Tag Archives: Matthew Moy

2 Broke Girls, S4E5 “And the Brand Job”: A TV Review

brandjob

Consider the placard in the image above to be fairly representative of my views of this episode: things are looking up for 2 Broke Girls. No, this episode didn’t feature Han gloating over his ability to both ride a bicycle and maintain an erection [no easy feat], but it did bring the focus of the show back to what it ostensibly should be. That’s right, we’re finally back to watching Max and Caroline try their darndest to make some money.

That’s always been one of my favourite things about the show, because, well, the struggle is real. Now granted, I say that as someone who had free room and board at his grandfather’s while he spent months unemployed, but I bought gluten-free pasta recently because it was on sale for cheap and that stuff is not good. My personal financial state aside, the journey of two young women doing their best is a compelling one, plain and simple.

Now you’d think that upon discovering that she’d been shanghaied into attending a seminar called “Business Bump” Max would-

-leave forever, never to return-

right after making a joke about teen pregnancy, and you’d be half right.

Continue reading

2 Broke Girls, S4E4 “And the Old Bike Yarn”: A TV Review

oldbikeyarn

I’m not going to lie to you [and honestly, I don’t think I never have in these reviews], but this episode was as shaky as Max’s first attempts to ride a bike for the first time ever. Luckily for you, and for me, if I’m being honest, I can see the silver thread of yarn in every horrific knitted street art installation. With those very appropriate references aside I actually think this marks a positive turn towards giving the secondary cast a little more of the spotlight.

Max and Caroline’s plot revolves around the latter trying to teach the former how to ride a bike, and like I said in the first sentence it is rough. Running with the idea that deliveries will help them add an additional surcharge to their $5 cupcakes [already pretty steep, if you ask me], Ms. Channing steals a bike from out front and puts her plan in action. It’s when she realizes that she is sweating-enough-to-smell-like-Greek-food-out-of-shape that she realizes she needs to instruct Max in an important life skill. Regardless of how I chose to describe it, it’s far from riveting stuff. Continue reading

2 Broke Girls, S3E23 “And the Free Money”: A TV Review

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Hoo boy. I try, I really do try, to keep in mind that the original direction and focus of the show has changed, but you want to title an episode “And the Free Money”!? 2 Broke Girls writers room, please, I am begging you.

It is fine to have a cold open which revolves around the girls paying their bills and doing shots. Ain’t nothing wrong with that, not for a second. The issue is that Caroline tells Max [and us] that there are “only a couple bills to go and only $149 to pay them.” Ms. Channing, that could not be further from the truth. At the end of the last episode you had $2,614. Continue reading

2 Broke Girls, S3E19 “And the Kilt Trip”: A TV Review

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Right at the end of 2011 Todd VanDerWerff, who I unofficially inherited these reviews from after Pilot Viruet passed the torch, wrote an article on the AV Club discussing how some shows on TV existed as “Nice places to visit”.

While the initial focus was on dramas he turns to sitcoms and describes how he divides them into two categories: “shows that aim for greatness and try to push the boundaries of the form, and shows that just want to create a bunch of characters that are fun to hang out with.” Happy Endings is my personal benchmark for the latter, with Parks and Recreation coming a close second. It’s not to say that neither show exhibits good writing [both do, in their own ways], more that they’re half hours of television in which viewers can relax, content to spend time with characters who are familiar and comfortable to them.

2 Broke Girls appears to want to be one of these shows. Continue reading

2 Broke Girls, S3E16 “And the ATM”: A TV Review

andtheatm

After so many weeks where the focus of this show has been decidedly anything but what the title implies we have an episode that is all about the Benjamins. Last time we were with Max and Caroline the snarky one had found out that her boyfriend [yeah, things were getting serious] Deke was a rich kid. Cue the feeling of betrayal, brace yourselves for the emotional fallout.

Her decision is to break up by breaking into his dumpster house and taking back her toothbrush and her second favourite gnome, Gnomosexual, both clear signs to Caroline that this relationship might actually have a pretty decent foundation. Even though Deke catches her in the act and speaks to the heart of her actions [“you’re too big a babypants to tell me you’re breaking up with me”] her reason is unassailable: the rich and poor don’t mix.  Continue reading

2 Broke Girls, S3E15 “And the Icing on the Cake”: A TV Review

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I don’t know if I made it clear last week, but I really like Deke’s dumpster house. It evokes the whole Tiny House Movement that’s going on which actually helps make it appear less cartoonish, and it also proves just how much I loved The Boxcar Children when I was younger. All that being said, the prospect of there being a wine and cheese party in such a small space just oozes with promise, sort of like how the garbage outside of Deke’s place oozes with . . . other things.

In the hands of a more capable director and more creative writers, I’m ideally thinking the crowd from fellow CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, the majority of this episode could’ve taken place in the green dumpster no problem. There were so many interactions to work with, what with the whole diner crew plus Deke and Chef Nicolas and Bebe. Unfortunately the focus was pulled to the two title and the Pastry Schoolers don’t really mix in with the Dirty Diners [those are their gang names now and I stand by them]. Continue reading