emily rutherford-related stories
Posted Nov 12th 2009 12:35PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S05E07) I guess the fate of Marion Ross was handled off-screen, because Matthew and Richard are settling into her old digs, and she was nowhere to be seen this episode. Now that I think about it, though, she could be shacking up in Matthew's old digs out in the backyard. It would make for a pretty funny callback to have her character pop back up. Maybe even act as if Christine didn't even know she'd moved in back there.
I wasn't as impressed with the forced obligatory "we're different but now we're roommates" storyline for Matthew and Richard. Hopefully, now that it's out of the way, the writers have some ideas of some fun things they can do with the mismatched pair. In five seasons, we've not seen a great deal of interaction between them, but their differences could make for some good comedy.
Continue reading Review: The New Adventures of Old Christine - Nuts
Posted Oct 22nd 2009 3:28AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S05E05) This could turn out to be the single most important episode of
The New Adventures of Old Christine. Dare I say it was "a very special episode of"
The New Adventures of Old Christine? Oh, who am I kidding, things will never change, but isn't that why we love it.
It was a lot of fun seeing Eric McCormack as Matthew's mentor in therapy, as well as his office-mate. That's an easy way to set him up for a recurring role on the show for awhile. And they gave him a shady past, which is an easy way to write him off the show at a moment's notice.
He was there to give Christine someone new to bounce her craziness off of. I absolutely loved their first scene together. Christine all hopped up on diet pills from the '70s, dressed like
Maude and working as a temporary fill-in as Matthew's secretary. Every week Julia Louis-Dreyfus cracks me up with just how undignified she's willing to look for this role.
Continue reading Review: The New Adventures of Old Christine - Dr. Little Man
Posted Oct 8th 2009 3:27AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S05E03) I don't think it's giving anything away to say that the entire cold open to this episode of
The New Adventures of Old Christine was done in the nude. I kept expecting Daniel Radcliffe to come traipsing through Christine's bathroom door. And for the record, I don't think I'd ever be comfortable enough around any ex to be able to have a normal conversation with both of us completely nude.
I've been a fan of this show since the first episode, and in all honesty, as we're sitting here in the fifth season, I'm surprised every year that it comes back. Not because I don't think it's a good show, but because it never has a huge audience and it seems to fly completely under the radar. And I say that with Julia Louis-Dreyfus having been nominated for her work on
this show.
Continue reading The New Adventures of Old Christine: The Mole
Posted May 23rd 2006 2:02AM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, CBS, OpEd, The New Adventures of Old Christine
(S01E13) I adore Julia Louis-Dreyfus. She really turned on the charm in this episode. It had the perfect combination of physical comedy and... facial... comedy. What do I mean by that? Louis-Dreyfus' face is so expressive. I guess that's physical comedy. Anyway, this was definitely my favorite episode of the season. It even had some Matthew and some of the 'meany moms'.
Continue reading Old Christine: A Fair to Remember (Finale)
Posted May 23rd 2006 1:31AM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, CBS, OpEd, The New Adventures of Old Christine
(S01E12) This episode had a great twist, didn't it? Christine is tired of feeling like an outcast with the rich mommies who don't work. She finally finds a friend who drives a Prius, is divorced, and works for a living... and it turns out her new friend is the maid for one of the 'mean moms' (by the way- that's one high-priced maid if she can afford a Prius).
I really felt humiliated for Christine when she was visiting her maid-friend at the mean mom's house. She was forced to serve drinks and make hummus for the 'mean moms' while her maid-friend had sex with her boss' wife. Yikes! It was a nice, clean ending with Christine having justification for dropping her new friend.
Just an OK episode for me. I did enjoy the jokes about Christine's cheap $60 haircut and her $40 shoes. And, the whole Portugal bashing was laughable.
Posted May 16th 2006 2:32PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, CBS, OpEd, The New Adventures of Old Christine
(S01E11) Darnit, CBS! The schedule says
Old Christine starts at 9:31 but the network keeps starting it early, so my TiVo always cuts off the first joke of the episode. Maybe I'll start caring enough to change my TiVo to a manual start at 9:30.
There were two good things about this episode: Matthew (Hamish Linklater) and the box office guy. I missed the first joke from Matthew, but I did dig the game where he had Christine guess what people in the obituaries were asking for 'in leiu of flowers'. I sure hope the writers make more use of Matthew when
Christine returns for season two. And, the guy in the box office did a bang-up job with his scene. He played the sarcasm very well, making Christine think she can get into the Rolling Stones concert at the last minute-- not once but twice. That could've been played over-the-top but he took a more even approach to it.
Continue reading The New Adventures of Old Christine: Exile on Lame Street
Posted May 2nd 2006 5:47PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, CBS, OpEd, The New Adventures of Old Christine
Well, this episode totally aired out of order. Ritchie
hasn't met old Christine? Hello? Is anybody at the network even
watching this show? Ritchie, Richard and new
Christine all went to a movie together
two episodes back. I think
this was meant to be the second episode of the series.
It felt like the second episode of the series,
anyway. The one-liners were uncomfortably delivered and old Christine was still having issues with new Christine and
her husband dating. I thought we were way past that. And, I actually really felt bad for old Christine in this episode,
with her son being so excited about his sugar-filled "fun" day with new Christine.
Overall, I say
this episode was... eh. I'm not sure why the network held onto this one for May ratings but it wasn't a stellar edition
of this show. I much prefer the
Supertramp episode where
Christine ends up sleeping with Andy Richter, or when she tries to
combat racism at her son's school and it
backfires.
Posted Apr 25th 2006 10:12PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, CBS, OpEd, The New Adventures of Old Christine
(S01E08) This week,
Christine decides to stick it to the rich parents by throwing her son Richie a traditional birthday party complete with
balloons, banners, crafts and potato salad. Of course, the kids think the party totally sucks because there weren't any
celebrities like Teri Hatcher or Kelly Clarkson there. Luckily, the kids end up having an impromptu treasure hunt for
all the crap Christine has stuffed away in nooks and crannies around her house and they go home happy (and at least one
of them with Christine's bra).
Continue reading Old Christine: Teach Your Children Well
Posted Apr 18th 2006 10:11PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, CBS, OpEd, The New Adventures of Old Christine
(S01E07) Ew! That title is
gross! Especially because we all know 'Stan' is really Andy Richter with a moustache. *shudder*
I was very
thankful that this week's episode wasn't about the pet rat that Christine brought home from Richie's classroom. I
kind-of expected the story to go along the lines of losing the rat or the rat dying. Why, exactly, was that rat even in
the story? Just for the one joke about it staying the night? That's an awful lot of set up. Anyway, that's why I
appreciate this sitcom. It doesn't go the direction of other sitcoms by dealing with stupid problems like a lost rat.
Instead, it deals, in a very funny way, with big issues like loneliness.
Continue reading Old Christine: A Long Day's Journey Into Stan
Posted Apr 11th 2006 9:13AM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, CBS, OpEd, The New Adventures of Old Christine
(S01E06) This week Christine
is on a mission to make her son's private school more racially diverse. She doesn't really know anything about civil
rights issues but why should that stop her? So, she sponsored a black family to get into Richie's school.
I
was happy to see that Christine brought her brother Matthew along on her dinner date with her "black family",
as she calls them. Matthew's always good for a laugh, like when he touts Christine's voting record by saying that she
voted more than 200 times in the
American Idol finals last year. Obviously, Christine's token "black
family" was going to turn out to be a nightmare and, sure enough, the dad lands two big, offensive remarks about
homosexuals (the F word). So, she gets a gay couple to offset the "black family's" bigotry. Of course, the
two men say they don't like all the Jews at their child's former school. So, instead of diversity, she has introduced
hate to her son's school.
Continue reading Old Christine: The Other F Word
Posted Apr 4th 2006 10:27AM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, CBS, OpEd, The New Adventures of Old Christine
Fat joke
within the first minute of the show. Arrrgh!
Other than that, this was another great episode. This week,
Burton is putting pressure on Christine to introduce him to her 8-year old son but Christine isn't comfortable. Even
though I saw it coming from miles away (because they always pull something like this every episode), I still chuckled
when Christine was teasing her boyfriend from the other side of the door and then she turns around and her family is
watching. I think I was laughing more at Christine's grocery store/sex metaphor than anything else.
Continue reading New Adventures of Old Christine: I'll Show You Mine
Posted Mar 28th 2006 8:07AM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, CBS, OpEd, The New Adventures of Old Christine
I am so tired of the fat jokes that Christine
constantly makes about her body. She's fit. She owns a gym. She's tiny. Shut up, already. The show is funny enough with
out that whole woman's-poor-body-image-thing.
Finally, we get to see a lot more of Christine's ex-husband,
Richard. It turns out he's jealous of Christine's new boyfriend. Hypocritical? Oh yes, considering he is dating a
28-year old woman, also named Christine. And he's been flaunting young Christine in front of old Christine for the last
few episodes.
Continue reading Old Christine: One Toe Over the Line, Sweet Jesus
Posted Mar 21st 2006 2:23AM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, CBS, OpEd, The New Adventures of Old Christine
Yeah! Wanda Sykes! We've been seeing her in previews for
Old Christine since before it launched and this
week she finally made her first appearance. She played Christine's friend, Barb, of Barb and Pete. And she didn't have
much of a role, did she? Well, hopefully she'll get some more appearances because she is one funny lady.
This episode, Christine let Barb set her up on a blind date. When she arrives at the restaurant, she meets a man she
thinks is her date, and nervously admits to him that she got a Brazilian wax and it "feels like I slid down a
sandpaper banister." Funny stuff. He admits that he got a salt scrub, ahem, down there. And then it turns out
they're not set up with each other after all. Christine's real blind date ends up being a short man without any social
skills, but with a phobia about eating food that other people have touched. The other guy's date is Barbie.
Continue reading The New Adventures of Old Christine: Open Water
Posted Mar 14th 2006 2:17AM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, CBS, OpEd, The New Adventures of Old Christine
This episode was definitely better than the
pilot. There was only a tiny bit of interaction with her son in the beginning and, to tell you the truth, I think
that's what made the difference. In the pilot, she behaved like she had only just met the little boy and not like she
gave birth to him. There was no familiarity there. This episode had fewer kids, more adults, sex, and... Andy
Richter!
In this episode, Christine realizes she hasn't had sex for three years. So, she tries to figure out
how to go have a one night stand. It turns out there aren't any singles bars anymore, and the best place to meet a guy
is at the grocery store.
Continue reading The New Adventures of Old Christine: Supertramp
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