And we're back! We've covered the juggernauts of the 90's, and in this post we're going to cover a couple of late 90's debuts that definitely broke the mold.
In case you're wondering what you're doing here, a) you're reading my blog, meaning you are my best friend and also you are imaginary, and b) I explained the premise of this five-part blog series in part 1. The short version is, we're doing a deep-dive exploration of ten iconic comedies from the 1990's and 2000's, and by deep dive I mean we're discussing IMDB's best rated and worst rated episodes of each show.
5. Third Rock From the Sun (1996 - 2001)
Third Rock played in reruns pretty late at night when I was in high school, meaning this was the show a bleary-eyed M collapsed onto the couch to watch when she was done with her six straight hours of playing The Sims. (I was a very popular and exciting teenager.) And I really liked this show. A show featuring four aliens masquerading as humans and trying, wide-eyed and innocent, to navigate Earth culture can't help but be irresistibly charming. This is literally the only thing I've EVER liked John Lithgow in. (I mean, leave me alone, I liked Conclave, I just had to imagine a giant animatronic red panda singing Green Day lyrics in John Lithgow's place whenever he was onscreen. Conclave. Great movie!)
This show is not streaming anywhere, and that makes me sad, like I've lost a piece of my childhood that will never return. I try not to collect physical media, but I would buy this show on DVD if I ever found it at a thrift store or pawn shop. It would be fun to revisit. As it is, I had to buy the highest-rated and lowest-rated episodes, for $2 a piece, to be able to watch this show at all. But I'm just that dedicated to this blog, and also didn't feel like picking a different show.
IMDB's Top: Dial M for Dick (IMDB 8.5, M 7.1)
The Solomons are invited to a murder mystery dinner theater. The problem is, they ... don't really seem to realize that it's fake.
This episode really showcases the unique dynamic that the Solomons have, as they are masquerading as a family but age and gender assignments are merely roles; they're all on equal footing. Tommy, for example, is the oldest of the aliens but accepted the role of teenager, and Sally accepted the role of being "the woman."
Seeing the four fish-out-of-water aliens start to unravel as they believe people are actually being murdered all around them is a lot of fun. And that's what this show is in general. It's not cerebral, but it sure is fun. And this episode made me miss those late summer nights in high school watching reruns and being so brain fried from The Sims that I wondered how Sally was able to talk to Harry without clicking on him first.
IMDB's Bottom: My Mother, My Dick (IMDB 7.3, M 5.5)
This sure is a mess of an episode, but it's still kind of fun.
Sally and Harry accidentally teleport another alien to Earth. He's in the body of an adult man, but they decide to raise him as their child. Meanwhile, Dick is kind of in the opposite situation when he tries to kill his girlfriend Mary's sour, critical mother, only to bond with her and accept her as his new mommy.
One of Dick's better qualities is that he is actually a good boyfriend. He cares about Mary and you can see why she would want to date him, despite all his eccentricities. When he first stands up to Mary's mother, it comes from a place of caring and realizing that Mary's mother is making her miserable. However, he is a wide-eyed innocent alien who is easily led down the wrong path and distracted by shiny things. Hence, in the last episode we discussed, he actually believes at one point that Mary is the murderer, and in this episode, he takes Mary's mother's side when she manages to sway him.
The B-plot with Sally and Harry and their man-child is just abysmal. I don't really like cringe humor, and everything the new alien does is ... so cringe. And, what the ... he speaks perfect English, he just makes ridiculous faces, randomly falls down, and is baffled that this new body has "a hole in the back." I just feel so embarrassed for the actor playing this role that it makes the episode almost painful to watch. Sally and Harry also seem to be just phoning it in playing their roles as parents forced to be parents in a subplot where I think the first draft is what we ultimately get because none of the writers have any better ideas.
And where was Tommy in this episode? I mean, I guess Joseph Gordon-Levitt had a successful movie career and might have had to duck out of a few Third Rock episodes, but this is a perfect example of how when a show's premise rests on the shenanigans of a core group of characters, it gets much weaker when one of those characters is removed. See: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia season 13, when Dennis was present for less than half of the episodes because he was filming AP Bio. The show runners later agreed that this was the messiest season of Always Sunny they'd ever done, and the show only works when the core five are together.
Man, I sure am talking a lot about this show I said I was not going to cover, so let's get back to Third Rock. Great show. I'm sorry you can't really watch it anymore unless you find DVDs at a yard sale or are willing to spend a lot of money on Amazon Prime Video, but, there is another show that you can watch about four aliens on a mission masquerading as an Earth family. It also has the leader trying to maintain some semblance of control, the rage-powered but ineffective militant, the sex-positive total moron, and the "youngest" member of the team, who is just trying to embrace teenage life and fit in. That's right, I'm talking about Solar Opposites, a show that I recently learned is working on its final season. Let's hope their series finale isn't as much of a bummer as Third Rock's was.
6. South Park (1997 - present)
Oh, South Park, what a land of contrasts you are. There are a trillion episodes of this show, and it can be really funny and it can be really bad. That's why if you love this show, you need to be really careful in recommending episodes to your friends. Let's hope IMDB can help us!
What is my background with this show? Well, as I grew up without cable, my introduction to the show was one of my male friends showing me all the Christmas episodes. Come to think of it, everyone I know who likes this show is male. But, you see, I am what Gillian Flynn would call a "cool girl" and I can hang. I like beer, I ... okay, that may be the only thing that makes me a cool girl. I like beer, and I like South Park. I mean, it's not one of the adult animation shows that I credit with raising me and forming my personality, but, it's quite enjoyable. Sometimes, it crosses a line or is just too sophomoric and stupid. For example, I overall really liked the feature length South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut but there were some scenes where I just wanted to bury my head in the couch cushions.
Most of the people I have met who love South Park were male, and only a handful have been pretentious jerks who think this is the only real comedy on TV and shows like Family Guy are garbage. My best female friend came around to liking South Park after seeing the semi-musical episode about Mormonism, which might be my favorite episode by default because it was the spiritual predecessor of The Book of Mormon, THE BEST MUSICAL OF ALL TIME AND THE REASON I GET UP EVERY MORNING. And that just goes to show, when recommending South Park, you need to be careful what episodes you do and don't recommend. So, please guide us, IMDB.
IMDB's Top: Scott Tenorman Must Die (IMDB 9.6, M 7.7)
That's right. South Park just took my top spot so far. And might take the bottom spot, I'm still deciding.
How far we've come. When giving synopses of episodes for prior entries, it's been like, "DJ has two dates for the big dance" or "Frasier and Niles can't decide what kind of wine to serve at their dinner party" and now we are kicking it up to Cartman is tricked into buying some pubic hair from an older boy because he believes "having" pubes makes him an adult, and it results in a war of public humiliation that involves a fake pube fest, a fake Radiohead concert, a very ... specially trained pony, and the culmination is ... I'm not going to ruin it for you, but if you've ever watched one of those most outrageous TV episodes listicle videos, you know how this episode ends.
So, yes, the premise of this episode is that Cartman has a handful of pubes that he has realized is useless and he wants his money back. And, as is the South Park way, it escalates insanely. It's a funny episode, and it's also a sneakily clever episode, with all the plot points aligning for the shocking finale.
I had another guy friend (most of my guy friends like South Park) point out to me that this show's strength is that it makes fun of everyone equally. It doesn't take a stance, it's just comedy, and no one is safe. I would argue that they took a pretty strong and unearned stance against Family Guy, but, for the most part, yeah. This show is not afraid to pull any punches, but they mask anything that could be perceived as social or political commentary by burying it in simplistic animation and poop jokes. It's a sneakily smart show, except when it's not, and that brings me to
IMDB's Bottom: Jakovasaurs (IMDB 3.9, M 4)
This episode is a mess.
Cartman stumbles across a Jakovasaur, a creature believed to be extinct that is basically a human except they are naked and slightly hairier and slightly dumber than the rest of the residents of South Park. I guess a bigfoot thing, I don't know, I really don't know what this episode was trying to parody, if anything. So, then they find out the Jakovasaur is female, and there is one living male Jakovasaur, and they are the last hope for the species. But eventually everyone finds the Jakovasaurs and their offspring just obnoxious, like, they don't pick up on any social cues, dude.
Don't watch this episode. I mean, there are worse things on TV. This is not actively offensive (see how high I set the bar) and Cartman is always a funny character, but you'll spend most of the duration cringing and wondering how they could possibly criticize Family Guy for lazy writing when this is like someone got incredibly high and then fell asleep on their computer and their drool wrote an episode of South Park.
Anyway, this was the stupidest but surprisingly not the worst episode I've watched during my journey. Where is my journey taking me next? Well, in part 4, we will explore two prime examples of will-they-or-won't-they-but-we-know-they-will entertainment GOLD! It will be fun. (I actively dislike one of the shows I'm covering in part 4.) (It's fine.) (Go in with an open mind, M.) (It's fine.) (I'm fine.)
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