Tag: Comedy

What I’m Watching: ’16-17

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I’m jumping on board a little later in the game this year, but fellow television addicts, we’ve arrived! With the first day of autumn also comes booties, leather jackets, “harvest” scented candles (whatever that’s supposed to smell like), PSL overload, college football, and network premiere week 2016! We’re already fairly deep into this season’s pilots and returning series’ premieres, but like I’ve discussed before, in today’s state of television, there are no hard starts and stops of a traditional TV season. Traditional doesn’t really even exist any more. Things that used to be unicorns (good summer shows, binge releases, online-only content, etc.) are now common place in the landscape of surplus programming as we’ve come to know it. Sunday’s Emmys even delivered! Who knew!

fall tv lineup

Traditionally for this post, I’ve written a small blurb about each new show I’m excited about, and then catalog each returning show I regularly watch. But because I like keeping my readers on their toes (and I watch entirely too much television), we’re going to try something new this year. By network, I’ve assembled a list of everything I am currently watching/trying to keep up with/excited to begin watching this year. For distinction, I’m bolding the few new shows I think are worth giving a shot. As long as times permits, I plan to give a mini-review a few episodes in of each new program I watch, so stay tuned for that. But for now, behold my 2016-17 television to-do list:

ABC

  • Designated Survivor: New series, premiered Wednesday, September 21
  • Modern Family: Season 8 premiered Wednesday, September 21

AMAZON PRIME

  • Transparent: Season 3 premieres Friday, September 23

AMC

  • Better Call Saul: Season 3 premiere TBD Spring 2017

COMEDY CENTRAL

  • Broad City: Season 4 premiere TBD Spring 2017
  • Drunk History: Season 4 premieres Tuesday, September 27
  • Inside Amy Schumer: Season 5 premiere TBD Spring 2017

THE CW

  • Jane the Virgin: Season 3 premieres Monday, October 17

DISNEY

  • Girl Meets World: Season 3 currently airing

FOX

  • The Last Man on Earth: Season 3 premieres Sunday, September 25
  • Making History: New series, premiere TBD 2017
  • New Girl: Season 6 premiered Tuesday, September 20

FREEFORM

  • The Fosters: Season 4B premiere TBD

FX

  • The Americans: Season 5 premiere TBD Spring 2017
  • Atlanta: New series, premiered Tuesday, September 6
  • Better Things: New series, premiered Thursday, September 8

HULU

  • Casual: Season 3 premiere TBD Spring 2017
  • Difficult People: Season 2 just wrapped
  • The Mindy Project: Season 5 premieres on Tuesday, October 4

HBO

  • Girls: Season 6 (final season) premiere TBD Spring 2017
  • Divorce: New series, premieres Wednesday, October 9
  • High Maintenance: New to HBO, premiered Friday, September 16
  • Last Week Tonight: Season 3 currently airing
  • The Leftovers: Season 3 (final season) premiere TBD Spring 2017
  • Veep: Season 6 premiere TBD Spring 2017

NBC

  • This is Us: New series, premiered Tuesday, September 20

NETFLIX

  • Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life: four new telefilms premieres Friday, November 25
  • Grace and Frankie: Season 3 premiere TBD Spring 2017
  • Jessica Jones: Season 2 premieres Friday, September 30
  • Master of None: Season 2 premiere TBD April 2017
  • Narcos: Season 2 premiered Friday, September 2
  • Orange is the New Black: Season 5 premiere TBD Summer 2017
  • Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Season 3 premiere TBD Spring 2017

SHOWTIME

  • Masters of Sex: Season 4 premiered Sunday, September 11

TBS

  • Full Frontal: Season 1B premiered Monday, September 12

 

To summarize:

A) I watch and/or attempt to keep up with a lot of television, I know.

B) There’s a lot more I am interested in watching (i.e. Viceland shows, more late night and news programs, etc.), and there are likely some shows I’m committed to watching that in good faith I should weed out (i.e. Modern Family, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Girl Meets World, etc.) — but a huge part of what I love about television is the seriality of it. It’s a commitment, and I try my best to honor that, especially when beginning a new program.

C) Almost half of what I’m looking forward to watching doesn’t even premiere until Spring 2017 – which just further enforces the lack of timeliness in television release timelines. I don’t know about you, but I think I’ll have enough on my plate up until then.

On second thought, rumor has it these Chicago winters are BAD. What do you think – did I leave anything out? What do you have on your TV must watch list this year?

 

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Loveship, Hateship, Kristen Wiigship

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Last week I had the great pleasure of seeing one of my most looked-up-to individuals at a movie screening/talk at the 92nd Street Y. As a part of the Reel Pieces series, my friend and I were able to preview the drama Loveship, Hateship (based off of Alice Munro’s short story “Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage”) and sit in on a discussion that Columbia Film Professor Annette Insdorf held with the film’s director, Liza Johnson and the star of the movie, Kristen Wiig.

Realtalk, I’m not much of a film expert (although I also finally watched Dallas Buyer’s Club and Nebraska this weekend — A+ to both!); this event had me at “Kristen Wiig will be there.” Poor blessed Annette Insdorf tried her best to ask Ms. Johnson questions that wouldn’t bore the audience to sleep and stay on topic of the film, but 90% of the discussion and questions were geared toward Kristen. And mostly about her work in comedy, which is NOT the genre of this movie AT ALL. Tell us about working for SNL. (Hard, but good.) What can we use from improv in our daily lives? (Yes, and to everything.) Where did the character Dooneese come from? (3am sleep deprivation) Who was your favorite person to write with on SNL? (Wouldn’t answer) Who was your favorite person to act with on SNL? (Wouldn’t answer) Will you be doing dramas from here on out now? (We’ll see! But of course, no.)

IMDB currently has Loveship, Hateship rated at a 6.1/10 while Rotten Tomatoes gives a less enthusiastic 44%. It definitely is a solemn, and at times awkward (shocker, it’s Wiig) film to watch. But as we watched it with an audience of, what I can only assume were Bridesmaids-heads, whenever Wiig gave but an inch of something very, very small that could in the slightest way be taken as funny, the audience took a mile and LOLed.

Although I’m a fan of some of Kristen’s other recent dramatic feats (i.e. Friends with Kids, Girl Most Likely), this was a little too depressing for me and overall kind of unimpressive. But, some say my taste in movies is awful (I hate The Wizard of Oz!), so you should check out Loveship, Hateship for yourself! Here’s the trailer:

OR. Just watch this thirteen times instead:

OR both, if you have nothing better to do with your time, a la me.

I’m a UCB Fangirl, and You Should Be Too

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UCB

At least once every month I try to make my way over to the Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theatre to catch some type of comedy show. Whether it’s an improv troupe, or sketch show in Chelsea or a stand-up special at UCBEast, it’s always worth the $5 or $10 I spend on a ticket. Truthfully, it’s worth much more as UCB is the top comedy school in the nation and the seriously insane level of talent that it houses is unreal.

A crowd favorite, and one of (if not the) longest running shows at UCB is ASSSSCAT 3000, which is offered at 7:30pm and 9:30pm each Sunday. It’s always a fully improvised show (they play off the stories of a guest monologist) and usually features some of the greatest people in the industry. Some of my fav ASSSSCATers [I’ve seen] are: Zach Woods, Adam Pally, Gavin Speiller, Fran Gillespie, Neil Casey, and the always hilarious Shannon O’Neil. I consistently pray to the comedy gods that one of these Sundays, I will cross paths with the beautiful and glorious UCB founder, Amy Poehler. So far, no cigar, but I remain hopeful.

If you live in NYC, like to laugh (or just generally smile and/or not be a terrible person), SHAME if you haven’t gone to a UCB show. If you’re visiting New York, attending a performance – any performance – really should be on your tourist to-do list, right up there with seeing Lady Liberty and eating at the Times Square Applebees.

I’ll likely never be one of the top actresses, improvisationalists (a word I made up) or sketch writers in the industry, but anytime I’m at a UCB performance, I break out of whatever world I’m spinning in for an hour or 90 minutes, and just laugh. And any place that can get someone like me out of my head that quickly and reliably in the heart of NYC deserves some serious accolades. Book those show rezzies here!

Lists, Loves & Links

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TGIW. From my local bodega guy verifying I was over the age of 18 to buy alcohol (what?) to being a reluctant third wheel on a first date 15 feet away from my bed, I’m seriously ready for a “weekend.” Even if my weekend does fall on Thursday/Friday. Regardless, here are some fun articles (mostly about the GGs… sorry I’m not) that have kept me entertained this week!

lists loves and links smaller

The end. Enjoy the rest of your work-week, humans!

[There are Weirdos] On the 6

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The subway is a magical place. It’s a decrepit, vast underground tunnel where humans from all walks of life unite.  The rich, the poor; the black, the white; the Christians, the Jews, and everyone in between has somewhere to be. A home to some, a last-minute option for others, the New York City subway system is saturated with various “showtimes”, Michael Jackson impersonators, mariachi bands, and an overall diverse mix of folk. Much like a box of chocolates, with the New York subway, you really never know what you’re going to get.

This particular Monday en route home from work, it wasn’t a performer that caught my eye. These particular straphangers were in love, which is great I guess, unless you’re so in love (and/or drunk (on a Monday?)) that you must showcase this emotion publicly, without regard to proximity of strangers or personal space bubbles. In that case, it is simply the worst.

These kids felt it necessary to showcase their affection while being a mere eight inches away from a total stranger’s face — said stranger obviously being me. I must say, I apparently attract socially oblivious humans on the metro, because this wasn’t my first time experiencing something of this nature. About a year or so back, some dude fell asleep on my shoulder on a local, not-even-busy train to Washington Heights. And just a few mornings ago, a couple sitting directly beside me kissed 67 times between the 86th St. stop on the 6 train to 51st St. THAT’S FOUR STOPS for anyone who counts. I was thinking at that time perhaps one was leaving for the army (or dying?) but they both got off at the same stop – so I feel like they had more time together than they let on. That’s a whole other tangent.

So the close-to-my-face couple was very literally in my face. Every time the guy leaned in for a kiss, I considered just going for it, because my face was the exact same proximity to his as his lady friend. She was also significantly shorter than him (and me), so he was swooping at an angle, which would have made it ridiculously easy for me to get in there. I know that making out with a rando on the MTA is the stuff of dreams, but I was obviously thinking about it for comedic purposes. Which then got me thinking about a social experiment I jokingly (?) want to test out. Just how close can you get to train strangers while doing socially inappropriate things before you get told off? Depends on people’s tolerance, I guess. I’m pretty passive aggressive [read: I let a man who may or may not have had a brick and mortar home use my shoulder as a pillow], but a swift fake sneeze in the face diffused my problem quite nicely.  After all, there’s a special place in hell for people who display public PDA.

Best of the Golden Globes

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Happy Monday! Hope everyone had a great weekend. Me? I’m still riding the Golden Globes high from last night, naturally.

Tina Amy GG14

Is it weird that I feel like [for the most part] everyone that should have won, won? I was especially elated at both Amy and Cate’s win, 12 Years a Slave‘s last-moment award and, of course, all things Breaking Bad. And joke-wise, from Matt Damon’s garbage man, the soon-to-be-infamous George Clooney joke to the Randy appearance, Tina + Amy slaughtered, per usual. I wouldn’t hesitate to call the night a wild success for my two favorite people on this earth them. If you didn’t watch already, do yourself a favor and enjoy a few laughs to begin your week:

Opening Monologue Part 1:

Opening Monologue Part 2:

Just for Lorne Michaels’ disinterested clap:

For Emma Thompson’s presenting skillz:

Because Amy makes out with Bono:

Overall, another A+, ladies. Can’t wait for 2015!

New Yorkers Say the Darndest Things

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in conversation 2

“Did you hear that guy? How do you think he knew I was Catholic”

“Probably your sweater.”

 

“Ugh do you know where the convent house is? I’m running late.”

“Do you mean the…Covenant house? Because if you’re looking for the convent you may be on the wrong side of town.”

 

“Am I going to call in to work on my day off? Seriously? I have more important things going on in my life. Like I need to figure out what’s going on with Walt and Jesse.”

 

“It’s not mean if you don’t say it to their face.”

 

“Ugh, I didn’t get that email. Maybe it went to my junk [mailbox]…”

“Speaking of Mandy’s junk, have you seen this picture!?”

 

“Why do ‘some’ girls take so long to get ready? I’m not saying you, because look at you. But why do others?”

 

“If you’re going to break the rules, break all the rules”

1950 America’s Favorite Redhead

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Let’s pretend it’s still Friday… ;)

Before I knew anything about comedy or the entertainment business, I knew that one of my grandma’s absolute favorite funny ladies from the 1950’s was Lucille Ball. She also became one of my favorites at a young age, thanks to Nick at Nite’s 1990’s reruns. I know her best from I Love Lucy (which ran from 1951 to 1957), but she also had two successful shows after that: The Lucy Show (1962-68) and Here’s Lucy (1968-74) in addition to many feature films and appearances on various other radio and TV programs.

I love that Lucille was relentless when it came to her career. There weren’t too many women doing the show business thing when she first started out. From pioneering herself into vaudeville, Broadway and Hollywood, to starting her own production company, she really paved the way for many women in entertainment.

Lucille Ball

Here’s a few of my favorite Lucy quotes:

“Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.”

“Luck? I don’t know anything about luck. I’ve never banked on it and I’m afraid of people who do. Luck to me is something else: Hard work – and realizing what is opportunity and what isn’t.”

“I’d rather regret the things I’ve done than regret the things I haven’t done.”

Paley Center Visit

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Due largely in part to some technical, internet-related glitches (and not at all due to busyness or laziness on my part), I missed a few posting days. Sorry about that. The following was intended to be my first “Museum Monday” post (a little something I’m trying out), but it’s Tuesday… so I guess Touristy Tuesday it is?

Ever since I began my new commute [from hell], I pass the subway station advertisement for the Museum of Television and Radio twice per day. Since it sounded like something up my alley, I did a little research and found that it was renamed the Paley Center for Media a few years back, but I wanted to check it out nonetheless.

Unless you’re attending a specific speaker or screening at the building, you go up to a room and basically watch TV for 90 minutes. They have a bunch of old (and new) programs and clips archived and easily accessible through their computers. I’d imagine this would have been a lot more unique in the days before YouTube, but I was still able to surface some cool footage I would never have otherwise searched for on the web. Conan O’Brien’s first monologue, old footage of Elaine May and Mike Nichols, a feature on Lucille Ball and an interview with Jerry Seinfeld from the 80’s were some of my picks.

Paley Center Collage

The Queens of Comedy

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Amy + TinaI’m not going to beat a dead horse with this one. We all know that Amy Poehler and Tina Fey are NOT ONLY two amazingly talented pioneers in the comedy biz BUT ALSO very progressive trailblazers for feminism, the entertainment world aside.

Like Amy, Tina’s roots are with Second City in Chicago. She began writing for SNL in 1997 and became the show’s head writer (first ever female) two years later. She didn’t begin acting on the show until 2000, and departed just six years after to create her own little show you may or may not have heard of, 30 Rock. In 2011, she released Bossypants, her award-winning autobiographical book that details how to get the job done while leaving ’em in stitches.

After moving to New York in 1996, Amy cofounded the Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theatre in 1999. She joined the cast of SNL in 2001, and began co-hosting Weekend Update alongside Tina in 2004, as the first (and to date, only) time a duo of women served as news-anchors. In 2008, she started producing and starring in the best show in the world Parks and Recreation, which is [obviously] still on NBC. In her spare time, she motivates girls (and let’s be real, also grown-ass women/gays) in her YouTube Series, Smart Girls. Also, she’s a recently separated mom of two, and my envy of her children knows no bounds.

Tina and Amy are great on their own, but there’s truly nothing like it when they’re working/performing together. From the Palin/Clinton sketches of 2008, to hosting the Golden Globes earlier this year, these two are at their best when they’re playing off of each other. And these ladies are not just frontrunners in the category of funny females, they are groundbreakers in the vast realm of comedy as a whole.

We all have a lot of reasons to like these two women – they’re both hilarious, witty, type-A, do-it-yourself, fearless leaders in all projects they take on. But personally, I think my very favorite reason that makes me so impassioned to root for their success is that they are (and always have been) both so supportive of each other in a world that can be so cut-throat. If you know anything about breaking into the comedy industry as a female, it’s VERY competitive and not-so-friendly. The fact that Amy and Tina were each other’s cheerleaders from the forefront makes me feel like I can truly support and relate to these iconic women. One day, it’s my hope and dream to be able to tell that to them in person. For now, I’m waiting with everyone else to watch them co-present Carol Burnett with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor and whatever else they have up their sleeves.