This week:
- New Girl
- The Mindy Project
- Modern Family
- Community
- Parks and Recreation
- The Office
New Girl – “Bachelorette Party”
This week’s episode of New Girl took a break from the emerging Nick/Jess romance to focus on Jess’s friendship with Cece, and Cece’s supposedly impending marriage. There were many facets of this episode that I liked. I’ve always enjoyed Hannah Simone as a sarcastic, eye-rolling foil for Jess and the fight between the two women felt organic and was also funny. I also liked Nick’s dead dad pass, the recurring joke that Winston takes antics too far, and I ADORE Merritt Weaver always and everywhere. The problem was, it’s impossible to think that Cece will actually go through with this borderline-arranged marriage.
Best moment: “You question my pajamas; you make me question our entire relationship.”
The Mindy Project – “Santa Fe”
While New Girl downplayed the romance factor this week, Mindy played it up with some Mindy-Danny hand-holding during airplane turbulence. I think Mindy has been doing well with keeping the idea of a romance between Mindy and Danny somewhat at bay, while still acknowledging the chemistry the two characters have – much like New Girl did in season one. Mindy’s romance with the hip minister is a delight and I’d like to see it last a while, and the revelation that her skeezy ex-boyfriend Josh was a coke addict brought a lot of laughs. Josh assumed Mindy would now be dating Danny, and that combined with Danny’s insistence to drive her to see Josh in the first place and their hand-holding on the plane, was enough of a hint at a possible (inevitable, really) future to please me. They’re not ready to be together yet, but the show isn’t pretending like it’s not a thing. As always, the problem with Mindy is that the B-plot is weak. Jeremy and Morgan were OK this week, but really filler while we waited to get to the good stuff.
Best moment: “You sound really pretty, like you’ve lost weight.”
Runner up: Danny criticizing everyone in rehab for having weak addictions.
* Many viewers noted that Chloe Sevigny’s surprise guest appearance was outed by the credits rolling before she’d appeared. The Canadian channel I was watching cut the episode off early, so I didn’t even get to see it at all! I caught it online later, and I am intrigued by where that could lead.
Modern Family – “Flip Flop”
Modern Family doesn’t often do story arcs that last for several episodes, but they got a few out of Cam and Claire flipping a house together. This week we saw most of the family band together to try and sell the house, with a combination of Internet stalking and role-playing. It was funny, as was the other storyline – Gloria’s ex-husband announcing that he’s marrying a smart, cultured woman who hit things off great with Manny. The storylines played on very familiar character beats – Gloria being over-protective and jealous, Mitch being a know-it-all, Claire being a worry-wart, etc. – but the result was a solid, if unsurprising, episode.
Best moment: I liked Haley a lot in this episode, but I’ll have to go with Phil saying “Prepare to Phil the agony of Dunpheat! Both names!”
Community – “Intro to Felt Surrogacy”
Just because there’s puppets and singing doesn’t make an episode funny. Just because you acknowledge how repetitive a show is with meta humor doesn’t make the repetitiveness any less annoying.
Parks and Recreation – “Animal Control”
This episode of Parks felt a bit lopsided to me. There was one truly hilarious, brilliant storyline – Ann forcing Ron to deal with a nasty cold and look at his health overall. Then there was a good storyline – April applying to run the Animal Control department, and it getting absorbed by the Parks Dept. where she could run it as a Deputy Director. This didn’t provide the most laughs, but April’s character has evolved so much, it’s nice to see some payoff in the form of a small promotion. The third storyline barely interested me, despite featuring the usually dynamic combination of Tom, Andy and Ben. I just can’t get into Ben’s new job. What did you guys think?
Best moment: This conversation between Ann and Ron.
“Do you have any history of mental illness in your family?”
“I have an uncle who does yoga.”
“Allergies?”
“Cowardice and weak-willed men. And hazelnuts.”
“Sexual history?”
“Epic. And private.”
Runners up: “Balsa wood? You could have at least used mahogany.” Giggling. Ron eating a banana.
The Office – “Stairmageddon”
I don’t have much to say about this episode, other than that I didn’t care for it. The Dwight/Stanley storyline and the Andy storyline didn’t do it for me. Angela’s husband publicly coming out, and revealing that he’d had a lover other than Oscar, was just OK. And Pam and Jim’s marriage counseling stuff was kind of a downer. We all know the series won’t end with them divorcing, so can’t we wrap up this marriage difficulties storyline and get back to the jokes? Please?
