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Pop culture dispatches from the Great Lakes

Sitcoms

An Ode to the Parks and Recreation Finale

March 11, 2015 by Alex Bean 1 Comment

Parks and Recreation - Season 7

This is a guest post from Luke DeSmet, a friend of The Recorder. 

In the week after Parks and Recreation aired its series finale, the emotional high faded and my focus shifted to a television landscape still littered with great comedy, including daring and original work like Broad City and Man Seeking Woman. But so far time has not afforded me any critical distance: I love this show, and feel the need to express what an unambiguously positive time I have had with it. This is a show I want to celebrate, not critique. Its impact on television comedy has been overwhelmingly positive, filling our screens with more likeable, human, and even unapologetically decent folks who still manage to be hilarious. Originally presented as The Office transposed into small town government and as a natural extension of the trend of cringe humor, Parks found its feet in its second season and transformed itself into something clear-eyed and earnest while never sacrificing its alt-comedy edge, pulling comedy back from a ledge of cynicism and irony that had become boringly routine.

[Read more…]

Posted in: Sitcoms, Television Tagged: Amy Phoeler, Parks and Recreation

“What Makes Life Worth Living” – The Last Man on Earth

March 6, 2015 by Andrew Rostan Leave a Comment

rsz_last_man_on_earth

The Last Man on Earth’s pilot opens with a lovingly shot montage of the United States, set to the whimsical music of Mark Mothersbaugh, that reveals itself as a comic set-up with more than one hilarious payoff. The mixture of genuinely felt emotion and exuberant absurdist humor, common to the work of creator/star Will Forte and producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, quickly sets the tone for the whole program, whose first night suddenly and excitedly suggested far more than the initial advertising campaign promised.

[Read more…]

Posted in: Sitcoms, Television Tagged: Kristen Schaal, Lord and Miller, The Last Man on Earth, Will Forte

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt Is Now On Netflix

March 6, 2015 by Meryl Williams Leave a Comment
Image of Kimmy Schmidt

Watch Kimmy Schmidt on Netflix now (image via).

Happy Kimmy Schmidt Day! All 13 episodes of the new Netflix original series are now available to stream. Gina and I are so excited about Tina Fey working in sitcoms again that we decided to devote an entire season of a podcast to it (our first episode drops Tuesday, March 10). The show stars Ellie Kemper, who plays a woman recently liberated from a cult. That sounds darker than I think it’s intended to be, but watch the trailer if you don’t believe me. Here’s why you should be excited to binge-watch this show this weekend.

[Read more…]

Posted in: Podcasts, Sitcoms, Television Tagged: Addison Recorded, Ellie Kemper, Jane Krakowski, The Unbreakable Kimmy Schimdt, Tina Fey, Tituss Burgess

Broad City is Back and Every Young Woman Should Watch

January 13, 2015 by Becky Bean 1 Comment

broad-city-pilot-drinking

Broad City is the best feminist show on television.  That’s a big statement, but I’ll stand by it.

This 30-minute Comedy Central show tells simple stories about Abbi (Abbi Jacobson) and Ilana (Ilana Glazer), two women in their early twenties who are best friends living in New York City, with crazy roommates, dead end jobs, and no money. It doesn’t try to be anything more than this, and by not making huge statements it hits on something very special. [Read more…]

Posted in: Sitcoms, Television Tagged: AbbiJacobson, Broad City, Comedy Central, Ilana Glazer

Benched is the Beans’ Favorite New Show

November 4, 2014 by Alex Bean Leave a Comment
Benched USA Eliza Coupe Jay Harrington

Benched is a show that deserves to be seen.

Benched, a new sitcom that airs on Tuesdays at 9:30 CST on USA, is catnip for the Bean household. It boasts a cast we love, a winning creative team, and a concept that promises more thematic heft than the typical sitcom. The show is about a corporate lawyer who loses her boyfriend and her job in brutal fashion and lands at the public defender’s office. Yes, you already know where this is going, but it’s the potential journey that has us excited. It’s love at first sight over here, but let us break down why we’re so excited about Benched.

[Read more…]

Posted in: Sitcoms, Television Tagged: Benched, Eliza Coupe, Jay Harrington, USA

Selfie May be the Most Promising New Sitcom of the Fall

August 26, 2014 by Alex Bean 2 Comments

Selfie ABC Karen Gillan Selfie , a new ABC sitcom that debuts on September 30th, sounds like a disaster of a show. It stars Doctor Who‘s Karen Gillan as a social media-obsessed pharmaceutical sales rep who realizes that her online life has left her lonely and bereft of friends in reality. John Cho, best known for the Harold and Kumar and Star Trek films, plays a marketing genius at her firm who takes her on as the ultimate turn-around project. Aside from the legions of sci-fi geeks thundering around because the presence of those stars the appeal of this seems limited.  It’s a generic romantic comedy set-up that rips off/pays homage to of Pygmalion. Worse, the first trailer made the show look condescending towards the social media generation it aimed to send up. [Read more…]

Posted in: Sitcoms, Television Tagged: ABC, Emily Kapenek, John Cho, Karen Gillan, Selfie, Suburgatory

Rumor-Mongering: A Few Brief Words on “How I Met Your Mother”

March 4, 2014 by Travis J. Cook 1 Comment

I don’t watch much TV. This is partly because my schedule is so out of whack with normality that it’s difficult for me to regularly keep up with any television show. I will marathon the shit out of TV series when I am given the opportunity – which is what shows like Breaking Bad and True Detective are destined for…one day. The other factor is that it’s hard for me to put that much emotional investment into a serialized form of media – I end up caring way, way too much about what I’m watching – and don’t deal well with not knowing what’s going to happen. (I’ve already had ONE Lord of the Rings series in my life, thank you very much. I don’t need it twenty-four times a year for five to seven years running)

How_I_Met_Your_Mother_1

Which is what’s caused me to feel such immense outrage over How I Met Your Mother today.

[Read more…]

Posted in: Sitcoms, Television Tagged: Alyson Hanigan, Carter Bays, Cobie Smulders, Craig Thomas, How I Met Your Mother, Jason Segal, Josh Radnor, Neil Patrick Harris

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