Delayed Reaction: Rugrats in Paris: The Movie

The Pitch: People really loved that first movie. Let's make another and put it in Paris because...we can.

What Took Me So Long: I aged out of Rugrats slightly by the time the movie came out and it was harder to find on TV than the original movie.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) Perhaps the best episode of Rugrats was the Mother's day episode. It goes down with the Futurama episode with Fry's dog as an animated series episode that can bring a grown man to tears. After the introduction of Dil was a hit in the first movie, getting Chuckie a mom is a no brainer for the second. There's plenty of the standard Rugrats mixed of humor: broad and physical for the kids with a few that fly right over their heads, aimed to remind adults that it's better than, say, Barnyard. The move I was pleased by was that when the already too soon wedding with CoCo fell apart and Chas fell for Kira, they didn't turn around and finish the ceremony with her. Instead, they set that wedding at an undisclosed time in the future.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: Rugrats at its best is about everyday things as seen through the fresh eyes of infants. Rugrats in Paris had the babies controlling a giant, mechanical Reptar that terrorizes the streets of Paris. In the attempt to make something fitting of a movie screen rather than a TV screen, they took away the charm of the series.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend

Delayed Reaction: The Prince of Tides

The Pitch: Barbara has a book she wants to direct. I mean, a script. She has a script she wants to direct.

What Took Me So Long: Why wouldn't I want to see another movie in which Barbara Streisand humbly casts herself to be the most beautiful and intelligent woman there is? It's hard to say.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) It was nominated for numerous Academy Awards. I guess on a technical level this is well made. Nick Nolte is charming  and I can easily understand why he was a Hollywood leading man. Barbara Streisand is fine, if not a little distracted, which makes sense since she was also directing. I've seen worse.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: Where to begin? I'm not a fan of Barbara Streisand (at least, before she started having fun with herself in comedies like Meet the Fockers and The Guilt Trip, and even then it's a stretch). Something like this is much less engaging. I'm pretty tired of stories of South meets North, and how there's wisdom in that "southern charm", and the north is too concerned with its "big city problems". It would be nice to get a view of the South that I haven't seen before.

Verdict (?): Strongly Don't Recommend

Delayed Reaction: The Manchurian Candidate

The Pitch: Let's retrofit that 60s movie for the Gulf War. It will have the same effect, I'm sure.

What Took Me So Long: This struck me as a movie that would be needlessly more complex than it had to be.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) You can see a perfect through-line for Denzel Washington from Courage Under Fire to The Manchurian Candidate to Deja Vu, all involving incomplete stories but each movie getting weirder to accomplish it. This movie does a great job of never letting you get proper footing. Washington isn't a great viewpoint into this world because he barely knows what to trust. Everyone else is either lying or just as confused as he is. It makes for a great conspiracy theory movie.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: At times, this was very dull. The atmosphere the film cultivates if effective in some of the intended ways and boring in others. I fell asleep while watching the movie and nearly did again when catching myself up on what I missed.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend

DVR Purge: 9/27-9/28

A lot of big premieres. Sundays are going to be insane this year.

Past Purges 

SNL "Chris Pratt/Ariana Grande"
The premiere of SNL is normally less focused on the host than how it is different from last season and this was no exception. Chris Pratt wasn't used anywhere near as much as I expected (Weekend update was almost a half hour long and didn't even feature Pratt. Really?). He was obviously a little nervous which could've played into it. He wouldn't be the first host to stumble through his first hosting gig only to return on fire for subsequent ones. The cast is far less crowded, even though I am going to miss the likes of Noel Wells, Nasim Pedrad, and all those white guys. I know it's cyclical, but Aidy Bryant is the early frontrunner for breakout cast member. We'll see though. I'm still waiting for Taran Killan to be the next big thing and just about anyone in the female cast could take over.

Brooklyn Nine Nine "Undercover"
Well, that was quick. They wasted no time getting Peralta out of the undercover gig. That's for the best since I pretty sure that working with the rest of the cast is what makes Peralta effective. Lone Wolf Peralta is less enjoyable. Still, he uses some contacts from his undercover stint for the A-story this week. I wonder if that's going to be a recurring thing this season. If not, I'm certain the new police commissioner is going to produce a lot of material. Hopefully, I'm able to avoid the casting news for that role for when he (or she) inevitably shows up. I just so happy to have the show back.

Family Guy "The Simpsons Guy"
This is certainly the most buzzed about episode of the new TV season so far. Along with South Park, The Simpsons and Family Guy form a kind of pop culture triumvirate. The Simpsons is one of most important TV series of all time and Family Guy has one of the most remarkable histories of any show.
This episode is a publicity stunt. No one questions that. After all, the Griffins acknowledge this in the first scene of the episode. I'm not sure that the self awareness gives it a pass. I think I heard once that in stand up comedy, it is looked down upon to joke about how badly you are bombing on stage, because it's not really material. You can't build a set on being bad, because it isn't sustainable. That's sort of how I feel about this episode. I'm not going to give it a pass simply because they recognize that it's a bad idea that's doomed to fail.
Good or bad, it's fun to see the Griffins and Simpsons together. That visual is enough to make it all worth it as far as I'm concerned. That's why people like the idea of crossovers. The episodes are almost never good, but I couldn't tell you how many times I've heard people muse about what it would be like if show X and show Y did a crossover. And, it's easy to understand the math of it. If you like two shows, you assume that there's a shared sensibility to them and seeing the contrast would be fun.
My biggest issue with "The Simpsons Guy" is that I don't know if I wanted a it to be a Simpsons episode or a Family Guy episode. Yes, both are Fox shows. Both are animated. The two have clearly influenced one another. But, they have very different sensibilities. The Simpsons is a much kinder show. Even latter-day Simpsons, which people bemoan far too much, is a story-first show. Family Guy is much more cynical and first and foremost a joke machine.
The Simpsons clearly have the high ground in this and the moments when Family Guy remembers this are the best. After all, the Griffins go to Springfield. Quite literally, they are guests in the Simpson's home. The Griffins are the outsiders, thus they are the weird ones. When Stewie takes Nelson prisoner, that should horrify Bart (by the way, Nelson punching Bart as soon as Bart unties him is the perfect capper to that). Meg's entire personality should scare the hell out of Lisa. On the other hand, I couldn't help but get defensive when they'd make a joke about everyone looking like they had melanoma. I couldn't help it. They are in Springfield, not Quahog.
This was a fun episode and an interesting experiment. I'm glad that the Simpsons team allowed Family Guy to do it. It's nowhere near the best episode of either show, but It's one that we'll still be talking about years down the line over better episodes (People still bring up the Flintstones/Jetsons crossover, don't they?). Hell, I'm not even likely to watch another episode of either show this season, but I made sure I caught this. I'm not sure what conclusion I've reached about all this is. I'm not sure there is one. Fans of one show or the other will feel short changed at parts, especially Simpsons fans. I think Comic Book Guy summed it up pretty well with four words. "Worst Chicken Fight Ever".

 

DVR Purge: 9/24-9/26

A lot of shows returning. Wednesday is still a busy night. Thursday is pretty empty, thanks to Football and NBC's desire to get away from "niche comedy". Still plenty to talk about though.

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.

Delayed Reaction: Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

The Pitch: Well, anything's going to be better than The Final Frontier. Might as well do a movie that's about diplomatic disputes.

What Took Me So Long: I felt like I needed to start the movies with the first and move in order. Then I abandoned that when I realized some of the movies are worth skipping.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) I heard mixed opinions of this movie going in. Some found it boring and others loved it. I'm not sure I've loved any of the Star Trek movies, but I'd put this in the "very good" category. I'd kind of like to know what watching this was like in tandem with TNG being on the air at the time, since I think that would make it easier to track the depth of the peace talks. Somehow, each movie with the original cast manages to admit that they are getting too old for this, right before going and doing another movie

Why I Wish I Hadn't: Until Generations, each Star Trek movie seemed to go through budgets cuts or moves that made them seem less cinematic. This ends up feeling and looking like a long episode of the show. That's not necessarily bad, but it is a reminder that these movies existed more to appease fans who didn't get enough episodes of the original series than they did to entertain a broad audience.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend

Delayed Reaction: World War Z

The Pitch: Zombie! Zombies! Zombies! Find me a book! I don't care how you adapt it.

What Took Me So Long: I had no desire to see this in theaters given what a mess the production was. It's uncommon for me to miss a $200 million blockbuster like this in theaters.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) Brad Pitt is one of the few real movie stars left and he doesn't do the action movie thing often enough. The movie has a great sense of scope and there are numerous scenes that I'm a little sad I didn't get to see on the big screen.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: Mostly, I'm tired of zombies. After years of trying to reinvent the genre, it's nice to see someone trying to make a blockbuster out of the zombie movie. It's still a saturated market and there's almost nothing that I can think of that World War Z did better than 28 Days Later. The animation for the zombies in this were pretty awful, especially when they became super-speed zombies. The plot was more of an excuse to go to different places and have big zombie scenes more than caring about a story that works. I don't know. I was not impressed with the overall effort.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend

Movie Reaction: The Equalizer

Formula: Man on Fire + Taxi Driver

Why I Saw It: Denzel Washington does action movies right.

Cast: Denzel Washington carries the movie and it shouldn't be a surprise. Expendables cast be damned. Denzel and Liam Nesson are the kings of the over 50 ass-kicking crowd. He isn't asked to do anything he hasn't done before, so you should know what to expect. Marton Csokas plays the main villain and he's just on the right side of being cartoonish.Chloe Grace Moretz has probably the next biggest character after those two. She plays an underage hooker and disappears for a solid hour in the middle. Again, make no mistake. This is Denzel's movie.

Plot: Denzel plays Robert McCall, a "retired" special ops master who is called back into action. The movie begins with Robert as a normal enough guy with a few quirks, who befriends a hooker (Moretz) at the diner he frequents. After she gets beaten up by her pimp, Robert decides to get some retribution. That's when we find out what Robert can do. Needless to say, he single-handedly takes on the entire Russian mafia and does pretty well. It's all pretty implausible, but in a fun way. There's a lot of well-shot fight scenes. Things explode. Lines that only exist in action movies are spoken. It's the kind of movie that succeeds by doing everything well, not by trying something new. The movie is based on a TV show of the same name and the end implies that there could be future installments. I kind of hope there won't be though. This goes so big that I'm not sure what's left. Any sequel would almost have to have lower stakes.

Elephant in the Room: How skilled is Robert McCall? In short, he's a demi-god. There is no way that he could be that great of a fighter, at that age, with so little practice since being decommissioned, or be that technologically proficient. This is the kind of movie where you go along with it though, because it's fun that way.

To Sum Things Up:
This is a well done movie of its ilk. If this doesn't look like a movie you'd enjoy, then you'll be right, but if you tend to enjoy movies like this, I see no reason for you to not enjoy this too. It's nice to get a little high-octane fun before entering into a fall season full of Oscar hopefuls and blockbuster franchises.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend

Delayed Reaction: The Stepford Wives

The Pitch: "So, the other day, I referred to someone as 'a Stepford wife' and someone under the age of 20 didn't know what I was referencing. It is imperative that we remake the movie so a whole new generation gets my references."

What Took Me So Long: Nicole Kidman isn't a draw for me, and this struck me too much as a lazy attempt for her to do "something light" after years of Oscar baiting.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) Nicole Kidman, Bette Middler, and Roger Bart have nice chemistry in this. Most of the best scenes were them interacting or responding to something strange that happened earlier. It's a light movie and fits Frank Oz's slightly-off directing sensibilities.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: It's a 1975 movie that's barely been updated for 2004. It feels completely out of place and takes itself too seriously to pretend they are winking and nudging at the idea. For a movie to be this out of touch (seriously, who still laughs at the idea that men don't know how to shop at a grocery store?) it needed to be a lot funnier.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend

Delayed Reaction: Chicken Run

The Pitch: We're Dreamworks and we need to do something different to separate ourselves fromDisney Animation. An untested claymation British studio sounds like the way to go. Take whatever their next project is and back it with a full PR blitz.

What Took Me So Long: I'm not sure. The previews annoyed me when it first came out (I'm not sure why) so I always dismissed it.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) Claymation is fun alternative in animation and the voice cast is a perfectly likable one. In terms of the humor, I'd describe the jokes as cute and not much else. I also love that G movies rarely hit the 90 minute mark.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: Great animated movies are for all ages. Good ones or worse leave the feeling that you are being talked down to. I'm sure how much of this is marvelously entertaining for children but it was very trite to me. And, I didn't appreciate the comparisons to WWII prisoner camps. Animals being afraid of getting turned into food is a well that's dipped into far too often to be considered clever anymore.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend

Delayed Reaction: Flubber

The Pitch: Flying Rubber. Flubber. Imagine the fun we could have with that.

What Took Me So Long: Even when it came out, I could tell it was a movie that wasn't going to age well.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) This is a stupid, stupid, stupid movie and let's Robin Williams completely off his leash. It's very broadly appealing as it's so ridiculous that you can't invest in hating it much. It's also very short in order to not overstay its welcome.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: It's amazing seeing the disparity between Disney Animation and their other movies during this time. Movies like Flubber and Inspector Gadget simply don't matter the way the animated movies do. I couldn't get past how nothing about Flubber makes sense. The physics of how it works goes from high-concept, to whatever works for a specific scene or cut. There's no internal logic and I'm not going to give it a pass simply for being a "kid's movie".

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend

Delayed Reaction: Entrapment

The Pitch: I want another The Rock, but with a more attractive Nic Cage.

What Took Me So Long: I never got the impression that there was more to this movie than the scene when Zeta-Jones breaks into the museum by dancing around the security sensors.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) Heist movies are fun by their very nature and this one goes about as big as possible. Catherine Zeta Jones has only been more attractive in a Zorro movie and gets to be incredibly capable as well. Sean Connory was the original old man action hero and he can still pull it off somewhat here.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: The problem with movies like this is that several twists isn't the same as good twists. I don't know if I'd call this movie clever, although I'm sure clever is what they were going for. Sometimes, not knowing who is on whose side is disorienting in a way that hurts the movie. By the time it ends, I think they were just throwing out twists to see how many they could fit.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend

Delayed Reaction: Stories We Tell

The Pitch: A documentary about the inspiration for Take This Waltz

What Took Me So Long: I wanted to watch Take This Waltz again before I watched this. Ideally, I'd watch them back to back.

Why I Saw It: I'd heard about this documentary for a while (going back to 2012, I think, when it first made the festival circuit). People said it was a snub for an Oscar nomination at the beginning of the year and I can see why. It is an engaging story about director Sarah Polley's attempts to learn about her mother from her family. Few enough people have seen this still that I don't want to spoil anything. I can attest to it being an even richer experience when you see Take this Waltz first.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: It's a little easy to get lost at the beginning. It took me a while to figure out who was who. It doesn't help that the dad narrated the movie and has interviews that took place at separate times. The ease with Polley's family is great by the end, but it makes the beginning a bit tougher since they gel so quickly.

Verdict (?): Strongly Recommend

Delayed Reaction: Major League

The Pitch: Slap Shot with Baseball.

What Took Me So Long: The Charlie Sheen of it all may have been my biggest deterrent.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) It follows a standard formula, but sometimes a formula just works.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: I've seen Slap Shot. There's no need to see this too, unless I really like baseball. It's not that it's bad. It's not very original and it plays to that 80s trend of going for the biggest joke, rather than the best one. I mean, Voodoo was a significant part of this movie.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend

Delayed Reaction: Outbreak

The Pitch: What if a disease could be an action movie?

What Took Me So Long: This is one of those generic 90's titles like Entrapment or Disclosure that are so boring. I couldn't tell if I'd seen it or not.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) The story takes its time to show the spread of the disease as well as show what everyone at the CDC has to do to control and investigate. Any time Dustin Hoffman, Morgan Freeman, and Kevin Spacey top your billing, there's going to be some good acting (even if what they are delivering don't match their talent level).

Why I Wish I Hadn't: It plays up the stakes a bit too much and tries to turn itself into an action movie in the third act. I can't help but look at this as someone who has seen Contagion as well and realizing how much more histrionic Outbreak is.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend

Delayed Reaction: Paul Blart: Mall Cop

The Pitch: I'm not sure there was a pitch. Kevin James co-wrote it. He's pals with Adam Sandler. It's a Happy Madison co-production. I doubt there was much more discussion than "Hey, Adam, can I have a few million for a movie that should at least break even?"

What Took Me So Long: This is going to sound weird but I always begrudged Paul Blart for taking Taken's thunder that winter. They came out around the same time and Paul Blart was the more unexpected surprise hit.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) Absolutely no one expected this to blow up at the box office, so from a box office historian's perspective I wanted to see this to understand what worked so well. Kevin James gives this role everything he's got. He plays it as big as he can without ever making Paul Blart a cartoon. That is extremely hard to do and he doesn't get enough credit for succeeding at it. It's a tight hour and a half and doesn't build more into the story than is needed. Jayma Mays is one of the best return values you get in movies, as she doesn't demand a large paycheck but probably should.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: You don't get more "family friendly" than this. The jokes are easy. It spoofs a lot of action movie tropes by underplaying them instead of overdoing it (ex. He slides on the floor and stops short rather than crashing into something or he gets sidelined by a splinter). It's rare to have a movie make $100 million that I could just as easily see go straight to DVD. I'm not being harsh about the movie because I respect what it accomplished, even though I didn't particularly like it.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend

Delayed Reaction: City of Angels

The Pitch: Stalking is fine if you're an angel.

What Took Me So Long: I've heard Iris. What do I need the rest of the movie for?

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) Did I mention Iris? ...I did. Oh. It has Andre Braugher. I like him...uh, pass.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: This was a sleepy movie. I know it's popular as a romance, but I think it wanted to be an Oscar player in its original conception rather than a muted Ghost. Nic Cage is catatonic from beginning to end. Meg Ryan shifts between depressed and frantic until she dies, which is played as an oddly quiet scene. This is yet another reminder why it's best if Hollywood just leaves the afterlife alone.

Verdict (?): Strongly Don't Recommend

Delayed Reaction: What About Bob?

The Pitch: Can Bill Murray be a sociopath for an entire movie and still be lovable? I have a $40 million budget that thinks so.

What Took Me So Long: The only thing that stopped me from seeing it sooner is that I've seen parts before but never the whole thing, so I kept picking movies that were entirely new to me to watch instead.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) I can't think of anyone other than Bill Murray that could play Bob and make him likable. Richard Dreyfuss is nearly as perfect a foil. Something about him makes you want to see him get punched in the face then come right back for some more. Frank Oz doesn't care as much about plausibility in the movies he directs as he does setting up funny scenes, so this is a great movie for that.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: It is a more broad comedy and more fitting of its era than in the discussion of "timeless comedies". I smirked a lot. I didn't laugh. The similarities to The Great Outdoors were distracting as well.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend

Movie Reaction: This Is Where I Leave You

Formula: (Death at a Funeral / Grown Ups) * The Family Stone
or
August: Orange County Lite

I'd watch anything with this cast.

Why I Saw It: See Cast.

Cast: Jason Bateman (Arrested Development), Tina Fey (30 Rock), Adam Driver (Girls), Corey Stoll (House of Cards, season 1), Jane Fonda (Klute, Coming Home), Rose Byrne (Bridesmaids, Neighbors), Kathryn Hahn (Parks & Rec and everywhere else), Connie Britton (FNL), Timothy Olyphant (Justified), Dax Shepard (Parenthood), Abigail Spencer (Rectify), Ben Schwartz (Parks & Rec. again).
Are you kidding me!? That is a ridiculous cast that basically represents everything I've loved on TV for the past decade, not to mention the cinema classics. Cut that cast in half and it still sounds implausible that everyone can be well-served in one movie and that's exactly what happens here. No one is able to stand out. I respect the hell out of all of them for showing up though.

Plot: This certainly falls under the category of "White People Problems" movies. Bateman, Fey, Driver, and Stoll play four estranged siblings who get called back home to do a shiva for their recently deceased father. Or, more transparently stated, the story contrives to put them in the same place for enough time that drama can ensue. Bateman has split with his wife because he catches her having an affair with his boss. Fey is stuck in a loveless marriage. Stoll can't get his wife (Hahn) pregnant. Driver is an irresponsible mess. There's a lot of story for all of them beyond that, and the screenplay does everything it can to fit it all in there. The direction tries to give everyone a moment to shine too. I wish that the movie could overcome the busy-ness of the story, but it really can't.

Elephant in the Room: Is it a comedy or a drama? It's a dramedy and there's two types of dramedy: 1) a movie that transcends standard genre classifiers and comes up with a tone all its own. 2) a movie that can't decide which it wants to be or thinks the only way to prevent the drama from being too much of a drag is to throw in a poop joke to cut the tension. This Is Where I Leave You falls more into the latter type. Unsurprisingly, given the cast, the comedy works much better than the drama. It's basically impossible to put a combination of Fey, Bateman, etc. in a scene and not get a laugh if that's the aim. The movie switches between all the stories so much that when it's time for a big dramatic beat, it either comes out of nowhere or doesn't feel earned.

To Sum Things Up:
This Is Where I Leave You is ok. Phenomenal cast that is worth the price of admission. The plot doesn't successfully translate from its original medium (a book) to a movie. It has that thing where a line that reads powerfully in a book comes off as hokey when delivered in a movie. I'll admit that when I saw this, it kind of ruined my day. I'm not sure why. It's not a bad movie by any means. It's kind of a "life sucks, but the little victories keep us going" movie. I'll either rewatch it at some point and like it a little bit more than I do now or stubbornly not bother seeing it again. I'm not sure which. Regardless, see it for the cast, not the story.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend

Delayed Reaction: Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

The Pitch: Hey, people really like The Voyage Home. It's already been three years since that came out. I don't care what script you use. Make the damn movie so we can reap the profits.

What Took Me So Long: Even Star Trek fans warned me about this one.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) It's always good to see the original cast together. You can't manufacture a 20 year working relationship. It takes time and there's an ease seeing them all work together that makes any chapter of this saga worthwhile in some way.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: The movie looks like a two hour episode that went through budget cuts. I don't want to blame this entirely on Shatner's direction but it is telling that he hasn't directed a major theatrical release since. Even though the entire cast did one more movie and several were in Generations, this is somehow the oldest that any of them have looked in a Star Trek movie and the plot was a forgettable mess.

Verdict (?): Strongly Don't Recommend

DVR Purge: 9/17-9/23

Aaaaaaaaaand, we're back. Not only are shows returning. They are coming back in such volume that's I'm having trouble keeping up. My goal is to begin as many shows as possible and drop them as I see fit. That means there's going to be a lot for the next few weeks. Ideally, I'll have a couple purges a week during this period, although I'm actually finding it harder to find the time to write these up while on vacation. Apparently, I need work to put off to really motivate me to write a purge. Go figure.

Past Purges 

The Bridge "Beholder"
What has plenty of room yet keeps fucking up my set recordings? If you guessed my DVR, you'd be correct. I sure hope this wasn't the season finale or something big.


Married "Family Day"
Married has mastered the art of making everyone awful to each other then earning a sweet ending for the episode. I don't fully understand how they do it. Russ is insufferable in his dissatisfaction. Lina is back to being the buzzkill wife. Jess and Shep are mean to each other. AJ's in his own little world of denial. For a moment, I wondered what this season was amounting to. Then, there's the cookout and everything's alright again. It's oddly fitting that these friends all bond over hearing each other's suicide plan. That's a simple distillation of what kind of show this is. I'm not sure I need this show to get another season, but I wouldn't be opposed to it, given a free enough TV schedule.

You're the Worst "Fists and Feet and Stuff"
That sure was a strange little journey. I didn't know what to think of most of the season. It sure did end strong though. The flashback episode last week changed the narrative and this week's conclusion nailed the tone. I almost would prefer it didn't get renewed because I can't imagine a stopping point this good, with Jimmy and Gretchen moving in together, Edgar getting back up on his feet, and Lindsay no longer stuck in a marriage she clearly didn't want to be in. I'm tempted to watch the whole season again to see if it was actually inconsistent in the beginning or if the incorrect marketing of the show made it hard to appreciate what it is. You see, it was sold as a show about two horrible people trying to circumvent romance, when it was really about two damaged people figuring out how to let someone else in. Very much a solid show. I mean, the finale actually pulled off the line "The worst possible draft of my life is the one without you in it." without making me roll my eyes.


Girl Meets World "Girl Meets 1961"
I'm having a lot trouble accepting the fact that in 1961, we'd be following everyone's great grandparents. We have a pretty good idea how old Corey and Topanga's parents are and it doesn't compute. Actually addressing the episode though, they continue to push hard on Maya having no faith in herself. A little diversity in character would be nice, but they continue to nail those beats. Lucas and Maya's feuding has quickly become my favorite part of the series. It's yielded legit laughs from me which I never expected for a Disney Channel show. I could poke at some of the historical inaccuracies or the likelihood that their grandparents great grandparents would've met (or the ability to trace it). That would be ignoring the nature of the show I'm talking about though. So, I'll leave it with agreeing that the emotional beats matched up with what the show is trying to do.

Big Bang Theory "The Locomotion Interruption"
The premieres for The Big Bang Theory are normally a little clunky. They always feel the need to do something big and Friends-y in the finale like Penny and Schrodinger's cat, Leonard going on an expedition at sea, or Penny and Raj sleeping together. The premiere is there to either untie the twist or explain the passed time. Naturally, this season, the concern is getting Sheldon back from his train trip. Given that the focus was re-establishing things, I'd say this episode was a success. We learn about Sheldon's trip, in which he never left any train station (which sounds about right). Stuart is living it up with Ms. Wolowitz, making Howard inexplicably jealous. Amy is still feeling unappreciated by Sheldon, only to be given another small sliver of hope that things are progressing (The "I want to have coitus with Amy" scene was a little cheap though). Raj is still dating the same girl. Hopefully they can get the actress for a few more episodes, because she's going to feel like his girlfriend in Canada if they keep talking around her. The big jump forward came with Penny, who both changed her hair (something the writers went out of their way to bring up now, so they wouldn't have to address it later) and got a new job thanks to a mutual fear of Bernadette with her interviewer. Big Bang has always been about small, incremental steps and this had plenty.

Big Bang Theory "The Junior Professor Solution"
Can you hear it? That's the sound of some very exhausted writers and research assistants who put in overtime to come up with smart questions and answers for Sheldon and Howard. Since last season, one of the big concerns with the show has been the Howard/Sheldon relationship for some reason, and it looks to continue now, with the personalized class Sheldon is teaching. I am a little disappointed that we won't get to see Sheldon's best Dick Solomon impression, teaching a class of overwhelmed students. It makes sense for him to get eased into it by teaching a friend like this. There's a lot of potential in this and I hope it doesn't get dropped as a background gag for the rest of the season.

Gotham "Pilot"If the pilot was the writers/producers trying too hard and they're going to cool it with the overt allusions to future events (namely, who everyone becomes) and not a long term thing, then I'm excited to see what they do next. The look of the show is great. Ben McKenzie and Donald Logue are two actors I love when given good enough material. Jada Pinkett Smith is having a lot of fun. I have no interest in seeing "The Countdown to Batman Show", but virtually any other direction I'd happily follow for the season. The next couple episodes are key.

Scorpion "Pilot"
'Autistic' does not mean 'genius'! Beyond that, the pilot was fun. I'm not sure how long I'll be sticking with this, but there's potential for a Chuck type of show here that I could really enjoy. We'll see.

Agents of SHIELD "Shadows"
Way to go! My worry with AoS is that it would be so easy for the writers to give into bad habits and it hasn't been on long enough for the benefit of the doubt. After the strong end to last season, there was a lot riding on this premiere and they got as right as I could hope. There's an agreeable time jump and a number of new characters or characters with increased roles, and we are still dealing with the consequences of last season. The gang is mostly split up although they aren't so scattered that it would take a lot of work to reassemble. Skye is a full agent working with Triplett (yay for keeping him around). She's working with Xena Izzy and her mercenaries. Fitz is [currently] brain damaged and imagining Simmons being around (I must say that I didn't see that coming). Coulson and May are busy managing the new operation. Ward is a prisoner, getting the Hannibal Lector treatment (maybe a Blacklist comparison would be more apropos). The episode was mostly setup, so I expect we will really get into the thick of what the season will look like starting next week. For now, I couldn't be more pleased.

New Girl "Dice"
A Story: Schmidt teaching Jess how to do online dating.
B Story: Nick, CeCe, and Coach are high at Winston's cop party.
In both cases, it's a simple setup followed by as many jokes as possible jammed in. It moves the larger story along of Jess getting back into the dating field and hints at some more growth for Schmidt. CeCe has something to do and it isn't with Jess or Schmidt. Winston has something to do that involves other cast members. In short, this is the version of New Girl I most prefer.

The Mindy Project "Annette Castellano is My Nemesis"
I get the feeling the first half of the season is going to involve some issue that Mindy and Danny face as a couple and how they handle it each week. If they can all be at least as good as meeting Danny's mother, then I have no issue with that. The great Rhea Perlman is the ideal Italian mother and I liked Mindy's fool-proof plan to make mothers love her. When the episode began with Danny's mom thinking Mindy was the cleaning lady ("Why didn't you tell your mother I wasn't the cleaning lady? Do I look Dominican to you? Do not answer that.") I was very afraid of the farce that could follow. They abandoned that quickly and the episode was much more enjoyable as a result.
Elsewhere, I'm confused by what's going on with Brendan and Jeremy (who was either entirely absent from the episode or forgettably present). Is the girlfriend just gone now? For how much Brendan went on about the betrayal, they didn't do much to move the story along. Ike Barinholtz and Adam Pally got to be funny and there were a lot of dogs though, so what am I complaining about?

Movie Reaction: The Maze Runner

Formula: (Lord of the Flies * The Hunger Games) / The Cabin in the Woods

Why I Saw It: It's an intriguing premise and I'm curious to see any YA adaptation that's outside of the Lionsgate/Summit bubble.

Cast: This is a young cast. Except for Patricia Clarkson showing up toward the end, it's a bunch of 20-something's playing teenagers, although I didn't think about that until it was over. I'll call that a good thing. Dylan O'Brien is best known for being in Teen Wolf and I fully believe he is an MTV star. He's not a particularly dynamic lead, but he can pull off the physicality, which is the most important aspect of this role. The rest of the cast are the "Oh, I remember him in _____" type of young actors, getting the meatiest roles of their careers so far. There's Aml Ameen (The Butler), Ki Hong Lee (The Nine Lives of Chloe King. Remember that?), Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Game of Thrones, Love Actually), Will Poulter (We're the Millers), and Blake Cooper (He's completely new to me). You would think that in a cast almost entirely made up of men, the only female role would be a significant one, due to the contrast if nothing else. Well, you'd be wrong. Kaya Scodelario shows up and goes almost completely undeveloped. Anyone looking to do a Bechdel Test on this, I'll save you some time: Fail.

Plot: A bunch of boys are trapped in the middle of a giant maze, a new boy being added each month. That's as high concept as you can get, and it's easy to see how that pitch could lead to green lighting a movie.The movie begins with Thomas (O'Brien) being sent into the maze. Slowly, all the other boys explain the culture and the rules they've set up over time to him. Of course, being our protagonist, Thomas quickly shakes things up by breaking the rules, questioning things that the others have put to rest, and succeeding at things previously thought impossible. You can assume the rest of the beats from there. With a movie like this, there's not enough time to cover all the interesting elements of the premise. There's an entire Lord of the Flies element that is mostly ignored, for example. The movie is about getting out of the maze and that's it. I'm not sure we ever get an proper explanation for what's so special about Thomas. Despite a lot of the other boys being incredibly capable, he's apparently the only one that knows how to set things into motion. There's a lot of history in the maze that is hinted at but none of it is developed. They hint at instability in their little society in the past but never say what happened. They literally say "Anything you think of, we've tried twice" but we don't see much sign of anything they have tried. Basically, it's a lot of telling rather than showing: a decision I assume was made to keep the time down, yet those things interest me far more than the story we get.

Elephant in the Room: Another YA dystopia? This is getting frustratingly formulaic. There's this first book/movie and it has a killer hook like a battle royale with children (Hunger Games) or a selection ceremony and training academy (Divergent) or, in this case, a bunch of kids stuck in a maze. That gets people's attention. These stories are always about the fall of the current evil government and the disintegration of this system that was destined to fail. Of course they are getting out of the maze. Then what? And that's where they lose me, because now we're stuck with a bunch of kids trying to save the world or lead a rebellion that they aren't equipped to do. Much like I said with The Giver a couple weeks back, I'm way more curious about how this system came to be rather than how it's going to fall apart, because, of course it's going to fall apart. Every part of it is implausible. Where's the thought out explanation of how the maze was made or how it can be controlled. Sure, these are boring questions. They are also the difference between a good story and a cool idea.

Movie Theater LVPs (Least Valuable Patrons): This has to go to the group of girls in the corner of the theater for being so diverse in their methods of being annoying and distracting during the movie. Be it talking at normal volume during the beginning of the movie, giggling loudly during any serious moments, somehow getting louder when telling each other to keep it down, or even finding a way to repeatedly squeak their seats loud enough for the entire theater to hear, they were a constant reminder of why I prefer to see R rated movies with age limits.

To Sum Things Up: 
I'm obviously tired of these movies. If this is your kind of movie, this will not disappoint. It has all the things you want (attractive men, easy to understand obstacle, a lived-in fantasy world, etc.). My issues with the development of the story are enough to sour me on the thing as a whole. It's hard to pass a final judgment in the end because it's just part one. It ends assuming there will be a sequel (and there will be). There's no attempt to wrap things up or anything like that. It is a stopping point. Maybe the sequel(s) will reveal a more fully realized world. For now, "Hunger Games clone" will have to be a suitable moniker.    

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend

Delayed Reaction: Van Helsing

The Pitch: So I read half of Dracula, then half of Frankenstein, then got high and watched Underworld. Long story short, I wrong a screenplay.

What Took Me So Long:  It's taken me a while to accept Hugh Jackman as anything but Wolverine.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) It's a clever idea. People keep trying to modernize the different monster novels of the 1800s. Why not mix them all together and make a world of it. It was a smart move to not try and take it too seriously. Trying to describe the idea for the movie sounds like a Mel Brooks spoof already, so playing it earnest would made it the wrong kind of funny.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: What the hell is this movie? I think it was going for camp, but even Sam Rami gets down to business eventually. This constantly felt a notch more serious than Your Highness and I know that wasn't the intent. I'm so glad that everyone had the good sense not to make another one of these.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend

Delayed Reaction: Pearl Harbor

The Pitch: Saving Private Ryan was really good. Let's do something like that but throw in the one thing it was missing: A love triangle.

What Took Me So Long: That song from Team America: World Police did a lot to scare me away for a long time.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) No one can ever say that Michael Bay can't do explosions well. He has a lot of fun with the Pearl Harbor attack and makes it as big a spectacle as he can. If you are looking for a movie about all the heroics on "the day that will live in infamy", then this will whet your appetite.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: Then there's the love triangle between best friends* and what I'm pretty sure is a made up or exaggerated retaliation mission that balloons this to a three hour run time. The failure of this movie is in the idea. The bombing of Pearl Harbor is both the best part of the movie and a big loss for the protagonists. It's tough to build a movie around that when, after it's all said and done, another hour needs to be added to end on a happier (or at least bittersweet) note. I think this was Michael Bay trying to make a movie "that mattered" and he should've stuck to the kind of movie he excels at, critics be damned.

*Which doesn't make sense, given the perfectly available Jennifer Garner who we now know has chemistry with Ben Affleck.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend

Delayed Raction: Sneakers

The Pitch: Robert Redford isn't too old for a spy movie. Here's the script that will prove it.

What Took Me So Long: For some reason, every time I ran across it, I thought it was a geriatric The Perfect Score and that's not a positive light.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) This cast is stupid talented. Robert Redford: Oscar winner. Sidney Potier: Oscar winner. Ben Kingley: Oscar Winner. David Strathairn, Dan Akroyd, River Phoenix, Mary McDonnell: all Oscar nominees. That's a lot of talent for a pretty slight movie. I'm kind of stunned that so many of the actors signed on.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: The upside of a movie like this is Ocean's 11 which worked pretty perfectly. This did not achieve that. It's an agreeable movie but little else. I thought it was funny because my initial reaction to the movie was that if felt dated but I assumed it didn't 20 years ago, when it was released. Then, I stumbled across a review from when it came out that said the movie played like a caper from 20 years ago. So, it looks like this movie never felt fresh.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend

DVR Purge: 9/3-9/16

Oops. Got a week behind again. What can I say, I've actually had to work and got distracted by other projects. Thanks to Fox's desire to sneak good premiere numbers for its shows, the fall TV season has officially arrived and I couldn't be more excited. Sadly, the excitement stems from a hunger for new programming, not anticipation of a special TV season. There's plenty of "good" to be found, yet a lack of "great". Hopefully I eat those words by December, but I kind of doubt it. Still, good is better than no shows.

Past Purges 

The Bridge "Rakshasa"
That shootout at the end was messy and awesome. Hank is a badass, as if that should've ever been questioned. That was a pretty unceremonious end to Charlotte. She was enough of a non-character that I don't mind. I'm still looking for what it is about Eleanor that makes her so imposing. So far, all I can determine is that she has that eerie cool about her but doesn't do much of anything.
I wasn't a fan of all that with the Gringo. It gave us a few good moments with Marco and Sonya which almost makes it work it. I'm tired of professional bad-guys like the Gringo making dumb decisions like leaving Sonya alive while he digs, rather that killing her first. It makes no sense and it's not even like we see enough of him to gather that he's a special kind of deranged. That's writing something because you need to protect a lead character, not because it makes the most narrative sense.


Married "The Old Date"
I'm not sure when it happened, but this show got dark. They've been hinting at the surf shop for weeks and now we finally get some explanation. It's still there. Well, actually, it moved to a larger location and is doing quite well. Lina and Russ didn't lose the store. Lina convinced him to sell it when she got pregnant so they could move to the valley and do better for their kids. What most impressed me was that they don't make Russ a dick about that. Lina blames herself for losing the store. Russ is obviously bummed about it and carries a little resentment, but he really try to convince both of them that it was a team decision. Versus the show that was first introduced, this is about a couple that wants to do right by one another.
As I said though, it's gotten dark. Pretty much everything with Bruce (Ike Barinholtz from The Mindy Project) is uncomfortable. I was squirming in my seat when he kept going on about all the things he and his girlfriend can do since sex is not an option. Then there's AJ bringing Bernie to the wake or shivas (or whatever it's called). Not only is showing up to that for personal gain a bleak setup, it's looking like AJ may finally need to get some help. It all ends at a strip club too, and not a happy one. The jokes at this point are more to release the tension than to keep it all funny.

You're the Worst "Finish Your Milk"
DVR fucked up and I haven't been motivated to find it.

The Bridge "Eidolon"
I don't know that we ever needed the explanation of how it came about that the guy ended up dead in a moving car. It's nice to know nonetheless. In general, the episode did well to explain how Eleanor is someone to be feared, featuring her threatening the doctor (or is he a "doctor"? I'm not sure).
I missed the part about how her ledger and knowledge of the inner workings of the cartel are what make her so important to everyone. After such a bloody shootout, I'm glad this week was more about the fallout than escalation. The stories are crossing more and more as we lead to the end and that's getting exciting. I am going to be a little irritated if the gatekeepers to everything end up being these CIA agent Daniel and Adriana snooped on who show up in the third act of the season.

Married "Halloween"
Remember when I said this show is getting dark? Yeah, everything with AJ this week. I figured out that his life was sort of a mess, but I didn't think it was really rehab-bad. This removed any doubt of that. I can't tell if his explosion in the board meeting was meant to play for laughs or to show how much he's lost control. Probably both and I certainly took it more as the latter.
About every three weeks (please don't check that math), this show is full of the zingers. My two favorites this week come from Russ:
"We broke her, and now we are all paying for it."
"Give your mom a Butterfinger. She does a lot of shit for you."

You're the Worst "Constant Horror and Bone-Deep Dissatisfaction"
Of course, I miss one week, and it's a major plot point: Gretchen and Jimmy split up. That's big, but for me, this is the week that changed this from a season to a full story. Maybe it's just good writing around established story beats, but I read this as the writers having a plan for this season. Showing how everything leading up to and including the events of the pilot happened genuinely changed the perspective of the whole season. It continues to make this a poor title for the show since they aren't so bad after all, but it is one of those rare flashback episodes that actually change the show's perspective for the better.

Girl Meets World "Girl Meets Smakle"
It was only a matter of time until we got a Smakle, wasn't it? I enjoyed the Trojan horse scene at the beginning with all the fake gifts, and I'm finally getting used to the overtness of the lessons tying into the episode (That's a Michael Jacobs staple, after all). It's actually a pretty dense episode with all the Smakle tricks. She likes Farkle, gets the makeover which distracts her, only it doesn't, then does get distracted by Lucas, who joins the debate team because he doesn't want to be seen as a dumb-jock, but at the same time is being used as a prop by Farkle to distract Smakle. A lot more layers than I expected. It's a shame that they fumbled that last beat so badly. The writers wrote themselves into a corner by Smakle asking if Farkle would like Riley and Maya if they weren't beautiful, and had to return with a cop-out about him not even noticing that they were beautiful. That killed the moment for me.
This week in call-backs:
-"Huh, I wonder how many people the idea of Corey and Topanga has ruined?" -Topanga
-Topanga realizes that she married Feeny.

New Girl "The Last Wedding"
Season four begins with one major motivation: Move on from Nick and Jess. After realizing last year that those two do not work as a couple, the writers must establish the new status quo of coupling outside the group and moving back to the Nick and Jess friend relationship that once was the backbone of the show. Given that, this was a solid episode. The assorted adventures of the group format is my favorite for the show and that's exactly what we got. Jess was determined but outmatched by Jessica Biel, the ultimate competition. Schmidt and Nick navigated a fourway proposition with expected responses from each. Coach exhausted the hook-up pool by the end of wedding season. Winston didn't get much, but the little he got included that fantastic talk about salt and pepper shakers. Oh, then there's Cece. Has she ever been given much to do? Maybe next week. If the season continues like this, New Girl will easily move out of bubble consideration as a dropable show.
Best line of the night:"...And I lost my Virginity to Malcolm Gladwell."

The Mindy Project "We're a Couple Now, Haters!"
My opinion of the show for a long time has been that it needs to figure out what it is and that's the main thing holding it back from being one of the best comedies on TV. Could Mindy dating Danny be that needed foundation? Opposites attract can work very well as long as there is a reason for them to be together at the end of the day, despite their differences. Mindy and Danny have that. This hasn't been a show to lean too heavily on contrivance, so I predict they will be together for a while this time allowing the rest of the cast to breathe.
Specific to this week, he's some trends I want to see continue going forward:
-Random people attempting to narrate the beginning.
-Different music to open the show or "More than a Feeling" taking over full-time.
-Cousin Lou played by Rob McElhenney hanging around in any capacity.
-Beth Grant delivering one killer line as a throw away joke each episode.
-No more cast changes.
There's others, but that'll do for now.
Best line of the night: "Is this boring, like all the state capitals?"