I’m pretty negative about most TV, but there seem to be more good shows lately than I have time to watch. That’s not really saying too much, though, because I don’t go out of my way to watch much TV, and I can barely remember to record my favorite shows so I can watch them on the treadmill.
At any rate, I thought I’d let you know about the shows I think are the cream of the crop in laughs lately.
Arrested Development
I can’t say enough great things about this show. After renting the first season from Netflix, Maggie and I were immediately hooked by the antics of the Bluths, a group of overgrown children trapped in a familial relationship with each other. Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman) lives in the deteriorating model home built by the Bluth Company to sell real estate and construction contracts.
The instability of the house itself is a metaphor for the family, which is more than slightly askew.But the cast of characters is both immature and vulnerable making them outrageous but also strangely endearing. The show is held together by the voice over work of Ron Howard. The narrator is there to tell us when the characters are lying, what they’re thinking, and to give you quick background info on each person when needed in the form of seconds-long flashbacks.
Each episode is an intricately woven story, usually with Michael learning something about himself and his family. Along the way, the jokes are nonstop. I have many ideas about why this show is so funny, but I don’t have the time to bore you with my amateur writer’s analysis.
Seriously, I think that if you haven’t been watching Arrested Development, you need to get your hands on it. We rented them from Netflix and were able to catch the second half of season 2. Because Arrested Development is in danger of not being renewed, I just ordered the AD Season 1 disks on the theory that Fox is considering DVD sales as part of whether they ought to run the show (this worked with Family Guy).
My recommendation: if you haven’t seen the show, watch the first 3 episodes on DVD and then you’ll know whether it’s your type of humor or not. My guess is, you;ll be hooked. For more detail, I refer you to this Arrested Development fansite.
Robot Chicken
On Sunday nights at 11:30, The Cartoon Network shows the approximately 11 minutes of inspired stop-motion action figure insanity that is Robot Chicken. Heavily relying on jokes from generations X and Y, this is an extremely frenetic show.
Some segments last no more than 3 seconds. The idea seems to be to cram as many crude jokes into 11 minutes as possible, but get in 2 longer segments in as well.
Robot Chicken is easily the funniest original 11 minutes that Cartoon Network has to offer these days. Yes, “Sealab 2021” is funny, and I get a chuckle from “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” but neither of those shows have the relentless pace of Robot Chicken.
From the fevered brains of Seth Green (Scott Evil, to you Austin Powers fans) and Matthew Senreich, Robot Chicken skewers the Transformers, Michael Jackson, Cannonball Run, He-Man, the Super Friends, and, of course, Cartoon Network’s own fans.
Often celebrity voices in the parodies are the actual voices. For example, a long segment lampooning the “this is your brain on drugs” commercial was voiced by the same actress, Rachael Lee Cook. Celebrity voices abound, including generous helpings of the cast of “Family Guy” (Seth MacFarlane, Mila Kunis, Alex Borstein). Listen carefully and you’ll hear Macaulay Culkin, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Topher Grace, Mark Hamill, Scarlett Johansson, Pat Morita, and Ming-Na (oddly, as Mary Kate Olsen).
Mark Hamill voices Luke Skywalker in one episode in a brilliant, short Star Wars parody of the famous “I’m your father” scene. In the parody, Vader goes on to reveal more and more of the secrets of the Star Wars universe (revealed in subsequent films) to an increasingly incredulous Skywalker, until Luke accuses him of not taking the situation seriously and walks out, disgusted. In seconds, they put their finger on something that has been bugging fans for ages.
Robot Chicken is worth a peek, if you’re up ‘till 11:30 on a Sunday night. Unlike SNL on Saturday night, if you don’t like it you’ve only wasted 11 minutes.
SNL
SNL hasn’t been great lately, but I just wanted to mention here that the Tina Fey/Amy Poehler combination on the news is definitely working. If you’re inclined to watch it, the news is still the best part, consistently, of SNL. But it’s still no “The Daily Show.” (The Daily Show is not on this list because, idiot I am, I am not watching it.)
Family Guy
I don’t have time to write a proper review of my favorite animated comedy, but since it’s coming up on Sunday, I have to mention Family Guy here.
Seth MacFarlane created something amazing. It’s an animated program with more pop culture references than The Simpsons and with a slightly more twisted sense of humor. Maybe it’s not fair to compare the two, but while I find The Simpsons funny, I find Family Guy laugh-out-loud funny every single time. Even on repeat viewings.
It’s the crazy characters. A dog that drinks martinis and once ran off to Hollywood to “find himself” but ended up working in the adult film industry? A baby who wants to take over the world and has an ambiguous sexual orientation? It certainly sounds strange. But I’m at a loss to describe why it’s funny. I think it’s because MacFarlane has created such vividly outrageous characters.
As with nearly every type of comedy, you need to subject yourself to it to know whether it’s for you. But I find that there is something in common among the shows I’ve listed here. A good knowledge of culture and an ability to both subtly and outrageously lampoon it. Also, there is a heavy overlap in the people involved. Robot Chicken and Family Guy both involve Seth Green, and they share voice cast. Amy Poehler is married to GOB (Will Arnett). There are regional connections. Poehler was born in Burlington, Massachusetts and Family Guy is set in the fictional New England town of Quahog, RI, though it also crosses over into MA from time to time. Seth MacFarlane grew up in this area.
So, we’re seeing some exceptional people working in bringing us laughs on TV lately.
Posted by James at April 26, 2005 7:26 PMI caught much of the first season of Arrested Development on TV and have to agree that its wicked funny. I find myself barely watching TV anymore though, largely due to my schedule. The only programs I watch for the most part are The Contender and SNL (which was really funny for a while but is going back to the dregs of repeated characters with catchphrases - though I still love the News).
I'm hoping the trend of putting shows out on DVD continues, because then I can just rent shows from Netflix. I am in the process of watching Freaks & Geeks on DVD from Netflix, and I have to agree with folks who say it is one of the best TV shows they have ever seen. I want to check out the second season of Arrested Development when it comes out, but frankly I'm not going to give Fox $60 for the privilege of doing so.
Family Guy is one of those wierd things where I loved it when it first came out and all of my friends hated it, now they all love it. Wierd. Same thing happened with Tenacious D.
Posted by: David Grenier at April 27, 2005 11:38 AMThe season 1 DVDs of Arrested Development are already less than $30 and Season 2 won't be on DVD until November (although there seems to be some dithering by Fox as to whether they've agreed to release it yet. I doubt they would fail to do so).
So, I'm guessing that the $60 you refer to is for buying both seasons?
In any case, I agree completely with you about TV DVDs. That's where I get most of my TV watching in nowadays. I don't have HBO, but I rented all of the Sopranos on DVD. I like the freedom of watching the next episode if I have it on the DVD.
Also, I just saw the first disk of Deadwood season 1 and now I have a new addiction. I have to rent the remaining disks.
One additional note about Arrested Development. By now it has a lot of inside jokes, but somehow they're hidden between the jokes everyone can enjoy. SOme of the inside jokes you won't get unless you're following what people are saying about the show.
2 standouts: There was a joke about the little ads you see at the bottom of your screen when you're watching a show. This joke refered to complaints about Family Guy ads on Fox that annoyingly appeared on Arrested Development episodes. It was funny if you didn't know about the complaints that fans raised, but it was hilarious to see them responding to how the network was using the screen space.
Another example is the recent reference to the blueprints of 4 houses at the end of season 2. Michael claims that the Bluth company had already produced these 4 blueprints. The narrator then explained that he was lying, they had not created the 4 blueprints, but they would have. Thos four blueprints are, presumably, a reference to the 4 episodes of Arrested Development that were never made because the season was cut short (some claim so that they could air American Dad after Family Guy this week and in subsequent weeks as part of a block of animated shows).
I'm sorry, but what a dumb move. I bet American Dad is going to be funny, but when we gather to watch the first new Family Guy next Sunday I will be wishing that Fox was going to air a new episode of Arrested Development. Sorry Seth MacFarlane -- there's gotta be room for both you and the Bluth family on TV.
The fact that Fox seems to pitting my two most favoritest content creators against each other makes this Sunday a slightly bittersweet TV comedy victory.
Posted by: James at April 27, 2005 12:13 PMMaybe these shows are funny to our generation in this area, because these people are from around here. Maybe it's our sense of humor.
I tried to explain Family Guy to my mother the other day. It sounded a lot like your description. Describing it to my mother, I heard it through her ears. It doesn't sound funny. I'm not sure why it's so funny!
Posted by: Maggie at April 27, 2005 1:48 PMYeah, it really doesn't sound funny.
Posted by: James at April 27, 2005 2:48 PM