The Carrie Diaries - "Hungry Like the Wolf" Review

Season 2, Episode 11

It's hard to have good voiceover narration in a television show.  Make your narration too direct and it becomes unnecessary, basically describing what the audience already knows (see: the later seasons of Dexter).  But if you go the other way and make the narration too subtextual, describing what should be implicit to the audience, you'll get accused of being "on the nose."  Avoiding the "on the nose" complaint is one of the most difficult things to do, because it seems like everything gets accused of it now.  (I've often wondered whether critics hate voiceover narration and heavy-handed symbolism because it does their job for them.  If a show spells out the point it's trying to make, there's basically no room for the critic to say anything.)

There are obvious reasons for why voiceover narration exists in The Carrie Diaries.  After all, it's in the name -- the narration serves as entries in Carrie's diary.  Sex and the City, the show's predecessor, made Carrie's writing-as-voiceover a staple of the universe, so it's almost mandatory for The Carrie Diaries to continue that trend.  But just because I can understand why there's narration in the show, that doesn't mean I want there to be any.  At its best, the narration is something that's just there, existing without calling too much attention to itself.  But most of the time, the only purpose it serves is to make labored connections between the show's frequently scattered plotlines.  (To be fair, at least young Carrie hasn't learned the joy of puns yet.)  At its very worst though, the narration commits the mistake of making text out of subtext and stumbling into that dreaded "on the nose" zone.  If there's one big flaw in "Hungry Like the Wolf," it's that the episode not only stumbles into that zone, it plants itself there and grows roots.

You see, this week's episode was all about instincts, and how all of these characters are going to need to rely on them if they're going to survive in this dog-eat-dog world.  How did I know this?  Well, that's because people say the word "instinct" and throw out various iterations of the term "dog-eat-dog world" numerous times throughout the episode.  We open on Carrie in the city as she watches people gathering around a hawk eating a pigeon on the ground, which serves as a jumping off point for the hour's examination of the harsh realities of the predicaments the characters find themselves in.  It's Spring Break, and Carrie has just gotten her acceptance letter from NYU, ensuring that she'll soon be spending all of her time in New York instead of splitting it between the city and Connecticut.  Sometimes prequels still try to draw tension from questions that the viewers already know the answer to, so it's nice that the show treats Carrie getting into NYU as a foregone conclusion.

What's less pleasant to see, however, is the episode's handling of everything that happens in her storyline afterward.  At Interview, things are getting hectic, with assignments coming in and Bennet nowhere to be found.  He claims that he's still getting over learning that his ex-boyfriend is dying of AIDS, so Carrie decides to write his article that's due for him, but gets upset when she feels like he takes too much credit when Larissa praises him for it.  It's all a blatant way to show that if Carrie is going to make it full-time in New York she'll to have to learn some -- you guessed it! -- killer instincts of her own, to respond to the hawks in the world who will always be ready to swoop in and take advantage of her.  So she does just that, taking Bennet's interview with 17-year old ballet sensation, Amelia Strong, after learning that he was faking being sick.

While Carrie's learning to follow her instinct, Maggie struggles to fight off her natural inclinations after hitting it off with Pete the army guy last week.  She enlists in the help of Maggie and Donna -- continuing their slow transformation into the greatest power trio that Castlebury has ever seen -- to make sure she doesn't take things too far too soon with Pete.  Much like Carrie, Maggie has to learn to adapt to the cruel and opportunist world around her, but in her case that means not making rash decisions and allowing men to break her heart.

Despite being united by a singular theme, "Hungry Like the Wolf" feels like it's all over the place.  The Carrie Diaries has never been a plot-heavy show, but things were still a little too loose for there only being two more episodes left in the season after this.  With the finale quickly approaching, there's no reason for us to be spending our time with another useless Tom plot, where he has to deal with an unorthodox lawyer, all in service of having another angle to tackle the episode's inelegant metaphor about shrewdness.  Both Tom and Carrie learn that lesson via the help of others, as it turns out Carrie's interview with Amelia Strong was just meant for Carrie to have more subtext spouted at her.  Meanwhile, Maggie learns that she may not need the prodding of others, realizing that she should trust her own instincts every once in a while.  Perhaps the show can take a lesson from its characters and just act, instead of explaining and talking about the act so much.

Random Asides:

-Antonio's Self-Loathing Corner: I wasn't looking forward to writing this review, because I'm generally not very good at writing negative reviews.  But I think this turned out terrible for completely different reasons!  I'm sure not getting any better at this, huh?

-This week in AnnaSophia Robb being delightful: Did you catch that scene where she's in Sebastian's apartment and she's just sitting on his bed, peeling an orange?  Weird and delightful.

-Mouse Sweater Watch: Clearly Mouse is rooting for the 49ers to win this weekend, because she wore a beige sweater in the beginning of the episode, and a sweater with red and beige stripes near the end.

-That was Julia Goldani Telles (aka Sasha from Bunheads, my number 1 show of 2013) as Amelia Strong.  I flirted with the idea of making the entire review about her, which would have been more material than the show gave her.  Though she was frustratingly under-utilized, it's amusing that they made her sassy and a ballerina, just like Sasha.  But if you're going to do that, then give her a random dance scene!  If you haven't seen her mesmerizing work on Bunheads, here you go.  Have this, too.

-In other "Hey, it's that person!" news: Penny, the woman Tom has a meeting with, was played by Cara Buono.  She was Dr. Faye Miller in season 4 of Mad Men.  I like to believe that she only appears in period pieces set in New York.

-Seriously, rewatch this episode and count how many times somebody talks about "instinct" or it being a "dog-eat-dog" world.  It's crazy.

Pilot Talk 2014: Week 1 of TV's Midseason Pilots

Every TV season, networks bring out a new crop of shows, in hopes that they'll be the next biggest hit.  Pilot Talk is devoted to figuring out whether these shows are worth your time based on the first episode.

Chicago PD (NBC, Wednesdays at 10:00 PM)
The pilot of Chicago PD starts out nauseatingly hard-boiled and over-the-top, as we see some gravelly-voiced crook intimidate another man in a car.  I've never watched Chicago Fire, of which this show is a spinoff, or else I would've known that said gravelly-voiced is actually a dirty cop(!)  Despite the disadvantage that comes from not having any frame of reference for some of the characters on this show, Chicago PD doesn't exactly do itself any favors either.  It assaults you with its grit and grime, as if it's attempting to be the Low Winter Sun of network television.  There's nothing inherently wrong with the excessive violence on display in this pilot, but going to that well this soon is indicative of a show that doesn't have much else to lean on.  Basically, it falls into the same problem that many other network cop dramas do: retreading ground that better, cable cop dramas covered, but scrubbing them clean of any real moral complexity.  (In Chicago PD's hands, everything is morally light gray.)  Somewhere in an alternate dimension, there exists a version of this where Jason Beghe's character isn't the lead, and it's a much better show.  Everything without him has much more life to it, even if the material is just as hoary as the ersatz Vic Mackey that he represents.  While there's an effective shock or two near the end of the episode, it's immediately negated by the lame thud that the episode ends on.  It was enough to talk myself down on the overall grade.
Grade: C-

Enlisted (Fox, Fridays at 9:30 PM)
One of the biggest problems facing Enlisted, Kevin Biegel's new comedy about three military brothers, is finding a way to make war and the military funny.  The opening scene, which is set on the battle lines of Afghanistan, fails at this, but luckily things get less dicey once the episode moves to the main setting of the Fort McGee military base.  Much like Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Fox's other successful pilot of this television season, the unique setting of Enlisted -- in terms of recent television, I can only recall the latest season Childrens Hospital being set on a military base -- gives it a certain edge over the competition.  What results is a fusion of what Biegel learned on his two previous projects: the workplace antics of Scrubs and the hangout nature of Cougar Town.  It's a very silly pilot, but very agreeable, thanks to the solid brotherly chemistry of Geoff Stults, Chris Lowell, and Parker Young.  Most of the time, comedy pilots have alot of room for improvement, but this feels well-structured and fully-formed in the same way that Brooklyn Nine-Nine did.  That's not to say that it won't ever get better, but it also doesn't feel like there are any significant pieces missing.  I look forward to watching this sweet, delightful little comedy for as long as we get to have it.
Grade: B+

Helix (Syfy, Fridays at 10:00 PM)
Since the end of Battlestar Galactica, Ronald Moore hasn't had much luck as a creator and executive producer.  Despite being one of my favorite pilots of the last 5 years, Fox decided not to pick up Virtuality, and later projects like 17th Precinct and The Wild Wild West never made it out of development hell.  Enter Helix, Syfy's new outbreak drama, which was created by Cameron Porsandeh, but features heavy input from Moore.  Whether or not Moore's unlucky streak has finally ended remains to be seen, because I wasn't very impressed with the two-part premiere.  The nature of this virus, which makes those infected spew pitch black blood, is suitably intriguing, but there's very little flair to the pilot, and it all feels a little too workmanlike for me.  For being a show about contamination, everything about it is so antiseptic.  I appreciate the show's faith in its viewers by choosing to have no audience surrogate characters, but having a team full of self-serious scientific experts distances the viewer from the story.  So far, Helix just features flat drama and even flatter characters, but there are enough tense and suspenseful moments that I'll stick with it for a while.
Grade: C+

Intelligence (CBS, Mondays at 10:00 PM)
Many of the great actors from Lost have been wasted since that show ended, but none more than Josh Holloway, who seems primed and ready to be a leading man.  (Even Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol dispenses him after a killer opening setpiece.)  Finally he's gotten his own show, but I fear that Intelligence is below his talent level.  It opens up with a good-for-TV action sequence, which is a good way to kick things off, but much of the episode struggles to maintain that energy.  The show faces the same problems that many CBS shows have -- stiff and bland dialogue.  Characters in this pilot tend to just speak at one another about a character's credentials.  At one point somebody even utters the line, "He's a hero!"  On the plus side, the central concept of the show seems extremely lame at first, but the pilot finds many cool ways to use it.  Unfortunately, the mission for the episode -- there's a second chip! -- is employed far too soon to have any stakes.  It's an over-explanatory episode of television, yet I still feel like I don't know anything about these characters, particularly Holloway.  Intelligence bears alot of similarity to the early stages of Person of Interest -- great action, bad everything else -- so who knows, maybe it can become a great show.  I'm just not going to stick around to find out.
Grade: C

Killer Women (ABC, Tuesdays at 10:00 PM)
I've learned by now not to trust network promos, but the commercials for Killer Women were so terrible that it seemed like there was no way that it could be any good.  The show isn't Justified or anything, but it's actually a fun, network alternative to FX's entertaining modern western.  Part of the success of Killer Women's pilot is its slickness -- you're thrown right into the story and it moves quickly from start to finish.  Trisha Helfer was solid on Battlestar Galactica, but here she proves that she's talented enough to carry her own show, displaying steely toughness and great dramatic chops.  Of all the shows this TV season that skew procedural, this is one of the most entertaining.  It's the one that makes me feel the least weary about seeing cases similar to the one in the pilot every week.  While not mandatory watching, Killer Women is a good choice if you want fun, light pulp; full of western music, car chases, and big explosions.
Grade: B

The Carrie Diaries - "Date Expectations" Review

Season 2, Episode 10

When we look back on our lives, we often think about them in terms of large checkpoints, so it's only natural for period piece shows to feel like a cycle through the holidays, especially when you've only got 13 episodes per season.  So just two episodes after giving us a Christmas episode, it's Valentine's Day in the world of The Carrie Diaries.  More so than love being in the air, there's a whiff of the future in it too, and the concerns about what's coming next throws almost everyone into a minor tailspin.

Having now moved into Larissa's old apartment, Sebastian is officially back on the East coast, and he and Carrie have plans to spend Valentine's Day in the city.  Then out of nowhere, he tells Carrie that he has to cancel their plans, due to this job he has working on skateboard gear with some up-and-comer named Tony Hawk.  Expecting their first Valentine's Day together as a couple to be a big event, Carrie is naturally upset about this development, especially after declining to spend the night hanging out with Larissa, Walt, and Bennet because she didn't want to cancel with Sebastian.  This plotline was problematic for a few reasons.  First of all, it seems like introducing a conflict between Carrie and Sebastian after he just moved back to New York is a bit arbitrary.  It's as if the writers were afraid to keep their relationship safe for any amount of time, so they just decided to play into the theory that Larissa had last week about how long distance relationships become even worse when one party decides to move to the other.  Second, the whole Tony Hawk story is the worst kind of winking hindsight that the show mostly manages to avoid.  I wanted to bang my forehead against a wall every time Carrie said something like "skateboarding is a fad!" or "This Tony Eagle guy will never amount to anything!"  Nevertheless, it tied into the episode's theme, as Sebastian's work engagement causes Carrie to question the long-term viability of their relationship.

With Sebastian off doing kickflips with Tony Hawk, Carrie heads into the city with Larissa, Walt, and Bennet.  The party they attend is the kind of wacky New York fantasy that this show does well, full of leather-clad gay men and Samantha riding naked on a horse like Lady Godiva.  The setting is all to serve as a backdrop for the story of Walt and Bennet, who after seeming to finally fall into a comfortable rhythm with their relationship, quickly fall out of that rhythm.  This first comes with Walt's trepidation that the party might be "too gay" for him, before being hilariously reminded by Bennet that nothing is too gay for a man who's already had sex with another man.  But the real earth-shattering moment comes when Bennet runs into an old friend on the dancefloor, who informs Bennet that his ex-boyfriend contracted AIDS.  Going into the show, AIDS was one of the big boxes that people expected the show to check, and this was a smart way to touch upon it without biting off more they can chew by giving Walt HIV.

Upon hearing the news, Walt freaks out because he's suddenly flooded with all of the hardships being homosexual opens him up to, even though Bennet is undoubtedly the one who should be more distraught.  Since we were introduced to Walt, he has mostly worried about the here and now of his sexuality, and the moment where he thinks about not being able to have kids or a future is one of the more poignant moments of this storyline.  He's so distraught that he storms off into the streets of New York, leaving his friends behind.  One of those friends is Carrie, who also is shaken by the news and concerned for Walt.  The episode smartly dovetails the Walt storyline with Carrie and Sebastian's, as the latter two's fight completely dissolves once Sebastian walks into his apartment to see Carrie crying on the floor, worried about her best friend.  In the end, both Bennet and Walt get tested and the results come back negative, but it's a moment that changes the perspective of all of these characters and the way they think about their lives.

The future is the most direct concern for Maggie, who after taking a seat on the bench last week in "Under Pressure," returns with the news that she got accepted into a community college.  But the military is also visiting the school on this day, and she finds herself attracted to the idea of having college completely paid off for her.  It's fitting that Maggie, ever the impulsive one, would be intrigued by the way the Army representative courts her, pinpointing all of her insecurities and hesitations about her future.  But because Maggie has never made a decision that she didn't later regret, she finds her mind changing shortly after signing up for the military.  Her and Mouse decide to enlist the help of Donna to drive them to the military base to try to steal Maggie's sign-up form back, since Donna's the only person they know who has her own car.  In my review last week, I noted that the pairing of Mouse and Donna was one of the highlights of the episode, and bringing Maggie into the fold added even more spark to that dynamic.  I've always thought that Donna is like the Cordelia Chase of The Carrie Diaries, and her slow and reluctant integration into the group makes the parallels even more clear.

So Maggie, Mouse, and Donna hit the road and fool the guard at the military base into letting them in pretty easily.  (Side note: let's hope real military bases in the 80s weren't that lackadaisical about security.  Those could've been the daughters of Khruschev!)  Once inside, the girls are quickly caught trying to confiscate official military files.  Though Donna attempts to use her feminine wiles -- and when that doesn't work, a sob story -- her attempts are powerless to the stoic glance of hunky Army guy.  It may seem like this plotline is inconsequential in the way that Maggie is informed that she could've just written a letter telling the Army that she changed her mind, but it's silly in a fun way, and the interactions between Mouse, Maggie, and Donna save it from being mindless filler.

Valentine's Day episodes tend to get swept up in widescreen romanticism, but "Date Expectations" understands that the messiness of life doesn't take a break just because we want it to.  Everybody in this episode gets a relatively happy ending, but ones that are muted by the inauspicious beginnings and difficult middles that come beforehand.  Even Maggie's adventure, albeit fluffy, is not without its complications.  It may be the beginning of the year, but the events in this episode cause everyone to look forward and take stock of the road ahead.

Random Asides:

-Antonio's Self-Loathing Corner: This review might even be worse than my last one.  "Too much plot summary, not enough analysis!," I can hear the angry crowds shouting.

-I didn't mention the Dorrit plot in my main review because I thought it was the weakest of the bunch.  I generally find Dorrit more likable this season than she was in the first, but they need to give her some meatier storylines.  Or just throw her in a story with Donna.  Donna cures everything!

-This episode was directed by Amy Heckerling, whom you may know from directing 1995's Clueless (which is very good) and 2007's I Could Never Be Your Woman (which is...not very good), among other things.  Her episodes tend to feature big New York parties.

-This week in AnnaSophia Robb being delightful: AnnaSophia Robb has a very measured way of speaking, and this episode got alot of mileage out of her pronouncing funny words like "coccyx," "McTwist," and "cockamamie."

-Mouse Sweater Watch: That navy blue sweater that she wore for most of the episode had alot going on.  Stripes AND polka dots?  The 80s were a different time...

-Along with the painful Tony Hawk stuff, this episode was loaded with pop culture references: Walt talks about seeing Hannah and Her Sisters, Carrie calls Annie Hall "a love letter to the city" (despite the fact that Manhattan is Woody Allen's true love letter to the city.  Come on, Carrie!), Donna tosses out a Private Benjamin reference, and somebody mentions Scarface.  This show is set in the 80s, in case you forgot!

The Carrie Diaries - "Under Pressure" Review

Season 2, Episode 9

This Friday, The Carrie Diaries returned from a two-week break -- both in the show's universe and in real life -- full of fresh starts and continuing dramas.  On the new beginnings front, it's the start of the spring semester, and Carrie is actually in school!  As far as continuing storylines go, Sebastian is still in California after his father made him move there with him in the midseason finale.  The main drive for this week's story, however, is Tom (more famously known as Dadshaw) going away for the weekend on a secret case, leaving Carrie and Dorrit alone to capitalize on their freedom in their own ways.

After some chiding from Larissa about the inevitable decline of all long-distance relationships, Carrie sees this unsupervised weekend as a way to keep the flame alight in her relationship with Sebastian.  So naturally, Sebastian flies to the other side of America to see her, because that's what all teenagers do.  Obviously, there's no way that Sebastian's move to California was going to be a permanent thing, since Austin Butler is a series regular, but it would've been nice to see them try to keep him on the sidelines for at least an episode or two.  Having him back in Castlebury (and the later revelation that he's moving back permanently) seemed a little too quick.

Carrie and Dorrit's plotlines converge as Dorrit takes the less smart route, choosing to take advantage of a weekend without Dadshaw by throwing a huge party, thus interrupting Carrie's canoodling with Sebastian.  All of this is in an effort to impress some new guy who looks exactly like the old guy she was dating.  (Dorrit, if nothing else, is at least consistent.)  This plot is an example of the usual "Dorrit being foolish and rebellious" thing, but this season they've managed to soften her a bit -- and have her appear less -- so it ultimately works.  Plus, it's a very fun and smart way to get all of the characters together.  Most notable on that front is the pairing of Mouse and Donna, who engage in a little bit of competitive beer pong.  Donna has consistently been the show's most entertaining character since early into the first season, and Mouse makes the most of her storylines being marooned in Castlebury while everybody else is having fun in Manhattan, so the two of them together is probably the greatest decision the show's writers could make.  The pure, simple fun doesn't last when the party quickly gets out of hand, as unsupervised parties on TV are wont to do, and the Bradshaw sisters have to work together to save themselves from getting caught by their neighbor who's been put in charge of keeping an eye on them.

Over in Manhattan, Tom encounters problems of his own, discovering that the super confidential case that he was put in charge of is just negotiating a prenuptial agreement between Larissa and Harlan.  Like the A-plot, this is another example of the writers trying to bring the show's many characters together, but it's much less successful than the party in Castlebury.  In having so many side characters, it's often difficult for a show like this to give all of them something to do, and the writers can sometimes flail around trying to find that something.  That's what this whole Harlan and Larissa relationship seems like, and it's been goofy and insubstantial from the start.  Things do take somewhat of an interesting turn here, when Larissa reveals that she doesn't want to move in with Harlan, out of fear that she might lose some of herself by being so tied down to him.  It's a development that ties into both this series' and Sex and the City's efforts to redefine female independence, and also colors her earlier relationship advice to Carrie.  The storyline isn't fully redeemed by that, but it's the most shading that Larissa has gotten in a long time.

The New York and Connecticut stories are not only united by the characters feeling under pressure (as Carrie so conveniently narrates for us), but also by the Bradshaws trying to figure out bloodless solutions to difficult problems.  In the end, Tom concocts a way for Larissa and Harlan to be happy -- Harlan will buy her the apartment right next to his, so she can still have her own space -- and it's pretty ridiculous.  Meanwhile, Carrie and Dorrit manage to avert their neighbor crisis when she comes over to bust them, but accidentally eats a pot brownie.  When Sebastian pretends the cops are coming to break up the party, the gang is able to clean things up before Tom arrives, and the neighbor is too embarrassed about getting high to rat on Carrie and Dorrit.  Problem solved!  "Under Pressure" is a bit unbalanced, but it's ultimately a solid episode, and a nice way for this fun, underrated show to enter 2014.

Random Asides:

-Welcome to my first attempt at episodic reviews!  I don't ever do them because I hate plot (and hate describing it even more), and an important part of a TV review is describing the events that unfolded.  As a result, this review is pretty terrible, and my decision to start reviewing The Carrie Diaries 9 episodes into this season is strange, but I'm doing it anyway.  Hope you enjoy!

-This week in AnnaSophia Robb being delightful: This will be a recurring segment where I point out one way in which AnnaSophia Robb, the most delightful screen presence on television, exhibits her delightfulness.  Did you see the way Carrie flicked Dorrit on the arm in that scene where their dad was telling them that he'd be gone for the weekend?  Absolutely delightful!

-Mouse Sweater Watch: In case you haven't noticed, Mouse always wears amazing sweaters.  This is where I'll talk about them.  Mouse's sweater game was a little weak in this episode, since she only wore a simple beige one.  But that tiny little mouse broach that she put on it brought it up a level.

-This episode featured alot of party cliches -- a random person breaking something valuable, keg problems, etc.  I think it worked because the show is set in the 80s, so it's almost like watching those 80s movies where the tropes first gained prominence.

-Harlan is played by Scott Cohen, better known as Max Medina from Gilmore Girls.  So I've just got to get this line out of my system: "Hey, it's me, Max.  Medina.  Maaaax Medina."  Okay, carry on.

My 20 Favorite Television Shows of 2013

Are you sick of hearing about whether or not we're in the golden age of television?  There has been alot of hand-wringing about that lately, spurred on by the fact that 2013 was an unequivocally great year for TV, the best that I've seen since I started following the medium closely.  Not only was the year remarkable for its depth of quality, but also for its breadth.  Good television has been popping up from every corner, with networks like Sundance making their debut in original programming and online sources like Hulu and Netflix expanding their market.  One of the shows in end of the year discussion, Borgen, released episodes on LinkTV -- whatever that is!  It's interesting to think that a little over a decade ago, most of the talked about TV shows came from the big four networks (CBS, Fox, NBC, and ABC) and HBO.  Now I literally get anxiety thinking about all of the great television coming from so many different places that I'll never get around to watching.  (For how much TV I already watch, see the full list linked to at the bottom of this post.)

Television lists are harder than music and film lists to do, because the main television season is spread out over two calendar years, with many shows starting their seasons in September and not ending until April or May.  This is becoming less of an issue, as summer is seen as a television ghetto less and less every year, and cable shows tend to air their entire seasons in a single calendar year.  Nevertheless, for each television show, the only episodes eligible for ranking purposes are the ones that aired in 2013.  That seems like an obvious thing, but it always throws some people.  This can sometimes work to a show's advantage.  For example, Parenthood was very high on my list last year because it aired all of its best material (the end of season 3 at the beginning of year, the beginning of season 4 in the fall) in 2012.  On the other hand, New Girl was never going to land in my top 20 this year, but it ended up being way further down on my full list because its third season has been so terrible, it's tarnished the quality of the back half of season 2 that aired at the beginning of the year.  Is all of that clear?  Okay, good.

For all of my talk about the breadth of the television landscape, my top 20 consists of a small cluster of networks, but there are still some unexpected ones.  The list heavily favors cable to network, with 16 belonging to the former and 2 belonging to the latter (and 2 coming from internet-only sources).  My top 20 is also low on straight comedies, consisting of mostly dramas and shows that are listed as "comedy" but are mostly dramatic.  This is mainly because of how good this year was for drama, but it also was a very weak year for comedy, particular network comedies.  So enough analysis of the list, let's move on to the actual thing...