Looking at the last post brings into perspective on how damn long this summer has been; I can't believe that I started watching Damages within this same summer, it seemed so long ago. Well, summer has dwindled down to its last 3 days, and it felt appropriate to post this while I still could. Also, note that Curb is the only show on the list that actually airs in the summer (which was just a coincidence).
The Ricky Gervais Show
Some of my favorite moments from
Our Idiot Abroad were the brief phone calls between Karl and Stephen/Ricky, so when I heard about this, I shit my pants. Pretty much an animated, best-of compilation of the trio's old podcasts, every single second is golden. Granted, Karl's stupidity is amplified through interjections and uses of selective reasoning by Ricky and Stephen, but even with that said, his case isn't helped much. They hit the most interesting of tangents and the hilarious animations are just icing on the cake.
The penultimate part of my Ricky Gervais phase was
Extras (I just began to watch
The Office...yeah, I went completely backwards). Everything about this show was just perfect; the characters (Gervais channels his inner Larry David), the chemistry, the plots
of each episode, and the entire story arc itself. Broad, I know, but it was just so well-rounded, smooth and filled with well-thought out humor. The idea of celebrities portraying outlandish versions of themselves has been done before, but c'mon,
Harry Potter as a childish,
fag-smoking, unsuccessful womanizer?
Rose from Titanic, a phone sex expert?
Charles Xavier, the nonchalant pervert? Head to toe, this series was genius, my only gripe with it being that it was so short-lived.
Easily one of the, if not the most, funniest shows that I have ever watched. No other show has caused me to
go out and buy a
poster for it. And never has a show given me throat pains from laughing so hard (81 episodes of this damn show in 2 weeks can do that you). I am convinced that Larry David's
overly-outspoken,
bad-luck ridden,
always-annoyed,
man-child character of
ridiculous antics is the greatest character that comedy television has bore witness to this past decade. The situations conjured up by Mr. David are just pure genius and proves to be comedy at its best. And in addition to that, his character's lack of a filter provides stark social commentary, and should be lauded as a hero for being the only man brave enough to say/do the things he does. To estimate, I'd say that 65% of time,
LD is right. But as for the 35%, his
unorthodox tendencies cause him to spill over into
pure idiocy. No matter what he does, we will most likely be
thinking the same thing, which is why we love him. Oh, and don't get me started on
Leon...
A fun, yet unfortunately short-lived, comedy with a lot of familiar faces which pretty much provided some commentary on the "starving artist" (actors, musicians, writers in LA, that sort of thing) and also provided a lot of laughs. Every episode succeeded with consistent humor and hilariously, well-drawn out situations and characters. The show also succeeded with bringing a tinge of some romantic drama, which actually fit well and was just nice because
Lizzy Caplan is so likable. Like with
Extras, it's a shame that it ended so quick, I would've gladly had someone replace Adam Scott on
Parks & Rec and opted for the nonexistence of
Glee to have kept this show going. It saddens me that millions of people watch shit like
Two and a Half Men and
Big Bang Theory while this is cancelled. Eh, to each his own. Hopefully the
alleged plans for a Party Down movie don't fall through like every other show-turned-movie has. You know what? I think I'm gonna start rewatching the whole series right now.
