Boys Becoming Men, Men Becoming Wolves

Parks n Rec's Heartfelt Halloween. Also, Fart Attack

By John Richards

“Am I interrupting something important?”

“Impossible. I work for the government.”

I’ve always wondered why every sitcom feels like it needs to make holiday episodes for their shows. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Valentines Day. I guess holiday parties are easy situations for writers to feature characters’ zany antics. However, this past week’s episode of Parks and Recreation, or Parks n Rec for us diehards, managed to weave some major drama in with the usual Halloween lulz.

First, we find out Ron is continuing his relationship with Xena: Warrior Princess, Lucy Lawless, Vice Principal Diane, who has invited him to come trick or treating with her and her little girls. Andy invited himself along as well. April being in Washington DC with Ben has allowed the show to pair Ron and Andy together a lot more this season, resulting in hilarious Andy-ness with Ron looking on with disapproval.

Meanwhile, Councilwoman Knope has been looking for a house for her and Ben to move into together, after Ben comes back from DC. After learning that no house comes equipped with a trampoline room, she decides to lease one anyways, resulting in a celebratory rave feat. Anne.


The Parks Department is hosting a scary movie party in the courtyard of the city offices, providing an opportunity for everyone to dress up in costumes. Donna is addicted to Twitter. Snooze. Moving on.

Ben calls Leslie to say that he might be taking another campaign manager job in Florida. But Leslie just signed a lease for that house, oh no! Leslie is bummed about Ben, so Anne says let’s go scare Tom, but instead they frighten Jerry, who promptly has a fart attack heart attack. Leslie kicks into her “Save insert cause here!” mode and holds a garage sale/live auction to raise money for Jerry’s medical bills. The entire garage sale auction bit was quite unfunny, although Tom did discover a new business idea: Rent-a-Swag. I really hope this means the return of Jean-Ralphio. *fingers crossed*

Back to the other plotline, Diane left her kids with Ron to continue trick or treating while she attended to a poop incident at the school. Of course, Ron has no idea what to do and ruins the rest of the night. At the Save Jerry garage sale auction, Diane confronts Ron about the ordeal. Unable to admit fault, Ron further angers Diane who storms off in rage (personally I wouldn’t piss off Xena, but this IS Ron Swanson that we’re talking about). April, oh yeah she is back from DC now, makes fun of Ron being sad about losing Diane. This makes Ron realize that he does want to continue with Diane, so he does something completely un-Swanson-esque -- apologize.

Back to Leslie, Ben calls and says the Florida guy really wants him to run his campaign. Leslie is even more sad, but while visiting him in the hospital, Jerry drops a wisdom bomb on her about life happiness. Leslie decides that her future with Ben can wait while he chases his career goals. While Leslie is trying to get out of the lease that she just signed, SURPRISE, Ben shows up and gets down on a knee and proposes to Leslie. Awwwww.

Now the gang’s all back together and the show can return to normalcy. It was great to see the show use the annual Halloween episode to further develop characters and plug in some treat, rather than a half an hour of stale tricks. Can’t wait for next week solely because of the title: Ben’s Parents.

John is currently pursuing a JD/MBA at Santa Clara University School of Law. He likes sports, technology, and of course television. Follow him on twitter @j_rich or check out his blog www.johnericrichards.com.

TV Potpourri: links to various miscellaneous extraneous televaneous things

By Erin Jackson

Here is an infographic about everyone's favorite television neighbor, Fred Rogers. (ps has anyone seen the new Daniel Tiger's Nieghborhood? Is it any good? Is it really creepy?)

Arrested Development is coming and I for one start hyperventilating whenever I think about it, so when I heard about this documentary about the making of the new episodes, it pretty much put me into a coma.

I really love Key and Peele, and this is probably my second favorite sketch of the second season. Here Peter Atencio, the director and then some, describes some of the behind the scenes stuff of how they get the rights to things and things like that feed my nerdy little heart. (kind of NSFW? some swears are bleeped out?)

Want to "watch" TV when you're supposed to be "watching" something more important? This site hosts audio for TV and movies and more so you can multitask your heart out. I'm listening to an episode of Animaniacs as I type this.

Adventure Time's season finale was this Monday and it was so mathematical, but I am still stuck on the episode before. It broke my heart and warmed it at the same time, like it like was overheated in a microwave. And I'm not alone. This piece of fan art is a touching depiction of that heart wrenching episode.

Halloween is this week, which means this weekend is full of Halloweenie things, too. If you are going to have any sort of gathering, might I recommend this cover of Werewolf Bar Mitzvah (which might be my favorite thing on 30 Rock ever) for atmosphere?

Stephen Colbert gave a pretty great interview with Terry Gross (can either of them do any wrong?) in which he talks about music that has had an impact on his life. I particularly like his comparison of he and Jon Stewart to Elvis Costello and Bruce Springsteen.

Erin Floyd Jackson has been BFFs with TV since she was a wee one when she would play TV Network Executive. She went to school to learn about how and why TV is the way it is and hopes to someday tear someone's creative vision down and re-edit it to her liking. In the meantime, she and her husband live in Huntsville, Alabama and they occasionally "blog" here (http://inappropriateapplause.tumblr.com/) when they are not geeking out over all the SCIENCE! in the Rocket City.

I'm not here to make friends

By Meg Walter



 

Before we dive into the Project Runway All Stars premiere, let's talk about season 10's finale. Spoiler alert, obviously, but if you haven't watched it by now, be honest with yourself- you probably never will.

Christopher fell apart. The footage we saw of  Christopher was a red-eyed, snarky little man pacing back and forth muttering "What  fits?! What fits?!" The gown he sent down  the runway was fabulous, but the rest of his collection was meh.

Melissa made clothes that I would  actually buy and wear, but I shop at Target and  Old Navy so that isn't saying much in terms of fashion credibility.

I was worried Fabio might win. I understand that his collection was the freshest and most forward thinking, but I found most of it crooked and confusing. Plus I hate it when designers give their collections ridiculously pretentious names like "Urban Tribalism" or whatever he called it. Puh-lease.

So it was a relief that Dimitry took it.  As the season's dark  house, he won very few challenges,  but produced consistently solid pieces,  culminating in his final collection which was perfectly polished, masterfully tailored, and deserving of the win.

As for the three runners-up, I'm confident we'll  see them again  on an All Stars season. Speaking of...

Last  night we met the  All Star designers who will keep our Thursday nights exciting for the next  few months. I  know  that  they bring back some of the most  talented designers, but they also seem to bring back  the feistiest contestants because what's Project Runway without some nasty bad-mouthing? Joshua, the biggest Diva in PR history, is sure to keep things pretty heated, and Wendy already stated,"I'm not here to make friends," which gave me delighted  chills.

Design wise, it's  already clear that the standard is high and there were some pieces, like Ivy's jacket, Casanova's dress, and Anthony Ryan's whole look that really blew me away. Of course there were some rough ensembles,  and Peach,with her wacky sleeves dress  deserved to get the boot.

I prefer the All Star judges, even though some of Georgina's  own designs in her collection are totally bonkers. Isaac is what Michael Kors should be, and  how great was it to  see Mondo  again? No one can replace Tim Gunn, ever, but Joanna Coles is  a solid mentor, doling out design advice that makes a lot of  sense.

We're for an exciting season, kids.  As far as predictions go, I think Suede is  gone next week, and I  thinkthat Anthony Ryan,  Ivy and Laura will go far. Your thoughts?

Meg Walter writes about television to justify watching so darn much of it. When she's not on her couch letting her brain turn to jello she's blogging at tobetomars.blogspot.com, playing with her baby girl, or beating her husband in board games.

You Say You Want a Revolution

By Megan Geilman

What would happen if one day everything electronic in the world stopped working? Complete global blackout: no cell phones, no email, no air travel, no instagram...not to mention complete lack of running water, heat, or modern medicine. This is the question that is asked in J.J. Abram’s new drama Revolution, which premiered with record numbers in September on NBC.

The show takes place 15 years after the blackout has happened, with flashbacks for character and storyline background. Everything is overgrown and a vigilante militia has ruthlessly taken over and no one is allowed to have guns except them...and so continues the current craze of bow and arrow glory. The two main characters are played by Tracy Spiridakos (“Charlie Matheson”) and Billy Burke (“Miles Matheson”) and embody a girl and her uncle who are on a rescue mission after the militia has killed her father and taken her brother captive. Giancarlo Esposito, who is very good at being bad, plays the menacing Captain Tom Neville, who is much more devious than his name would suggest. There are some friendly faces from LOST (Jacob and Juliet both play characters here that should get more air time as the show progresses) and Twihard’s should love seeing Bella’s dad sans mustache.

The show has it’s strong points: There are juicy details along the way that should make for some really good dramatic irony later on and who HASN’T wondered what a global blackout would be like? Probably the biggest issue I take with the show so far is rendered in a quote Joel McHale gave on Jimmy Kimmel: “It’s an apocalypse where everyone looks AWESOME.” Seriously. Everyone’s clothes seem to fit juuust right and the lack of makeup on the women looks very made up. And in 15 years apparently just the children aged.

The show also has a lot of unanswered questions (A J.J. Abram’s show with unanswered questions??) with the science of it: like how batteries and turbines don’t work and how all the planes dropped out of the sky like they didn’t have wings or momentum. Apparently magnets and newton’s law don’t work in the apocalypse either. However, if you can handle the unlikelihood of this hollywood-esque apocalypse, and have been looking for an opportunity to ask yourself “What would I do if I couldn’t google my way out of a problem?” than NBC’s Revolution might be the show for you.

Megan Geilman has had an on-again-off-again relationship with television since she was young and her parents occasionally let her stay up to watch Star Trek and X-Files. She recently relocated to beautiful San Clemente, CA with her husband, unborn child, and design business. She lives a half mile from the beach and plans on eating a lot of avocados. She occasionally blogs at http://ratedgforgeilman.blogspot.com andhttp://megangeilmandesign.blogspot.com

Community Blues

By Erin Jackson

So, there's that. Also, there's this. And I'm just… the opposite of Batman over all of it. Cut it out, NBC. And Chevy. My heart is already broken, there's no need to keep stomping on it like a frog in a sombrero or an overcooked yam.

Erin Floyd Jackson has been BFFs with TV since she was a wee one when she would play TV Network Executive. She went to school to learn about how and why TV is the way it is and hopes to someday tear someone's creative vision down and re-edit it to her liking. In the meantime, she and her husband live in Huntsville, Alabama and they occasionally "blog" here (http://inappropriateapplause.tumblr.com/) when they are not geeking out over all the SCIENCE! in the Rocket City.

Survivor Philippines 4&5: Wherein it is still raining.

By Lorraine Jackson

Episode 4:

As much as I want to open with a zinger, what CBS did to open the 4th episode of Survivor Philippines deserves nothing less than complete reverence. In an age of reality TV based around screaming, yakking, drunken embarrassment, and skanky girls pulling each other’s hair, the show opened with two minutes of starkly depressing silence. Matsing, being short half a tribe and completely down on their luck, tried to start a fire. And failed. Bravo, CBS.

Amongst other tribes, Kalabaw has an interesting twist when several days in the wild seem to reform the early alliances, and the tribe quickly divides as boys vs. girls. Keep in mind, that’s 3 vs. 3. Good luck with that. In Tandang, Abi continues to prove that the hotter and more exotic a woman is, the crazier she is.

Then the camera crews spend about 5 minutes following Russell while he looks everywhere for the idol. In a confessional interview, he correctly predicts to those of us at home “you’ve probably all watched me walk past it 100 times, and the camera guys are showing it to you right now.” You have. And they did.

I can hardly bear to watch the reward/immunity challenge.People are muddy, pots are breaking, people are screaming, and Loserly Matsing spends the first 70% of the challenge in the lead, and I start chanting survivor hymnals at my cubicle, to the alarm of my coworkers. (at least it was during my lunch break.)

To no avail. Matsing loses, Russell wrestles with God on national television, and not only does a higher power fail to help him win the challenge, that higher power doesn’t do much to intervene with Wise Malcolm and Therapist Denise from Sending Russell home. Sorry, Russell.

Episode 5:

 

By the end of last week’s episode, it was abundantly clear that Matsing was poised for dissolution. Malcom is sent to the crazy but athletic tribe of Tandang to be the new eye candy, and Denise is sent to the stable but accident-prone Kalabaw. What hurts most for me about this is that, as a Matsing Sympathizer, I know that one of them is about to lose a challenge, again.

Poor Denise.

They briefly show Wise Malcolm chowing down on the chocolate chip cookie rewards, surrounded by smelly beautiful women wooing him and rugged strong men secretly telling him of their idols and alliances. Malcolm is probably wondering just a little bit if he actually died in his frozen wet sleep in Matsing and that this is actually Heaven.

Denise was busy watching Dana puke her guts out.

It’s not long before the 80 pound blondie is tended to by the Emmy-Winning Jeff Probst, and begs for mercy. Because, you know, in America, when you’re hungry and starving and sick, there’s a camera and a medivac team to rescue you. #firstworldproblems. EWJP reassures her that “the pain is about to go away”, which was a little ominous for my tastes, but seemed good enough for her. Dawson introduces herself to America for pretty much the first time ever by wondering aloud “is now the wrong time to chat up Jeff Probst?” Yes, Dawson, it is. Nice to meet you.

Kalabaw decides to keep Denise’s losing streak alive by losing the immunity challenge, and I return to my cubicle chanting on behalf of my favorite player, who is clearly vulnerable as the new member of the tribe. But it’s quickly obvious that BaseballJeff, BlondeCarter, and ReturnerJonathan are happy with her contributions, and bring her into their alliance to take out the weak girls.

They send home Dawson, the Delusional Future Mrs. Probst, leaving her with mere seconds to leave a mark on America, and, apparently, on EWJP’s heart. He snuffs out her torch, and she tries to light his fire with a tender hug and a smelly cheek smooch. EWJP takes this in stride, which is why he deserves all those Emmys.

Stay tuned in next week to see if any more people try to kiss Jeff Probst!

Lorraine is a University employee by day, trash TV enthusiast at night, and equestrian nutcase all the time. She is wildly outnumbered by dudes in the house she shares with her husband Dan, cat Jeoffrey, and dog Reverend Trask.