This week brought me a whole new level of television that just didn’t connect very well. I began my week catching up on the new sitcom The New Normal.
The story of a well-off gay couple (Justin Bartha, Andrew Rannells) attempting to have a baby through a surrogate doesn’t sound too abnormal nowadays, but toss in the off-colour comments that always seem to be present in a show in which Ryan Murphy has his hand and there are a few laughs.
Already three episodes into the series, I felt that each episode was way too short. In a world where most shows fill an hour (with commercial breaks, what are those? Pfft.), this half-hour comedy feels rushed and lacking in substance. Aside from the pretty characters, the occasional off-colour joke (made mostly by Ellen Barkin’s character, Jane), and the occasional heartwarming moment (one or two an episode by my count) the show comes off as weird and uncomfortable at times.
It’s great that the new idea of a family is being promoted but Modern Family has already covered the comedy spectrum for this kind of demand. With its lack of incidental music and its ploys to be both serious and funny at the same time, it might have been best for The New Normal to stick with the serious, run with it and simultaneously warm our hearts.
Revolution dropped onto my screen Sept 17. Created by Eric Kripke (Supernatural) and advertised to the extreme before all of your favourite YouTube videos I was expecting a lot from this new show.
Trailers made this series out to be like a feature-length film. The plot revolves around a young girl, Charlie, who is living in a dystopian world where the Amish should be dominating.
If you didn’t get that poor joke, then let me clarify.
For some reason (most likely an electromagnetic pulse) the world’s power has been shut down. Cars are stopped in the street and iPods are obsolete relics from a world long gone. Charlie is forced to set out from her cul-de-sac village complete with goats and corn as high as an elephant’s eye when local militia, the dominant force in the land, kill her father and take her younger brother.
While the first episode didn’t really explain much to us we’re introduced to a bit of this new world that has taken on an almost Western like vibe. Filled with a lot of tension and intricately choreographed fights, there might be enough here to keep me interested, but then again, that’s what I thought about The Walking Dead (and I’m talking about season one).
My television week finished with this season’s Brittany-centric episode of Glee. It’s episodes like these that allow me to forgive the writers for a lack of plot concentration.
Brittany outperformed herself this episode with a lip-synced, Cheeto-covered rendition of “Gimme More.” She pretty much can’t help but exude sex, even when covered in orange dust.
Rachel got to amp up the sexy for once too with a tango version of “Oops!…I Did It Again” and Blaine and Artie mashed together Brittany Spears’ “Boys” and Bieber’s “Boyfriend,” a personal favourite from this week’s selections.
While I can’t classify anything as Revolutionary yet (see what I did there?) we still have plenty of time for new shows to come in and steal the show and maybe break a few boundaries while they’re at it.
