The Ballad of Eric Cartman

      I was brushing up on the latest episodes of South Park when I came upon E12 S15 "1%". It struck me as one of these episodes where comedy takes the back seat and lets "tragedy" drive for a bit. The entire episode isn't tragic of course, but the ending has a heavy touch of pathos making the situation funny and something else as well. You rarely see Death in Sitcoms, although South Park changed that a lot, so when it shows up we aren't really comfortable. See, the Sitcom genre doesn't evolve or it does very slowly, so if you break it down, you'll see many times the same thing between series, seasons and episodes. Thus, we like Sitcoms because of the familiar feeling like we are part of the family, group of friend, town... in which the characters lead their lives. 

      So, when Death appears, since we are not used to seing it in Sitcoms, we don't really know how to feel. Some people laugh much harder, others cry... doesn't matter. What matters is the concept of reciprocity between our feelings and the feelings exposed in the episode. If a character is sad and that makes us laugh, then there is a reason for that opposite reaction, as there would be if if the reaction was the same.

Tales From The Public Domain and Other Stories

What I really like is when animated sitcoms take on novels, poems, movies or any kind of past production and adapt them to their characters. Making a spoof of Stephen King like Family Guy did in S07E15 or completely re-doing Die Hard like the Cleveland Show did recently in S03E07.

    This happens frequently and especially in The Simpsons. Spoofs usually highlight the characters' personalities and mix them in with a story that doesn't seem appropriate to fit these out-of-context characters. 

     I like spoofs for two reasons. First, because they're really funny and second because they open the show and give a something more to their audience than the weekly jokes. This helps making TV a legitimate art form capable of building on the stones of past and present productions. So that's something good ! 

Let's take a look at a few of these spoofs : 

Oops....

    So.... Sorry everyone. I got caught up doing twenty thousand and a half things. No post today....
But Monday there will be a post and so will there be next thursday and so on after that FOREVER !!!

Shame too,... There were some very interesting things I wanted to say; but, too bad, I'll bring them up next week !

Kisses


and again, sorry


TRJ

Following Malcolm - Sitcom Schizophrenia

     What the X-Mas break gave me was time to brush up on some oldies. I had started watching Breaking Bad a few months ago and seing Bryan Cranston as Walter White made me want to revisit Malcolm in the Middle (MITM) to appreciate the acting range Cranston displays throughout his work. I very much like MITM, without being a hardcore fan, because several things make the show stand out from standard Sitcoms that we forget a month after they are canceled. 

      The first seasons center our attention around Malcolm obviously but as you may have noticed in eponymous Sitcoms, rarely is the "hero" the best part of the show. By "best" I mean funny, interesting and worth studying. The adventures Malcolm has don't really matter to me, but the decorum and method of presenting them are particularly fascinating. 

    The whole show is based on Malcolm growing up in a dysfunctional household that manages nonetheless to get through money problems, criminal problems, moral problems, and so on. With a weird father, Hal, very passionate about everything he does, but then abandons after a week, and an overly authoritative mother, Lois, that meddles way too much in her sons' personal life, Malcolm wanders through his teens as an awkward genius. 

Let's take a look at the "Middle" part of the show's name. 

Malcolm is in the middle in every aspect of his life :

Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays To All !

     I wanted to wish you all the best in these times of holidays, Christmas, Kwanza, whatever you celebrate... 

I will be taking a short break from posting here until the shows start back up in January. So, don't hesitate to check out the older posts so that we have plenty to talk about in 2012 ! 

Happy Holidays everyone and Happy new Year when the time comes ! 2012, finally, Doomsday !!! 

Anyways, thank you for reading and see you next year !!!

TRJ

Futurama

     Futurama is, in my opinion, one of the best animated sitcoms of all times. First aired on FOX between 1999 and 2003 then canceled to only have reruns on Adult Swim. In 2007, four really good movies came out until 2008 when Comedy Central started to air new episodes and now episodes are scheduled to air at least until 2012-13. 

Why do I like Futurama so much ? Because it gives an interesting point of view of our own society but with an imaginary perception from the future. Not only that, it's a pretty funny show with touching characters. 

Not too much touchy-feely, but a cute subtle twist at the end of most episodes like in "Where the Buggalo Roam" S03 E10, when Kif and Amy kiss and Kif writes in his diary with his particular voice "Dear Diary, I just made love for the second time". I like that little touch of cuteness because it isn't overbearing, yet keeps the show in the Sitcom tradition. 

     The songs and music are really good and I admire Christopher Tyng for bringing the series alive with such awesome tunes. 

Alec Baldwin - My Man Crush n°1

      Now let me be clear, I'm a relatively happy heterosexual. It's just that sometimes you get caught up watching a show, suddenly 3 seasons have gone by and it's already tomorrow. Real case of the Mondays ! HA HA HA...

     Rewatching 30 Rock from the start, and remembering my first experience with the show, I found myself, not as the analyst I idealize myself to be, but rather as the schoolgirl phasing out every character in the show except Jack Donaghy while ice cream gently drips from my lips on my purple PJs with my hair held up by the only crayon I have left from that not-so-long ago childhood. 

Future-Drama - The Simpsons S23 E09

     When I watched last night's episode of the Simpsons, it made me think of the problem with very long shows. So the Simpsons are on season 23, 23 years of the Simpsons. 

Think about it like this : 496 episodes have aired. That's more days than in a year. Nobody gets older so it's a sort of weird time warp that is operated where nothing ever changes. 

But that's what sitcoms do. They keep us in an unaltered reality where time has stopped. Sure, the seasons change and the family celebrates different holidays and keeps up with the times with technology, cultural and political references. 

Where Are The Fireworks ? Modern Family Review

     When I watched Modern Family's "Express Christmas", S03 E10, I was fearing the traditional Christmas Special and total disinterest on my part. Yet, as Modern Family often does, my expectations were wrong and so, the episode started in a completely non-Christmas way with the whole family by the pool sunbathing. There are only a couple of episodes that start with the whole family together (see my review on Modern Family S03 E08), usually they meet up in the end as each family part plot-line is resolved.

         What was important in this episode, was to show the whole family together to put emphasis on the fact that they won't be on the actual Christmas day and for us as viewers, it felt kind of weird to imagine them not spending Christmas together since they seemed to always do everything as a family relating to the name of the show, as it were, Modern Family. In that way when Cam says that he, Lilly and Mitchell could go to Missouri for Christmas, Claire objects saying that Christmas is spent with family and Cam sets her straight reminding her that his family is in Missouri. Once again, for us as viewers, it is not conceivable that Cam has actually another family. Sure his mother has been seen but only in Cam and Mitchell's house, only in California. The family must keep a familiar setting and if not, must move together like in the Hawai Episodes (S01 E22-23).

Christmas Is Coming

     As the streets shine with that winter glow of Christmas decorations, as every morning I wake and rush to the window to see if it has snowed, as I watch TV and listen to the radio where people try to sell me presents for the holidays, I realize that every year it's the same thing.

We'll get the same Christmas Specials in Sitcoms, the same feel-good moment at the end where the whole family is together. And next year, it'll be the same thing, so will the year after that,... etc...

     All this makes me think about monotony and regularity. These shows I watch and then comment on are all pretty much the same. Sure, the structure, the characters and the jokes change to some extent, but in the end, they are all the same. Because that is how Sitcoms are defined as I said many times :