Tag Archives: TV

2 Broke Girls, S3E21 “And the Wedding Cake Cake Cake”: A TV Review

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I had written this entire intro prior to watching this episode about how we should probably start readying ourselves to bid Deke adieu. The show had been moving towards him and Max breaking it off with no hope of reconciliation for some time. That and the fact that Eric Andre’s joining FX’s upcoming comedy Man Seeking Woman as one of the main cast. Altogether it seemed to point towards us not having much longer to enjoy the presence of one of my favourite Blewish [that’s half-Black half-Jewish] comedians.

This is literally the last time I’m going to bring up the rom-com narrative style that has permeated the show basically ever since Deke showed up [first mentioned back in Episode 13]. He and Max have had their ups and downs, but it all came to a head last week when his parents decided to cut him off completely. When last we saw our heroines they were on a mission to push Deke’s dumpster house clear across the city in order to reconcile him with his folks, trading his relationship with Max for financial stability and overall a better life. Continue reading

2 Broke Girls, S3E20 “And the Not Broke Parents”: A TV Review

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Here’s something regular review readers don’t get from me very often: I wish this episode had been longer. After what was basically a filler issue last week [and one that seriously had me picking apart Han’s place on the show] this Monday night had us returning to the narrative that this half of the season has built itself around: the pastry school and Max’s relationship with Deke.

That’s right, Eric Andre is back after his character had the flu and went on a skiing trip. Every move this show has made so far, including the mild inconvenience that was Max finding out he was wealthy, has pointed towards him sticking around. She’s not one for relationships or even trusting others, and the way they’ve grown closer has made it seem like nothing short of death/something truly dramatic could break them apart. So this week the two girls meet Mr. and Mrs. Bromberg [as in the Bromberg Elevators, the ones that are in every building in the city, as in the Bromberg Colo-Rectal Centre at the New York Hospital].

Continue reading

What Do We Want From America [In Terms of Diversity]?

As I was walking around doing errands yesterday I began to muse on one of my favourite topics: diversity in media. While this could’ve been a very pleasant stroll on an afternoon that felt much more like spring than winter, my mind felt the need to challenge itself with a question I’m sure often leaves the lips of those who are sick of “having diversity crammed down their throats”: Why is the US held responsible for all of this? 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

Farmed and Dangerous, S1E4 “Ends Meat”: A Web Show Review

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We open up with the last Buck Marshall ad we’ll ever see, the IFIB rep. letting us know that shows like the one we’re about to see “worry the public about the dangers of industrial food production.” The issue with this, of course, is that “[their] research shows that worry leads to stress and depression, which is detrimental to your health.” That’s actually great to know, since I was worried going into the season finale.

Last week’s installment was extremely shaky, scoring points for being informative and funny at the same time but ultimately failing when it came to raising the stakes [ironic given the episode title]. Things ended with Chip in jail believing that Sophie had stabbed him in the back, and so things start with him sitting in an interrogation room. A promising enough beginning, I suppose. Continue reading

Farmed and Dangerous, S1E3 “Raising the Steaks”: A Web Show Review

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This week we have an ad courtesy of Chip Randolph, who states that although this show is poking fun those involved hope that it “helps to start an important conversation about industrial agriculture.” Then Buck Marshall and Mick Mitcherson throw tomatoes at him that are rock hard, because “that’s how [they] engineer them.” A pretty funny start to a lacklustre twenty-two minutes.

It is with a heavy heart that I must break the news that Farmed and Dangerous‘s third episode is very easily its worst, and it’s heartbreaking if only because so much is riding on it. With a four episode season this is the installment where things were really supposed to ramp up, I mean, just look at the title. Unfortunately the poop doesn’t quite hit the propeller, or at least not with the gravity you’d expect.  Continue reading