Tag / Danny Pudi

by admin

Midseason Review – Thursdays

We are on the back half of our look back at the offerings for the new fall season. Thursday night is traditionally the busiest night of the week for my television viewing habits, but not this year. Here’s what was on the slate for this season.

7:00

9-1-1 – Returning for its eighth season, and its second on ABC, I started watching the previous seasons this summer.

After starting with the show over the summer when I was in Amsterdam, I managed to catch all the way up over my December vacation.

8:00

Doctor Odyssey – The new series stars Joshua Jackson as a doctor working on a cruise ship.

A 21st century Love Boat that has more focus on the ship’s crew than on the cruise guests.

9:00

Elsbeth – The The Good Wife spinoff returns for its second season, but I still have to watch the first one.

One day, I will start watching.  Today, however, is not that day.

Grey’s Anatomy – The medical drama enters its 21st season down an attending and an intern

What can you say about a show in its 21st season?

And now the new entries:

Going Dutch – I don’t see any sort of a future for this, but it’s good to see Danny Pudi getting some work.

Hollywood Squares – This was… not good.

by jim

Post Mortem – Powerless

Powerless was too much fun to succeed, and the freshman show, pulled off the air by NBC after only 9 episodes, was officially cancelled on May 11, exactly one year after getting its initial series order.  Set on the fringes of the DC universe, the show focused on a subsidiary of Wayne Enterprises that created products for citizens caught in the crossfire between the world’s heroes and villains.

Starring favorites Ron Funches and Danny Pudi, alongside the surprising (for me, at least) Vanessa Hudgens, the show was a fun way to spend a half hour.  Sadly, the television world does not tend to support fun these days.

by admin

Midseason Review – Thursdays

old-tv-set1Time for our look back at Thursday nights, which has traditionally been the busiest night of the week for my television viewing habits.

7:00

Grey’s Anatomy – The medical drama enters its 13th season, with the last 8 episodes of season 12 still sitting on the DVR waiting to be watched.  Since I don’t know how last season ended, I’ve avoided looking at what lies ahead this year.

Surprisingly still watchable here in season 13.

The Big Bang Theory – The show returns to Thursdays in late October, following the midpoint of the NFL season.

The show has focused on personal growth this year, with Sheldon and Amy moving in together and Bernadette and Howard having a baby, opening up new avenues for comedy.

DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow – The grouping of DC’s also-rans returns for its second season, with a promised appearance from the Legion of Doom.

The show is moving to Tuesdays with their revamped team lineup.

7:30

The Great Indoors – Former Community star Joel McHale returns to network TV with this comedy about the new generation gap in the workplace.

Well, I had planned on trying this, thanks to Joel McHale.  Sadly, I never got around to it.

8:00

Pitch – Strangely, I don’t usually enjoy movies or TV shows about baseball despite loving the sport in real life, which means I don’t know if I’ll get in to this tale of the first female professional baseball player.  Having Gregg Olson and Chad Kreuter on board as technical advisers certainly can’t hurt.

The first season has come and gone and it went surprisingly well.  I’m hoping for a second season.

9:00

The Good Place – Kristen Bell stars as a new arrival to the afterlife in this new comedy from the creator of Parks and Rec.

A big swerve at the end of season 1 leaves me wanting a second season.

Continue reading →

by jim

Now About That Movie

community-jeff-winger-dean-peltonAgainst all odds, Community is coming back for a sixth season, thanks to a last minute reprieve from Yahoo!, of all places.  Dan Harmon is still on-board as showrunner and the main cast at the end of last season, Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, Yvette Nicole Brown, Alison Brie, Danny Pudi, Ken Jeong and Jim Rash, are expected to return.

Earlier in the spring, Yahoo announced a slate of comedy series that it expected to create.  Having a show like Community, with a built in, rabid audience, can only help Yahoo’s other shows get noticed.

I had made peace with the loss of Community, as I wrote a week ago.  Having it come back from the dead yet again was certainly unexpected.  Here’s hoping Yahoo does right by the show and the Harmon and company can produce a sixth season worthy of those that have come before.

by jim

Post Mortem – Community

communityOn September 17, 2009, I found myself watching a new comedy on NBC despite my best intentions.  Starring the guy from The Soup and Chevy Chase, I was sure that this show, titled Community, would be a dud.  Surprisingly, I ended up liking the pilot and came back the following week.  Eventually, Community rose to the top of my watch list and became one of my favorite shows.

Sadly, despite critical acclaim and a fiercely loyal fanbase, the fandom for this particular show was small.  Every season, the show was on the bubble and it probably would have been cancelled years ago if NBC wasn’t totally desperate for anything resembling a hit.  But along the way, we got three tremendous seasons.  When showrunner Dan Harmon was fired after season 3, the show seemed doomed once again, but it came back for a surprise 4th season, which saw more trouble and the eventual departure of Chase.

Given all of that, it was a foregone conclusion that the show would be cancelled last year.  Once again, the little show that could surprised the world by not only being renewed for a 5th season, but by bringing back Dan Harmon to once again helm the show.  A throw away line from early in the shows run, six seasons and a movie, had become the rallying cry of the shows fans and now seemed to be within reach.  Sadly, after a 5th season which saw the departure of Donald Glover, NBC finally pulled the plug.

So I say thank you to Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, Danny Pudi, Yvette Nicole Brown, Alison Brie, Donald Glover, Jim Rash, Ken Jeong, and, yes, Chevy Chase for a wonderful run.  #SaveGreendale #SixSeasonsAndAMovie

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Things I Love

In honor of Valentine’s Day, here are some things I love.

Community has been off the air for a few months now, and I still miss it every Thursday night when it isn’t on.  I understand that people have a problem following a sitcom that doesn’t follow the normal tropes of the genre, but that doesn’t make it any easier to take when NBC continues to air the likes of Whitney, the silly Chelsea Handler show, and Grimm.  The cast is phenomenal, especially Donald Glover, Danny Pudi, and Alison Brie.  Speaking of whom…

 

Aside from her role on Community, Alison Brie also appears on Mad Men and made a big screen appearance last year in Scream 4.  Continue reading →