Sitcoms - Two Broke Girls and New Girl
Sep. 21st, 2011 10:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatNot quite sure why this is - but I always have more energy between 7-11pm, then between 7-3pm, when I need it. Probably lack of sleep?
Watched more tv...
*Hawaii 5-0 Premiere was better than last year's episodes, but not good enough to keep me interested. It's a show you can dip in and out of. Will state it's better than it was in the 1970s.
James Marsters barely had a role, blink, and you miss him (or go to the toilet and you miss him), but Terry O'Quinn and Masoki (from Heroes) appear to have recurring roles and will be used more often. So tempting. But...no, not really into this type of show. Burned out on that trope back in the 1990s. I honestly think the cop procedural was at its best in the 1980s/1990s - with shows like Prime Suspect (British Version), Miami Vice, Wise Guy, Hill Street Blues, and Homicide Life on the Street. The only series I've seen that broke it wide open and rewrote the book on how it should be done was The Wire.
But Hawaii 5-0 is fun.
*Two Broke Girls - bugged me exactly as predicted. I spent the whole time saying - uh, no, subways don't look like that anymore, no, that's not realistic, no, that's an exaggeration, and damn it no wonder people in the midwest have a skewed view of NYC and Brooklyn. This thing is supposed to take place in Greenpoint - but the subway line into Greenpoint is the G train and the art director used a beaten down C from somewhere in the Bronx, that had tons of graffiti, which no, not the case anymore. What they couldn't find a train with yellow and orange bucket seats?
Also, people from the upper East Side do visit Brooklyn - unfortunately. My area is gentrified and they are there all the time. Greenpoint and Williamsburg are also up-and-coming hoods. The areas that aren't safe are further out - such as Crown Heights and East NY.
That said? It's not bad. Off-rhythm in places, and the delivery seems a little off. But at least sixty percent of the jokes are about something other than sex, lack of sex, which guy I can land, and the opposite gender. Also the women talk about something other than men. Actually there's more jokes about local (which annoyed me because they are such stereotypes...although the bridge and tunnel joke was on target), workplace, and money. Which is to be honest far more realistic. Very few people in real life talk about sex as much as people on television sitcoms do, which makes me wonder about these writers.
This brings me...to the critical darling, and in my humble opinion much over-hyped, Zooey Deschanel tv show: The New Girl - which I frankly could not make it through and consider unwatchable. It makes Three's Company seem rather funny and unoffensive in comparison, something I never thought I'd say. Actually, Three's Company rarely did sex humor, it was fairly tame. It was more of French Farce.
Every single joke in the New Girl was either about sex, getting sex, need for sex, gender issues,
men, women, being nerdy girl and not a pretty model who can land guys. Or sex humiliation humor.
Which makes me wonder about the television critics. All the one's who loved it were men, and they
all thought the series was "feminist" and strongly focused on women. (Ooookay. Apparently we have different definitions.)
Seriously, is it just me or are about 75% of the sitcoms on tv right now either focused on Sex or Bad parenting or Practical Jokes/Humiliation?
Where's the workplace comedies of the 1970s and 1980s and 1990s, that did not focus on these topics? The only ones' we have are documentary style comedies. And they are also far too focused on physical humor. There's no "wit". I miss Murphy Brown, Cheers, MASH, Barney Miller, Taxi (one of the best comedies EVER), Mary Tyler Moore, News Radio, WKRP in Cinncinati, Benson, Night Court, Mad About You, SOAP, Fraiser, Cybil...can't people write witty and subtle comedy any longer? Without making me cringe every other episode? Ugh.
I'm also starting to miss Sex in the City, Mork and Mindy, Laverne and Shirly, Roseanne, Family Ties, Wonder Years, Golden Girls, Different Strokes, Popular, Three's Company, The Ropers, Square Pegs, and Happy Days...which is decidedly odd.
I've decided my generation sucks at comedy writing. Of course I thought they sucked at it when I was in college and high school with them, so this is no surprise. (One of the guys I went to college with writes comedies.)
Outside of maybe Community and Big Bang Theory...with the occasional episode of The Office, Parks and Recreation, 30 Rock and Raising Hope...there isn't much. And even those lack something the others had - a depth, a sense of reality, a resonance. A warmth. I don't care about these people, mostly I just want to strangle the writers.
Although some of the focus on sex comedy may well be a reaction on the whole prudish period that came before. Now that they can talk about these things on tv (we used to not be able to) - they've gone insane. Europe must be laughing at us. It's a like a bunch of kids who suddenly don't have any restraints and well anything goes...Sigh, people are such extremists.
Watched more tv...
*Hawaii 5-0 Premiere was better than last year's episodes, but not good enough to keep me interested. It's a show you can dip in and out of. Will state it's better than it was in the 1970s.
James Marsters barely had a role, blink, and you miss him (or go to the toilet and you miss him), but Terry O'Quinn and Masoki (from Heroes) appear to have recurring roles and will be used more often. So tempting. But...no, not really into this type of show. Burned out on that trope back in the 1990s. I honestly think the cop procedural was at its best in the 1980s/1990s - with shows like Prime Suspect (British Version), Miami Vice, Wise Guy, Hill Street Blues, and Homicide Life on the Street. The only series I've seen that broke it wide open and rewrote the book on how it should be done was The Wire.
But Hawaii 5-0 is fun.
*Two Broke Girls - bugged me exactly as predicted. I spent the whole time saying - uh, no, subways don't look like that anymore, no, that's not realistic, no, that's an exaggeration, and damn it no wonder people in the midwest have a skewed view of NYC and Brooklyn. This thing is supposed to take place in Greenpoint - but the subway line into Greenpoint is the G train and the art director used a beaten down C from somewhere in the Bronx, that had tons of graffiti, which no, not the case anymore. What they couldn't find a train with yellow and orange bucket seats?
Also, people from the upper East Side do visit Brooklyn - unfortunately. My area is gentrified and they are there all the time. Greenpoint and Williamsburg are also up-and-coming hoods. The areas that aren't safe are further out - such as Crown Heights and East NY.
That said? It's not bad. Off-rhythm in places, and the delivery seems a little off. But at least sixty percent of the jokes are about something other than sex, lack of sex, which guy I can land, and the opposite gender. Also the women talk about something other than men. Actually there's more jokes about local (which annoyed me because they are such stereotypes...although the bridge and tunnel joke was on target), workplace, and money. Which is to be honest far more realistic. Very few people in real life talk about sex as much as people on television sitcoms do, which makes me wonder about these writers.
This brings me...to the critical darling, and in my humble opinion much over-hyped, Zooey Deschanel tv show: The New Girl - which I frankly could not make it through and consider unwatchable. It makes Three's Company seem rather funny and unoffensive in comparison, something I never thought I'd say. Actually, Three's Company rarely did sex humor, it was fairly tame. It was more of French Farce.
Every single joke in the New Girl was either about sex, getting sex, need for sex, gender issues,
men, women, being nerdy girl and not a pretty model who can land guys. Or sex humiliation humor.
Which makes me wonder about the television critics. All the one's who loved it were men, and they
all thought the series was "feminist" and strongly focused on women. (Ooookay. Apparently we have different definitions.)
Seriously, is it just me or are about 75% of the sitcoms on tv right now either focused on Sex or Bad parenting or Practical Jokes/Humiliation?
Where's the workplace comedies of the 1970s and 1980s and 1990s, that did not focus on these topics? The only ones' we have are documentary style comedies. And they are also far too focused on physical humor. There's no "wit". I miss Murphy Brown, Cheers, MASH, Barney Miller, Taxi (one of the best comedies EVER), Mary Tyler Moore, News Radio, WKRP in Cinncinati, Benson, Night Court, Mad About You, SOAP, Fraiser, Cybil...can't people write witty and subtle comedy any longer? Without making me cringe every other episode? Ugh.
I'm also starting to miss Sex in the City, Mork and Mindy, Laverne and Shirly, Roseanne, Family Ties, Wonder Years, Golden Girls, Different Strokes, Popular, Three's Company, The Ropers, Square Pegs, and Happy Days...which is decidedly odd.
I've decided my generation sucks at comedy writing. Of course I thought they sucked at it when I was in college and high school with them, so this is no surprise. (One of the guys I went to college with writes comedies.)
Outside of maybe Community and Big Bang Theory...with the occasional episode of The Office, Parks and Recreation, 30 Rock and Raising Hope...there isn't much. And even those lack something the others had - a depth, a sense of reality, a resonance. A warmth. I don't care about these people, mostly I just want to strangle the writers.
Although some of the focus on sex comedy may well be a reaction on the whole prudish period that came before. Now that they can talk about these things on tv (we used to not be able to) - they've gone insane. Europe must be laughing at us. It's a like a bunch of kids who suddenly don't have any restraints and well anything goes...Sigh, people are such extremists.
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no subject
Date: 2011-09-22 03:12 am (UTC)Oh, me too! I thought the main character was absurd. We're supposed to think she's kooky and adorable, I found her grating and possibly mentally challenged. Worse than that though was that I never found it to be at all funny.
I know nothing about NYC but I more or less agree about 2 Broke Girls. Not great... but better than New Girl.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-22 02:49 pm (UTC)Exactly. "adorkable"? More like humilating caraciture (which I can never spell) of someone who is nerdy.
Makes me want to send the writer and tv critics the DVD set of Community and
Big Bang Theory - which have nerdy socially awkward characters, as does Glee, but aren't asburdly offensive.
There's also something about the Deschanel sisters - both have very "mannered" acting styles that grate on my nerves.
(There are other actors who have "mannered" styles - George Clooney and Eliza Dusku...but they don't annoy me nearly as much for some reason.)
no subject
Date: 2011-09-22 07:09 pm (UTC)This girl fell on the floor while putting on high heels... and just laid there. Didn't realize that overalls aren't appropriate to wear to a nice restaurant (or anywhere since the early 1990s). How on earth does this pixie-lite creature survive out in the wild? The thing with Sheldon, Amy Farah-Fowler, and Abed is that though they may be nerds... they're not stupid. In fact they're quite intelligent. That did not come across at all in New Girl. She just seemed...dumb.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-24 04:08 am (UTC)As is Sheldon. I've met people like this, I know them. And the humor is not "at them" but with them. We are laughing with them. They are in on the joke.
It's not humiliation humor.
The reviewer over at Asking the Wrong Questions puts it very well - she called the New Girl - "Three Men and A Special Needs Person" - with an aggravating emphasis on how the guys guide this poor kooky, yet pretty girl to socially acceptable behavior - much like Pgymallion. While in The Big Bang Theory, the women, who are nerdy, are capable and smart. Emphasis isn't on "looks". Everyone doesn't look like they are a model. It's relateable.
Same deal with Community - Annie in Community is an excellent example of how Zooey Deschanel could have played this role. Kooky but realistic.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-22 03:25 am (UTC)And even those lack something the others had - a depth, a sense of reality, a resonance. A warmth.
This is a good point -- and that's coming from someone who ADORES a lot of the comedy that's on now, more so than basically anything from the past. Because the thing is, I like my comedy very meta, very satirically edgy (to the point of very much skirting the line of offensiveness, sometimes), very harsh -- and that's what this generation does better (IMO) than past generations. And they aren't doing it on the big four, for the most part, because it's not a mainstream way of doing comedy. I love Community and Parks and Rec and have a fond spot for HIMYM, but beyond that my favorite comedies right now are on FX (Archer, Louie, Wilfred, It's Always Sunny) and occasionally Adult Swim (Venture Brothers).
And those shows? They often aren't deep (their humor is layered and referential, but in many cases their characters are intentionally shallow), they uniformly aren't realistic (their humor comes from parody -- of other genres, of people), and very few of them are warm. The ONLY one that resonates in a realistic way is Louie, which is depressing as hell and more or less not actually a comedy.
That kind of humor -- I think of it of Seinfeld on speed, with various elements (the horribleness of the people, the weirdness of the plots, the intentional parody of everyday life) turned up to 11 -- is something this generation rocks at, IMO. But what mainstream sitcoms are trying for -- comedy with heart, comedy that comes from likable characters in every day situations? Yeah, I agree that very few of them hit the mark, in a way that didn't used to be true. And it's too bad, because not everyone wants to watch a show where the episode title "Dennis and Dee Go on Welfare" seems perfectly in character.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-22 12:15 pm (UTC)Personally? I find this kind of comedy at times, can lack subtlety. I love satire, but I prefer it subtle, not where I can see it coming from a mile away.
Seinfield handled sublety better.
And there's also South Park, Family Guy (more parody than satire - which I'm not a huge fan of, parody doesn't always work for me, because it can be overly broad, but Family Guy's Star Wars was fun), The Simpsons (also more parody than satire), Colbert Show (pure satire - and possibly the best satire on tv right now).
At any rate, you are correct the only decent comedies are on cable at the moment. But previous writers excelled at the edginess as well, Taxi - managed to wed the two - with the awesome Andy Kaufman. Taxi was the percursor to most of the series you mentioned, yet actually, shocking, I know, made the characters real and somewhat likable. As opposed to merely punch lines.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-22 08:34 pm (UTC)'Up All Night': total unfunny dud, I thought it would be better.
'Free Agents': a keeper... I hope. I tuned in for ASH (I do love having Tony Head on my TV) and I found the writing to be funny and the characters interesting. They were very concerned with sex... but actually they were more concerned with getting back into dating after a divorce (which is a real problem, you're stuck in a time warp from before you got married...). Anyway you might enjoy seeing ASH too!
My main sitcom enjoyment will be from Big Bang and Community.... I trust those shows to have something interesting happening.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-23 01:02 pm (UTC)'Free Agents': a keeper... I hope.
Had exactly the same response. I'm seriously starting to wonder about these television critics. The tv critics hated Free Agents, but LOVED Up All Night, 2 Broke Girls, and The New Girl. (Are the critics on something?) I've seen all four, and the only watchable and half-way funny sitcom was "Free Agents". Sure it stretches the believability envelope with all the sex and dating jokes at work (we discuss it but not to that degree and you wouldn't - in this day and age, although maybe they do in the television/entertainment industry? No wait, I sort of halfway worked in that industry - you don't.) But Hank Azaria carries it off...as did ASH. It's not over-the-top. Also there's potential that it could become a Mad About You or New Radio or something along those lines. The comedy is a little more subtle and a little less forced than the other three.
The critics are not only unreliable, I think they may be certifiable. ;-)