I've got really nothing to add about Black-Ish this week, as it's the same show it's been every week. The bullets, to save us all some time:
* The show still spends way too much time holding the audiences' hands establishing and re-establishing the episode's plot and them, which leads to a very slow comedic pace. In this particular case, it also took up so much time that there is no real B or C plot.
*The show employs four child actors, of whom none are good and three are terrible. This week spent more time than usual with them, and that helps nobody.
*Laurence Fishburne is routinely the best part of the show and rarely on screen for more than two or three minutes in an episode. That held true this week, as he got all the biggest laughs, but barely appeared for more than twenty seconds at a time.
*Black-Ish is a show that badly wants to talk about edgy things, but is too afraid to do anything edgy with them. This week was no different, with an episode (and even a few funny jokes) about child abuse, but no real depth or audacity.
*Beyond Fishburne, the rest of the adult cast is strong, but given very little of interest to do. Tracee Elliot-Ross got a few good moments to play this week, but poor Anthony Anderson at this point is basically just a narrator who happens to be on-screen.
* The show is never bad enough to complain about, or good enough to recommend. It simply exists.
NVTV21: Manhattan Love Story "It's Complicated", Selfie "Nugget of Wisdom", Marry Me "Move Me", and Hope
Maybe it's because I was up for twenty four hours of trainwreckery yesterday and am basically just eyes and the R-brain today, or maybe it's just Stockholm Syndrome finally setting in, but I thought all three of last night's shows took a big jump.
Yes, even Manhattan Love Story.
All three episodes really deserve their own post, but I'm already super late, and as mentioned my mental capacity right now is somewhere between "drunk toddler" and "Courtney Love" ("drunk toddler" is the best case scenario, for those who don't know who Courtney Love is), so here's all three in as much detail as I can manage.
NV20: Mulaney's Format Wars
This week's Mulaney continued the very slow upward trend from last week, but at the rate its going it'll be cancelled long before it actually gets good.
There are a number of problems, but the biggest one is that it often seems to be fighting its own format.
NVTV19: "Cristela" Punishes Me For Hope
After a shockingly strong first week, Cristela this week bore much more of a resemblance to the terribly hackneyed show I was expecting that the sneaky-clever pilot. The office stuff remains mostly strong, if sometimes a little obvious, and the cast is growing on me, yet this episode totally disappointed. Maybe the writing was just softer in general, but I think the bigger problem was that Cristela was no longer in on the joke this time around, and the old sitcoms cliches became just sitcom cliches, instead of winking commentary.
Thumbs down this week, but I'm trying to be optimistic after the abominations of MLS and A to Z, so I'll hold off on throwing Cristela totally under the bus for now.
NVTV 18: Bad Judge and A to Z don't feel like changing
Another quick one here, but I'll likely (maybe?) be back to full length pieces next week, assuming any of these damned shows feel like evolving at all.
First up, Bad Judge maintained its improvement from last week, but didn't add to it (though it was nice to see Ryan McPartlin again). The cast is excellent, the writing is just good enough, and it's an overall pleasant experience but by no means a masterpiece. Kate Walsh is so incredibly strong that it almost doesn't matter what she's being asked to do, from triangle chokes to forgetting a stenographers name, she spins it into gold. Big thumbs up for her, mild thumbs up for her show.
A to Z is starting to piss me off, though.