Past Purges
The Middle "Unbraceable You"
The "Year of Sue" is off to a bad start. Well, sort of. She finally gets her braces off. Until they pointed them out, I almost forgot she's had them for the entire run of the series (Six seasons! When did that happen?). Sue sans braces gave the best recurring joke of the episode: Axl trying to insult her and being unable to. In fact, without the braces, I noted that it was going to be a lot harder to make Eden Sher look unfortunate. Of course, being Sue and this being The Middle, her teeth quickly get fucked back up. I get tired of the show shitting on Sue, so I was pleased that it was all resolved with her getting a retainer instead of needing to get the braces put back on.
Meanwhile, Axl and Mike dip into a familiar sitcom trope: son finally beats father in a sport. It's surprising that it took this long for Axl to beat Mike, considering their ages and the established fact that Axl is a talented athlete (specifically in Basketball). I wasn't very impressed with the story until the end, where they sidestep the standard ending in which the two have a heart to heart about how their relationship is changing, in favor of having all that be implicit to the situation and teaming them up against the neighbors.
Brick doesn't get much to do. Shocking, right? He did get my favorite line of the episode though: "Yesterday I was offered something by some guy called a stoner".
Overall, a great start to the season for a show that I appreciate more and more the longer it's on.
Modern Family "The Long Honeymoon"
Yes! That's it! That's a Modern Family I'd enjoy watching every week. Three stories of varying silliness that don't rely on a mutual disdain between the characters .
The Tucker-Pritchetts: I'm up for any story in which Cam and Mitchell's problem is liking each other too much. Cam is trying his hardest to keep the honeymoon going and Mitchell is finding it hard to appreciate. This is all big and broad until they have a conversation about it. I laughed at the idea that the past year has been a storybook year for them (I can think of multiple episodes to disprove that from last season), but the heart was in the right place and the story ends on a sweet note, with neither man undercutting things with a last catty remark.
The Dunphys: This was a cartoon of a plot. When I talk about this show sharing DNA with Frasier, this is what I mean. The Dunphys are having a perfect summer without Alex around. Simply seeing all the way things are going right (Phil eating the plums) was funny enough. Eventually, Alex does return and things quickly go to shit. And, her ability to ruin things is specific enough that just her leaving the house regains the harmony. I very much enjoyed the quick shifts in tone by all the Dunphys when she would leave or enter the house. The required resolution ends up being that the perfect summer wasn't so perfect after all, and while Alex may not be the most fun person in the family, she has perhaps the most value. Or, as Phil puts it, without Alex they're "a family of firestarters, poison eaters, and online prostitutes."
The Delgado-Pritchetts: A very small story. Clearly the C-story of the week. It all centers around if Gloria dresses up for her or for other (namely, Jay). Honestly, I wasn't much of a fan of the story, as they've done similar things before with her, until the final beat, when, despite everything that just happened, the thing Jay focuses on is "All these years, you're telling me you could get ready that fast?"
I'm not surprised by this episode. Modern Family bookends seasons well. I'm trying very hard to only focus on what I like about shows because I don't want to be one of those people who sounds like he hates this stuff. With any luck, Modern Family will make it easy on me. We'll see. Solid beginning though.
Black-ish "Pilot"
I can see myself watching the whole fist season. It has a clear voice. Given the title and the pitch, I was worried it would be a "white people are evil" show and it's not that at all. It's more than that. It's more about remembering one's roots. I'll have to see how things get tweaked over time (less voice-over, please) as pilots rarely look exactly like the rest of the series. It's been a while since I've seen Anthony Anderson in a leading role, and I forget that I can really like him in the right role.
The Bridge "Quetzalcoatl"
I still haven't seen last week's episode. I'm still watching this, but I don't feel equipped to talk about it.
Parenthood "Vegas"
It's the last season. That's not something I like to think about. I'm just going to bullet point this episode:
-Amber is pregnant. That's going to be fun. It gave us a killer opening scene with her finding out and an even better close as she tells Sarah.
-About ten seconds or Drew and his girlfriend is all I need.
-Julia and Joel can't get on the same page. I still stubbornly refuse to believe those two won't end up together, so the sooner it happens, the better.
-Yeah, Haddie is still around. I've always liked Sarah Ramos, so they can keep her around for as long as they want.
-Now that the school is actually a thing, I'm not as annoyed by it. Short of Kristina's cancer coming back (we'll see if I'm right about that), I don't need any other adventures for her for the run of the series.
-Oh Zeek. You are such a good crochety old man.
-Let's just ignore the feasabilty of Adam and Crosby getting the Vegas so quickly.
-I'm glad that Sarah and Hank are still dating because it keeps Hank close enough to the Braverman circle to justify still following his story.
Simply put, I'm not ready for this show to end.
Girl Meets World "Girl Meets Crazy Hat"
The first half of this episode is the silliest and funniest the show has ever been. Officer Copper simply telling Maya he'd be very disappointed in her if she stole something, Maya being confused for trash, Farkle accidentally speaking Dutch and Spanish. There was a delightful pathos to the beginning. That leads to a redux of a Boy Meets World episode, tweaked enough to be something different. I gagged at the overly saccharine ending, but what are you going to do? It's still a Michael Jacobs show on the Disney Channel. That's inevitable.
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