Category: Television/Short Subject Reviews

The Kids In The Hall – Episode 35

Worthy of Note:
gritty childrens’ novelist drama
Faggos
“It’s A Fact” is an improvement over “30 Helens Agree”
Bruce’s suicide journal

For those of you who may noticed the MASSIVE gap between episodes, I have a theory.
The kids spent summer vacation having fun and writing gobs of new material, which they used on their first three season two episodes.  Then they just sort of farted around.

The Kids In The Hall – Episode 24

Worthy of Note:
gun-musicians on patrol
businessman hunting
new, IMPROVED Cabbagehead
No Time To Lose…I mean, You’re Fired.  (Come on…watch both and then tell me this isn’t MPFC Lite)
interesting toe
verytemp job
office quickie
THE PIT OF ULTIMATE DARKNESS!!!
Hounds of Hell
Beasts of Brimstone
Puppies of Purgatory
FABULOUS lesbian softball team managing

Seamlessly much-improved…impressive. I ALMOST want to give it an A.

Grade: B+

The Kids In The Hall – Episode 17

Worthy of Note:
Donald Dane – the future of horror
Leafs game sketch/recurrence
Kevin’s middle
cute doggie!
Kevin outdoing Mark at his own bit
problems of mass murder
Vaudeville drama
clothes for ugly women

Their best yet.  Thompson is good, Foley is good, McDonald is good, McCulloch is barely noticeable, and McKinney is surprisingly competent.

Grade: B+

Series Episodes – An Explanation

You may have noticed that apart from Monty Python’s Flying Circus, I’ve skipped reviewing certain episodes of all the series’ I’ve watched.  This is for two reasons:

1) Monty Python’s Flying Circus is more watchable in its entirety than any other series I’ve ever seen.
and…
2) Skipped episodes denote those not worthy of being reviewed.  Mediocre and redundant at best, horrific and dull at worst.

-Puppy >.< Yip!

Mr. Bean: The Whole Bean – Episode 8 (Mr. Bean In Room 426)

The show seems to have lost one writer…and with him, a lot of humor.

Sort of like ‘The Three Stooges’ without Curly or any decent lines (since these are virtually silent films), when your comedy is highly physical/visual in nature and you lose most of the wit, it becomes simply dull and tedious.

That’s what this is for the most part, and since there are far superior (previous) examples of exactly this (only funny) available, watching this is completely pointless.  The end, or a bump in the road?

We can soon find out.

Grade: D-

Mr. Bean: The Whole Bean – Episode 6 (Mr. Bean Rides Again)

This is even better than the last one, which I thought not likely.

But I just can’t call this “excellent”…sight gags are sight gags, no matter how inventive and cleverly done.  But it is good…

Necessity is the mother of Mr. Bean’s really bad inventions.

Grade: B+

Mr. Bean: The Whole Bean – Episode 4 (Mr. Bean Goes To Town)

Better than the last, which was better than the last.  Don’t know how good it can really get, but let’s hope for the best.

Having seen several episodes of ‘Blackadder’, which I’ve never particularly cared for, I now appreciate what a good actor Atkinson is.  The in-your-face snobbery is replaced in ‘Mr. Bean’ with a very different, childlike/ish and completely unpretentious character.  Granted he doesn’t say much (not to mention not being much of a boyfriend), but his expressions are spot-on (I’m trying to be British).

Actually, I am mostly British in ancestry, but you gather my inference.

Highlight: The truly incredible “magic” show

Grade: B

Mr. Bean: The Whole Bean – Episode 3 (The Curse Of Mr. Bean)

I should probably explain at this point what exactly this is, for those who don’t know.

It’s a really weird but mostly harmless guy doing really weird things, often to the amusement/horror/astonishment of normal onlookers.

That’s it, is it?  Spot on, Chris. 

No further explanation necessary, it’d be like trying to explain WHY a joke is funny.  You either like this sort of thing or you don’t…I do.  To see if YOU do, watch this.  It’s a decent example.  If you think it’s stupid, you’ll think ALL Mr. Bean is stupid.  If not, look at my grades/occasional comments.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Grade: B-

Cheers – Episode 119 (Cheers: The Motion Picture)

Highs:
‘Manchild in Beantown’
random french
Cinemapuss
the on button
puppy!
Judy…
depression seminar
too derivative of Godard
Woody’s shirt size
Norm’s recovery
the thresher
Al

Lows:
Diane film Exposition
film continuity error
the gift sequence

Grade: B (The last ‘Cheers’ episode worth watching)