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Reviews
The Walking Dead (2010)
So far, so good!
But lets see a full season of this show before we go too crazy about it! Lets look at we know so far, Rick and his family are searching for a safe place to live a world that is completely unsafe, sound familiar? It should be because its the world we all live in except its got zombie hordes instead of a savage world government or ruthless credit card debtors. Everything else is pretty much the same in that there is still criminals, rapists and crazy people. Somethings never change even when the government dies and the zombies take over.
While I enjoy the show so far I also feel like there might be some problems with the way the characters are being written. I get that its only been 6 episodes in but I feel as if it is lacking in some character development. I still only know who like 6 people are in the show because they haven't really established any back story or even explain who the other survivors are. If that is a plot device to make it seem more like Lost in that there are things happening that aren't fully explained or in this case not explained at all then I will stop watching because its a sign of lazy writing from the writers of the show.
My only other issue is that it doesn't follow the comic at all! Not that it should but I feel like drawing from the plot of the comic could do some good in terms of character development because the characters in the comic are awesome. If they don't introduce Tyreese (ex NFL player who kick ass and takes names) and Michonne (ultimate badass chick with a katana) in season 2 I'm probably not going to care about it anymore and just stick to the comics.
All that said there has never been a show like this before so I hope it continues!
Treme (2010)
I wish you weren't allowed to write a review for a new show until after the end of the first season
And yet here I am writing one anyways for the midway point of the first season. I must say after watching the first five episodes of Treme and watching the first five episodes of The Wire I actually like Treme better. In the first five episodes of The Wire only 2 main things are established basically crime and financial failure on a city wide scale. However, in the first five episodes of Treme a city at war with its self and its identity yet still trying to hang on. The cast was well picked and it doesn't feel like their acting it feels like their living trying to rebuild the city around them both physically and culturally. Already in the first 5 episodes you have rich character development. This is the best representation of what happened in the immediate aftermath of Katrina. I haven't even talked about the music yet because thats a whole other issue. I love the storyline with the chief! However, I am not wild about the storyline with the two street musicians (boy and girl), I just don't care where its going maybe because its the least believable part. I mean one junkie dude from the Netherlands and a classically trained rich chick who just decide to leave their comfortable lives in Europe and New York together only to find happiness in the squaller of Katrina? I mean I'm all for creative story lines but man it seems like their characters are just written in to get more white women to watch the show because their story is soooooooo romantic. By far this show has the best music I've ever hear of any non-animated series hands down. Love New Orleans jazz! Love it! By the way whats with the bad reviews from all the soar limeys? Do you not like New Orleans or just the fact that there isn't enough chalk lines? This show has the meat in it to match The Wire and maybe top it. Come back and talk to me about this show at the end of 5 seasons.
Parks and Recreation (2009)
Will it last?
I can see exactly how this show was pitched to the Execs over at NBC: Okay, picture The Office set in the rural Midwest in a small town's rec dept. with some funny take-charge go-getter Asian chick as the main character. Then all the Execs chime in, "Well let me just stop you right there and say I'm really feeling the main character as being more of a funny take-charge go-getter blond woman...but the rest is good okay?" Well as you know the rest is history.
Fortunately, the funny take-charge go-getter blond woman role got taken by Amy Poehler who is probably my personal favorite female comedian and has been for a long time. I have loved Amy Poehler since I first saw UCB and being the only female cast member she more then held her own. Since joining SNL in the earlier part of the decade she has been one of the very few bright spots of that show. Now that she has her own show we shall see what she does with it.
Of course being that its Amy Poehler's show and that any show she's on almost always has at least one episode with her equally hilarious husband Will Arnett I was expecting greatness. However the show has seemed to follow the original pitch which was a Guvmint version of The Office. While I love the Office and I really like this show I want it to be different enough so that when I'm watching new episodes of both on NBC I don't get them confused (Since they're on back-to-back).
I do like the rest of the cast though, Aziz Ansari probably my favorite new stand-up comedian other than Nick Swardson in the last 3-4 years and the weird relationship between the intern and the shoe-shiner is pretty silly.
All in all I'll be happy if this show is on for another 2 seasons.
Community (2009)
After watching most of the first season I really like it
I love the cast of this show, I loved them in the pilot and I love em even more now.
I just wish the show wasn't on network TV because network comedies tend to become redundant after a few seasons; Family Guy, Friends, The Office, The Simpsons, Scrubs, etc. Plus network shows rarely push the envelope once they have formed an established fanbase. However I do think this show will be good for at least another 2-3 seasons because of the strength of the cast alone.
So far my favorite characters on the show are Abed and Pierce although any of the scenes with Abed and Troy are gold. My favorite episode so far was the Goodfellas parody where Abed becomes the chicken finger kingpin.
Honestly, I hope that this show doesn't run for the next decade and die a slow death I have too much respect for the cast.
The Whitest Kids U'Know (2007)
A step in the right direction.
I saw this show a few years ago and didn't really think much of it. I figured it was just another sketch comedy show trying to exploit what Kids in the Hall made funny 20 years ago (When gay jokes were still funny).
Recently I was house-sitting at a friend's home who had a crap ton of extra channels that I normally don't watch including IFC. So while doing some laundry I turned on IFC and they were running a The Whitest Kids U'Know marathon or something cuz I must have watched about 7-8 different episodes in a row. I gotta say this show grew on me like a dirty warped fungus.
I come from the school of Monty Python and Kids in the Hall so I know good sketch comedy when I see it. I grew up on shows like Mr. Show and UCB which are 2 of the best sketch comedies let alone comedies in general. While The Whitest Kids U'Know isn't as well put together as those other shows a lot of the jokes are great and the overall portrayal of woman as being as crazed bitches is like a breath of fresh air given all the PC network and Disney shows out there preaching comedy equity. Not to say this show is perfect but its refreshing to see a new sketch comedy out there.
By the way SNL hasn't been funny since 1995 or really closer to 1993 after Mike Myers and Adam Sandler left. So if your going to base your opinions of any sort of comedy off SNL in the last 10 years please do yourself a favor and crawl out from under the rock you've been under all this time.