Let’s keep it short this week. All our American readership (which is most of it, from what I can tell) is hopefully spending time with loved ones anyway.
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Elsbeth, “And Then There Were Nuns” – Lots of nuns on CBS lately! Dianne Wiest guests (in her second New York City-based murder show of the season) as the Mother Superior of a convent in New York which is being sold to a pop singer, and during her walkthrough of the building, manipulates her into getting killed in a way that will look like an accident, in hopes of saving the location. Elsbeth solves the murder and saves the location, because tragically, the murder ended up being all for nothing (unlike most murders). David Rasche plays the Monsignor who seems more interested in his career and mostly is placating Wiest, but doesn’t get nearly enough to do. Also, Teddy’s look into Alec Bloom may have uncovered an inconsistency that suggests he’s not all he says he is… it remains to be seen how this plays out.
The Chair Company, “I said to my dog, “How do you like my hippie shirt?”” – Man, what a penultimate episode. The events of last episode leave Ron with a lot more time for his investigation, although Barb seems to be increasingly frustrated with him… and he’s suddenly knocking down dominoes and putting the pieces together, in a pretty thrilling episode, with the closing minutes that finally help him solve the puzzle– and also end up turning his entire struggle on its head, as now he’s got an entirely different challenge to deal with. Obviously, some of the weird encounters and byways Ron’s taken, and some of his theorizing, is off… but he’s not entirely wrong, and given the reveal at the end of the episode, what he does next will be just as fascinating. Can’t wait.
Also, a few incredibly funny side characters and moments this episode– Wendy’s Carvers and “pepper patty balls” being the big standouts for me.
Stumble, “In Sync” – The show manages to find some interesting plots and character notes among one of the most clichéd ideas imaginable: women’s periods syncing up. Courteney doesn’t get hers, which makes her worry she’s pregnant, and while she and Boon still want a child (hilarious bit where Courteney says they’ll never name their boy “Boon Jr.” and then casually calls a potential girl “Courteney Jr.”), now is not the time, so she’s panicking. But it does bring out some maternal instincts in her, as she gradually becomes aware of what a horrible situation the always-chipper Sally has been living in, and moves to help her out. DiMarcus also reveals another side, as his life in a house of four sisters has prepared him well for this moment, and ultimately leads to him picking Women’s Studies as a major. Still funny; I’ve been very pleased with this show from the get-go.
Bob’s Burgers, “Tube for Tina” – Tina finds a sparkly tube top she wants to wear to the Boyz 4 Now concert film. Linda panics over this, possibly in part because of her own body image issues, possibly in part because of the effect of realizing her little girl is growing up. The rest of the family gets involved in a story about a dead bird.
St. Denis Medical, “A Strong Cup of Coffee” – The great Lauren Weedman guests as Pam, Alex’s old charge nurse who comes to fill in at the hospital. Alex wants to impress Pam and show her how far she’s come, but it gradually becomes obvious to her (and less gradually to everyone else) that Pam is a bully and abusive boss who treats everyone she works with like crap. (Bruce’s desperation to get a nickname unstuck from himself is quite funny, though.) Matt tries to figure out what’s triggering a patient’s fainting spells, which Serena ultimately decides to help with; Joyce tries to convince the ever-stubborn Ron that he’ll be sad when Stevie Wonder dies. (The final scene of this plot is very funny.)
DMV, “There Is No I in DMV” – Randall Park guest stars as the manager of the North Hollywood DMV branch, which gets all the funding and nice amenities because of its location and quick turnaround time for visitors. Naturally, he is as smug and full of himself as you might expect. Barb decides to bring her team to the North Hollywood location to learn how they’re so efficient… and, as you might expect, shenanigans ensue, and that was pretty fun. The Colette “prove she’s something she’s not” plot is about Vic and Gregg calling her a rule-following teacher’s pet, which might be more annoying if it wasn’t such a minor part of the story this week or didn’t lead to good comedy (Vic and Gregg simultaneously coming up with “Teacher’s Co-pette” for her). Generally good episode; been enjoying the show more in recent weeks.
Smling Friends, “Shmaloogles” – It feels like at first a recurrent throwback to season 2’s episode in Spamtopia, where a cheery place is a hiding a dark secret. That’s true, but it heads in a very different direction than expected, and seeing Charlie rally the Shmaloogles is pretty fun. The weird B-plot with Mr. Boss led to a credits scene I predicted more or less exactly. One of these weeks I’ll have more to say about some of these sitcoms beyond plot summaries.
I’ve made no progress on Futurama or Solar Opposites in a while. I Love LA might be permanently backburnered; while I’m sure it’s well-made and all, I haven’t felt much inclination to go back, as I think I might just be too Old to deal with these characters. And I’d say “Stop asking me about Pluribus, I’ll get to it when I have the time,” except nobody has asked me that.
Had a friend over on Saturday, and as a fellow Xennial, he was familiar with The State; unlike me, he’d not either had the opportunity to fully watch on MTV in the first run nor picked up the DVDs, only having seen a few episodes on limited release. That led to us watching the first few episodes on DVD. They’re a little shaggy–you can see some of the inexperience and attempts to create more high-energy, high-concept stuff (like having a running gag throughout each episode) that would somewhat fall away with time– but man, there are some classics in these episodes, too.
And then I watched the season 1 commentaries, which are pretty funny and somewhat revealing. Of course, some of the sketches were driven by MTV mandates, whether to create more related programming (the Slash sketch) or a sarcastic fulfillment of the network’s desires (creating recurring characters and punchlines by making Louie and Doug), and some of them are parodies of what MTV was actually doing at the time (the “Free Your Mind” PSAs, the MTV Sports segment with Kevin Allison as Dan Cortese).
More interestingly, The State’s move to CBS ended up being a disaster and they never aired more than one special; beyond that, they left MTV just as it was about to blow up– the network expanded its reach by 20% over that next year, and Singled Out brought a bunch of eyeballs to the network and to its original programming. Everyone from the troupe (well, everyone who stuck around show business, anyway) did pretty well for themselves all in all, but they might’ve become huge at that point in time if they’d stuck with MTV a little longer. Ah well.
Also, in Thanksgiving episodes, we also went through Suburgatory‘s second-season episode, “The Wishbone.” And I’m pretty sure we watched Bob’s Burgers‘ initial Thanksgiving episode and instant classic, “An Indecent Thanksgiving Proposal.”
Ain’t shit! The Chair Company finale is Sunday, though.
This section will return in 2026.
For those of you who still post on Thanksgiving morning or are just not American, what did you watch?
About the writer
Captain Nath
Born on the bayou, thriving in the mountains. Writer, gambler, comedian, singer-songwriter, bon vivant, globetrotter, and all-around Renaissance Man with perfect opinions about TV and music. Pronounced with a long A and with the H.
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What did we watch?
M*A*S*H, Season Three, Episode Three, “Officer of the Day”
“Hi Frank.”
“That doesn’t scare me one bit.”
This is another example of the show first delving into something it would interrogate in a much more interesting way later, when Hawkeye is given responsibility as Officer of the Day. It presages his later issues when Hawkeye is exasperated by both the work and the responsibility; one great beat is when he has to deal with Klinger and observes that now the consequences are going to come back on him – not in a whiny way, but informing Klinger of the moral cost of his actions. It’s also notable that Hawk does relish using his new power to perform a basic act of moral good, protecting a Korean soldier from execution by Colonel Flagg. It’s not “If only Frank Burns could see you now,” but it is good TV.
This opens with the classic gag of poor Igor forced by Frank to nearly shoot Radar with a cannon. This also has the classic speech from Hawkeye on all the things he’ll carry aside from a gun (“I’ll even hari-kari if you show me how!”). There’s also the great Kim Luck joke.
“Be brave, be loyal, be true. And keep your white flags handy, just in case.”
“Are you their real father, or did they steal you?”
“Can you identify yourself?”
“This is me!” Great delivery.
“Klinger. Klinger, where did your mother and I go wrong?”
Also an all-time moment when Radar is embarrassed to change in front of Hawkeye. (“Go ahead, get sore, I love it when those tiny wisps of steam come out of your tiny ears.”)
Wicked: for Good – A brief promising start with a balance of action from Elphaba and dance from Glenda soon unravels as the movie chooses empty spectacle over choreography. I tried to take it on its own terms – the powers that be chose to make this the weaker half of a bifurcated plot leading into The Wizard of Oz which means this was born suffering the problems of both an unnecessary prequel and sequel. But the glitz that dressed up the first half fizzles this time as the plot refuses even to meet the ham-fisted lyrics halfway.
We’re asked to invest in a major character and then their death begets a light-hearted combat scene because c’mon, we have to have some fun. The animal plot that promised to pad out the runtimes is confusingly backgrounded. When Elphaba throws in the towel it’s as arbitrary as most any character’s move in this noticeably soggier follow-up. Much less dancing means it’s just delivering lyrics. I’ve been told saying something “wicked” is actually just being honest so here goes: those lyrics ain’t that great a place to start and finish.
Also the theoretical juice of casting Goldblum as the Wizard remains theoretical. This part needed a showman. Surely Hugh Jackman would have picked up the phone?
I liked the show, but when I heard they were stretching this into two movies I knew it wasn’t for me. Sounds like a wise decision.
“ When Elphaba throws in the towel it’s as arbitrary as most any character’s move in this noticeably soggier follow-up.”
There’s absolutely no reason for her to fake her death except that we all know she dies, right?
Seinfeld, season 4 – “The Movie” was a lot of fun, any episode where they go out somewhere and get separated seems to deliver top-tier fun. I enjoyed the other stand-up comedian who really wanted to hang out with Jerry.
I really enjoyed “The Outing” too, and was surprised to see when I looked it up afterwards that at least in certain circles it is considered “one of the worst episodes”. I thought the running “not that there’s anything wrong with that” gag was very funny and the hospital sponge-bath callback was hilarious.
Live Music – the local wing of the BBC runs a monthly “introducing” night for new acts, I’ve never been before but a friend’s band were on the lineup and it was free so I dropped in to see them on a larger stage than usual. It was pretty great just dropping in at 7:15 and being back out on the street by 8pm, I must admit.
Whoever told you that is wrong – “The Outing” is one of the most beloved episodes of the show. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that!” is one for the Seinfeldisms that caught on. Also, fun story: “Not that there’s anything wrong with that” came from the writers worrying they were being homophobic and deciding to go out of their way to make it clear.
It is ranked 168 out of 169 here. I think they might be mad.
https://www.vulture.com/best-seinfeld-episodes-ranked.html
Oh my God, I’m pretty sure I saw this guy rank SNL cast members and Mr. Show sketches, too, and his rankings were just as baffling then. (Norm Macdonald as a bottom-10 cast member?!)
I Walked with a Zombie
Beautiful, eerie, complex little film. I feel like what the horror genre took from this is 99% Carrefour’s unnerving appearance and less than 1% the realistic, almost Les Blankian portrayal of Vodou, which is portrayed here by real practitioners and in a journalistic, non-exotifying way as a bit of living culture; this isn’t devoid of flaws, but it’s a much more sensitive film than either its title or “1943 horror movie involving the white owners of a sugar plantation in the Caribbean” would imply. Some powerful moments–including ones dealing with the legacy of slavery (there’s an early-ish dialogue exchange –and lovely shadowy cinematography. Very glad I finally watched this.
The Adventures of Robin Hood
Absolutely charming adventure picture, with humor, swashbuckling, playful and vivid use of color, and two leads with outstanding chemistry. (And this was my first Errol Flynn movie, and I can only say: hot damn, this guy’s charisma. Sometimes the legends are true.) Very fun supporting cast here, too.
The Practice, “Race Ipsa Loquitor” – That’s Latin for “the facts speak for themselves.” In the case were Eugene uses this phrase, a woman is suing a plastic surgeon (Ted Shackleford) over her husband’s death during liposuction. The case seems pretty standard, but defense lawyer Ken Howard spends too much time casting aspersions on Eugene and Rebecca, suggesting without saying that that are just unqualified Black lawyers. Rebecca is not having it, even if Eugene would prefer to stick with the facts. But the main case is Jimmy, desperate to get Henry Winkler freed, making a deal with Richard, sacrificing another client for Henry’s freedom, Michael Badalluco is escellent here, a man on the edge of a breakdown.
MASH, “Mail Call, Again” – Frank gets a letter from his wife asking for a divorce, and Col, Potter learns he is about to be a grandfather, and there’s a poll to get the gender and time of birth. Hawkeye gets the local Crabapple Cover paper, and Radar gets home movies from Iowa. Nothing especially special, but fun overall.
WKRP in Cincinnati, “Turkeys Away” – The tradition continues.
Vince Gilligan or no, all AppleTV shows are optional.
As for my TV, we’ve been working our way through the latest Rick and Morty season and generally enjoying it. They’ve siloed the continuity episodes (our least-favorite part) so they don’t spoil whole sections of the series, and we can enjoy the one-off high concept adventures. We’ve also made comfort food of putting on old King of the Hill episodes from the 90s. They hold up mostly well, thanks to the humor being character-based, so even if something isn’t addressed the way we enlightened people of the future would see it, it’s unmistakably the way Hank or Peggy or Dale would see it. Bobby is the best.
I’m still enjoying Pluribus, and last week’s “Please, Carol” was a strong episode, with Carol taking a risky, proactive step to try to get a key piece of information from the hive mind. I, a nerd, continue to want more insight into how the hive mind functions and how much of its “character” stems from combined human experiences and empathy and how much comes from programming encoded in the alien data that helped create it. But again, maybe we’ll get here. And on a sheer storytelling level, my favorite scene of the episode was Carol testing the hive mind’s honesty by forcing it to overcome its niceness to tell her something she maybe always suspected: her wife’s true opinion of her books. Brutal.