
Lets get the obvious out of the way, the draw of New Girl is clearly Zooey Deschanel. It’s her first real effort at TV and cos I’m a big fan of this manic pixie dream girl, I’m gonna like this show. It’s inevitable.
The pilot plays to the charm of Deschanel, namely her overwhelming adorability, but I did find the three roommates to be fairly decent too. Nick (played by Jake M Johnson) comes across as a slightly less schlubby Charlie Day. Although the fact that Nick’s ex-girlfriend is played by the waitress from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia probably helped this comparison.
Schmidt (played by Max Greenfield, probably most known for his role as a sheriff’s officer in Veronica Mars) really is a douchebag, but I feel as time goes by the writers will develop him into a more three dimensional character.
Coach (played by Damon Wayans Jr) is easily the best of the supporting characters so it’s a shame that his other show got picked up for another season and he won’t be continuing on in New Girl. He’s a funny guy that has a nice way of delivering lines. Plus I always think of his performance in The Other Guys and it makes me smile.
So Deschanel is awesome, and the three guys are at least passable, what about the hot model friend of Jess played by Hannah Simone? Well, she doesn’t do much in the pilot except be hot, kinda aloof, and dress Jess in a sexy black outfit. If she continues to just be the hot unfunny friend then I can’t see that she adds anything to the show, but I have a feeling that she’ll end up being a love interest for either Coach or Schmidt.
The one other thing which struck me was the terrible theme song, it sounded like a 30 Rock/SNL sketch joke. It was only after I was about half way through the episode that I realised the theme was a joke based on Jess’ habit of singing about random stuff, and she does in fact make up a theme song for herself. Still, I kinda hope they change the theme song or just do away with it entirely.
Rating: 6/10
Conclusion
It’s a single camera, non laugh track sitcom, so right away it’s better than Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory. I was looking forward to watching New Girl because I’m such a big fan of Zooey Deschanel, but to be honest I wasn’t expecting it to be particularly impressive. For the most part New Girl isn’t that impressive, but it did exceed my expectations, and I really have to credit the extraordinarily lovable Zooey Deschanel for that. I’d like to have a full season of the show to see how they develop the supporting characters, but considering the show airs on the fickle and notoriously demanding Fox, I’m expecting that it’ll be cancelled within the first 8 episodes.
It’s just over a week until Matthew Perry returns to TV in Mr Sunshine and I’m pretty damn excited. I’m a big fan of Perry mainly from Friends but I actually enjoyed Studio 60 on Sunset Strip as well.
From wikipedia:
Ben Donovan (Perry) is the sports arena manager for the Sunshine Center, a second-tier arena in San Diego. He goes through a mid-life crisis when he turns 40, while dealing with the unusual demands of his job and his unpredictable boss.
TITLE: “The Robotic Manipulation”
WRITTEN BY: Steven Molaro, Eric Kaplan and Steve Holland
AIR DATE: September 23rd 2010
For three years now I’ve ridiculed my friends Crystal and Bean for liking The Big Bang Theory. At every possible opportunity I would tell them how unbelievable it is that they enjoy a show which is so generic and unfunny. I would tell them that The Big Bang Theory is what’s wrong with TV. It’s a show that appeals to the dumbest in society. If humanity evolved to the state seen in Idiocracy then The Big Bang Theory would be the show everyone watched. It’s like the fictional show Yo Teach featured in Judd Apatow’s film Funny People, except fifty times worse. I said all this and probably much more and I’d only seen about 10 minutes of the pilot.
So I set myself a task. Between the last episode of The Big Bang Theory on May 24th 2010 and the premiere this season I was going to watch every episode which had been produced. And I did it. It was boring and uneventful and downright depressing that so many people find enjoyment in this show and yet are blissfully unaware of other far superior efforts, but I did it. And it’s with great pleasure that I can say that my snap judgement of the show after my initial 10 minute viewing was absolutely correct. The Big Bang Theory is a terrible show. It’s painfully unfunny, offers just about no character development from episode to episode, let alone season to season, and features some of the worst “pause for laugh track” acting seen on TV. The lack of development means that each episode is interchangeable with every other episode. Sure, Leonard and Penny got together during the third season but aside from that short lived event there’s been no development whatsoever. I will admit that it’s not the worst sitcom on the air, but of the show’s that either get good ratings or deserve to get good ratings, it second in shitness only to Two and a Half Men.
Over 64 episodes I’ve chuckled, not laughed, twice. First was when Sheldon said he wasn’t going to watch Clone Wars before Attack of the Clones because he wanted to be disappointed in the order that George Lucas intended. The second was when Sheldon goes insane and ends up in a pool of plastic balls emerging through them to taunt Leonard with shouts of “bazinga”.
None of this should be taken to mean that I don’t like the actors. Jim Parsons was awesome in Garden State. Johnny Galecki was on Roseanne so he gets credit for that. And Kaley Cuoco is hot in a kinda more female Brooke Hogan way. The other two I can do without. It’s just that the show is so ordinary. I don’t understand how The Big Bang Theory can get 3 to 4 times as many viewers as Parks and Recreation. What kind of a world do we live in that would allow that to happen. Why do people choose to watch something that’s clearly inferior?
I’m gonna continue to watch The Big Bang Theory this season so that I can validly criticise it to my friends and so that superior comedies like Parks and Recreation, 30 Rock, Modern Family and Eastbound & Down look that much sweeter.
RATING: 4.5/10
CONCLUSION:
It’s shit, unfunny and loved by the masses. If that’s not a sign of the dumbing of society I don’t know what it.
OMG. Justin Theroux, one of my absolute favourite actors/writers/producers, is set to join Parks and Recreation, the best comedy on TV right now, as a major recurring character.
Theroux was the only good thing about Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, and was fantastic in Mulholland Drive too. Not to mention that he wrote Tropic Thunder and the upcoming Iron Man 2. I’m so damn excited about this. The only downer about the whole thing is that he’s slated to be a love interest for Leslie (Amy Poehler) which means that Louis C.K. won’t be around much longer.
(source = The Ausiello Files)
Here’s a deleted scene from Parks & Recreation featuring the wonderful Aubrey Plaza. So far this season she’s been given a lot more to do but I could always do with more Aubrey Plaza. That perpetually bored and unimpressed look of hers is awesome.
Whilst I absolutely love How I Met Your Mother I haven’t plunked down the cash for the show on DVD yet. Therefore I hadn’t seen the bloopers from the first four seasons until I stumbled upon them on Youtube.
To say they’re awesome is an understatement. These guys and gals goof around not only like they’re best pals but like they could be my own best friends too. It’s this kind of chemistry on set which translates to chemistry on screen.
Below are the four blooper reels.
Title: “Pilot”
Written by: Dan Harmon
Air date: Sept 17th 2009
After it’s discovered that Jeff’s (Joel McHale) law degree is from Columbia (the country not the college) he’s forced to attend Community College in order to earn his degree and continue to practice law. He sets up a fake Spanish group in order to hit on Britta (Gillian Jacobs) but more show up to his group than planned.
I’ve already done a script review for the pilot so I won’t go over this too much, other than to say that it sticks very closely to what I remember was in the script. I’ll use this quick review to comment on how the script actually plays out on screen. And that, in a word, is fantastic. All that I noticed which didn’t make the transition from the script was the second encounter with the black cafeteria lady in the hallway. It’s a shame because that was another great exchange between her and Jeff but they probably needed to cut something to get the right length for the episode.
On the cast front, the standouts from the pilot are certainly Jeff, Abed (Danny Pudi) and Duncan (John Oliver). Chevy Chase really doesn’t do much in this episode other than seem a little creepy. All three female characters also come off as a little bitchy, but I’m sure there’ll be development in that regard.
FINAL RATING: 7/10
CONCLUSION
The pilot episode contains most of what was in the script save for a few minor adjustments and one or two cuts. It’s an enjoyable episode which sets the groundwork for future episodes but it’s not the knockout that you hope pilots will be, although this may be because I was already aware of what happened due to reading the script. I think with some development of the female characters and the show establishing more of a biting edge, rather than the safer middle ground which most sitcoms take, that it could be a good addition to NBC’s Thursday comedy block. It’s also worth noting that whilst Ken Jeong has been added to the cast he does not appear in this episode.
Thomas Lennon has written on his Twitter that Reno 911 has been cancelled. He writes:
Reno 911! was cancelled at 1:30 pm today. Won’t be wearing the shorts again.
I really enjoyed that show. It’s kinda like Cops on crack.
