Traveller519

I agree, they've touched on that relationship too. They have freedom to do what they want with Erica, I'd appreciate something more daring than the well worn "finds the inner beauty in the guy who was in front of her face the whole time."

It looks like they're building something, but they really need to start advancing the plot. At least we got some background on Todd and a more legitimate story involving Dean Sr.

The Holt-Boyle stuff was pretty plain to see how it would progress but still had some great moments. It was good to see Charles play straight to Holt's comedic attempts. "He's already up there" cut to a very satisfied looking Hitchcok. Ha. And all of Rosa's stuff about giving blood. "Why can't we just keep our blood in our bodies like normal people?" I was trying to read the nameplate on Hitchcock's desk while Terry and Jake were standing over it, but it was just out of focus enough. First name's foiled!

"I'm Full Nick all the time, can you imagine what that's like?" I really enjoyed the episodes where it was just the other four getting up to shenanigans. Regan's just kind of there to tread water at the moment, but I guess that's okay over a 22 episode season. And at least she did a little more this week than just be there. The worming out of breaking up with someone thing has been done, but at least it gave her something to do.

Yup, I really liked him in the comics and the cartoon, I hated how the X-films made him basically insufferable. Maybe the antiheroes like Deadpool just transition better in these formats.

Colossus was one of my favorite X-men growing up. I was a goody two shoes. I liked Cyclops and Colossus the best. This was a good representation of him. I could see him being one of Xavier's recruiters. Completely bought into the vision, big enough to handle himself, composed enough most situations (well except nip-slips). Though I would have liked seeing him in flesh form at the mansion and in the cab, but that may have been too much budget. It was a good sight gag to have him in steel form all the time. I was sure Jackman was going to make a cameo somewhere along the way, since I figured he was legally obligated to appear in all "X Properties" by the Fox lawyers at this point. I was glad it was limited to the cut-out, which.... I guess Wade wore under the mask the whole final fight? Nice little jaunt from Vancouver out to Westchester to visit the near empty mansion (at least it hadn't been blown up all that recently). Minor detail I did like. When Vanessa pulls the sword out of the booth, she cuts her hands. The blood remains on the sword and her cuts remain on her hands.

I rolled my eyes with what looked like more stumping for Hillary in the cold open, with all this "She's easily the best candidate" talk, but they hit back well during Update with the "Sanders supporters would like Hillary to be honest about these things." I think you can see the Downey vs. Jost elements there. I missed the credits...was The Day Beyonce Turned Black another Matt & Oz directed feature? It felt like them. Credit to the strength of the cast that such a big player and personality in McCarthy just felt kind of "there." Finally, Kyle Mooney won the freestyle battle! Kanye just performed one of his new songs. All hale the freestyle champion of 8H, Kyle Mooney!

The Carson-mobile couple gave me hope, as did the more sane republican candidates in their town hall formats. Obviously Fiorina was just a soundbyte machine, but the others seemed downright reasonable. As did the couple who was taking the time to be informed. The crazies definitely make for better TV, but it was nice to see some deeper digging. I think all the correspondents pieces this week really hit. Though Hasan didn't have anything if I recall. Hopefully he's working on something fantastic (assuming Desi is now on mat leave).

This may be drifting off topic from the episode, but since the issue of the shouting has come up. Adam F. Goldberg has said that he originally pitched the show to Fox who has been known for it's Dysfunctional Families shows over the years. Thus the Pilot has more of the Aggressive attitudes he originally envisioned. I know I would enjoy it more if they let some of the episodes end without everyone feeling quite so happy and rosy. But that's not the ABC model for family based sitcoms. The trade-off with having less edge though, is that ABC manages to pull some of the best child actors to its shows compared to the other networks. I'm guessing that's due to the Disney connection. Regarding Erica and Geoff. I, too, would like the show to avoid pairing them up. An ABC family sitcom actually managed that relationship well years ago Family Matters. It seem's like an odd comparison. But we know that Laura cared for Steve as a friend, even though she was never attracted enough to date him. For all the good messaging of loving someone on the inside, I think it's disingenuous for a show to ignore physical attraction. I would not be at all disappointed if Erica dated Geoff briefly but realized that she just wasn't attracted to him. No matter how nice a guy he is.

Loved Barry and Erica's rapport in this one. Lot's of back and forth, and loved the couple instances where they gave each other props. "When has there ever been an example of a good haunting?" "Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams" "Okay, that's a great example, but.." and "While I don't agree with your statement, I respect your burn"

I think the last couple weeks proved how strong the show was with just the supporting characters (and some assistance from Nasim Pedrad). The other characters still had their flow, and Ms Fox didn't disrupt that too much, so I'll remain cautiously skeptical.

Two Sophie Woos!?!!

This and the Tracy Morgan episode are the easily the strongest episodes of the season, for having wall to wall cohesion, pacing, and laughs. The FBI Training skit was my highlight, it took a simple premise we've all seen in Men In Black and Kingsment, and put a great sketch comedy spin on it. When Bobby showed up with the donut I was done. This was one of the stronger "first post-monologue" skits there's been in a while. I laughed at the abduction one, but that was as much due to everyone breaking as the content of the skit. Weekend Update has gotten strong enough that I hope they start scaling back the correspondent pieces. Three is just too many and disrupts the flow of the banter between the two of them. The fucking glee on Colin's face during the Carson sketches was fantastic. The "candidate talks directly to camera" Cold opens are getting just as tired as the hijacked news segment pieces. I know they want to be topical with these, but let's mix up the format a bit, Jim. The Obama and McConnell sharing drinks skit from last season probably stands out as one of the better examples of this, or The Rock Obama. Cold Open was the only weak part of the comedy aspect of this show for me. I paid loose attention to the 1975.

I remember enjoying the Peyton as one of the monsters from "300" sketch when that episode aired. But I get why they cut it, it would feel really dated these days.

As someone who will freely admit that he bagged on Amy's portrayal for the past few episodes this one hit her right on the mark. It was the right blend of her character, and I think keeping her wholly separate from Holt helped. Melissa Fumero works magic when Amy is able to blend some confidence in being an Adult surrounded by Children, with the neurosis of how quickly she can revert to being a child when there's a perceived authority figure present.

The couch storyline was the highlight of the night for me. Colin Hanks' physical comedy throughout that was fantastic.

"How have we never met?"

I laughed a lot during this episode. Keep up the good work, show! Bill Burr's continual bewilderment at what Schmidt was doing there, or just generally doing, was great, the glass of milk filled to the brim was great, anything out of Lennon Parnham's mouth was great. The only down beat for me was the Jess Stand-in.

I recently saw this one as part of my Oscar watch. I'd known nothing about it until a friend mentioned it early in January. Seeing the cast I knew it would be worth checking out. Incredibly well acted, important story, and a very good frame by which to tell it. I really appreciated the shooting styles to hammer things home. The multiple shots with the churches in the background, the pan from BC High to the Globe as Robby and Sacha walk out from their meeting, Joe Paterno coaching a Penn State football game on the tv in a bar, and the golf course. Normally scenes shot on a golf course are shot to show off the course, or show just how far away it is from everything. Choosing to shoot on that hole with the massive hill allowed the Boston skyline in the background to hammer home that this game wasn't an escape, and that everything really was intertwined. I quite enjoyed Ruffalo's performance. When I compare it to Foxcatcher last year I appreciate how different the roles were and how they felt like separate characters and not just Mark Ruffalo playing different roles. Mad Max still heads up my 2015 list of films for it's overall ambition and production, but I certainly appreciate Spotlight.

After wanting to see this one for over a month I finally got around to it last night, and enjoyed it. I thought it did a very good job of explaining everything, and identifying the fraud that was going on with the back end of the deal. It's hard not to contrast with the Wolf of Wall Street (which predates the 2008 collapse) and Margin Call (which I thought was an excellent movie, but existed solely from the Bank's perspective). I liked that it explained the financial things instead of hand-waving them away like The Wolf of Wall Street. I wish movies would give the audience more credit at times, and this treated Finance for its audience like the Martian did Science for its audience. The Big Short didn't do quite as good of a job of graying everyone's characters as Margin Call did though. We still very much felt like we had heroes in this one. I agree with everyone saying Jeremy Scott's Vinnie was a standout performance in this one. Looking back over his IMDB page he has made some very good choices in the roles he plays. I hope to see much more of him.

Honest Trailers Just Released an Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode to promote their own parody, Interns of F.I.E.L.D. It's pretty accurate and funny. Protection! Protocol! S.T.A.R.E.S!!!!

If the "Ronnie's dad hates him" joke was simply alluded to once in his segments at this stage, it would be a good recurring joke. The battering it home repeatedly gets a bit tiresome.

See, to me, that's exactly what they were doing with the set up of this skit. They're parodying how ridiculous the worn-out "You're the man, teenage boy!" joke is by playing it out if everyone was actually on board with that in the trial. They really fumbled Kate with this go around though, not sure what happened there. Overall the show seemed a little off, probably due to the blizzard. Who knows if it was a full house and I'm sure a bunch of the staff were slow on the uptake. Unfortunately it means it was the second week in a row that the show felt off. I wasn't a big fan of the re-used sketches tonight. I'm fine with them taking a Bachelor dig, especially if the guy is as bland as they made it out to be here. But to recycle the Farm Hunk premise felt stale. Though I defended the joke above, I don't think they really needed to re-do the Courtroom sketch. Town Hall is okay, as a recurring sketch. I'm glad they mixed up the towns people at least. I did like the monologue, Screen Guild, and Love Struck skits. I like a Good Neighbor skit, but everyone seemed just ready to get it over with by that point and there wasn't a lot of energy. The small unit rap was a good premise, but I think Beck's bad wrapping took away from what could have been a good joke. The bad singer joke took over. I find the raps and musical skits work best when the song is tight, and sends up the joke. Of course, the fact that I had listened to the Will Sasso episode of the Nerdist Podcast where he and Chris Hardwick did a spectacular job of making up Van Halen covers about David Lee Roth compensating for a small dick earlier in the day.

This isn't epsidoe specific, but regarding the format, they work best when they cross streams (sorry). The Thanksgiving episode was probably the best example of that.

For whatever reason. The the other networks simply can't come close to ABC in terms of child actors on the comedies. I don't know if it's the Disney connection or just that the network's family comedies tend to involve the family a bit more. I agree with the kids here. They're definitely giving it they're all, but there's just not a lot for them to do. I hold onto my belief that the show will loosen up a lot after the initial 13 episode run. I'm guessing this Exodus story-line will play out in the next two episodes, and then we'll be onto some good fun in the final 9 episodes with the show knowing it had the full run. It still needs to figure out what it needs to do with Todd and Claire on a full time basis, but I have faith.