Movies, books, tv
- Thread starter zeke4ahs
- Start date
We do! Sadly, I’m involved with Love Island right now. Doubt it will be seeing Emmys. Was happy to see my fav The Last of Us get so many nods. Acting in it was phenomenal.
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anon_6hv78pr714xta
Guest
Have people been watching the Bear? I'm late to it but halfway through the first season. Pretty good.
Yes, it has been my 2nd favorite after Lasso. The main guy is great, but the cousin steals it got me. Pretty much the way Roy Kent was my favorite on Lasso.
Might as well wait for season 2 to get closer to dropping. And with the strike the production is completely halted. So late 2024 or early 2025. Unless you just wanna watch it again like The Rest of Us.
I saw an interesting article that got me thinking. The list for Emmy for best comedy is formidable, The Bear, Ted Lasso, Abbott Elementary, Only Murders, and Barry are all wonderful programs.
The thing is, not a one of them is a comedy. It seems to me that if the body count stays in single digits, it is considered a comedy.
None of these shows are primarily funny, heck, The Bear is seldom funny.
Now comedic shows can be serious. If he were alive, Larry Gelbart would hunt me down like a dog for saying this, the first 3 seasons of MASH had a lot of hilarious moments and dealt with serious issues. Gelbart hated that MASH had any connection to comedy and fought CBS hard to get the laugh track removed.
After Wayne Rogers left, MASH switched. It became about following people we like put in an impossible situation. Comedy occasionally happened but humorous became the norm for levity.
That is what the shows above are. I love Ted Lasso, it is way up on my list of favorite shows ever. It had some laugh out loud moments, but largely it was watching this fish out of water that we like try to cope. It largely strove for humorous, smile at the antics but don't spit out your coke in uncontrollable laughter.
Am I wrong, is true tv comedy still out there? I am talking scripted tv shows, not skit comedy, not improv, not standup
The thing is, not a one of them is a comedy. It seems to me that if the body count stays in single digits, it is considered a comedy.
None of these shows are primarily funny, heck, The Bear is seldom funny.
Now comedic shows can be serious. If he were alive, Larry Gelbart would hunt me down like a dog for saying this, the first 3 seasons of MASH had a lot of hilarious moments and dealt with serious issues. Gelbart hated that MASH had any connection to comedy and fought CBS hard to get the laugh track removed.
After Wayne Rogers left, MASH switched. It became about following people we like put in an impossible situation. Comedy occasionally happened but humorous became the norm for levity.
That is what the shows above are. I love Ted Lasso, it is way up on my list of favorite shows ever. It had some laugh out loud moments, but largely it was watching this fish out of water that we like try to cope. It largely strove for humorous, smile at the antics but don't spit out your coke in uncontrollable laughter.
Am I wrong, is true tv comedy still out there? I am talking scripted tv shows, not skit comedy, not improv, not standup
Season two is supposed to also be fantastic but it's starting out slow as hell. The GF literally started snoring halfway through the second episode.
I'm happy for Abby Elliott who plays the sister, Sugar. Thought she was really talented on SNL but was overshadowed by Wigg, McKinnon, Strong and I don't think was ever promoted into the main lineup. She's an amazing impressionist.
She's a third generation comedy performer (Bob Elliott of Bob and Ray is her grandfather and Chris Elliott of many weird/shock comedy characters is her father) even though this is more of a serious role.
I thought once 2 got going it did great. But I do think it is more character development for the minor characters than season 1, by far. That does slow it down.
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anon_6hv78pr714xta
Guest
I've laughed more out loud at Barry and the Bear than most sitcoms. I never laughed much at Ted Lasso, even though I loved the show.
Curb Your Enthusiasm is kind of my go to when I just want 30 minutes of observational and cringe comedy. I like that unlike most shows these days, you can randomly pick any Curb episode and enjoy it as it's pretty much self contained.
More SNL trivia, JB Smooth who plays Leon on Curb was on SNL for a couple of seasons mainly as a writer who supposedly owned the pitch table and everyone agreed was the funniest guy in the room, hands down....but his bits were more stand up comedy bits vs drawn out sketch bits and he naturally swore so much that they were scared to put him in live sketches.
Supposedly it was Fey that told Larry David of his unbelievable inprov and natural comic timing who would fit in perfectly for the Curb style (no written dialogue, just outlines and guidance of the episode) and boom, a career and classic character was made.
Oh yeah. Love it. Just finished second season.
I think of all those, Abbott Elementary is the only one that is really a comedy.
Silicon Valley on MAX is great. 30 mins eps.
Two and Half Men is still fantastic for low brow hucks (especially the first few seasons)
I have Parks and Rec queued up as I've never seen it.
Barry, which I absolutely love mainly cuz I love Harder, has such a Coen brothers dark comedy style.
The whole set up is hilarious. Hit man's target is a good looking but terrible actor trying to make it in LA and taking classes by a blackballed serious actor with a huge ego....joins the class and wants to be an actor, even though he's a stone cold killer with zero emotion.
It allows the show to mock the LA scene in every which way with this insane set up.
Stephen Root is absolutely perfect as Fuces. Obviously Anthony Carrigan created an incredible character in Noho. He's like if Al Capone grew up as an LA liberal.
That being said, to Marv's point, the show is about a violent hit man caught up in the west coast mafia trying to get out so he can be an actor....that's hard to keep the comedy going on such a dark show. It's like if Breaking Bad had more dark humor (BB has a lot of humor as does Better Call Saul) but eventually it's gotta resolve the story which is dark and serious in nature.
I detest Two and a Half Men, but every guy I know liked it. Must be a guy thing. Parks and Rec is good. Veep and Arrested Development still good. If I want a 30 minutes laugh, it’s usually Curb , The Office , or Seinfeld. Marv is right. It’s been awhile since we’ve had just a classic comedy.
For me Parks and Rec really struggled season one as it was a carbon copy of the office. Ron was the only thing that was fresh and new.
They subtly rearranged things in season two, borrowed more from the Andy Griffith playbook and made Leslie the hub that kept the department together which allowed for the exterior characters to shine and carry the comedy load, if that makes sense.
She went from clueless Michael Scott in the first season to more Andy Griffith and it found it's identity and soared. IMO of course.
It's also fun to watch Chris Pratt evolve from a fat loser to getting in shape to be an action movie star. The original goal was to end up with him slowly falling up each season to eventually be the mayor, but it ended too soon.
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anon_6hv78pr714xta
Guest
Modern Family and Brooklyn 99 were the last two good straight-up sitcoms.
One more SNL tidbit.
Sudeikis wanted to be a performer on the show but was put on the writing team. He struggled to get on. During the Tom Brady episode the musical guest was Beck and in rehearsal he had a 'hype' man on stage with him that was just dancing next to Beck.
Sudeikis was a skateboarder/break dancer as a kid and started imitating the hype man....and everyone lost it! He was originally in a sketch in a parody of the super bowl shuffle and the writers told him during the second part of the sketch (the story is Jim McMahon breaks away and does a solo project) that he should dance around Tom Brady.
Which again killed and got him on the stage.
Later on he obviously became a legend with his dancing man in a jogging suit on the What's Up with That sketches.
Then obviously Ted Lasso starts and ends with him dancing iconically with his team.
In an interview Sudeikis said something to the effect 'I've trained with the groundlings and have been around comedy writing my entire life. I had no idea that learning to breakdance with my friends as a kid would be so critical to my career'.
Lol
I think those two sound right, though Modern Family ran out of steam the last couple years.
The article, I haven't looked for it again, compared all the current shows to The Office. I can see that, but I always found The Office more of a comedy, "I am 99% sure that was not the real Ben Franklin".
Someone took the Napoleon poster that says "He came from nothing and conquered everything" and made it factually correct. "He came from a relatively privileged background and conquered 2% of the Eatth's land mass". My guess is that one won't sell as well.
Can't remember if it's been mentioned before but the GF is making me watch Jury Duty and it's been pretty hilarious so far.
It reminds me a lot of Parks and Rec.
The set up is one real guy agrees to be part of a documentary about the jury duty process in LA but the reality is it's a fake trial, fake doc and everyone is improving. Like if punked met Parks and Rec.
James Marsden is on it playing himself, well playing an arrogant and completely narcissistic version of himself. Reminds me a ton of Ryan Reynolds humor (who would be more perfect) but James gets to make fun of the fact that he's been in everything but has never really been a lead.
Anyway, it's got me laughing pretty hard so far.
Apologize if it's been brought up before (I think it has).
It reminds me a lot of Parks and Rec.
The set up is one real guy agrees to be part of a documentary about the jury duty process in LA but the reality is it's a fake trial, fake doc and everyone is improving. Like if punked met Parks and Rec.
James Marsden is on it playing himself, well playing an arrogant and completely narcissistic version of himself. Reminds me a ton of Ryan Reynolds humor (who would be more perfect) but James gets to make fun of the fact that he's been in everything but has never really been a lead.
Anyway, it's got me laughing pretty hard so far.
Apologize if it's been brought up before (I think it has).
The 2% he conquered was probably some of the most difficult 2%. It's not like he was invading Siberia.
I might have brought it up. I’ve been telling everyone I know to watch it. The actual guy who didn’t know about it has become something of a sensation. He kind of made the show. Happy it and Marsden got a nomination. Some of the writers from the Office worked on it.
Thanks for bringing it back up, after I saw your post we watched episode 1 and found it really good.
I can't get enough of the Thom Yorke looking guy who's basically the AI creation of a gen z hyper liberal male created by information gathered by conservative dudes description of a liberal young male.
Is immediately one of my all time favorite, quirky side characters just three episodes in.
I'm almost certain you did. The GF was demanding that I start it with her and the name was familiar so I'm guessing it was brought up in this thread before.
Watched first three episodes of Jury Duty tonight based on all of your recs. Freaking hilarious! Haven’t laughed out loud that much in a while.
Oh, and Cody’s a boy’s name.
Oh, and Cody’s a boy’s name.
I got my pink dress for the release of the Barbie movie. Know you guys are all counting down the days….
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anon_6hv78pr714xta
Guest
I think so, but it has some sexual inuendo, mild drug talk, etc. I don't recall any significant amount of foul language. This might help:
Jury Duty TV Review
Middling jury spoof has cursing, innuendo, smoking. Read Common Sense Media's Jury Duty review, age rating, and parents guide.
www.commonsensemedia.org
Watched first 2 episodes. Very funny. The whole part where the guy tries to say he was racist to get out of jury duty was awesome.
I was wondering how many people really try that.
Are you to the sex episode yet? It’s hilarious….I think so, but it has some sexual inuendo, mild drug talk, etc. I don't recall any significant amount of foul language. This might help:
Jury Duty TV Review
Middling jury spoof has cursing, innuendo, smoking. Read Common Sense Media's Jury Duty review, age rating, and parents guide.
