NBC Sitcom Roundup for 3/24/11

Advance warning — gushing all around this week. If you're looking to see me rip something to shreds, better hold off on reading this post!

The Office, Season 7 Episode 19 — "Garage Sale"

We come to it at last — the beginning of the end. And I liked it! With the caveat that marrying Holly and leaving Scranton with her is the most insanely predictable ending for Michael Scott imaginable, the first thing that popped into all of our minds when Carell's impending departure was announced a year ago. But this is The Office, not Lost or 24, and I don't think predictable plotting is that big a problem so long as it's funny and moving, which it was. The way Pam and the rest tried to help Michael with keeping his proposal "safe and responsible and realistic and doable" was very sweet (even if it resulted in Oscar and Ryan teleporting from the conference room to the warehouse and back again in a slightly horrific bit of editing I can't believe they didn't catch in post).

The proposal itself stood in contrast to Jim's sudden, rainy, roadside proposal to Pam (okay, there was still rain, but of a different sort). I loved that one specifically for the way it shirked TV proposal conventions, while this one embraces them, roomful of candles and crying and cheering crowd and all, but it was still likable due to how much I enjoy the characters and how damn well Carell and Amy Ryan played it. Holly's been a godsend for this show's chemistry ever since she first showed up in season four, even with a thirty-episode gap between appearances, and as syrupy and cheesy as the proposal scene may have been it was impossible not to smile at her reaction to seeing the ring.

Some have questioned whether or not Michael Scott truly even deserves a happy ending after all his hissy fits and manchild antics and fake firings and poor management and fucking Pam's mom and Scott's Tots, but I'd retort that this is only half a happy ending anyway. Michael got the girl, sure, and she's wonderful. But he's also leaving the company he's been with for decades and all the rest of his friends for a city he's never been to with no job prospects to care for two Alzheimery old people he's never met. That's a bittersweet ending at the very best. But let's not jump the gun too much on discussing the departure of Michael Gary Scott, which doesn't officially go down until April 28th. I'll have much more to say then, trust me.

The non-Michael and Holly elements of the episode — Dwight's trading sequence (which I found reminiscent of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening), Darryl, Andy and Kevin's Dallas game, Ryan's foodstuffs business — were nondescript but solid. I think we all saw Dwight giving in and trading his final prize for Jim's beans a mile in advance. Still, this was a great episode. That it's ranked fourth this week isn't a slight but just goes to show how damn good last Thursday's sitcom block was.

Funniest Moment: The internet collective seems to have decided on Kevin's "And that... is Dallas," which did make me laugh pretty loud, but I have to go with Michael showing off Holly's engagement ring with "They say three years salary," followed by Oscar's quiet, plaintive "Nooo."

Parks and Recreation, Season 3 Episode 8 — "Camping"

Parks and Recreation's hot streak continues with its fourth consecutive brilliant episode. Funny thing is that it didn't start overwhelmingly strongly, with the city manager's groping heart attack and subsequent office teasing of Leslie eliciting more chuckles than true laughs, but the episode got better with each act — each minute, almost — until by the time the gang stopped by the bed and breakfast I was laughing long, loud, and frequently. The fuck is a German muffin, indeed. Like "Harvest Festival" it was a great episode for Leslie and Ben in particular, with Ron Swanson again making a huge impact with a handful of moments. Tom's luxury Sky Mall tent was mildly funny at first but became hilarious upon the revelation that he was drawing power from the van.

The way they brought back Chris Traeger was just a little forced, but at the same time I'd much rather have Chris back with a slightly forced explanation than not have him back at all. It's kind of interesting how Ben and Chris were introduced as a duo with identical jobs but have in ten episodes reached such different places in relation to the parks department and the people therein. I doubt my heart will ever be stirred by Chris and Ann's romance, but Rashida Jones' grand delivery of "I have to move, right?" made their whole subplot in this episode worthwhile.

Funniest Moment: Right up until the very end of the episode it was Tom's "Great idea. Thanks, White Urkel," but then the ending credits tag blew that out of the water, especially Ben's final line. How rare to see a sitcom episode go out comedically on top in literally its final three seconds. I've said before and I'll say again that Adam Scott is impossibly funny and an amazing addition to the show. It already feels like he's been here from the beginning.

30 Rock, Season 5 Episode 18 — "Plan B"

I'm loving what they've done with Tracy's absence from the show, taking a couple of missed episodes that could have easily passed quietly with him simply being offscreen and turning it into the first look at TGS in full-blown crisis we've ever really gotten. This episode wasn't quite like anything 30 Rock's ever done before (which I guess could also be said for last week's "Queen of Jordan," except this time I mean it in a good way), and while it not surprisingly came down to being about Liz and Jack, I liked the little moments of the various supporting characters embarking on their own personal plan Bs. Particularly Sue's The Mentalist parody, because that's some top-shelf absurdity right there.

Liz reaching the end of her rope and possibly career freed the character up to be a little looser and funnier than she's been lately, and Jack had a good old business shark subplot, which the writers always tend to nail with him. Devon Banks and his gaybies were pretty awesome (true story: when Devon appeared I was like, wow, it's been so long since I've seen Will Arnett! But no, it hasn't; I had just already forgotten that Running Wilde ever existed) and I'm liking Hank Hooper a lot more this time around than I did in his first appearance, probably thanks to his new gimmick of smiling widely and talking in a warm, friendly tone about how furious he is. This was a strong episode all around and I look forward to seeing where TGS's forced hiatus takes the show from here.

Funniest Moment: As someone who generally loves Aaron Sorkin and hated Studio 60, I thought the entire Sorkin scene was brilliant, particularly the "Studio 60?" "Shut up." exchange. In fact, I'd go so far as to call it the best celebrity-playing-themselves cameo 30 Rock's ever done, even over Al Gore.

Community, Season 2 Episode 19 — "Critical Film Studies"

Now this was more like it. Not that "Intro to Political Science" and "Custody Law and Eastern European Diplomacy" were bad by any means, they were just... less than peak Community. But this episode honestly could have gone on for an hour and I wouldn't have minded in the least. When I realized Jeff and Abed's conversation was ending I felt really disappointed, like, no! I want more of this! It was such a sharply-written parody of My Dinner with Andre (I loved the use of Gymnopédie No.1), and Abed's Cougar Town monologue, lie or not, was just superb. Huge kudos to Danny Pudi for the way he started Abed out as being weirdly non-weird then very gradually allowed natural Abed to leak back in over the course of the dinner sequence.

The Pulp Fiction side of things stood out less than the Andre side, but still allotted at least one great moment for each character (Troy and his good no-no juice, Shirley's synopsis of Pulp Fiction for Pierce, and a couple of Annie and Britta moments I'll come back to in a minute). The visual of the cast dressed up as Tarantino characters, while an easy pop culture gag, was still a cute and likable one.

Fantastic piece of television any way you look at it; as comedy, as parody, but perhaps most importantly as an almost uncomfortably penetrative character study of Abed. It's also interesting to see Community calling out its own movie parodies in such a direct, borderline fourth wall-breaking way, with Jeff angrily describing the episode's events as "yet another stupid movie spoof." It feels like the show is barreling towards some sort of final showdown with its own meta-ness, and I can't wait to see what that may be.

Funniest Moment: While not the best or most interesting moment by any means, for whatever reason it was Britta and Annie's exchange of "What, I have 3D vision now?" "Yes... you do." "You don't know me!" that really set me off on a laughing fit. I also liked Annie's "Everyone hates Britta!" later on. Britta getting crapped on in general makes me laugh, probably because of how detached and cool and above it all she was written as being at the beginning of the series. She's not the best current sitcom character but she may be the most improved one.

Weekly Power Rankings: 1. Community 2. Parks and Recreation 3. 30 Rock 4. The Office

2010 Kraemer Movie Awards Part IV — The Best #15-11

#15 - 127 HOURS


Like The Disappearance of Alice Creed, 127 Hours is another 2010 film that tackles the limited cast / limited location concept with considerably more aplomb than Buried. Difference is that this one actually did achieve widespread critical acclaim, even securing a deserved Best Picture nomination. And the difference between 127 Hours and both those other movies is that rather than human antagonists, our hero here faces down Mother Earth herself in the form of a big ol' damn boulder that crushes his arm and leaves him wasting away in the middle of nowhere for the eponymous timeframe. James Franco is incredible as Aron Ralston and while director Danny Boyle arguably overcompensates for the restricted setting with a few too many flashbacks and fantasy sequences, he makes the scene where (spoilers for real life) Ralston severs his own arm with a dull pocket knife into one of the most visceral and painful cinematic sequences damn near ever. It's up to you to decide whether Franco appeared to be in more peril here or hosting the Academy Awards.

#14 - ANIMAL KINGDOM


One of the best organized crime films since The Departed — less stylized yet quite a bit more harrowing and filled with dread — Animal Kingdom is an Australian flick that presents a crime family at the cusp of their downfall as seen through the eyes of one young, unwitting member who wants out. Despite the presence of Guy Pearce as a good cop (the noblest I've ever seen him) and an intimidating Ben Mendelsohn, it's Jacki Weaver who dominates as the outwardly warm and loving yet intensely creepy family matriarch. She was nominated for Best Supporting Actress and I wouldn't have minded if she'd won. The teenaged protagonist played by James Frecheville is a bit of a cipher and probably the least interesting character, but on the other hand this movie has the most sudden, shocking, and brutal onscreen deaths of 2010. Not just one but a few. My jaw hit the floor multiple times.

#13 - SOLITARY MAN


Now here's a good one that seemed to fly under everyone's radars ($4.3 million domestic box office) and was tragically overshadowed as the year's Michael Douglas film by the embarrassing and unnecessary Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. Douglas plays a man who starts out not particularly unlike Gordon Gekko — smooth, wealthy, callous — and then proceeds to lose everything, from his health to his wealth to his family. It sounds and is occasionally crushing, but at the same time Solitary Man is a surprisingly breezy and enjoyable watch, largely thanks to its killer lineup for such a small film: Douglas, but also Susan Sarandon, Jesse Eisenberg, Danny DeVito, Mary-Louise Parker, Olivia Thirlby, The Office's Jenna Fischer, The West Wing's Richard Schiff in a small role; even Britta from Community makes a cameo if you watch closely. As of this posting it's one of five films on this top 25 (along with The Karate Kid, Shutter Island, and two upcoming entries) on Netflix Watch Instantly, so assuming you haven't seen it I'd highly recommend it.

#12 - THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES


I'll say upfront that I don't think The Secret in Their Eyes deserved the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar it picked up a year ago (and we'll talk more about the film that did later on), but that don't change what an elegant and classy little murder mystery it is. Visually impressive, too: smack in the middle of the film is a one-shot, five-minute chase all through a stadium utilizing hundreds of extras and a plethora of complex camera moves that's easily the coolest single-shot scene since Children of Men. The film is relatively unpredictable, well-acted, soulful, just a little romantic, and even a touch funny here and there. And it's one of the other two films on Netflix Watch Instantly I mentioned a minute ago, so check it out. (Oh, and I'm aware that it came out way back in 2009 in Argentina, but it didn't hit theaters in the States and I didn't see it until summer of 2010, so I count it as a 2010 film. Apologies to my Argentinian fanbase.)

#11 - MACGRUBER


MacGruber is one of only two 2010 films that stacks up to the high points of last year's best TV comedies — Community, Parks and Recreation, Party Down, Louie — in terms of laugh count and is effortlessly the greatest Saturday Night Live film adaptation since Wayne's World in 1992. But Wayne's World is less the film I'd compare it to than Austin Powers, doing for American 80s action flicks what that film did for late 60s and early 70s secret agent movies. It's a shockingly hilarious and spot-on parody — a couple MacGruber-free scenes with the villains and military brass feel like they could be seamlessly inserted into real 80s action films — that you'll like more the more familiar you are with what it's mocking. At least make sure you've seen Rambo III first.

NBC Sitcom Roundup for 3/17/11

I've been mad busy with deadlines at work (and in fact have two or three I should be working right this second), so I've fallen pathetically far behind on my movie reviews, best of 2010 lists, TV pilot coverage, trailer analyses, and sitcom roundups on this here blog. Thankfully, I think this weekend should be relatively open, so I should be able to finally get the next part of the 2010 Kraemer Movie Awards up, and if we're lucky maybe even a movie review too. But if I start falling behind on my sitcom roundups all will be lost, so even though these episodes aired an entire week ago I'm gonna go ahead and knock out some super-quick thoughts on them. After all, the main reason I started these sitcom roundups in the first place was to chronicle Michael Scott's departure from The Office and what follows, and holy shit, that's only a few weeks away!

Oh, and hey, Community and Parks and Rec both got renewed! (And The Office and 30 Rock, but we knew that months ago.) Awesome! I always had a feeling they would be. Despite the early and tragic death of Terriers (and now Lights Out), all those Friday Night Lights renewals have made me a dumbass optimist.

Parks and Recreation, Season 3 Episode 7 — "Harvest Festival"

I'll admit being a little nervous after the first few episodes of this season — all of which I liked, but none of which I loved — but for the last three episodes, "Media Blitz," "Indianapolis," and now "Harvest Festival," Parks has been absolutely killing it. Despite being a little light on Ron Swanson and having an Ann Perkins subplot that wasn't too interesting, this episode was great and for the second time in a row actually pulls off the stiff task of trumping the Community that aired the same evening.

First off, this was Leslie's best episode so far this season by a mile. Almost every second of her feud with tribal chief Ken Hotate was hilarious, and I really hope he's a recurring character. Adam Scott was at his dry, despondent best (especially when confused over the appeal of Li'l Sebastian), and April and Andy's "Dude, shut up! That is awesome sauce!" subplot showed off why they are, in many respects, more funny and likable than Jim and Pam were even back in The Office's heydey. Even Tom and Jerry's lost horse D-plot satisfied, and Ron Swanson straightening everyone out on the Ferris wheel made up for his limited presence throughout the rest of the episode.

Also, I was impressed by the final pre-credits shot. I mean, sure, you could make out the CGI in it, but on a sitcom budget that was a really fucking ambitious shot.

Funniest Moment: "That is exactly what happened."

30 Rock, Season 5 Episode 17 — "Queen of Jordan"

Sorry, didn't like it. In fact, I actually paused in the middle, took a break for a couple hours, then came back to finish it later. True, I did the same thing with the director's cut of Dances with Wolves and I liked that, but that was a 236-minute film; this is a 21-minute sitcom episode. I found the reality show gimmick to be tedious and unfunny — although I should note that the last episode of reality TV I saw was during the first season of Survivor in 2000, so I'm sure plenty of references went over my head — and other than Jack I didn't like what it brought out in any of the characters. The next time this show tries to make me laugh via Jane Krakowski singing I'm literally going to blow my brains out.

I do think it's interesting they've actually made a story arc out of Tracy Morgan's absence for his real-life kidney transplant — I assumed Tracy was simply going to be off screen with little explanation for two episodes and then quietly return, but nope, they've gone full serialized with it. Which would be great, except that I don't watch 30 Rock to find it interesting, I watch it to find it funny. Oh well, can't win 'em all.

Funniest Moment: Probably the cut to Jack with the "Jack, Tracy's Gay Boss" subtitle at the bottom. One of the few moments I thought actually made strong comedic use of the reality format.

Community, Season 2 Episode 18 — "Custody Law and Eastern European Diplomacy"

This episode was pretty middle-of-the-road by Community standards, but if you know how much I love Community you know that's still a compliment. Jeff, Shirley, and Chang's paternal rights story was a little standard and unimaginative (and I still kind of miss Chang the Spanish professor), but Britta trying to expose the truth of Abed and Troy's genocidal buddy was pretty damn funny, with great performances from all three actors. And, save for funniest moment, that's really about all I have to say.

Funniest Moment: That would have to be Britta's horrifically botched attempt at singing Britney Spears for Lukka near the beginning. I thought Gillian Jacobs was the series' comedic weak link back when it first premiered, but in gradually replacing her detached coolness with pure awkwardness (starting around the "bagel" fiasco) they've successfully made her fucking hilarious.

Weekly Power Rankings: 1. Parks and Recreation 2. Community 3. 30 Rock

2010 Kraemer Movie Awards Part III — The Best #20-16

#20 - THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ALICE CREED

For all that some critics talked up the disappointing Buried as a taut thriller that made impressive use of limited cast and location, there's another film that did those things and did them far, far better (and unfortunately it made even less than Buried at the domestic box office, topping off at $166,980). The Disappearance of Alice Creed is, boiled down, the story of two men holding a young woman captive in an apartment until they receive a ransom payment. But it's also so much more than that, throwing out twist after twist that I dare not reveal. It's a raw, violent, dirty piece of work, crime cinema done right using only three actors and a couple locations, and after giving some of the blandest performances ever in Prince of Persia and Clash of the Titans Gemma Arterton reveals herself to actually have real acting chops. Even the movie's seemingly straightforward title turns out to have a supremely clever hidden meaning. A perfect Netflix rental.

#19 - HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS: PART 1


I said when reviewing the seventh and penultimate Potter that I wished they had just done the entirety of Deathly Hallows as one Return of the King-length mega-epic rather than chopping it in half, and I stand by that and will continue to do so even if Part 2 ends up being really good. But despite some ambivalence about the pacing I found this to be the most enjoyable Harry Potter since Goblet of Fire back in 2005, in no small part because it dumps the academic setting and turns into a chase movie — think less Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, more The Fugitive — with Voldemort and the newly fascist Ministry of Magic hunting our terrific trio to capture dead or alive. DP Eduardo Serra's gorgeous cinematography doesn't hurt either. The series' amazing adult cast gets less screentime sans Hogwarts, but on the other hand the film does against all odds manage to redeem the character of Dobby. Maybe in an alternate world, Jar Jar Binks could have been redeemed too. Well, probably not.

#18 - THE KING'S SPEECH


Sure, the fact that it's about dead British people, the World War II-era settings, the swelling orchestral score, the unabashedly inspirational narrative and the warm, agreeable tone make it clear that The King's Speech was gunning for Oscar gold from the greenlight on, and that they were so rewarded was somewhat frustratingly predictable. But none of that takes away from how good the movie actually is. Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush give really great performances (not to mention Michael Gambon in his few minutes of screentime), and watching them work through King George's stammer makes for an engaging, likable, and occasionally even unexpectedly funny cinematic experience. The titular scene is gripping. Also, while this may be tangential to the movie's quality, David Seidler gave the classiest and most understated speech of the Academy Awards upon winning Best Original Screenplay.

#17 - SHUTTER ISLAND


If this were a top 25 best screenplays list, Shutter Island would be nowhere near it. The movie is very predictable and written in the broadest strokes. I bet most people could accurately guess the ending from the trailer alone, despite said trailer showing very little beyond the halfway point. But god damn does Martin Scorsese put on a great show behind the camera, crafting a truly stylish piece of modern noir pulp and making the titular setting — drenched in shadow, wracked by oppressive thunder and hurricanes, surrounded by jagged cliffs and angry oceans — into one of the most enjoyable horror locales of recent years. Shutter Island is probably the purest popcorn-muncher of Scorsese's career, a movie that honestly isn't a hell of a lot more subtle than Machete, but it's just a good solid time at the pictures and a much better representation of what the horror genre can and should be than Generic Teenage Slasher Flick #1138.

#16 - HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON


DreamWorks has never matched Pixar in poignancy, but that's okay, because in How to Train Your Dragon they've produced the best high fantasy flick of 2010, an energetic, freewheeling vikings-and-dragons adventure yarn that calls to mind the spirit of (a more family-friendly) Willow or Conan the Barbarian and is simply a blast to watch. The flying scenes have a breathtaking sense of freedom and while the central dragon-dragonslayer friendship does feel a bit like yet another spin on the Dances with Wolves / Last Samurai / Avatar "befriending the enemy" narrative, that doesn't make it any less charming. The rightly Oscar-nominated score is great and the end of the movie has this gargantuan fuck-off mountain-sized megadragon who could kick Cloverfield's ass and is definitely one of the coolest things I saw on the big screen last year.

2010 Kraemer Movie Awards Part II — The Best #25-21

I'll admit straight-up that I didn't love 2010 in movies quite as much as I did 2009. This became apparent contrasting my outline of this list with the winners of last year's Kraemer Movie Awards, where movies ranked as low as The Brothers Bloom at #21 and Up in the Air at #20 would have been easy top ten contenders had they come out a year later. But compiling my favorites was tricky nonetheless; there may have been fewer movies I fell in love with but there was still no shortage of ones I liked. I was forced to exclude several fine films, including one Best Picture nominee I enjoyed (and I'm not talking about The Kids Are All Right, which I excluded with glee). But the Oscars have already had their say. Now it's my turn, baby.

But first, slight change in format this year: I've been so busy that I haven't had time to sit down and write up the entirety of the top 25 and I kept putting it off, so instead of doing this in one go this is gonna be a six-day event, each entry revealing five more films and the finale selecting best performances, directors, screenplays, moments, and so on. "Six days?! And we thought the Oscars ran long!" *ba-dum ching* On with the show!

TOP 25 BEST MOVIES OF 2010

#25 - THE KARATE KID


I wanted to hate The Karate Kid. Remaking my favorite cinematic underdog story of all time — let alone one so inextricably linked with the 80s — seemed like pure fucking blasphemy. I walked into the theater sour, negative, and ready to tear it to pieces. Then it won me over completely. Sure, it should have been called The Kung Fu Kid, Jackie Chan's Mr. Han is no Mr. Miyagi, "jacket on, jacket off" is no "wax on, wax off," and the lack of "You're the Best" and that final crane kick assure that it will never be as iconic as the original, but what it does well it does almost shockingly well. The cinematography and tourism porn of China are gorgeous and the fight choreography is just awesome. The villains receive an absurd but entertaining facelift from the original's high school bullies to little demonic Yakuza-esque ninjas. The movie is 140 minutes long and I never even checked my watch. What can I say? I'm a sucker for the underdog arc.

#24 - MACHETE


The dual disappointment (and baffling acclaim in certain corners of the internet) of The Expendables and Piranha 3D left me thinking that this summer would yield little pure, pulpy B-movie pleasure, but it took just one badass Mexican federale to show me the error of my ways. Completely living up to the promise of the Grindhouse trailer from a few years back, Machete is a joyous, unrelenting festival of death and blood and gore and female nudity and goofily badass one-liners. The cast in and of itself is an absurd, hilarious mixture ranging from Steven Seagal to Lindsay Lohan to Jessica Alba to Robert De Niro (who I will never understand how they secured the services of), but it's Danny Trejo himself who dominates as the title character, doing for Mexploitation what Michael Jai White's Black Dynamite did for blaxploitation. It's the role he was born to play. I doubt we'll ever see the already-named sequel Machete Kills, but if I'm wrong I'll be first in line.

#23 - WINTER'S BONE


Whatever Winter's Bone may lack in narrative complexity or memorable dialogue it makes up for by oozing atmosphere and mood. The Ozark Mountain setting that director Debra Granik establishes, terrifyingly poor and infected by meth culture, may be the most bleak, haunting, and disquieting cinematic locale of 2010, a place that feels inescapably American yet wholly alien all at once. Jennifer Lawrence earns her Best Actress nomination as Ree Dolly, a tough teenager struggling to support her younger siblings and find her missing father before they lose their house, but I'd still say the movie is stolen by John Hawkes as her uncle Teardrop. He radiates an unreal menace that made it startling to realize I've never seen him play a character like this before. Redneck noir may be a tiny and obscure subgenre, but in this film it's found a new champion.

#22 - THE ILLUSIONIST


The Illusionist makes me weep for the semi-death of traditional 2D animation. Don't misunderstand; I love Pixar same as any respectable movie nerd, but a film this gorgeous and this warm and this atmospheric reminds one of how much that largely forgotten medium has left to give. The tale of an underemployed French magician and the young housemaid who is enchanted by his art and follows him to Edinburgh where they develop an easy father-daughter rapport, The Illusionist is a minimalist film played out in pantomime with literally about ten lines of dialogue. But the plot is secondary; what really matters is how astoundingly pretty it looks and how much its 1950s European settings leap off the screen to absorb you in the moment, making something as simple as a tiny village girl walking into a big city clothing store for the first time breathtaking. It's a beautiful and poignant film that truly deserves to be called art.

#21 - FAIR GAME


In depicting the Bush administration's exposure of CIA agent Valerie Plame, Fair Game serves many masters, functioning as a sort of political thriller, the domestic story of a marriage in turmoil, and most effectively as one final burst of Bush-era outrage. Yes, this is very much a movie to watch for the express purpose of making yourself angry at stuff that happened nearly a decade ago all over again, which may be counterproductive when there's so much stuff to be angry about today in 2011, but it excels at depicting the most depressing era in contemporary American political history and Naomi Watts is excellent as Plame. Sean Penn also does a good job as Plame's husband Joe Wilson, but I still kind of wish someone else had done the part, because when Penn starts going off on Bush it becomes hard to see the character rather than the actor. But that's one small blemish on what's probably the best pure political film of 2010.

NBC Sitcom Roundup for 2/24/11

The Office, Season 7 Episode 18 — "Todd Packer"

I've never really been a fan of Todd Packer, even in the "love to hate" kind of way. I like "The Carpet" from way back in season two, which revolves around a Packer prank, but the man himself only really appears in the closing minutes of that episode. Otherwise I find the obnoxious chemistry he brings into Dunder Mifflin more something to be tolerated for the length of time it needs be rather than truly enjoyed. However, the fact that everyone except Michael feels exactly the same way — even generally-annoying-to-others characters like Dwight — helps smooth things over a bit. So while I wasn't a big fan of the scenes centered around this episode's title character, I did like the parts with other people trying to figure out what to do about him, especially Jim and Dwight's subplot and just about any moment with Holly. Erin cheerfully trying to get the ant farm away from Holly before the ants started eating each other was goddamn hilarious.

I also liked seeing Pam sharing story time with someone besides Jim in her B-plot with Andy, Darryl, and going full-on corrupt in her new position as office administrator as one intended good deed quickly ballooned into a web of bribery and deceit. It was like so many "fall to darkness" dramas in film or on HBO, except funny and played out over six or seven minutes. I hope very much that this plot comes up again in the season's final eight episodes, possibly even in relation to the upcoming maneuvering to hire a new boss.

Speaking of which, there's the oliphaunt in the room in regards to the fact that Steve Carell has just a few episodes left as a series regular, but we'll leave that be until The Office returns on March 24th. I have a feeling that I'll be writing a lot more about this show over the next few episodes than any of the others.

Funniest Moment: The entire scene where Jim, Pam, and several others confronted Holly about hiring Packer was perfect start to finish; Meredith starting off too strong, Ryan's botched critique of the government, and especially the exchange between Jim and Holly of "Well, I mean, he humped Michael," followed by "Well, if that's the case, I guess I've gotta be fired too," and everyone's disgusted reactions.

Parks and Recreation, Season 3 Episode 6 — "Indianapolis"

Two fantastic Parks and Recs in row! Although Ron (Effin') Swanson wound up stepping in and taking over comedically as he descended into hunger-induced madness, "Indianapolis" seemed more intended as a Chris Traeger spotlight similar to what "Media Blitz" did for Ben Wyatt, and was reasonably successful in that regard. I said last week that it seemed like they were trying to overinvest us in the extremely new Ann / Chris relationship, but the way this episode revealed that he broke up with her so cheerfully offscreen that she didn't even realize it was a breakup was a clever and funny twist that justified the whole story arc. It was Leslie herself who wound up feeling like a bit of an A-plot tagalong, but Chris, Ann, and Swanson were all expertly served by the Indianapolis trip. I'm curious to see how they intend to keep Chris on the show with him living out there, though. I guess they might have him come back to Pawnee for the Harvest Festival and wind up staying for some reason, but who knows.

Tom and Ben bonding over men's perfume and April and Andy competing for free stuff in Tom's club undeniably felt like B-plots, but they were fun, peppy, and entertaining B-plots, if for no other reasons than that I'd watch Adam Scott read the phone book and that it was nice to see an April and Andy subplot sans romantic drama for the first time in forever. Hopefully they can prove that established and happy TV couples don't have to be boring as we move forward. I'd hate to see them get broken up by misunderstandings and circumstance yet again.

Funniest Moment: I can't pin this down to any one specific moment, but as I mentioned above, every scene of Ron Swanson's steak-craving subplot, from initially discussing his love of Charles Mulligan's Steakhouse to discovering Chris grilling portobello mushrooms to demanding all the bacon and eggs they have at some roadside diner, was perfection and the highlight of the entire Thursday comedy block.

30 Rock, Season 5 Episode 16 — "TGS Hates Women"

This was a pretty damn good, unusually thematically ambitious 30 Rock, taking a legitimate swing at making a statement about the relationship between feminism and comedy. I'll admit that I'm not 100% sure what the episode's final conclusion on the matter was — Abby Flynn's baby talk and skimpy outfits and hypersexualized comedy definitely weren't positively portrayed in the least, but at same time Liz's meddling just wound up making things worse — but there were many moments of truth and sharp satire mixed into the story's specific beats, and Cristin Milioti did a great job as Abby. It was nice to see a show so big on flashy guest stars (and more on that in just one second) give a shot to an up-and-comer. I wouldn't be surprised if Milioti leverages this guest spot into a leading role on another sitcom by next fall.

I also liked Lutz pissing his pants, because deep down inside I'm quite juvenile.

Jack's subplot was an even better bait-and-switch than the revelation of Abby Flynn as Abby Grossman, though. I was kind of bummed that they had cast Chloë Moretz as a giggly, bright-eyed, aggressively cheerful schoolgirl, because that seemed like such a waste of her specific acting skillset, then was delighted (both by the reveal and the fact that I'd been successfully fooled) when she turned out to be conning Jack and was set up as a recurring villain. Hopefully the Kabletown showdown between Jack and Kaylie Hooper is intended as a running story as we enter the final arc of 30 Rock season five.

Funniest Moment: The last scene between Jack and Kaylie was full of great exchanges. "I hate the ocean — it's for tools," followed by "The ocean's awesome and for winners, you're for tools!", plus "And I can always seduce one of your teachers and get her to fail you." "I'd be into that!" "Me too!" Evil Chloë Moretz got way more laughs in two minutes than chipper and enthusiastic Chloë Moretz got the entire rest of the episode put together.

Community, Season 2 Episode 17 — "Intro to Political Science"

I didn't think Community tackled political satire with quite the same grace and comedic verve as it has action movies, zombies, conspiracy thrillers, mob movies, and the mockumentary just last week (especially stacked up against Parks and Recreation, which has government comedy locked down), but "Intro to Political Science" was still a pretty solid, funny little episode. Troy and Abed's impromptu political talk show felt just a little too broad while still being funny in line-to-line moments, but I loved Jeff's cynical, expert politicking before Annie threw him off his game with the audition tape. His "Are you saying Greendale is dirty?" line of attack was a spot-on parody of the popular and equally moronic real-life "Why do you hate America?" argument.

The scene where Jeff and Annie made up didn't do all that much for me, but that may be because I still have November's brilliant "Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design" in mind, one of my favorite episodes of the series and a Jeff / Annie explosion that all future episodes starring the pair will struggle to measure up to. Abed's quasi-romantic subplot with the Secret Service agent was cute, although I have pretty severe doubts it'll ever come up again even if we do get a third season.

Funniest Moment: I'm gonna wimp out and declare a three-way tie between Classic "Wingers" + Ab Mentions + Notches in the intro, "Do you just constantly have your own little side adventures?" "Yep." "...Me too!", and Pierce's vendetta against Vicki.

Weekly Power Rankings: 1. Parks and Recreation 2. Community 3. 30 Rock 4. The Office

2010 Kraemer Movie Awards Part I — The Worst

In a classic "spoke too soon" maneuver, I declared last April that "The Lovely Bones is pretty much a lock for my bottom ten of the year." You know what they say happens when you assume. Turns out that 2010 descended to levels of shit I could not possibly have foreseen, and even without seeing Vampires Suck or Yogi Bear I had movies falling all over each other to make my worst list. If The Lovely Bones wanted to make the cut it still would have had to fight its way past Repo Men, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, The Last Exorcism, It's Kind of a Funny Story, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and arguably The Losers, Conviction, and Chloe too to do so. I even briefly considered doing a bottom twenty instead my usual ten, but I doubt I'd survive being mired in so much shit. Fuck it. Let's get on with the show.

TOP 10 WORST MOVIES OF 2010

#10 - HEREAFTER


Oh, Clint. What happened? Just a couple years back you gave us the decisively awesome Gran Torino, then you slipped into the realm of Oscar bait with Invictus and now you've come full circle to direct the greatest insomnia-busting film of the year in Hereafter. Taking a page from the Crash / Babel "interconnectedness of humanity" playbook and mixing it with the dullest imaginable riff on The Sixth Sense, all that Hereafter excels at is making the afterlife and communing with the dead about as interesting and engaging as shoveling your driveway. I'm gonna be keeping an extremely nervous eye on Eastwood's upcoming J. Edgar. Fool me three times...

#9 - THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE


Take roughly equal portions of Spider-Man (a young New York City science nerd unexpectedly gets superpowers and fights Alfred Molina...), Harry Potter (...while training under the tutelage of a master wizard...), and feces (...and it sucks ass), mix thoroughly, and serve. Congratulations, you have successfully prepared The Sorcerer's Apprentice, a profoundly generic little Saturday morning cartoon episode of a movie that feels written and directed by a committee of businessmen.

#8 - BURIED


This one I feel slightly guilty about, not just because picking on an indie flick that made $1.04 million at the domestic box office is kind of like bullying the smallest kid in class, but because I love thrillers, I love movies that try to reimagine the thriller and place interesting limitations on themselves, and unlike anything else in this top / bottom ten I actually admire what Buried tried to do. But the key word there is "tried." Buried is a swing and a miss, a high-intensity character study of a character who failed to grab me in any way and a premise (one man stuck in one coffin for an entire movie) that just couldn't maintain energy for the length of time it attempted. I found myself so zoned out I was compiling a grocery list in my head by the third act, which simply shouldn't happen in a thriller.

#7 - SHE'S OUT OF MY LEAGUE


She's Out of My League is the story of an underemployed, uncharismatic nerd and the ultra-hot, kind, generous, infinitely forgiving, very rich woman who fucks on the first date, has a dirty sense of humor, likes his stupid friends, and falls in love with him for absolutely no apparent reason whatsoever. I didn't spoil the ending there. That's the movie's premise: Jay Baruchel can't deal with how perfect his new girlfriend is. That's the movie's conflict. He's right, of course — there's absolutely no realistic reason on earth that this girl should like him. There's also no reason that this girl should exist. In making its female lead an absolutely 100% flawless specimen of perfection in every single physical, personal, and spiritual way imaginable, She's Out of My League loops around to actually become one of the most aggressively antifeminist movies I've ever seen, declaring that this is what a woman should be but she's shallow if she asks anything more from a man than being, well, the protagonist. It's not quite the worst movie of the year but it absolutely has the shittiest, shallowest characterization.

#6 - SKYLINE


I actually didn't want Skyline on this list, not because it deserves exclusion but because it's such a boring fucking nothing of a movie that there isn't really even anything to talk about. Aliens attack earth. A few people hiding out in a hotel try to fight back and it comes to a really silly and laughable ending. On the surface there's nothing wrong with that premise (except the laughable ending), but the execution is just terrible, from the bad TV performances to the nonexistent tension to the unimaginative action scenes. Think Independence Day mixed with a shitty version of District 9. Then again I know that a lot of people love Independence Day, so if you fall in that bizarre and inexplicable category, then hey, rock on. Maybe Skyline is right up your terrible alley.

#5 - A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET


Another year, another awful, generic slasher remake. I'm not sure it's quite as bad as 2009's Sorority Row or Friday the 13th, but once you've reached this pinnacle of shittiness the slight nuances become fairly irrelevant. It's not the shallow characterization or bad dialogue I object to so much as the fact that this movie is almost impossibly boring, following decades-stale slasher formula to the letter, scene-for-scene and beat-for-beat, without even pretending to throw a single twist or surprise in there. It's fitting that Freddy Krueger kills teens in their sleep, since sleep is the strongest reaction this supposed "horror" flick warrants. However, it does provide an opportunity to see the new Lisbeth Salander, Rooney Mara, in a lead role. Not a good role, but hey, a lead's a lead.

#4 - LEGION


Little more than The Terminator with Skynet and robots swapped out for God and angels, Legion is the tale of an ordinary waitress who happens to be pregnant with the child who will go on to lead the scattered remnants of post-apocalyptic humanity to victory and the warrior sent to protect her. Shame that it lacks any of The Terminator's cool chases or creative violence or propulsive pacing or whiteknuckle tension or engaging characters, filling in the gaps with a lot of muddy visuals and shitty CGI and stupid, repetitive shoot-'em-up action. I'll admit some amusing novelty value in a movie whose main villain is unapologetically God, but that cute facet can't make up for every single other thing about the film.

#3 - ALICE IN WONDERLAND


The Tim Burtonpocalypse began last March with the release of Alice in Wonderland, a movie so forcedly quirky, so twee, so Hot Topic, so aggressively fucking Burton as to churn the stomach and make every hair stand on end. At least until the climactic sequence where Burton just shrugs, summons his wannabe inner Peter Jackson, and ends the damn thing with yet another sequence of fantasy CGI armies charging each and other and Alice taking on a dragon (or Jabberwocky, whatever) in one of the most unengaging, weightless, tension-free final battles I've just about ever seen. Every denizen of Underland is depicted as either bad CGI or white makeup-caked monstrosity, but Johnny Depp's hideously overacted Mad Hatter warrants special commendation, making it clear that Burton brings out the absolute worst in the man.

#2 - THE LAST AIRBENDER


I take no pleasure in joining in a pile-on. There's no joy in it for me. I'd love to be able to say "Wow, turns out shifting gears to fantasy action-adventure was just to thing to revive M. Night's career!" But it wasn't. In fact, the end result was an unmitigated disaster, made worse by the fact that it shit all over what's actually a great TV series. The strangest part is that, for all M. Night's massive Hollywood budget, the action scenes and visual imagination of the settings actually feel considerably smaller in scope than the ones on the actual small screen did, occasionally coming off just one tiny step up from Power Rangers. The performances are godawful and the battle sequences play out dull beyond belief (although, to give whatever tiny bit of credit where it's due, some of the elemental magic looks alright). It's honestly just a damn shame this movie exists, reflecting so poorly on such high-quality source material. But Lady in the Water is still the worst movie of Shyamalan's career. Don't let anyone tell you different.

#1 - THE SWITCH


The Switch is the tale of a man, Jason Bateman, who gets drunk and swaps his semen with that of the sperm donor sample his best friend, Jennifer Aniston, is about to impregnate herself with. The two soon part ways due to work but some years later meet up again, and he comes to care for his bastard child and, oops, spoiler alert, he and Aniston fall in love. The rapey premise is almost as creepy as the movie itself is a dreadful, schmaltzy, drippy catastrophe, a black hole of unfunniness that destroys all comedy in a million-mile radius.

Do not let the presence of Jason Bateman fool you — this abomination shares absolutely no comedic DNA with Arrested Development, or even Friends for that matter. Bateman's character (who, despite the poster's billing order which places Aniston on top, is very much the protagonist) is an unimaginably loathsome passive-aggressive little shit. Aniston fares ever so slightly better until the end, when, exactly one scene after finding out that Bateman switched sperm samples and slapping him and telling him never to speak to her again, walks up to him on the street and tells him she loves him and wants to marry him and be with him forever. What the fuck? The Switch is like a romantic comedy from the bizarro opposite world where romantic comedies are intended to be as unromantic and as unfunny as humanly possible, and in that world it reigns as king of the entire genre.


SPECIAL JURY PRIZE — MOST OVERRATED MOVIE OF 2010

THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT


I'm not sure that I would call The Kids Are All Right a bad movie, exactly, just a completely unremarkable and inconsequential one with one of the most flabbergastingly hyperbolic critical responses I've ever seen in my entire life. Wall-to-wall, fever-pitch, unanimous acclaim. One of the best films of the year, maybe one of the greatest films about family ever made, they cried, stamping their feet in eerie unison. So I went to go see it, hopes high to have my heart warmed, and when the credits rolled all I could think was, "wait, seriously? That was it? That was the greatest comedy of the year? Are you fucking kidding me?" Yes, Annette Bening and Julianne Moore give fine performances and a convincing depiction of a loving and longtime yet somewhat stale marriage. But they also, along with Mark Ruffalo as their sperm donor who comes back into their lives when their kids want to meet him, do a great job depicting awful people I would never want to know in real life and who I didn't give first fuck about the happiness of. That makes it a little tricky to invest, you know?



TOP 5 WORST PERFORMANCES OF 2010

#5 - Mark Wahlberg, THE LOVELY BONES — Furthering my theory that M. Night Shyamalan replaced the Mark Wahlberg who acted in The Departed with a pod person during production of The Happening, Wahlberg continues to comically widen his eyes and pitch his voice up an octave in place of what, in the acting biz, is commonly called "emoting." It's pretty agonizing to watch.

#4 - Taylor Lautner, THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE — Look, I know this is shooting fish in a barrel. But he really is terrible.

#3 - Russell Crowe & Cate Blanchett, ROBIN HOOD — In all fairness, what I'm attacking here is only about half the acting and equally the casting, choosing two actors in their forties who look like they're in their forties to play Robin Hood and Marian in a prequel showing the beginning of the Robin Hood legend, but the performances are in no way off the hook. Russell Crowe seems remarkably tired and bored and when he rallies the people of England in a supposedly inspirational wartime speech at the end I didn't buy for a second that people wouldn't just be walking away. Cate Blanchett, a normally lovely and luminous performer, seems like she's fighting as hard as possible to be as uncharismatic as she can. The two have all the romantic chemistry of a pair of tables placed side-by-side, but sure enough, we're forced to watch them unconvincingly fall in love in a romantic subplot that has all the erotic charge of a root canal.

#2 - Noah Ringer, THE LAST AIRBENDER — Yep, I'm going there: I'm attacking a little kid. I don't give a fuck. The animated version of Aang, the titular Airbender, was a bright and chipper kid who, despite the loss he faced and the pressure on his shoulders, tackled life with a positive outlook. Ringer's version is brooding, emo, unsmiling, and about as dull and uncharismatic as any onscreen protagonist I've seen since, well, Colin O'Donoghue in The Rite a couple weekends ago. But we'll talk about that again in a year's time.

#1 - Johnny Depp, ALICE IN WONDERLAND — Johnny, why? Why would you do this? Why would you summon forth this godawful abomination of a character into an unsuspecting world? Less a performance and more an act of terrorism against moviegoers everywhere, Depp's Mad Hatter mixes an even more irritating version of his Willy Wonka with the most annoying aspects of Sweeney Todd, Jack Sparrow, a smattering of Edward Scissorhands, and a whole lot of Joker makeup to create a character I wanted dead every bit as much as his actual onscreen enemies did. A spectacularly overacted, scenery-devouring catastrophe of a performance that made me feel physically unwell.



TOP 5 WORST MOVIE MOMENTS OF 2010

#5 - Satanist hippie bonfire, THE LAST EXORCISM — Funny thing about The Last Exorcism is that I actually didn't think it was so bad until about, oh, three minutes before the credits rolled. Not good, exactly, but good for a mockumentary exorcism horror movie? Sure. Then... this ending. Our protagonist and his documentary crew stumble upon a mind-blowingly absurd mix of Rosemary's Baby and summer camp as it's revealed that our generic exorcism movie girl wasn't possessed so much as impregnated by a demon and everyone in town was in on it. The Satanists pull the demon baby from her vagina, the bonfire shoots up into the sky, and our exorcist runs in shouting that the power of Christ compels them before someone kills the cameraman. I fondly remember the boos that went up in the theater as we cut to black.

#4 - The mountaintop sequence, THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE — This isn't really a moment so much as several scenes spanning five or six minutes, but the fever-pitch badness of it never lets up for a second so it all has to be included. Bella, Edward, and Jacob are hiding from vampires on top of a snowy mountain at night. Bella, who is Edward's fiance at this point, is freezing to death, and since Edward's vampire body is cold it's Jacob who has to take off his shirt and climb into Bella's sleeping bag to cuddle and warm her up all night while Edward glowers. In the morning Edward intentionally lets slip that he and Bella are engaged, so Jacob storms off. Bella chases him and Jacob tells her he hopes he dies in the coming battle with the vampires, so Bella shouts at him to kiss her and they make out. That's about where I was laughing so hard I couldn't breathe and had to pause the DVD.

#3 - Mark Ruffalo is disposed of, THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT — After a whole movie of watching Mark Ruffalo establish a new life with his kids and make steps toward responsibility and maybe being a better man, he's told off by his makeshift family for a mistake Julianne Moore had equal part in, shunned by the kids he's come to love, told to stay away forever, and has the door literally slammed in his face. The last time we see him he's standing outside in the cold, having just lost everything. Wow, great character arc, movie.

#2 - Jennifer Aniston learns to love her sperm rapist, THE SWITCH — I pretty much summarized what happened up above, but still, seriously, wow.

#1 - Futterwacken, ALICE IN WONDERLAND — In not only the worst movie moment of 2010 but quite possibly one of the worst in cinematic history, Johnny Depp concludes the final battle by doing a dance that the Cheshire Cat helpfully labels the "Futterwacken," so that we may give a name to our pain. I still remember how shocked and embarrassed I felt watching that in a theater full of people. I wished I had brought a hoodie and sunglasses so that I could have slunk out of the theater without anyone seeing me.

The Rite

Holy God Almighty, what a piece of shit! I'm not one for prayer, but if I were to offer one up I think it just might have to be for Hollywood to stop making exorcism movies forever. There may be no other subgenre that more obstinately refuses to evolve. Yes, a young girl making guttural noises, vomiting weird stuff, and swearing a lot while twisting and breaking her body in inhuman ways was considered horrifying when the world first saw it 38 years ago. That's why The Exorcist shattered box office records, making just shy of $200 million domestic at a time when that flat-out did not happen. But it was no longer horrifying by the time we saw it last year in The Last Exorcism, which "sweetened" the formula by doing it mockumentary and set in the deep south, and it sure as hell ain't horrifying this year in The Rite, which adjusts the formula by moving it to Europe and centering it around a young and inexperienced priest rather than an old pro.

Said priest is one Michael Kovak, kind of brought to life by actor Colin O'Donoghue in one of the blandest and most uncharismatic leading performances I've seen onscreen in years. I'm not beholden to the star system and am normally all for lesser-known actors getting a shot at a big screen lead, but not like this. Channing Tatum could teach this guy a thing or two about emoting. For a couple minutes I thought maybe he was being really subtle, but then I realized, nope, he's just spectacularly underacting.

But anyway, Kovak is a young seminary student (not sure if that's the proper term, but whatever) who expresses a lack of faith just before taking his vows, so his superior priest (that's definitely not the right terminology) sends him to Rome to show him the need for God and save his soul and all that. In Rome, Kovak meets up with an exorcist played by Anthony Hopkins and skeptically observes the process. I don't think you'll be shocked or consider yourself spoiled to learn that Kovak's skepticism begins to melt away and be replaced by faith as he sees the demonry at hand and starts becoming an exorcist himself. In all fairness, the generic exorcism movie young girl is only the first of several possessed victims, not the sole focus of the entire narrative, but none of the other exorcees are any scarier or more interesting.

The movie as a whole is basically Christian propaganda, and not even wannabe hip and edgy Christian propaganda like last year's Book of Eli either, but relatively gentle fare as evidenced by its PG-13 rating. There's certainly no sex or nudity or real swearing, but it's light on violence too, with only one true moment of gore I can recall that only really involves blood, no gristle or any other good stuff. I bet most grandparents could sit through this film, something I can say about few horror flicks I've enjoyed in recent years.

Whatever my own religious leanings may be, I don't actually have any problem with Christian propaganda if done well. Two movies that come to mind, coincidentally both from 2002, are Signs and The Count of Monte Cristo, which have largely identical character arcs about formerly godly men who suffer tragedy, become atheists, achieve victory, then triumphantly get religion again in the final scene. It makes for a pretty lazy depiction of religion and irreligion alike in both cases, but what the hell, the former film has crazy intense atmosphere and the latter some of the coolest swordfights, so it's all gravy, baby. The Rite offers no such perks, just pure, boring exorcism movie cliché delivered via bloodless, risk-free filmmaking and a leading man who's more leading mannequin. If it isn't on my bottom ten of 2011 that I'll be posting in February 2012 then this will be one shitty year.


1 Star out of 5

NBC Sitcom Roundup for 2/17/11

The Office, Season 7 Episode 17 — "Threat Level Midnight"

Well, accuse this Office of anything you wish, so long as it isn't of being a generic Office episode. What's kind of funny about this sitcom block is that, although I'm sure it wasn't planned, it feels like Community and The Office swapped gimmicks, with The Office doing a high concept film genre parody while Community turned to mockumentary. Big difference being that when Community does its genre parodies they actually take place in-universe, while The Office, a show set in a not-entirely-but-much-more realistic world, did it with a film within the show.

This created some difficulty for the writers in how to make Threat Level Midnight (the film, not the episode) exactly bad enough that it felt like a real, unintentionally bad movie and not a knowing swing at so-bad-it's-goodness. Some moments definitely crossed over the latter line, namely the coin flipping scene and especially Todd Packer going "if doing the Scarn is gay, then I'm the biggest queer on earth!", something that made no sense for Michael to be angry at Jim for laughing at because it's obviously, patently absurd.

There were lots of other bits I enjoyed though, including just about every moment with Jim's Goldenface, seeing Karen again, Stanley's voiceover, the revelation of the president being evil, Michael and Dwight's conflicting interpretations of Samuel being a robot, and the very first scene of the episode. And as for the out-of-movie scenes, there isn't all that much to say. It was nice (if a bit unbelievable after ten years of work) that Michael came around to enjoying his movie in its proper, terrible light with his officemates, and Michael and Holly were cute enough as always.

Funniest Moment: My favorite bits were those that actually seemed believable as being written by Michael Scott to be badass when they were really just awkward and made the audience visibly uncomfortable, namely Goldenface saying "then I'm gonna dig up Scarn's dead wife and I'm gonna hump her real good," and especially Michael strangling Oscar with the American flag.

Parks and Recreation, Season 3 Episode 5 — "Media Blitz"

I loved "Media Blitz." It's easily the best Parks of the third season to date, thanks almost entirely to Adam Scott, who owned the episode from the starting gun. His stammering and staring at the floor and horrific attempts at charm in his interviews were goddamn hilarious. I loved the spot-on parody of shitty morning radio shows with all the fart sound effects, always starring two hyper-"manly" douchebags, and it was great how disgusted Ben was at the whole affair (and that Tom loved it, because of course he would). But the final interview with Joan Callamezzo was better still. The line "Why does everyone in this town use AltaVista? Is it 1997?!" confirmed that, while I still mourn the late, great Party Down, Adam Scott has landed on his feet on a show that knows how to use his talents.

I liked seeing Andy and April finally reconcile and I'm glad the show didn't stretch that out any longer than they needed to, although I'm surprised to say that I'm arguably liking Andy's evolving friendship with Ron Swanson even more. Andy is one of the most nicely-evolved characters on television from his first appearance, transitioning from mooching, disgusting slob to goodhearted and hardworking government employee without a single missed beat or jarring leap. Ann and Chris I'm more apathetic on, because their relationship is too new to really invest in to the degree they're asking of us, but that was only one little blemish on a great episode.

Funniest Moment: Ben Wyatt — Human Disaster

30 Rock, Season 5 Episode 15 — "It's Never Too Late for Now"

This was a wildly nondescript 30 Rock. Well, okay, maybe that's not entirely true. It was missing Tracy, for one thing (as will the next episode or two as Tracy Morgan was recovering from a kidney transplant during filming), and it also had a dedicated Frank / Pete storyline, something that happens maybe, I dunno, once every couple seasons. But comedically speaking it was sparse, with almost all of the laughs coming from individual lines in conversations between Liz and Jack ("What is business school?"). The whole Agatha Christie parody at the end, while probably seeming wickedly clever and irreverent in the writers room, wound up just feeling tacked-on and awkward.

Funniest Moment: Probably Jack's reaction to "I can fit Emily Dickinson's whole head in my mouth!" right before the show cut to opening titles. A throwaway moment, but what the hey, I laughed.

Community, Season 2 Episode 16 — "Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking"

Holy crap this was a good episode. I mean even by Community standards. As I mentioned above, it was coincidentally doing Office-style mockumentary the exact same night The Office was doing elaborate genre parody, but I thought Community wore The Office's clothes a lot better than vice versa. Jeff shouting "Don't you dare intercut this with footage of me freaking out!" at Abed, intercut with footage of him freaking out, was arguably a more hilarious use of true documentary filmmaking than anything The Office has done in years, not to mention Shirley shooting her own talking head and Abed commenting on the generic documentary montage ending technique while simultaneously using it.

Pierce's psychological tests for Jeff, Shirley, and Britta were all clever and did a great job diving into each character's neuroses and personal insecurities. That's a big part of why Community is so much better than 30 Rock (not just today, but even in Rock's prime): it treats its characters as complex people rather just joke machines tweaked to fit any given moment and punchline. But this episode didn't want for laughs in the least either, thanks mostly to Troy and LeVar Burton's absofuckinglutely hilarious B-plot. Donald Glover is going to fly high in the world of comedy, and unlike so many others who have he completely deserves it. Annie had a smaller part than the rest of the group, although "Are they... Holocaust diamonds?" was priceless.

Hoping Jeff's father shows up before the end of the season. It seems essential at this point.

Funniest Moment: "Set phasers to love me!"

Weekly Power Rankings: 1. Community 2. Parks and Recreation 3. The Office 4. 30 Rock

The Mechanic

Important note to all action filmmakers: a badass hero is good. John McClane is badass. Indiana Jones is badass. Everyone loves 'em. A hero so badass and so invincible that absolutely no obstacle causes him one single moment of effort, exertion, or adversity throughout the entire film is not good. It's boring as shit. And that brings us to The Mechanic, a movie it seems I should like since I love Jason Statham in the Crank and Transporter movies and I've been singing the praises of Ben Foster ever since 3:10 to Yuma, but I don't. I actually kind of hated it.

It all comes back to our protagonist Arthur Bishop, or, as we'll be calling him from here on out, Jason Statham. This is one badass man. Everyone he wants dead is killed with no apparent effort whatsoever. Every plan he makes goes off without a hitch. Every trap set for him is sidestepped effortlessly. Every goon sent to kill him is dispatched without breaking a sweat. Absolutely nothing goes wrong for him throughout the entire movie, ever, and there's no indication that anything we see him do is more difficult for him than going out and getting the paper in the morning is for you or I.

This is not cool. It is not fun. It's so, so dull. It's deathly fucking boring to watch. You might be asking, "but Tim, don't you love the James Bond movies? Bond never fails either." And it'd be a fair question, except that Bond occasionally gets captured. One of his allies or a Bond girl gets killed. The bad guy gets away from him. He loses a fight to the main henchman in the middle of the movie before coming back around for a successful rematch at the end. Jason Statham in The Mechanic is not even tested to any of these levels. The movie makes it clear that he is absolutely, literally fucking invincible, against anything up to and including dozens of machine gun-toting goons firing on him all at once.

The plot involves Jason Statham taking Ben Foster, son of his recently late mentor, under his wing and training him in the ways of the hitman. We watch them go on a few missions before they turn their sights on the movie's big bad villain, the identity of whom is incredibly, painfully obvious less than twenty minutes in to anyone with a brain, but who I still won't reveal because whatever. We do admittedly see Foster struggle a little bit early on, make a few mistakes and take a rather bloody beating, but this comes nowhere close to saving the movie, nor does the cold and emotionless relationship between the two men. No other character makes the slightest impact outside of Donald Sutherland in his tiny role as Foster's father in the opening minutes, which includes the bad guys and Chuck's Mini Anden in a completely nondescript role as Statham's sort of-love interest.

Like Statham? Great! So do I. You'd be much, much better off just rewatching Death Race, either Crank, or the transcendent Transporter 2. You could even go serious, non-action Statham and watch The Bank Job. But I insist that you avoid the dry bore that is The Mechanic. It's a nightmare vision of action cinema at its worst, suitable only as a cure for insomnia.


1 Star out of 5

TV Pilots, Day 2 — Lights Out, Being Human, Harry's Law, Skins, Perfect Couples

Yikes! I've fallen behind on my TV pilot reviews! All of the shows I'm about to discuss actually debuted way back in January, but what the hell, I just recently got around to watching most of them for the first time so I'm gonna go ahead and talk about 'em anyway. Now that Friday Night Lights is over I'm gonna need like five new good shows to fill the gaping hole that leaves in my heart, and while nothing I talked about last time truly did the trick (Episodes was alright, but more in a "this is amusing" way than a "need more now!" way), this time we have something truly interesting. I'm also hoping that HBO's Game of Thrones will fill one of those good show slots come April.

But April ain't til April. Today, let's talk about FX's Lights Out, Syfy's Being Human, NBC's Harry's Law, MTV's Skins, and NBC's Perfect Couples:

LIGHTS OUT


The premise in ten words or less? Retired boxer contemplates a comeback.

Any good? Oh yes. This is real television right here; by no means perfect, but really interesting, brawny and brainy fare all at once. For the record, I've actually seen a lot more than just the pilot of Lights Out — five episodes, in fact — but all those episodes have done is confirm the good stuff I suspected after the first. While I enjoyed the recent boxing film The Fighter I had pretty big issues with its pacing, namely how difficult it was to discern the narrative's time frame and how rushed Micky Ward's rise from the bottom to the top felt. Turns out the real way to tell a boxing story is patiently and methodically, in a serialized, weekly format. Setbacks are much more gripping and heartbreaking when you don't know redemption is coming a few scenes later.

Actor Holt McCallany is awesome in the lead role of former heavyweight champ Patrick "Lights" Leary, giving the part more intelligence, cynicism, and alpha male swagger than Rocky Balboa and making you wonder how McCallany never took off as a movie star. American History X's Stacy Keach also does a great job as Lights' father, tired and aging but with the fire for training still burning in his heart, while The Wire's Reg E. Cathey amps the sleaze and the charm up to eleven as boxing promoter Barry Word. Catherine McCormack fares a little more awkwardly as Lights' wife Theresa, her natural British accent occasionally exploding out of her American character for a line or two before she covers it up again. But the real star outside of McCallany himself has to be the gritty atmosphere and muscular vibe, giving stuff we've seen a million times before like boxing training sequences an entertaining kick and a compelling freshness. This is a great show.

Will I watch again? As I said, I already have, and I'm looking forward to watching through to the end of the season and can't wait to see where it goes. Unfortunately, the fact that the show averages under a million viewers makes me suspect the end of the season is also going to be the end of the series, and Lights Out will follow the late, great Terriers into FX heaven. I'd love to be wrong, but one thing I've learned over the last decade or so is that me liking a show is the best way to guarantee its swift cancellation.

BEING HUMAN


The premise in ten words or less? A vampire, a werewolf, and a ghost all live together.

Any good? First off, I feel I should be clear that the premise I've just described is not the setup for a punchline, but the show's actual plot. That's actually, literally what it's about. And it's not a comedy either, it's a drama! The immediate temptation is to begin making Twilight jokes, which the show attempts to judo by directly referencing and then dismissing Twilight in the pilot, but the bluish-tinted visuals, the Smallville-looking vampire super speed, the mysterious and probably evil cabal of ruling vampires, and even the lead's suspiciously Robert Pattinson-esque voice and jawline speak louder than any dialogue. But it is harsher than Twilight, to give credit where it's due; bloodier, more violent and more sexual, plus it doesn't weakly pussyfoot around the fact that our lead vampire has killed innocent people to stay fed.

However, I still wouldn't go so far as to call it good. Watchable, maybe. The second best show I'm discussing today, absolutely, and by a comfortable margin, too. But it's also choked with melodrama, angst and cheese wafting off of it in eye-stinging waves. Although the characters aren't teens (in fact, the lead vampire is supposed to be hundreds of years old), there's definitely a teen drama-esque soapiness to the narrative and lack of subtlety to the dialogue. The evil vampire who comes around to harass our heroes also just comes across as annoying, not intimidating. This is one of the only shows I've seen that actually seems to crawl to a halt when the bad guy arrives rather than leaves.

Oh, and like Shameless from my last batch of TV reviews, Being Human is a remake of a British series of the same name, and like Shameless, I've never seen the original, so I can't compare. Just thought I'd mention that so no one thinks I don't know.

Will I watch again? Probably not. I actually did start the second episode, not so much out of a burning need for more as because the pilot ended in a cliffhanger, but as soon as said cliffhanger was resolved I found myself fast-forwarding, then closing the browser window a couple minutes later. Being Human isn't awful, but it's wholly unremarkable, a show that's just kind of there. If Being Human were a soft drink, it'd be RC Cola.

HARRY'S LAW


The premise in ten words or less? Lawyers in Cincinnati, Kathy Bates stars.

Any good? It's better than any of the new lawyer shows I talked about in the fall (Outlaw, Law & Order: Los Angeles, The Defenders, and The Whole Truth), I'll give it that much. I'd even go so far as to say it rises to the level of "not completely horrible," which by default puts it in the 90th percentile of its genre. But it still can't change the fact that I don't give a shit about episodic lawyer procedurals. I just don't. I never have and I never will, even if you make the protagonist a sassy older lady played by an Academy Award-winning actress who carries a giant magnum to her office in a crime-ridden neighborhood. I feel nothing but apathy and boredom when I watch the opening statements and witnesses taking the stand and a series of "Objection!"s and the jury foreman stand up to read the verdict. Even while avoiding these types of shows it's a scenario I've watched play out more times than I could possibly begin to count — I can't even imagine how many times people who actively seek this shit out have seen it. Thousands, probably?

The courtroom scene in the climax of Harry's Law is particularly hilarious. I'm no Bob Loblaw, but I'm pretty sure that if the defense attorney bolted from her seat and started yelling at the prosecutor in the middle of him questioning a witness that she'd be in deep shit, but here the two of them just have a minute-long shouting match right there in the courtroom, in front of the judge, witness, jury, and crowd, presented without a hint of irony. It was pretty shocking, but not in the way the show intended.

Will I watch again? "Has the jury reached a verdict?" "We have, Your Honor. The jury finds the show... not watchable."

SKINS


The premise in ten words or less? Teens talk about / have sex.

Any good? Nope! Admittedly, Friday Night Lights has raised my standards for teen shows to a level that quite literally might never be reached again within my lifetime, but even powering my brain down to a Dawson's Creek level of expectations Skins remains a shockingly boring show for one that sells itself as the height of orgiastic excess. It's trying to be edgy, of course. It's trying so, so hard. It's almost adorable, like a nine-year-old who's just learned how to swear so you put on feigned show of shock to humor them. It's not that I'm offended in the least by the wall-to-wall sexual dialogue (and I do mean wall-to-wall; there's barely a line that isn't about sex) — hell, I watch Spartacus: Blood and Sand, which features considerably more sex and nudity in any five-minute window than Skins will throughout its entire run — it's just that without said dialogue coming from characters I find remotely interesting it's so fucking dull.

Oh yeah, and once again, Skins is a remake of a British show of the same name, and once again, no, I've never seen the original. What can I say? I don't watch a lot of British television.

The manufactured "controversy" surrounding Skins is actually far more compelling than the show itself. The Parents Television Council, an organization that should be nuked off the face of the earth, has spent weeks waging war against the show, getting numerous advertisers to drop their support and, in one of the most hilarious real-life drama queen maneuvers of all time, attempting to file child pornography charges against MTV. I know there's that saying that pornography is defined only as "I know it when I see it," but I confess being a bit baffled anyone born after World War I regards some sullen teen squeaking about how he needs to lose his virginity to fall even within those broad parameters. Who knew my high school years were so lurid after all?

Will I watch again? The supposedly far superior British original is up on Netflix Watch Instantly right now and I doubt I'm ever even going to watch that, so my chances of following this one are pretty fucking nonexistent. But at the same time I'm paradoxically rooting for it to get a second season, because the idea of the Parents Television Council successfully canceling a show should be viscerally horrifying to anyone who enjoys free speech.

PERFECT COUPLES


The premise in ten words or less? Three couples who are all Friends... er, I'm sorry, friends.

Any good? No. Neither is it aggressively awful. It's just remarkably generic and white bread, a show that feels like it was created by a sitcom-writing computer. I mean, look at that male lead on the right there. He looks like he came off a bland, genial leading man assembly line. He and his wife are the levelheaded and normal ones. The couple in the middle are rash and impulsive and constantly teeter on the edge of breakup, while the couple on the left are unhealthily uptight. Together, these six friends will make you halfheartedly chuckle once and tilt the corner of your mouth upward for a split second twice. Sitting through Perfect Couples made for a long 22 minutes, but hey, at least there's no laugh track.

Will I watch again? Nope. Community, Office, Parks and Rec, and 30 Rock will do nicely as far as NBC sitcoms go. Hell, I'd be more likely to watch more of Outsourced. Not Mike & Molly, though. Never Mike & Molly.

Blue Valentine

Blue Valentine is an interesting case of a movie that I appreciate or admire many individual elements of without really liking as a whole. It depicts the final days in the marriage of two people who were never really right for each other, intercut with scenes of their initial courtship several years earlier (although reviews saying the chronology is all over the place are exaggerating; it's just two timelines that keep moving forward, something no one who's ever seen Lost will struggle with). It's raw and uncomfortably intimate and excels at making marriage look about as appealing as having the flesh shaved off your genitals with a cheese grater, although it embraces the naked cliché more than some seem ready or willing to admit.

But first off, let me say upfront that Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling's performances are entirely beyond reproach. Perfect casting, naturalism beyond naturalism, making whatever dialogue they're assigned feel achingly authentic and the emotions leap off the screen. They're two of the best actors of their generation and the Academy was totally on point giving Williams a Best Actress nomination (though Portman still deserves to win). Gosling could have easily replaced Bridges or Bardem in one of the Best Actor slots too and I wouldn't utter a word of complaint. They're really damn good.

Blue Valentine aims to be an unguarded and supremely well-acted portrait of a marriage in decay, and it achieves that completely. If you're down for following the film as a pure emotional journey then you can probably stop reading here, as it may be right up your alley. But in big picture plot developments I found a lot of it tough to buy. (SOME SPOILERS INCOMING FOR THE NEXT TWO PARAGRAPHS) Take the scene where Michelle Williams' ex-boyfriend and his goons hunt Gosling down and beat him up, or worse, the scene where Gosling storms into Williams' office, starts screaming at people, accuses her boss of wanting to sleep with her, then punches him out. I may live a dull life, but that's not an event I have borne witness to and it kind of broke the movie's vérité vibe into pieces.

The film also runs screaming into the arms of cliché in its "abortion" subplot, where the past version of Williams goes to the clinic after getting unexpectedly knocked up then, of course, as movies and television have taught us all women who consider getting abortions do, decides she can't go through with it. I mean, sure, the scene's "gritty" in that there's no music and she goes into the OR and puts her feet up in stirrups before bolting, but otherwise there's nothing separating it from Juno. There's only one TV show I know of in the last five years that's been gutsy enough to subvert the generic "I can't!" abortion clinic scene cliché (I won't name the show because it would be a big spoiler), but Blue Valentine sure doesn't. I'm not saying they should have ditched the daughter from the movie, because she's important, but they could have found a better way to go about it. (END SPOILERS)

Director Derek Cianfrance shoots a good three-quarters of the movie in extreme close-up (especially scenes set in the present), which I suppose has the intended claustrophobic effect but also becomes extremely monotonous and makes certain scenes border on visually incoherent. At times it effectively yanks us into the moment with Williams and / or Gosling, but at other points I was way too aware of the camera and too aware of the directing and wished Cianfrance would just get out of the way and let his actors work. When I'm squinting and trying to figure out what the fuck the camera is swinging around at, I'm forcibly reminded that I'm watching a movie. For some movies being reminded you're watching a movie is alright. In a supposedly realistic character piece like this it breaks the illusion and is a huge problem.

I feel like I should also briefly mention the film's initial NC-17 rating until it was reduced to an R after months of appeal. Actually watching the film, it's rather comical and absurd that it was ever slapped with such a branding — there's a tiny bit of nudity, I guess, not an amount that stands out or is unusual in any way, and one scene of implied cunnilingus that barely shows anything, and that's it. It just goes to show how much more censored film actually is than television these days.


2 Stars out of 5

NBC Sitcom Roundup for 2/10/11

The Office, Season 7 Episode 16 — "PDA"

I'm on record as thinking that Michael and Holly's romance is wildly rushed (out of necessity, of course, since Carell has less than ten episodes left; I'm reminded of Gandalf declaring that "Three hundred lives of men I have walked this earth and now I have no time!" — The Office has moved along with such a relaxed, luxurious pace for six years now, advancing stories one centimeter at a time, that it's jarring to see it blitzing through so much plot in a few episodes), but in spite of that this episode is exactly what I was hoping for when Amy Ryan rejoined the cast in December. The only thing better than Carell and Ryan's chemistry is letting the rest of the office be disgusted by Carell and Ryan's chemistry, and this was a damn funny episode thanks to that. I loved Oscar's quiet irritation at Michael and Holly. It's easy to overlook how key Oscar is to the office's comedic rhythm, and I'm sure I'm not the first person to point out the irony that the show's most consistent straight man is its one gay man.

As for the B-plots, while I wasn't feeling Jim and Pam being drunk at first, it took a much funnier turn when they started trying to have sex in the office, especially Ryan offering them his closet with quiet, slightly sad resignation. Andy and Erin I'm iffier on as I always have been — I blame how unfathomably stupid they spent the first part of this season writing Erin — but I do like Ed Helms and Ellie Kemper, so if this subplot is gonna be moving forward at least I can enjoy watching the actors work.

Funniest Moment: Dwight rattling off a surprisingly long list of everyone who's had intercourse in the office was hysterical, as was Kevin saying "I agree, this is nasty!" about Michael and Holly's not-touching PDA and "Better luck next time, pal!" to Oscar. But as far as my biggest laugh of the entire episode I would actually have to go with the standalone cold open with Darryl and Pam. A single tear rolling down a man's cheek is easy comedy, but it's also damn effective comedy.

Parks and Recreation, Season 3 Episode 4 — "Ron & Tammy: Part Two"

I feel kind of the same way about this episode's A-plot as I do about Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest or any number of superhero sequels: it didn't really do anything that the first "Ron and Tammy" didn't over a year ago. I mean, maybe it wackied things up a little and threw in a fight scene between Tom and Tammy, but I for one still strongly prefer the power plays of the original and the way it brought Leslie in more effectively.

However, I did enjoy the B-plot with April and Chris. Pairing the show's most dour character with its most blindingly chipper makes for a great combo, and it's just nice in general to see April sharing a story with someone other than Andy (even if Andy still gets the story and episode's best line; see funniest moment below). And although I don't for one moment believe that April is going to be moving to Indianapolis (not for more than a short arc, anyway), Chris' job offer at the end was a clever way to throw half the cast into temporary chaos.

I also liked Ben this week, specifically Leslie's reaction to Ben recommending calzones. Or the cop's reaction to Ben recommending calzones. Ben is a much, much better straight man than Mark Brendanawicz ever was, mostly because Adam Scott is a great damn actor (not to mention that him and Megan Mullally in the same episode make this a Party Down reunion). I'm still not sure how I feel about him and Leslie as romantic interests, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Funniest Moment: "She didn't do that, that, was, uh, I think—sounds like it was Macklin's call."

30 Rock, Season 5 Episode 14 — "Double-Edged Sword"

This was a cute little episode, funny, with lots of great one-liners, and the somewhat parallel structure of Liz and Jack's vacations gone bad was clever. As is often the case, all stories outside of Liz and Jack failed to resonate in the least (except Pete's anecdote about his grandfather's German uniform, anyway), but the main plots were more than enough to pick up the slack from the few minutes they didn't fill. Watching Liz's plane slowly deteriorate into madness was quite amusing, and I especially loved Jack and Avery going on a jingoism-fuelled hitchhiking road trip so she could have their baby in the States (kudos to the show both for avoiding every single "birth episode" cliche and for making the pregnancy, which was confirmed in the episode "I Do Do" on May 20th, actually last the correct amount of time).

Solid guest spots this week too. Matt Damon was offered more opportunity to be legitimately funny than any of his appearances as Carol to date, and it was nice to see John Cho even if he didn't do all that much. They really might as well just add Elizabeth Banks as a regular at this point.

Funniest Moment: This may be random, but for some reason Matt Damon's line "We say half an hour to control the herds of walking mozzarella sticks who think that $300 and a photo ID gives them the right to fly through the air like one of the Guardian Owls of legend!" made me laugh hardest. Partially because of its innate absurdity, partially because I just watched Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole literally a couple days before seeing the episode. Yay for coincidence!

Community, Season 2 Episode 15 — "Early 21st Century Romanticism"

This was a pretty average, down-the-middle Community, which is to say that it was securely the funniest sitcom of the night by a wide margin. The combination of Jeff, Chang, and Duncan was hilarious (especially once the party got started), while Troy and Abed gave us an amusing and even slightly touching twist on the "two friends fighting over the same girl" subplot. Britta's non-homophobic subplot was a good use of Britta's absurd side, something we haven't seen in several months, and I admire the show for taking the lesbian kiss episode cliche and making it as aggressively un-erotic as possible. Annie and Britta actually kissing would have been erotic, sure, but at the same time I'm glad they didn't do it because that would been pandering on a level beneath such a good show. Also, I can't be the only one who wouldn't mind seeing Annie's new friend (whose name I didn't even catch) again. She was pretty funny.

The only part I was a little iffy on was Pierce's drug subplot, both because characters being high is some of the most generic sitcommery out there (and Community already did it much funnier, also with Pierce, in season one's Halloween episode "Introduction to Statistics") and because Andy Dick kinda skeeves me out. However, Dick did give us the line "If doctors are so smart, why are there millions of 'em?", a notion to ponder.

Overall, a very solid episode, although not quite as good as last year's Valentine's special "Communication Studies." Hard to top that Breakfast Club dance.

Funniest Moment: All of the biggest laughs came from quick, throwaway jokes in Jeff and Chang's storyline — Chang destroying Jeff's lamp with the nunchucks, Jeff's reaction to Chang using his toothbrush, and of course the exchange "Where're the white women at!" "No! There are no white women here, Leonard!"

Weekly Power Rankings: 1. Community 2. The Office 3. 30 Rock 4. Parks and Recreation