Uncle Benzene

First I've ever seen or heard of Sara Bareilles and I was impressed, but within the first ten seconds of her first song I could not stop thinking "at some point they ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO have some kind of reveal with Melissa on another piano, with a 'mirror' between them, or something." Hell, there were times when I was wondering if it actually was Melissa. I mean, I get it that Sara Bareilles is a serious musician, and it might have undermined her performance or whatever, but holy crap would that have been funny. I was 100% convinced it was coming in the second number, but nope.

My friends and I have been watching the reload with their kids, and their daughter's mind is absolutely blown every time she sees Young Alton and Current Alton on screen together. It's hilarious, and she's still not used to it. It gets her every time.

Good lord is Rhea Seehorn freakin gorgeous. (So is Patrick Fabian, for that matter.) Total mindfuck every time I see Giancarlo being himself, as opposed to Gustavo. Ditto Michael Mando, albeit to a slightly lesser extent just because Giancarlo sets such a high bar. I want to hang out with all these people. One condition though... Jonathan Banks's presence would be mandatory.

Shut! Up! Sunny!

Me too. And I was ABSOLUTELY SURE that it was Doug Judy who had called in the bomb threat. Because it's a sitcom, and therefore Doug Judy saw Boyle's announcement in the paper (because he keeps up on Jake) and knew that Jake deserved a crazy wedding day, and that the precinct would all come together to make it far better than it otherwise would have been, and that his wacky scheme to give Jake the best wedding ever would go absolutely perfectly. I was also absolutely sure that the "wedding band" that Scully and Hitchcock found would turn out to be Doug Judy. I mean, how are Jake and Amy supposed to maximize their wedding night smoosh now? I'm just gonna go ahead and assume Judy left Jake a wedding night smoosh mixtape in his suit pocket. Or something.

Please pardon my lack of finesse here, but there's really no other way to say it: Holy shit.

Very happy about that. I had no idea who Melissa was when she first arrived last season, but I've quickly grown to love her. She's awesome. And Pete seems to have been all over the show here lately as well. Good for him. Seems his rehab has gotten him into a much better place.

When is Dave Grohl ever NOT having fun? Dude's entire adult life has been one long rock & roll fantasy camp. Everyone on earth should envy his apparently unprecedented ability to enjoy and appreciate every single minute of it and not let it turn him into a jerk.

But in introducing the challenge, Ramsay specifically stated "you'll be tasting various herbs and spices."

I have a short wishlist re: Rosa's girlfriend. (Note: I'm assuming the role has already been cast, and perhaps stuff already shot. But I don't have any spoilers, nor am I seeking any. This is what I hope will happen.) I'd like to nominate Jenny Slate. Because I love her and she's gorgeous and she could pull off any persona, but specifically one of these three, each of which would amuse the hell out of me: 1. She's basically a female Pimento. Because Rosa has a very specific "type" and it's cray-cray. I know that'll be an unpopular opinion, since Pimento wasn't very well-received, although a lot of it seemed to be with regard to Jason Mantzoukas's portrayal more than anything. (Also, for the record, I can understand why some people might find it distasteful or otherwise problematic that Rosa's girlfriend would basically be a mirror image of a former boyfriend. I get it.) Anyway, Jenny Slate plays Jason Mantzoukas's sister on Lady Dynamite, and to me, they do look like they could be brother and sister. Not that she'd be Pimento's sister on B99, but she'd be a very similar personality type, because that's just what does it for Rosa, and everybody in the precinct will immediately recognize it. Hilarity ensues. 2. She's basically a mirror image of Rosa herself. Yes, Seinfeld did the whole "OMG you're basically dating yourself!" bit, but I thought it was funny then, and I think it'd be funny again on this show. May be more of a Gina thing, being as she's the narcissist on this show. But given how little regard Rosa seems to have for most people (outside of her friends and family) it kinda seems like Rosa would be attracted to someone who is just like herself, because she just can't with most others. 3. This one might be my favorite... she's just like Holt. And Holt (and Kevin) (and Amy) immediately ADORES her. And Jake thinks it's hilarious that "OMG Rosa is dating Holt!" Maybe nobody else really sees it, or maybe Jake AND ROSA are the only ones who see it. And Rosa thinks it's awkward that her girlfriend is immediately becoming BFFs with her boss (and Kevin.) Not to mention "Really? I'm freaking dating Captain Holt and I only realized it just now. WTF?!?" Or something along those lines. I mean, don't get me wrong, I totally get why many/most people would want Rosa's girlfriend to have her own personality, and would hate for her to be just a caricature of another (especially male) character. But hey, it's a wacky sitcom. And I've got a hunch that she's gonna be a rarely-seen recurring character anyway, along the lines of Boyle's wife, or Doug Judy, and she might even end up being a one-off. So I wouldn't be surprised if they gave her some kind of sitcommy hook/twist/gimmick for the lulz. These are just a few of those that I've thought of, and I think I'd enjoy if they went that way. But in any case, Jenny Slate please!

Flula Borg. He's a comedian, and he's HILARIOUS. Plenty of stuff on YouTube, if you'd like to get to know him better. Well worth your time, in my opinion.

In my opinion, hands-down the strongest episode of the season so far. By a good margin. Felt like a season 42 episode. I hope this is an indication that they're hitting their stride. I was pleasantly surprised. Partially because I've thought that season 43 overall has been kind of lukewarm so far, and also because while I don't know a whole lot about Tiffany Haddish, I did know that she's a standup, and in my opinion the writers tend to phone it in a bit when an actual standup is hosting. My hypothesis is that the writers just kind of assume that the host will make it funny regardless of the material. There are exceptions of course (Chappelle's episode last season was particularly strong, for example, as was Larry David's last season) but for the most part it seems I'm always left disappointed when an actual standup hosts. Larry David's episode last week is a good example of that. I'm always like "They could have done so much more, but they half-assed it." Not this week. The only sketch that was kind of a dud, for me anyway, was Tamika. I'm not really sure what they were going for there. Terrific concept, poorly executed. Ended up being a bit of a mess. But everything else was outstanding. Boo Boo Jeffries for the win!

Welp. I'm DEFINITELY going to the Halloween party as Snow Ball Dustin. Hope I can get the hair right.

Of people she doesn't know. And she makes it a point to tell everyone who will listen how depressing the whole thing is, and how she'd have done a much better job of organizing the service.

This is not going to end well. Current Vegas odds: 3/1 On Fleek with Tregaye Fraser 5/1 PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE LEARN TO LIKE MATTHEW GRUNWALD! PLEEEEEASE! 10/1 Justin Warner's Weekly Quest to one-up the Iron Chef 50/1 The Lenny McNab Redemption Tour