VAGUE SPACE

2011-2012 TV Season in Review Winners

And the winners are:

Best Comedy

Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO)
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia  (FX)
Life's Too Short (HBO)
Louie (FX)
Modern Family (ABC)
Nurse Jackie  (Showtime)
Parks and Recreation  (NBC)

This was the toughest competition of the season, as Nurse Jackie (2010's winner) edges out Parks and Recreation (last year's winner).  Parks was pretty great again (although ratings have cratered, as they have for all of NBC's Thursday lineup) but Nurse Jackie was as good this season as it was in its first two seasons, even though there are still a few episodes left.  This is a sober Jackie for the very first time, a necessary step in the arc of the show -- her drug abuse was getting worse and worse and affecting her family and work -- and it was going to have to end.  Badly.  Which it did when guest Billie Joe Armstrong died in her arms after an overdose.  They handled the rehab rather well (although quickly) and have handled the "clean and sober" part equally well, as her husband has sued for divorce and custody of the kids, putting the rest of her life in danger in the absence of the drug use.  O'Hara's pregnancy has been a welcome addition (I assume Eve Best is pregnant in real life, but either way it works).  Getting Anna Deveare-Smith out on the floor as a nurse again was a stroke of genius.  And the inclusion of Bobby Canavale was a wise decision to give Jackie a foil (with the twist that she befriended his addict son in rehab -- a juicy detail that I can't wait to see how it resolves).  All in all, the show has focused more on the hospital than Jackie's family life (now that her husband has left her) and that has probably been for the good (he was always the weakest character).  So in the end, Nurse Jackie beats out the great "Leslie running for town council" season on Parks and Recreation.  Coming in third again was another solid season for Modern Family, edging out the 2nd season of the awkward but wonderful comedy of Louis CK.

 

TV Madness Elite Eight Part 1

And then there were 8.  And by the end of this post there will be 4 6.  Can you feel the excitement?  Let's get right into it.

The Comedies

1 - Seinfeld vs. 6 - Arrested Development

On Monday night as research, I watched much of a 2-part Seinfeld from the later years (post Larry David), in which Kramer and Newman use a mail truck to ferry deposit bottles to Michigan while Jerry's Saab gets stolen by his mechanic (played by Brad Garrett), Elaine bids double what Pederman authorized for JFK's golf clubs to outduel Sue Ellen Mischke the bra-less wonder, and George struggles to perform an assignment for Wilhelm even after finding out the key is "Downtown", like the song.  If that all sounds like ridiculousness to you, it was.  And if it all sounds familiar and even leads to a little positive nostalgia (particularly the "Downtown" verses part at the coffee shop) it certainly was.  But what was shocking to me, considering how well Seinfeld held up for so many years, is just how unfunny it was on Monday night, watching for whatever nth time I've seen this particularly weak two parter.  And I probably never liked the stupid Kramer/Newman road trip even on my very first viewing, but after all these years, the show has definitely aged.  Even a recent viewing of the best two-parter in show history, The Keith Hernandez, garnered nary a chuckle, but I felt more pleasant nostalgia for it at least.  The point I'm trying to make is that at some point, all shows -- even as great as Seinfeld -- eventually hit the wall.  Cheers reached it years ago and lost in the last round to the fresher and more repeatable (at this moment in time) Arrested Development, and I'm shocked to say I am seriously considering the same fait accompli here.  And I don't even know what fait accompli means.  I guess the truth is it's pretty well impossible to compare great shows from different eras and come up with a satisfying solution on all merits.  I mean yes, Seinfeld was the greatest comedy ever for a long, long time.  But also, I would watch just about every single episode in Arrested Development's canon for the nth time than watch a single second of Kramer and Newman getting golf clubs thrown at them by Brad Garrett, or really, most Seinfeld episodes, except for a few classics -- of which Arrested Development also has had many.  I said at the beginning of this, the seeding was based on what I considered the "best" shows to be based on my viewing history with them, but because if that were the only criteria all the 1 seeds would be in the final four which would make this exercise less fun.  As it is, all the ones and two seeds made the final eight except for Arrested Development so it's time for me to buck the trend and stick with my original mantra for evaluation in the tourney -- which show would I rather watch in re-runs today?  In that case this matchup ends in no contest.  

Winner:  6 - Arrested Development

TV Madness Round 3 - The Active Shows

1 - Curb Your Enthusiasm vs. 9 - Modern Family
4 - Parks and Recreation vs. 5 - Nurse Jackie

Curb has a 6-4 lead over current favorite Modern Family in the voting, while Parks & Rec is dominating against Nurse Jackie, 9-0.  That matchup is a little surprising, although despite the fact that Parks & Rec barely gets ratings on NBC for unknown reasons (too funny?  Americans are busy watching the horribly unfunny "Two Broke Girls"?), it still dwarfs the ratings for a show on Showtime, even an award-winning and popular one like Nurse Jackie.  I do love Nurse Jackie, and it was the Vague Space show of the year of 2010, but I also love Parks & Rec, which was show of the year in 2011.  Honestly I could go either way but I'll give the win to what the crowd is supporting, a show that is just non-stop hilarity from start to finish for the 4 year length of the show, Parks & Recreation.  In the other matchup, we have Curb, which has been around since 2000 or so on HBO, and Modern Family, only in its third season.  They have been 3 brilliant seasons (although not quite as good as the first three seasons of Parks & Rec or Nurse Jackie, in my opinion), but it's not going to beat Curb.  Pretty much every season of Larry David's show has featured bunches of episodes that were instant classics, particularly in the first 4 or 5 seasons.  But even in later years, including this past Season 8 that was rather weak by comparison, the show still has moments of absolute brilliance that no other show on the air today can match (ie. Bill Buckner at the shiva).

Winners:  1 - Curb Your Enthusiasm vs. 4 - Parks and Recreation (vote below)

TV Madness Round 2 - The Active Shows

The first round matchups in the "Active Shows" bracket (which includes play-in game winners) are as follows:

1 - Curb Your Enthusiasm vs. 16 - (play in winner) 3rd Rock from the Sun
8 - True Blood vs. 9 - Modern Family

There hasn't been as much voting for these shows (perhaps because the original post came out on a Friday) so the results are basically going to be up to me.  In this first matchup, Curb goes up against 3rd Rock, a quality show that had a nice run to get into the main bracket but it will be no match for the Curb, which I watched on the plane on my way to Norfolk, in pain from my foot and high on Percocet, and Larry David made me briefly happy for the first and last time of the day.  That's good enough.  The second matchup is a very tough and very close battle between a comedy and a supernatural "drama", a show at the height of its powers in season 3 and a show definitely on the downslide in season 4 or 5? -- is that what it's up to now?  Not sure.  The first two seasons of Sookie and the gang were pretty unstoppably great but the show's plotlines have gotten increasingly outrageous (is there anyone who doesn't have a superpower?) and minor characters that don't really interest me have taken way too much time away from the main Sookie story.  So it's difficult.  Meanwhile, Modern Family was a breath of comedic fresh air when it premiered and has remained quite strong.  It's not as good as Parks & Recreation -- few shows on TV are -- but it's probably the second best comedy on a network right now and its incredible ratings has revived network comedies from a very moribund state.  And that's a good enough thing to push it through to the second round.

Winners:  1 - Curb Your Enthusiasm vs. 9- Modern Family (vote below)

Palestinian Chicken

It's been a banner year so far for Curb Your Enthusiasm, highlighted by this week's third episode, a laugh-out-loud funny episode about Jews, Palestinians, yarmulkes, good chicken, rabbis, marital infidelity, social assassination, and yes, LOLs. 

Palestinian woman:  "I like you."
Larry David:  "What's not to like?"
Palestinian woman:  "Eh, you're a Jew."

Good times.  I've been a longtime fan of Curb, which has been on the air off and on for a long time, we kind of all thought that their 7th season -- the Seinfeld reunion season -- would be a fitting ending to a wonderful show, but Larry's back, nearly two years later, and somehow better than ever.  He's gone back to his roots and the comedy has followed.  And by "roots" I mean, of course, Jew jokes.

Larry Miller: "By the way, your lunch is on me."
Larry David:  "I already paid for it."
Larry Miller:  "Even better."

Little Orphan Funkhouser

This season of Curb has featured quite a bit of Marty Funkhouser (aka the former Super Dave Osborne), and it's been a typically hilarious year so far, highlighted by another stellar episode this week.  If the presence of so much Funkhouser alongside so much comedy is off-putting to you, well just remember, Larry David can make anything and everything funny.  Even a wet-with-sweat 50-dollar bill. 

Funkhouser's mother Ida died in a wheelchair accident while trying to cross a road, and as a result, a Roadside Memorial has been setup on her behalf, full of flowers that somehow end up in Larry's grasp.  But before all that, LD finds himself on line at an ice cream shop with a woman who makes the practice of sampling an art form.  LD has some words with her - but unfortunately she is the dean of the school that Cheryl is trying to get the Black kids enrolled in (along with Jeff and Susie's daughter).  Cheryl is not pleased at Larry screwing up the enrollment process.

Larry: (on confronting a sample abuser) Don't abuse your sampling privileges. She abused the sampling privilege. And you know what else?
Cheryl: What?
Larry: I was also looking out for the counterperson, as well.
Cheryl: If she had a problem with that woman, don't you think she would have said, "Excuse me, ma'am"?
Larry: No, no, 'cause she's always told 'the customer is right,' and in fact, the customer is usually a moron and an asshole.

He's not wrong there.

Curb Your Enthusiasm

I received the 4th season DVD set as a Christmas present and have spent the last 2 days watching it non-stop, unable to break from the sheer brilliance of comedy.  I must say that when I first viewed Season 4 when it came out - I don't know - a year and a half ago I guess, that I was a little disappointed with it, at least compared to the first three seasons.  And while it may still be behind some earlier seasons, it certainly has more than its fair share of great moments and episodes.  I can only hope that the debacle that was the recently concluded Season 5 also ages well over time and partially suffered from my inflated expectations.  Of course, Season 4 didn't produce over 80% of its jokes from Jewish humor.  And there was way less Richard Lewis.  A little too much David Schwimmer for my taste, but that's just being picky.  Anyway, read on for my top 3 favorite episodes from that season.

Larry Goes to Heaven

In a lengthy, bizarre, and at times entertaining final episode to the 5th season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry discovers he isn't Jewish, gives his kidney to Richard Lewis, dies, goes to Heaven, and then returns from the dead.  Yeah.  I don't know quite what to say.  At some point this season, my favorite show turned into a cross between Highway to Heaven and the horrible Albert Brooks comedy Defending Your Life.  Except more Jewish.   Clearly Larry hit the wall this year, running out of ideas some point after the third episode, and when it seemed apparent that he was going to die in the hospital, I was actually kind of rooting for it, thinking that yes, the show has come to a close and I was ok with that.  But he did come back, so I guess I have to recap, although I'm not sure I can.  I'm still in shock at what I witnessed.

    Larry (on his deathbed, accepting everyone's last wishes - looks at Susie Green)
    Susie: (with arms spread) "Larr--"
    Larry: "Ehh..." (waves her away)

Ok, that part was funny.

The Korean Bookie

First there were big vaginas, now there are big breasts.  And a once truly inspired show continues to wallow in cheap jokes and incessant Jewish-related humor.  Not that it's not funny, though.   

    Larry: "You go around calling Jeff a fat fuck."
    Susie: "He is a fat fuck.  Oscar's just big boned."

Oscar, the Greens' dog - who Jeff was once allergic to, who is a certified corpse-sniffing canine, and who once assaulted Larry's penis - goes missing (which is another recycled plot idea) shortly after meeting Larry's bookie, a Korean flower salesman who seems unusually taken with the large-sized mammal.  In the meantime, Larry is trying to fix the mess he made in last week's episode, when he let the Orthodex Jew girl jump from the ski lift.  As usual, nothing ends well.

The Ski Lift

On this week's episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, regular Jew Larry David takes on Orthodox Judiasm, poking fun at its peculiar rituals, while also offending organ donors, skiiers ("it's a big schlep"), and a perhaps heretofore unknown affliction - women with unusually large... um, "private parts" (no, not breasts - the other one).  The plot revolves around Larry's ongoing efforts to avoid giving up a kidney to save Richard Lewis, whose cousin remains alive but in a coma, with perfectly working organs.

"Comas are very unpredictable," Jeff reminds Larry, but they luck into a chance encounter with George Lopez, who explains that they could help move Richard Lewis to the top of the donor list if they got in good with the doctor who runs the "Kidney Consortium".  The only problem?  He's an Orthodox Jew.  So Larry crashes into his car, leaves a note, and arranges a meeting, in full kvetching Jew mode.  And yeah, I'm not sure I'm using any of these Jew phrases correctly.  You know, Seinfeld at least made its show about topics that gentiles could follow for crying out loud.  And what the fuck is a Mitzvah?