Tag Archives: Luis

2 Broke Girls, S3E11 “And the Life After Death”: A TV Review

lifeafterdeath
I had a lot of good will towards this show saved up from last week’s episode, but you would be surprised how quickly that started draining when I found out what this one was about. See, the most significant death in my life has been my grandmother’s, and while the deceased in this case was Caroline’s nanny just thinking about it made me pretty uncomfortable. 2 Broke Girls is not a show with a great deal of tact, and I was pretty apprehensive going into things-

But you know what? It was a pretty decent episode across the board, and one that actually felt short, which can be a mark of a show that’s moving along in an entertaining way. My fears about how they would tread death turned out to be unfounded, so touché, 2 Broke Girls writers’ room. Continue reading

2 Broke Girls, S3E10 “And the First Day of School”: A TV Review

ITSMARKITSMARKWHAAAAAT

Mark from Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23Mark from Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23Mark from Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23Mark from Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23Mark from Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23

I could care less about anything else right now, but I suppose I have standards to maintain, so let me begin by stating that last week’s episode, “And the Pastry Porn”, could have easily been a mid-season finale. It ushered in a new era of 2 Broke Girls episodes that rounds out the cast, changes up the premise, and feels like an entirely different sitcom. Continue reading

2 Broke Girls, S3E9 “And the Pastry Porn”: A TV Review

pastryporn

You know how I’m always whining about how this show has no momentum as far as its story and how all I really want is for the characters to head in basically any direction? It’s like this entire episode was written to make me shut up already.

We start things out with this week’s zaaaaany character of the week, a one-armed maid named Paulina. I expressed some pretty heavy disdain with the fact that Max and Caroline would ever hire a cleaning lady, but the idea that Sophie cut them a good deal by assigning them an amputee was actually pretty funny. Continue reading

2 Broke Girls, S3E8 “And the ‘It” Hole”: A TV Review

ithole

If there is anything that 2 Broke Girls excels in doing it’s creating outlandish characters. Whether it’s Dennis Endicott III, the self-proclaimed Thrift Shop Scout and Brooklyn’s Crazy Kitsch Genius [“And the Window of Opportunity”], Cronut Craig the black market baked goods dealer [“And the Cronuts”], or the simply-named Catherine, who had altogether too many cats [“And the Kitty Kitty Spank Spank”], these are individuals who stick with you in how truly zany they are.

This episode the girls’ travels to the latest restaurant, Harlow and Daughters, whose likely Mumford-and-Sons-inspired title aside is the setting for two brand new eccentrics. There’s Brian-Brian, the gay waiter in fashionably[?] old-timey garb and, one of my all-time favourites thus far, York the drinks waiter. It’s just York. “York as in York.” Continue reading

2 Broke Girls, S3E6 “And the Piece of Sheet”: A TV Review

pieceosheet
I had written this whole intro about how 2 Broke Girls is so slow to address trends while they’re still hot [see the Kickstarter and cronuts episodes] because I saw the above promo pic with Oleg twerking, but I’ve just finished the episode and didn’t see a single twerk. That’s all mildly disappointing, somehow.

Last week in the Stray Observations I promised that I’d share a “theory” with you about Max, and in thinking on how to write about it I realized that it’s not so much a theory as it is a strange realization about the character. To put it simply, we’re constantly regaled by the show about what a terrible childhood Max had and how promiscuous she is now, but none of that is ever backed up. In this episode she jokes about losing NuvaRing birth control in the lettuce, but when’s the last time she actually had sex on the show? Certainly not so far this season. As far as I can remember not at all last season . . . Continue reading

2 Broke Girls, S3E5 “And the Cronuts”: A TV Review

cronuts

I’m not going to bore you all with the same  old “this show has lost its premise” talk again; we’re past that, it is now the topic that shall not be named. What I do want to focus on, however, is how much this show appears to struggle with conflict. There’s a simple formula in sitcoms [and every other form of media] that goes as follows: (a) a problem arises, (b) that problem is solved. I cannot boil it down any simpler than that. I obviously don’t speak for everyone, but for most viewers what’s really important is what happens between those two points.

Let’s take this episode and view it through the formula above:

(a) The words “Cupcakes are so over” spell out doom for the girls’ business, and they must find a way to make their product appealing once again.

(b) Max’s tendency to dip french fries in frosting leads to “Cake Fries” which are a huge hit both flavourfully and monetarily.

That on its own is really not a problem. I’m always going to be down for an episode of television that revolves around chimeric foodstuffs [though adding too many parts lead to disaster], but as mentioned it’s not so much the end result as it is the journey that takes us there. Continue reading