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'Portlandia' Season 3 Review: Fred et Carrie Pour Toujours

by | March 6th, 2013

If Portlandia represents the classic hipster, it's now sold out for the mainstream. Real bohemians stick with their deliciously obscure Peabody Awards — they don't go and beat out mainstays like Saturday Night Live and The Daily Show for the Best Comedy/Variety Series at the WGA Awards. But by continually changing and challenging itself this season and straying from quotable bird and pickle-related catchiness in favor of bigger-picture connectivity, Portlandia has managed to transform from an IFC curio into a crossover hit that manages to ride the cutting-edge waves of savvy DIY culture that will be "So Over" by tomorrow. Here are my five biggest takeaways from what [...]

Recaps

NBC Thursday Sitcom Recaps: Award Shows, Christmas Parties, Weddings, and Guilt Trips

by | December 7th, 2012

NBC's Thursday night lineup kicked off their holiday episodes last night, taking on themes like weirdly intimate relationships, personal temptation, and in true holiday spirit, and familial guilt trips. 30 Rock easily took the cake for most cameos and featured Florence Henderson, Andrea Martin, Wendy Williams, Sue Summons, Gayle King, Judy Gold, Kermit, and much more, and Parks and Rec saw the return of Megan Mullally as well as appearances from Lucy Lawless and Christie Brinkley. So not only was it a night of mostly holiday-themed fun, it was also a night for badass lady celeb cameos! Let's take a look at what happened. (Pop quiz: Which two shows [...]

Recaps

NBC Thursday Sitcom Recaps: Liz Gets Married & More!

by | November 30th, 2012

Last night's lineup was all about overcoming what Leslie Knope calls "totally legitimate prejudices," whether that be those against cheesy parents, the "Industrial Wedding Complex," secretly gay husbands, murder plots, and those damn snobs up in Eagleton. The night also included cameos from Tony Bennett, Brad Hall, Dan Castellaneta, and Splitsider friend and contributor Chris Gethard. Oh, and Liz Lemon got married, Up All Night returned with its strongest episode yet this season, and two shows at one point make fun of jazz.

Recaps

'How I Met Your Mother' Recap: "The Stamp Tramp"

by | November 20th, 2012

The men of How I Met Your Mother are all nice, law abiding people, but they are definitely all flawed: Ted knows a lot of things about a lot of high brow subjects, but whenever he exhibits his knowledge he is an alienating, insufferable prick about it; Barney's childhood abandonment issues have led to a lifetime of overindulging on female flesh and crude, groan inducing sexual punnery; Marshall gives every human being the benefit of the doubt, even though he is a New York City resident, where it's a minor miracle that he doesn't get mugged every time he leaves the apartment.

Ted and Barney's issues are broader, and [...]

Recaps

'How I Met Your Mother' Recap: "Splitsville"

by | November 13th, 2012

"Spoiler Alert" was a season three episode of How I Met Your Mother in which Ted Mosby's Girl of the Week was revealed to Ted by Marshall to have a defective character trait that Ted had never noticed before. The fact that she talked too much turned Cathy instantly into someone completely repulsive to our protagonist, and she was never to be heard from again, forced to live her days on whatever island where discarded fictitious boyfriends and girlfriends who got in the way go (Julie from Friends would be Mayor probably). A boyfriend or girlfriend out of nowhere being revealed to have a disturbing flaw like talking too much or having man [...]

Recaps

Tuesday Night Sitcom Recap: 'Happy Endings,' 'New Girl,' 'Mindy,' and More

by | December 12th, 2012

This season, Tuesday is the busiest sitcom night of the year, with three of the four networks airing comedies all against each other on that night each week. Yesterday saw Fox's New Girl and The Mindy Project each celebrating the holidays as they prepare to take their winter breaks, while Happy Endings has its holiday episode set up to debut next week. Let's take a look at last night's new holiday-themed (and non-holiday-themed) episodes:

Happy Endings – "To Serb with Love" CLAY: In "To Serb with Love" we get to meet Alex and Jane's parents, look inside Jane's joke-writing process, and watch Max try to compete with Pete for [...]

Recaps

Tuesday Night Sitcom Recap: 'Happy Endings,' 'New Girl,' 'Mindy,' and More

by | December 5th, 2012

This season, Tuesday night is a sitcom traffic jam in primetime, with three of the four big networks airing comedies all against each other on the same night. Let's take a look at last night's shows, including new episodes of Happy Endings, New Girl, The Mindy Project, Ben and Kate, and Don't Trust the B—- in Apartment 23.

Happy Endings – "P&P Romance Factory"

CLAY: This week's episode, "P&P Romance Factory," seemed a little slow. Even though we got three separate storylines, none of them really stood out. The best story was probably Penny and Alex's, thanks to Casey Wilson's excellent delivery, while Max and Dave's fist bump [...]

Recaps

Tuesday Night Sitcom Recap: 'New Girl,' 'Mindy,' and 'Ben and Kate'

by | November 28th, 2012

The big networks' Tuesday night sitcom traffic jam continued last night – at least Fox and NBC's shows did. ABC's Tuesday comedies, Happy Endings and Don't Trust the B, took the night off to clear way for the Dancing with the Stars finale, but they'll be back next week. Let's take a look at what happened on last night's new Fox sitcoms, New Girl, The Mindy Project, and Ben and Kate:

New Girl – “Eggs”

SAMANTHA: This Neal Brennan-directed episode begins when Jess and Cece’s friends, Melissa and Sadie (Kay Cannon and June Diane Raphael!), reveal that they’re pregnant. Initially, the girls are thrilled – until Sadie (who’s also [...]

Recaps

NBC Thursday Sitcom Recaps: Bunions, Bidens, and Big Lebowskis

by | November 16th, 2012

Halloween and Hurricane Sandy are finally behind us, and last night's lineup returned in full before it goes away again for Thanksgiving break next week. So will Up All Night survive its second retooling? Is The Office keeping up its final season momentum? Did Biden do a good job on Parks and Rec? And most importantly, has Liz Lemon ruined her feet forever?

Recaps

NBC Thursday Sitcom Recaps: Pranks and Parties

by | November 9th, 2012

Last week, all Thursday night shows except 30 Rock were bumped so Hurricane Sandy victims could get their reality singing competition fix, and last night only The Office and Parks and Rec returned due to another The Voice butt-in. It's probably for the best, though — I'm all for 30 Rock ending later rather than sooner, and the news of Up All Night's forthcoming changes (including more episodes and a live audience) sounds more grim than exciting given how much the show has already tried to revamp itself. But for a small night of comedy, NBC still packed a punch, so let's take a look at these [...]

Recaps

'How I Met Your Mother' Recap: "The Over-Correction"

by | December 11th, 2012

"The Over-Correction" didn't fulfill its promise almost immediately. After its initial ten seconds of four of our heroes on the phone with one another seemingly hiding out in different tiny spaces, we were all praying to Rufus that a twenty one minute parody of R. Kelly's Trapped in the Closet was about to flicker in front of our faces. Initially I was as disappointed as you were, but after thinking about it for more than a second it became clear that outside of the abstract it would be a terrible idea. (Besides, this show has already had their musical episode.) Nonetheless, you shouldn't tease people like that.

Instead, [...]

Recaps

'How I Met Your Mother' Recap: "Lobster Crawl"

by | December 4th, 2012

Ah yes, the art of seduction. Since the beginning of time, countless magazines have attempted to tell you in different ways to have self-esteem, shower and not be a creep. But seriously: what is the truth?

Cookies. Feed them cookies.

Recaps

'How I Met Your Mother' Recap: "Twelve Horny Women"

by | November 27th, 2012

Which show was better: Saved by the Bell or The Wire? Both were beloved while never winning a single Emmy award. Both were quintessential shows that redefined television with their honest depictions of drugs and class warfare. It's a tough, unfair question if you have seen both, but the question popped up in my brain thanks to "Twelve Horny Women." One of the members of the New York Judiciary Committee that Marshall faced that didn't appreciate his wonderful puns was played by none other than Dennis Haskins, Mr. Belding himself.

Recaps

Tuesday Night Sitcom Recap: 'Happy Endings,' 'New Girl' and More

by | November 14th, 2012

After taking last week off for that whole election thing, your Tuesday night comedies are back, with Happy Endings, New Girl, Ben and Kate, and The Mindy Project all airing new episodes last night to ease your mind into three-and-a-half years of not caring about politics. Next week, most of the Tuesday shows will be tackling Thanksgiving, which has traditionally made for better sitcom fodder than most holidays, but this week, we get just a regular ol' bunch of episodes. That is, if you consider bar mitzvah hype guys, using your co-worker as a gynecologist, impromptu nighttime barbecues, male PMS, consensual sexual harassment, and door-to-door wine salesmen to make for [...]

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