TVSquad

(S02E22) I need to pay more attention to the opening credits, because I had no idea Kelsey Grammer directed this episode. You can see a video of Grammer talking about it here.

First of all, I loved how Chris' dad thinks everything can be fixed with duct tape. Who knew Julius and Red Green had something in common?

This episode had me, and then it lost me. When Chris decides to final exact revenge on Caruso, I was all set up. This was going to be yet another great episode of a series that never relies to heavily on sitcom conventions for its humor, but by the end, that's exactly what the episode had done. I'm sure a bunch of cats being turned loose in a school might work on a lesser show, but it's an idea that seems way too "sitcom-y" for a show like Chris. Also, isn't the show supposed to be based, at least somewhat, on Chris Rock's real childhood? What school did he attend that would allow him the ample time he needed to set up such an elaborate prank?

(S02E21) Boy, did this episode speak to me.

Like Chris, I've never been very good at math. This is an example of how my brain tries to solve a basic math problem:

Problem: x + 9 = 18 - 2x

My Brain: I haven't had Corn Flakes in a long time.

See? It's like it doesn't even try. If numbers are involved, my brain pretty much shuts down and starts playing elevator music. Perhaps if I had been offered pizza like Chris' class I would have done better, but I doubt it. At least Chris had some outside help from his mother and grandmother. I also had outside help from a tutor, but despite her efforts, she just couldn't get through to me.

(S02E02) I still love this show, so let me get one minor negative thing out of the way right now: is it just me, or did the character of Rochelle, Chris' mom, seem like a real bitch in this episode? I understand she's a high-spirited "ghetto snob" with a tendency to overreact, but this is the first time watching the show when I actually started to dislike the character. When Julius comes home from the doctor and tells her he has high blood pressure and needs to find ways to reduce stress, she goes off on him about the fact that she's the one who's stressed, not him. Julius, as always, just goes along with it, not wanting to exacerbate the situation. Typically, this dynamic is hilarious, but in this episode it just didn't work for me, and Rochelle just came across as cruel while Julius seemed like more of a milquetoast than usual. Of course, another way to look at it is that I'm becoming more involved with the characters, which could be seen as a good thing. Like everything else, it's all in how you frame it.

(S01E22) The season finale of Everybody Hates Chris wasn't exactly a laugh riot, and it may have even relied on a few sitcom cliches, but nevertheless I thought it was a good way to end the season. A nice and poignant tribute to fathers and Father's Day.

All Chris' father Julius wants is to be left alone for Father's Day. As the elder Rock explains in the beginning, Mother's Day has always outranked Father's Day in order of importance. Of course, most dads really don't mind that at all. If they can have one day when they're not being asked for money or to fix things around the house, they're content. In fact, that's exactly what Julius wants, to have the house all to himself for one day.

I remember briefly receiving an allowance when I was growing up, but for the most part I never received any kind of weekly stipend from my parents, nor did I ever ask for one. It was pretty much understood when we were growing up that money had to go to more important things like food and shelter, and like Chris' father in last night's episode, on those rare occasions when I would ask for money I would get a speech from my father about all the free food and utilities I was able to enjoy on a daily basis without having to work at all.

Chris' father, in some ways, reminds me of my own father, but he's probably like anyone's father who worked more than one job to support a family. There's a great moment in the episode where Julius (Chris' father) is trying to squeeze the last little bit of toothpaste out of the tube. It's shown for about two seconds, but it illustrates how important it is for him to make money stretch as far as it can go. When Chris decides he wants a leather jacket like everyone else seems to have, his father lets him come to work with him. The work turns out to be much more difficult than Chris bargained for, but their night together adds a new dimension to their relationship. By the end of the episode Chris has a better understanding of who his father is and how hard he actually does work.

Last night's episode seemed more character driven and less reliant on "gags" than other episodes, and it also focused heavily on the financial situation of the family, which is what really draws me to the show. Too many sitcoms focus on affluent families, or people who live extravagantly without any visible means of support. Those shows aren't bad necessarily, but when I watch Everybody Hates Chris I feel a kind of empathy and camaraderie toward the characters I never felt, say, listening to Mr. Huxtable steer the ever-malleable Theo on the right track with some instantaneous words of wisdom. Chris is funny, not just because the writing and jokes are solid, but because the characters actually feel like real people.

Last night's episode of Everybody Hates Chris was a rerun, so I didn't watch it. However, I did tune in for the last few minutes and noticed something I didn't catch when I watched it before. The family is sitting around the table, and Julius, the father, who works several different jobs, is wearing a pair of overalls with the name "Overlook Hotel" over the left pocket. Would that be the same fictional Overlook Hotel in Stephen King's novel The Shining? What exactly was his job there, cleaning up the blood every time the elevator doors opened? I thought it was pretty cool, though I'm not sure what the point was exactly.