aziz ansari-related stories
Posted Oct 23rd 2009 3:02AM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: TCA Press Tour, Episode Reviews, Parks and Recreation
(S02E06) No more pit! I figured that the giant hole would eventually be filled in, but I had a feeling that it would take much longer than this. But after only 12 episodes of the entire series, Ann now sees a dirt lot when she looks out of the window of her home. Oh, progress.
Speaking of progress, I haven't been the biggest fan of Andy, but I enjoyed him in this episode. Before, when he turned up, it was mostly just to show how pathetic he is, but this week, in addition to that, he actually helped move the plot along in a big way. He gave up $100,000 for Ann, which honestly, seems like a terrible idea to me. I understand that he's in love with her and all, but there's no guarantee that she's going to get back with him, and a hundred grand is a hundred grand, you know?
Continue reading Review: Parks and Recreation - Kaboom
Posted Oct 16th 2009 2:10AM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Parks and Recreation
(S02E05) Wow. I cannot wait to see what you guys have to say about this episode. I've been of the opinion that
Parks and Recreation started off shaky, but consistently got better until the season finale, which is when I truly became a fan. Then, the first four episodes of this season were not only hilarious, but allowed the characters to grow and develop.
And then this episode happened.
I really want to give the benefit of the doubt to shows I like, so I'm just going to say that, hey, maybe there's a really important, deep message about Venezuelan/US relations that I just did not get. That is why we had 30 minutes of
Fred Armisen insulting both America and really, the people of Venezuela simultaneously. Yeah, that's the ticket.
Continue reading Parks and Recreation: Sister City
Posted Sep 25th 2009 2:20AM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Parks and Recreation
(S02E02) This week's episode wasn't as great for me
as the premiere was in terms of story, but there was still some really nice character development. I mentioned last week how it was nice that Leslie was becoming more than a one-dimensional bumbling fool, and that continued this week. People are actually treating her as a person instead of just someone to mock.
Some of the best comedy in
Parks and Recreation has come from Leslie and Tom's interaction.
Aziz Ansari and
Amy Poehler are the funniest people on the show by far, so every time they get together is golden. What was so great about this episode though, is it wasn't just Tom making fun of her. The stakeout gave them the opportunity to get to know each other as people, instead of just annoying co-workers.
Continue reading Parks and Recreation: The Stakeout
Posted Sep 18th 2009 1:10AM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Parks and Recreation
(S02E01) Parks and Recreation started out kind of slowly for me in its first season,
but by the time we got to the finale, I was totally hooked. Going into the season two premiere, I had a good feeling they would keep up the momentum. This good feeling was confirmed in the cold open, when Leslie (
Amy Poehler) started rapping the DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince classic, "
Parents Just Don't Understand," nearly unprompted, accompanied by Tom (
Aziz Ansari) on beatbox. All of a sudden, I loved this show.
What's beginning to make this show great (other than late 80s rap, of course) is that Leslie is finally becoming more than a one-dimensional figure. For whatever reason, she fell into the same trap that Michael Scott was in when
The Office premiered. When a character is nothing more than a bumbling fool, he or she quickly becomes boring.
Continue reading Parks and Recreation: Pawnee Zoo (season premiere)
Posted May 15th 2009 12:18PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Parks and Recreation
(S01E06) Ah, so that's how they're going to do it. While the pit was still the underlying thrust of the episode, the stories were more about the characters and relationships. And realizing even more what a big dumb sap Mark is. It's really more a testament of Leslie's own insecurities and issues that she's so hung up on him because he is even more lame than Tom. At least Tom is charismatic and charming, in his own creepy way. Mark is just creepy, a lot older than he seems to think and kind of a doofus.
Continue reading Parks & Recreation: Rock Show (season finale)
Posted May 8th 2009 1:28AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Parks and Recreation
(S01E05) Man, Leslie Knope is a dope. But Tom is the bomb! Okay, I'm sorry. There's no excuse for that kind of crap. Still, though, Tom was hilarious in his speech to Leslie's mother, who will always be
Jericho's Gail Green to me, at the banquet. Certainly it was smoother than Leslie's. But then Ron's speech of facts was better than Leslie's painful attempt at name-dropping.
It's amazing that Leslie and her mother are related, considering how vastly different they are. Her mother is shrewd and calculating, and clearly willing to muck around in the dirt to further her own agenda (i.e. a politician), while Leslie is an optimistic do-gooder who's more heart than smart ... oh crap, I did it again, didn't I?
Continue reading Parks & Recreation: The Banquet
Posted Apr 24th 2009 5:02PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Parks and Recreation
(S01E03) I know I said last week's episode was titled "The Reporter." That's what the online sources had and it was supposed to be the second episode. Instead, the scheduled third episode "Canvassing" was bumped up and that's what we saw as episode number two.
(Ed. note: I fixed the title on the previous post - Joel) This happens in TV land all the time, though it's odd to do it on a six episode series that has a sort of progression. Still, I should have been more vigilant and kept up with it. If I could just convince the upper brass at the networks to CC me on these kinds of decisions!
The only hint I got that these were aired out of order was early on this episode when Ann talks about how Leslie put together a committee in less than a week (which was in the first episode) and how this was her first experience with government. There was no mention of "last week" and the disastrous town hall meeting ... because technically it hasn't happened yet.
Parks & Recreation time travel! I guess it's just too tempting for the suits to futz with the air order of new series.
Continue reading Parks and Recreation: The Reporter
Posted Apr 17th 2009 12:25AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Parks and Recreation
(S01E02) Tonight, we move forward on the next step in Leslie Knope getting that pit replaced with a beautiful park. Look at that,
Parks and Recreation doubles as a primer for how local government gets things done. It almost makes me want to get involved and make a difference in my community. Almost. It also makes me wonder about the quality of people in my local community. Somehow I can imagine people like Tom and Leslie working there.
It looks like things are going to move pretty slowly on this show, despite only a six episode run. I guess with the pit project being the only major plot, there's not much else to do. I hope they have a Plan B if they get picked up. All we got was the team canvassing the neighborhood to gauge reactions to the project and then an impromptu town hall meeting where everyone could voice their opinion. And that went about as well as you might expect; remember the last meeting Leslie ran.
Continue reading Parks and Recreation: Canvassing
Posted Apr 10th 2009 12:36AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Parks and Recreation
(S01E01) While at its heart, and based on its creators (Michael Schur and Greg Daniels of
The Office), you can't help but compare
Parks & Recreation to
The Office. They both film in that mockumentary style, they both feature clueless leads, and they have some of the same comic sensibilities. But how many multi-camera family sitcoms were on the air back in the '80s?
Seinfeld and
Friends clones in the '90s? Crime procedurals in the '00s?
It doesn't matter if a show shares similar traits with another if it has a voice all its own. And as I indicated in my
"Early Look" of Parks & Recreation, they even use the documentary-style camera work differently. But the real difference for me is in the work of Amy Poehler.
Continue reading Parks and Recreation: Make My Pit a Park (series premiere)
Posted Apr 8th 2009 5:12PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Early Looks, Reality-Free, Parks and Recreation
First there was talk of a spin-off of
The Office. Word was that Amy Poehler was attached. Then we got the notion that Rashida Jones may just reprise her role of Karen in that spin-off. And then it became
Parks and Recreation. The show follows the exploits of the Parks Department in a small city in Indiana. So our spin-off went from more office politics to ... well, politics. But Amy Poehler is here. And while Rashida Jones is on board, it's not as Karen.
Still, the comparisons are going to be inevitable. Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, who are both key parts of
The Office team, created this show, it airs right before
The Office, and both are shot in that mock documentary style. Then you have Poehler's lead role as Deputy Director Leslie Knope. She appears to be as oblivious to the world that truly exists around her as Michael Scott is on
The Office, but more in a naively optimistic way than a narcissistic asshat way. As Jones' character Ann Perkins describes her: "She's a little doofy, but she's sweet."
Continue reading Parks and Recreation -- An early look
Posted Jan 28th 2009 10:05AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, Scrubs, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S08E05) After four episodes that have ranged from the pretty-decent to the almost-classic, we start this week's double-shot of
Scrubs with the season's first real clunker. Which is odd, because you'd think the presence of everyone's
Sesame Street favorites in J.D.'s fantasies would have made for a funnier show. But I'm starting to wonder if it's becoming less funny because it's nothing we haven't seen from this show many times before.
Continue reading Scrubs: My ABC's
Posted Jan 15th 2009 11:33AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Industry, OpEd, The Office, TCA Press Tour, Casting, Reality-Free
For a variety of reasons, I decided to not go to the Winter edition of the TCA press tour. So far, my choice to stay in frigid Jersey has been justified; not much in the way of big news has come out of the tour, and it seems like the networks are very happy about that.
However, if I
was there, I would have apparently
received the pilot script to the new Amy Poehler-led sitcom that's being written and produced by the folks from
The Office, as Rob Owen of the
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette did yesterday. He revealed some details about what the show's going to be about, and they're... interesting.
The show will be shot documentary-style like
The Office. In it, Poehler plays Leslie Knope, who is, according to Owen, a "mid-level bureaucrat in the Parks and Recreation Department of Pawnee, Indiana." She works with a local nurse (Rashida Jones) to turn a construction site into a park, and has to battle the usual local-government nemeses at every turn, including those "traffic and noise" complainers and a town official (Aziz Ansari). All the while, she's followed by an intern (Aubrey Plaza) that she hopes to inspire.
Continue reading Details of Poehler's Office "spin-off" finally revealed
Posted Jan 6th 2009 10:02PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, Scrubs, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S08E02) As I mentioned in
the review for "My Jerks" and my
season eight preview, if you want to see a perfect example of what
Scrubs has done so well over the years, look no further than this episode. It's a deft mix of comedy and drama, with emotion mingling with character-based jokes that move the story along instead of interfering with it. It's the kind of episode that makes people like me believe that the show has something left and buy into Bill Lawrence's suggestion that the show is going to get back to basics and keep the silliness to a minimum.
Continue reading Scrubs: My Last Words
Posted Jan 6th 2009 9:32PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, Scrubs, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S08E01) It's interesting how much attention
Scrubs gets from us TV-loving types, considering how little attention it gets from everyone else. Why is it?
Well, partially it's because of Bill Lawrence and the cast, who have been entertaining to cover and very press-friendly. But mostly,
it's because of the comedic potential the program showed over it's first couple of years, which included the ability to go from comedy to high drama in an instant and make it look easy.
The eighth(and final?) season premiere was more comedic than dramatic (the second episode of the night, "My Last Words," demonstrates this balance quite well), but it showed that Lawrence was serious when he told critics that he was going to dial down the silly and get back to what made people like the show to begin with.
Continue reading Scrubs: My Jerks (season premiere)
Posted Nov 11th 2008 1:54PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Scrubs, Early Looks, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
A lot of people -- fans included -- wonder how
Scrubs has managed to get to an eighth season. After all, things weren't breaking its way at the end of what was supposed to be its seventh and final season: the writers' strike truncated the season, its network (NBC) no longer wanted the show, and, though the writing quality had picked up by the time the seventh season was cut short, it had declined enough that even the show's most ardent fans were wondering if it was time to put the show out of its misery.
But thanks to the efforts of Bill Lawrence and ABC Studios,
Scrubs does live on, this time on ABC. And, after viewing the first two episodes of the new season, I'm happy to say that going to an eighth season was worth it. Lawrence told me that
he wanted to get back to the humor and storytelling basics of the early seasons, and the episodes I saw show evidence of that.
Continue reading Scrubs season eight - An early look
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