trevor gagnon-related stories
Posted Nov 19th 2009 12:18PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S05E08) Ah, Dave Foley. His sad sack Tom has been good for a laugh more than a few times, and he was used to good comic effect again this week. In the double blind-date scenario with Christine and Richard, his counterpart was the lovely Jennifer Grey, real-life wife to Clark Gregg.
The New Adventures of Old Christine is a rare comedy in that it can work in guest stars like this without it detracting from either the ongoing character moments, or taking the spotlight away from the main cast. Too often when a show gets deeper into its run, like
Will & Grace in its final years, it becomes a cavalcade of celebrity guest-stars, as if the writers have run out of ways to keep things fresh with their own core group.
Christine has mixed things up just this season by breaking up Richard and New Christine and having Matthew move in with Richard in a swinging bachelor pad. And they shook it up again this week.
Continue reading Review: The New Adventures of Old Christine - Love Means Never Having to Say You're Crazy
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 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 9th 2006 1:35AM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, CBS, OpEd, The New Adventures of Old Christine
(S01E10) This week we find out more about what led to Christine and Richard's divorce. All along, Christine has been under the assumption that they both had their issues, but everyone else (including her couples' therapist and Wanda Sykes' character, Barb) thinks Christine is the one who ended it. Christine gets all upset but, in the end, her ex-husband tells her that the marriage was doomed and he didn't have the guts to end it, but she did. So, now we know. Oh, and Richard slept with the marriage counselor after they divorced. Did anyone else think that marriage counselor was actually a man, baby? Yeah!
Continue reading Old Christine: No Fault Divorce
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 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
Posted Mar 14th 2006 1:21AM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, CBS, OpEd, The New Adventures of Old Christine
Well, I liked it. I didn't LOVE it, but I'm
definitely on board. I got a lot of good laughs out of this episode, especially during the interactions between
Christine and her ex-husband, and Christine and the rich ladies at her son's school. And, I love how she found out
about her husband dating a younger woman named Christine.
There are sitcom-y (no, that's not really a word)
lines in the show that Julia doesn't really deliver. For instance, the line early in the episode when she told her son
to tell people he's "1/16th Native American" didn't really feel comfortable. It was a one-line zinger and
she's better than that. However, a little later, when dropping her son off at school and feeling out of place, she
nailed the line, "They're already looking at us like the project family the church sent over." So, hit and
miss with the funny lines.
Continue reading The New Adventures of Old Christine: Pilot
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