TV Diaries: ABC's Increasingly Charming Comedy Block
Why Modern Family, Cougar Town, and Happy Endings are starting to rival NBC's Thursday night.
By James Brady Ryan
Author's note: Has anyone else noticed how much TV is on right now? It's probably better for the audience, in the end, that the traditional concept of “seasons” is on its way out, but my God! A new show premieres every week! Sundays are getting ridiculously busy. I'm dancing as fast as I can! And my Valium prescription is running so very low.
Sunday, April 17
9 p.m. — I've already discussed Game of Thrones on these virtual pages before — and I stand by my thought that there were some weird racial issues in the pilot — but let's talk about things that don't involve unfortunate stereotypes of non-white people. Instead, let's talk about siblings who are fucking. I watch it with a group of people gathered together for a "watching party" — something I've read about but didn't think existed, like Bigfoot. It turns out that viewing strategy suits the show, which is another captivating entry in the “powerful people are terrible” canon. Shows set before 1950 are often at least a little campy, and viewing this show with a large group of people makes campiness more fun. Like the moment when Daenerys Targaryen's brother tells his young sister that, in order to regain the throne of Westeros, he'd not only marry her off to a barbarian warlord — he'd let his whole horde and their horses fuck her:
Party Guest 1: I don't think I like her.
Party Guest 2: But she loves horses!
Me: She better.
11 p.m. — Have you heard of Tama, the Japanese station cat? She's a calico cat who runs a fully automated train station in Kinokawa. She's really important to me right now. When she has official duties, she wears a little outfit that makes her look like a Jacobean fop, and after she got her promotion to “super station master,” she became the Wakayama Electric Railway's sole female in a managerial position. That's actually pretty depressing, but it's still a pretty good accomplishment for a creature without opposable thumbs.
Basically, Tama is exactly the same as Audrina Partridge, a person whose path to fame consists of a tangle of reality shows so thick I couldn't get through it with MTV's head of programming in one hand and a machete in the other. Audrina (VH1) is her station master-ship — unearned, totally ridiculous. Think about it too much and you might cry, but it's unspeakably funny when you're drunk.
Monday, April 18
3 p.m. — I watch entirely too much Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (Netflix). Do you think the government puts you on some sort of list when you stream five episodes in a row?
9 p.m. — I want to ask our U.K. readers: is anyone actually that into the upcoming royal wedding? Because Lifetime's William & Kate does not inspire me much. But I did discover that Kate Middleton wanted to be a train conductor once. I have this friend, Tama, who works with trains; maybe I should put them in touch.
10 p.m. — I wonder about the message of United States of Tara (Showtime). I have a friend who can't watch the show because the entire premise is that a mentally ill woman will have a better life when she goes off her meds, something that didn't work for said person's father. I know I'm “reading too much into it,” a thing I've been accused of many times, but it's hard to reconcile my enjoyment and the vague sense of irresponsibility.
Commentarium (18 Comments)
Oh GOD. "She better." You know, people die that way.
Now I can't stop imagining Audrina in the station kitties' uniform. Audrina and the kitty conductor melded into one is really messing with my brain in the funnest way possible. I'm still laughing over here.
I would really prefer to see Modern Family lauded as the great gay-friendly tv show in place of Glee, which is frankly, shrill and irritating beyond belief and does a lot more to reinforce stereotypes (GAY PEOPLE LOVE MUSICALS I GET IT).
I do not understand the appeal of that show beyond Jane Lynch, and I'm with Dave Grohl's opinion of Ryan Murphy: "Fuck that guy."
amen
Hm. This is a question I often wonder about. I understand the thought that Glee isn't a good representation of LGBT people on TV, and it's possible I'm more forgiving because I do love musicals. But in the end, I think it handles any gay storyline with more heart and wit than all of the other "serious" plots. And the show has five LGBT characters, four of whom are regulars. That's pretty impressive.
watching that many episodes of SVU in a row makes me feel dirty. not that it stops me or anything. and AGREED. united states of tara is a disturbing premise. but toni collette! i love her!
at least it's not multiple episodes of NCIS.
Holy shit -- you guys are still watching regular broadcast TV? Wow. My grandmother used to do that. Until she died.
If she was still alive I bet she'd be giving you a lecture on the glory of 30 Rock and Community.
She probably killed herself when she realized that her grandkids are retarded.
Broadcast TV has been having a mini-renaissance and is nothing of which to be ashamed - assuming you don't actually watch it on a television set hooked up to a traditional cable service with commercials and stuff.
I've watched maybe five episodes of Glee this season, all before the new year, and they all made me want to go to bed early or read a book. Mike O'Malley has been routinely great in it, but he gave a similarly solid performance on ABC's Parenthood last season. I absolutely LOVED the first half of season one, but it's been steadily downhill ever since. Cannot stand it. Dead to me.
From the title, I thought this column was going to be about how NBC's Thursday is beginning to truly suck outside of Community (even 30 Rock is waining. Still good, not great.)
I think i'm the only one in america who likes parks and recreation waaaaaay more than community
I think parks & rec is funnier than community too!
I want to like Parks and Rec, I really do. But it's so very dry. I can watch an episode here or there but it wears on me pretty quickly.
Glee has been hit-or-miss this season, but I thought this week's episode was one of the best in a while. It was so crazypants -- one awesome moment after another, without being tied down to things like consitant character arcs, or logic, or the basics of being a good teacher. In general, the more divorced from reality and a logical plotline, the better the show is. It's the episodes when you feel like they're trying to play by real-world rules, and the audience starts to try to apply logic to the procedings, that the show starts to fall apart.
Community is at it's best when it can both tell it's story and is deconstructing the sitcom form. It was there Thursday night.
If each episode had a Facebook page, I'd Like the shit out of this one. I'd Like it until it was breathless and sweaty - and just when it was about to pass out from so much intense Liking - I'd finish by Liking all over it's wall.
To answer your original point, that is, why ABC's comedy block is starting to rival NBC.
It's actually funny.
That's not simplistic as much as the truth. What else is there to say?
Now you say something