Comedy Lives: Mindy and 1600 Penn

Outside of The Big Bang Theory, Modern Family, and the increasingly uneven How I Met Your Mother it is not easy to find a comedy worth watching. One might laugh at The New Normal and last year I enjoyed the new Tim Allen vehicle a bit but neither has really stuck.

It is hard to find a niche. As comedy becomes more niche oriented it is much more difficult to have a broad based hit. This past fall Fox started airing a show called The Mindy Project. Starring Mindy Kaling, previously on The Office the show garnered lots of critical praise but not a great deal of viewers.

This past fall my oldest son discovered The Office and has since watched all the seasons of the show on Netflix. Being in the room with him occassionally I have gained an appreciation for the show and its template for humor. By now we are all familiar with the premise of the characters occasionally talking to the camera, Modern Family copied it though that seems to be less and less of a factor on the show. For those mourning the loss of The Office at the end of the season Mindy is an excellent remedy.

Around the holiday Fox spent an evening broadcasting multiple episodes of the show and I found myself quite impressed. The show is like The Office but with perhaps a little more of the vagaries of a typical sitcom. Kaling who is considered one of the most talented comedy personalities around is excellent in the show, she has a strong cast, and the writing is top notch. One hopes that Fox will be patient with the show, it took quite sometime for The Office to gain an audience and this show deserves that time as well. It has been added to the list of shows that I tape so it must be doing something right.

1600 Penn has been placed on NBC's Thursday night lineup and the network has very high hopes. Having seen the pilot a couple of weeks ago in a sneak preview and the second episode last night I would rate the show as funny and sweet. This is not necessarily a combination that always works, especially with the shows that NBC has made a habit of playing in this time slot. Snark has been the word and this show is a combination of over the top silly and sweet endings. Said to be NBC's response to Modern Family one wonders if any show that has politics involved, certainly a sitcom will sell well in flyover country. If not then the demographics on the coasts must be very strong indeed and this show seems like it might struggle in that department.

With all that said for me the show is a winner. Bill Pullman plays a President with four children, and a second wife played by Jenna Elfman. Trophy Wife she may be to the American public but she is genuinely trying to develop a relationship with her new " kids." In the first episode the sad sack oldest son, after seven years in college, is expelled and returns home. Played as a more sweet, naive, Bluto from Animal House in the first two episodes he helps his father win a trade deal with South American countries and announces to the press that his sister is pregnant from a one night stand and does not even know who the father is.

Having a strong liking for Jenna Elfman, who will always be Dharma to me does not hurt the show for me. I think it will be tough to make this a wide ranging hit but if NBC is patient it might do well mixed in with other shows that appeal to the left wing audience if they do not find it too silly. It is a tough line to walk, but for me, while they try it is well worth watching.

Wild Hogs

The other night, in between sending and receiving movies from Netflix we ended up with the kids in the living room with us for a few minutes and watched this movie.

From 2007 the movie had plenty of star power but did not receive good reviews. Tim Allen, John Travolta, Martin Lawrence and William Macy star as four middle aged friends who enjoy riding motorcycles together. As middle age settles heavily on them, boring jobs, demanding spouses, and realizing that the lives they have are not what they expected in their younger days they decide that they must do something to break out. In short they have become responsible, and thus boring, adults.

Woody, played by Travolta, urges them to take a cross country motorcycle trip. All agree and off they go. William H Macy plays Dudley, a computer programmer, and nerd of the group. Tim Allen is a dentist and Martin Lawrence a salesman whose wife has him on a very short leash.

The movie is not great. A few moments are funny, Macy is probably the actor with the strongest performance, playing against his normal type, and he does a good job. This movie is a far cry from The Cooler or Fargo.

Ray Liotta plays the leader of a real motorcycle gang who takes a strong exception to what he deems are pretenders. A funny scene is when he guesses and then criticizes the lifestyles that the Wild Hogs are stepping away from and when Dudley, Macy's character, amazed at his accuracy asks him " what color am I thinking of?" As I said the movie has it's moments.

Marissa Tomei plays a waitress who becomes a love interest of Dudley. Travolta and Allen are a bit muted in this movie, Lawrence has a few moments of over the top acting but Macy really is the strongest. Tomei is generally underrated, and enjoyable in this as well.

The reviews in some cases were pretty nasty. I surely did not think it was that bad. It was what it was, cute in some places, with some broad farce, but generally entertaining.

A special nod should go to Peter Fonda who has a small part in the movie as, what else, a legendary motorcycle figure. If your movie is about motorcycles and you get Peter Fonda in it cannot be all bad.

Toy Story

A couple of weekends ago Toy Story was rerun on one of the Disney Channels and my daughter and I came upon it. The first thing I noticed is how wonderful the movie looks on HD, when this movie was first released on VHS and then DVD the movie was great, but the sharpness of the picture on HD is amazing.

Perhaps one needs a nature show or a animated movie to see how impressive crisp HD is. The movie itself, however many times you see it, is amazing. This movie is wonderful. It is funny, it has humor for young children, but in many ways this movie has just as much to offer to adults.

Tim Allen and Tom Hanks are great actors but they are so well known that their voices alone are identifiable. As a child of the seventies toys like walkie talkies, remote cars, bo peep, and of course Mr. Potato Head and the now politically culturally relevant etch a sketch again, the toys themselves bring a comfort and familiarity that makes one embrace the movie before seeing the story.

Once the story lays out you are fully in. I watched this movie tons of times when my children were young, but the truth is last weekend when watching it I still laughed out loud. It is a rare movie that can do this the first time, much less forty two times in.

This is a fantastic movie.

Last Man Standing

I have always liked Tim Allen. So I was looking forward to seeing him return to network television. Watching the first two episodes of this show Tuesday night was like looking into a time machine.

This show is not much of a stretch for Tim Allen. Rather than three boys as on Home Improvement he has three girls. Rather than cars he is the marketing manager of an outdoor shop.

He is a man who does not understand today's world. He does not know what Glee is, he things men should change tires and he thinks men should hunt.

I know plenty of people who feel this way. I am sure criticism will be leveled at this show as being nothing different. It is not. So what. Allen is likable, his cast is solid and the points he makes in his humor are certainly felt by a good amount of men in America.

If ABC promotes this show and feeds it to it's audience it will be a hit. It is a show that will play well in the broad expanses of the country. My house is included in that list.

I am glad to have Tim Allen back.

Toy Story Three

We do not go to the movies often. Yesterday, however, faced with a rainy day my wife, daughter and I went to see the newest Toy Story. My daughter is 11 now but was still excited to see the movie.

It was great. Maybe it is just that the characters are like old friends but Tim Allen and Tom Hanks make Buzz and Woody feel more fleshed out than live action characters we have seen.

An added twist in the movie is when Buzz gets put into Spanish mode and needs subtitles, a funny but intelligent nod to the millions of Hispanic children.

The movie delivers one hundred percent. The end of the movie is bittersweet, and can be emotional for some. It was for my daughter. As the lights came up she was sobbing and said she just could not stop. I loved her more than ever seeing her have such a big heart. It was a moment we will never forget. Thanks Pixar