Before going into this review, let me clear something up. I know that in theory (and reality, really), the original Whose Line Is It Anyway? ran from 1998 – 2007 and the newer one, hosted by Aisha Tyler has “only” started in 2013 on CW, so therefore shouldn’t really count towards the OG Whose Line Is It Anyway?, but I am counting them as one. Sure, the original host Drew Carey has been replaced by aforementioned Aisha, but other than that, it’s exactly the same format. Except it’s slightly shinier, the video quality has gotten better and our beloved improvers have gotten slightly… more matured. 😉 But everything is the same, the same people are running the show, it’s basically the same cast and most importantly, it’s still hilarious.

I might be one of the few nutcases, who actually watched every single episode of not only the original show, but the CW one too. Yeah, I know. But let me tell you, the original show helped me get through some tough times. Back when I moved to Scotland, I had a job where I was promised more hours per week then I was ultimately given (so you can imagine, as a working student, the money was extra tight) and I had barely any time on my hands, as I was either studying or working a job I didn’t like. This show kept me laughing in my time off. These geniuses of improv comedy, they helped me through everything and even now, when I have different/better job, I am no longer a student and have more free time to myself, I am always looking forward to watching this show. When I learned, back in 2013, it’s coming back on CW, I was so happy, as I can’t even begin to describe how much I love it.

Let’s name names. I can’t list every single person involved with this, but the main trio (Colin Mochrie, Ryan Stiles and Wayne Brady) are all hilarious in their own ways. Colin is the “I will say exactly what’s on my mind, either it will work, or it will work because it’s not working” comedian, absolutely love him. Ryan is the “I like dirty jokes, really quick on his giant feet and tall freak” kind of guy and probably my favourite, if you put a gun to my head and I had to choose one. And Wayne is insanely talented when comes to making up songs as he goes. He’s funny as hell, but his main strength is definitely his rhyming ability and the fact he can actually sing really well! But here’s the thing, over the years, so many great people sat in the fourth chair, I do need to name some of my absolute favourites out the “guest comedians”.

Greg Proops (witty intellectual guy, who’s always up for some political joke, throwing shade or knowing most of pop culture), Brad Sherwood (definition of somebody, who is in between “chaotic neutral” and “chaotic evil”, love the guy), Charles ‘Chip’ Esten (who’s one of the few people who is as great as Wayne when comes to song challenges), Jeff Bryan Davis (also somebody, who can keep up with Wayne singing-wise, and if you want to do some Christopher Walken impression, give Jeff a shout), Gary Anthony Williams (who’s not only funny, but his amazing weight loss was a huge inspiration for my own weight loss journey), Jonathan Mangum (if golden retriever was a person, it would have been a Jonathan, because he seems like the goodest of boys), Heather Anne Campbell (her sense of humour can be all over the place, in the best possible sense) and I am pretty sure I am missing out on some people. But there have been so many. And all have their strengths, and most importantly, all of them will make you laugh in different ways.

Here’s the thing about this show – given the fact it’s improv, you are bound to laugh at least a few times per episode, even if you can tell where the scene/joke is going, because these guys know it’s not just about the joke itself, it’s about the delivery. Or sometimes about how not to deliver anything, when they crack each other up, by admitting they have nothing, no punchline, no joke, mostly in the singing challenges. Those are especially funny, when they don’t go the way you expect them to go. What I liked about the latest season (technically season 9, but I will refer to it as season 17) is they have started to leave in more “ruined” takes of those singing challenges, when they have no idea where the joke is going, and they just say/sing it, so they “restart the scene” instantly. Reading it backwards, it sounds so boring, but trust me, you would be having the time of your life watching these top of the class comedians do their schtick.

If I have to be critical a bit, I would only say the CW reboot (or continuation) started a bit slow, and it took them a while to get back in the groove. Also, since it’s CW, they have more episodes with a extra special guest stars, who (surprise surprise) star in some shows produced by (you guessed it), CW. Some of the celebrities can be funny, some want to be funny, but they don’t know how to do improv properly (which is understandable, as it’s a genuine skill to do it as flawlessly as those guys and girls) and there were couple of special guest stars, who didn’t seem to care too much either way. It seems like CW got the message, as good portion of the season 8 (or what I would call season 16) and the entirety of the season 9 (or 17) there were no celebrities, just improv people, doing what they are doing best. I honestly believe that was one of the strongest seasons out of them all.

I could rant about this show for hours, as I genuinely love it. What I admire is the fact that the performers don’t really feel the need to swear (at least not that much) and if they do, it usually serves as kind of “punch” for the scene/character. And let me clarify, I have no problem with swearing, I do swear a lot myself, but why I mention this at all – you know, when something is successful, there will be versions of that all around the world. I mean, even this started as a British show. Yeah, did you know that? Whose Line Is It Anyway? (1988 – 1998) started in the UK and I’ve tried to watch it, but after season and a half, I gave up on it, as it was too dry/intellectual for me. One of the rarest of occasions, where the American way, making it flashier, faster, sillier, actually worked. Anyway, in 2011 Czech people jumped on the bandwagon with a show, that’s basically a copy of WLIIA (in Czech language it’s called Partička (2011 -?), that can roughly be translated to “wee group”) and I have tried to watch an episode or two. And not only they got time in between scenes to change to costumes to make the scene funnier (which it usually isn’t and is clearly there to allow them to think about the scene, hence kind of going up against of the improv idea in general) they swear basically in every second sentence. And again, I have no problem with swearing, but in comedy, there is a point where you are obviously relying on the “shock” factor of “oh, they said a bad word, funny!” and that’s not funny. But I might have already been spoiled by this masterpiece.

Overall, I can’t praise this show enough. It got me through some rough times, and even made me proper belly laugh like anything, that’s currently airing. I honestly hope people at CW know, what’s best for them and keep this running for as long as possible, or at least for as long as these guys want to perform all these crazy, hilarious stuff for our amusement.

That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke

Rick and Morty is one of those shows, that became a bit hard to discuss and say you really like/enjoy, as some, and this is really important, only TINY, yet vocal minority of this show’s fans, give this masterpiece a really bad name, as they are just simply cringy. I don’t know who came up with this analogy, but somebody said “Those cringy fans believe they are Rick, but in reality, they are Jerry”. And I couldn’t agree more. So, hopefully we can move on, just wanted to address the fact I am aware of the “stereotype” of what some people believe are Rick and Morty fans, and let you know, most of us are pretty normal people, who won’t shout at you random stuff, or tell you how dumb you are if you don’t happen to enjoy this show.

This review is based on all 4 seasons of Rick and Morty, some spoilers might be involved.

Ok, before I address my only worry with the future of this show, let me just say I love it wholeheartedly. I find it fascinating, that somebody finally utilised the full potential of animation, and went crazy, balls to the walls fun, that at the same time, isn’t a mindless one. Where every episode tries to make a point, even though the characters, through their meta, fourth wall breaking kind of humour, usually laugh at the point to its face, and kind of laugh at us too…?

This show has answer for everything, they know exactly what the fans are expecting from them, and they’d rather wait couple of years working on a season, than releasing something, that’s not up to their standards. That’s why there are usually 2 year gaps between seasons, something that’s rare (I honestly can’t think of another narrative, none anthology TV show that would currently do that). And I do admire that, because that shows level of dedication and respect to the fans, where you don’t want to disappoint them. So kudos for that. But…

And this isn’t a big Nicki Minaj kind of but(t), but it’s worth mentioning – it’s also good to remember to have fun while creating it. What I mean by that, is the first two seasons are excellent, as most of them are singular episodes, that are funny, clever and work really well. The third and fourth seasons are also great, with some groundbreaking episodes, mainly the fourth season, some of the animation battle scenes, where each second, there are hundred things happening at once, are truly breathtaking. But some of the episodes are bit too self referential, some of them are too fourth wall breaking, where if you do just that, and stop focusing on the adventures… it could become a bit dull.

I will be the first one to say Rick and Morty is really, really cleverly written show, there is no doubt about that. And that’s the thing, fans won’t forget that. I honestly hope over the next couple of seasons, we will get more episodes like The Vat of Acid Episode, rather than Never Ricking Morty, where I understood what that episode was trying to do, but deconstructing the narrative structure might be funny for a short bit, but not for a full length episode. Because even the smartest thing ever will eventually bore you to the death, and you can understand it all you want, that doesn’t matter.

But that’s pretty much my only… it’s not even complaint, it’s just a slight worry about the future of this show. But I am sure the creators are capable enough to know what’s best for the show and how to maintain that standard, that’s quite high. I trust them, as even the “worst” episode (and I paradoxically think, the very first episode might be the weakest one) is still fun and there are plenty of things to get from it. I’m using the term worst really carefully, as even the pilot episode isn’t bad at all, it’s just not as great as what comes after it.

This is a definite recommend, where I once again need to make sure we are on the same page – ignore the (vocal minority) of annoying fans and give this show a chance, if you haven’t yet. I assure you, you won’t be bored, and you are in for a ride throughout the galaxy, and parallel universes and… everything in between.

That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke

The only thing I’ve wanted from Brooklyn Nine-Nine is to be a funny TV show, where I can watch it, laugh and and not worry about anything for at least 20 minutes. This show not only delivers on that from season one, but it gives you much, much more.

Let me just stop here and clarify something – it’s rare nowadays for a comedy TV show to hit it out of the park from the beginning, but Brooklyn Nine-Nine delivered from the very first episode and it didn’t stop till now. And I can give you some examples – one of my favourites from the last couple of years, Parks and Recreation, which I praise as one of the best comedy shows of our generation, didn’t have the best first season, because the show took some time figuring out plenty of things as it went on, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The same could be said for the American version of The Office – for the record, I still haven’t seen a single episode from that TV show, but I have seen the original one and from what I’ve heard, the “great” stuff doesn’t really come in until season 3, as that’s where the American one goes its own way. BTW I promise I’ll fix this, I know The Office is great, just there isn’t enough time, but bear with me. 😉

But let’s go back to this one – there are two things Brooklyn Nine-Nine truly differentiates itself from other comedy shows that are on right now, one is fairly obvious, and the other is not that obvious.

The first reason is the cast – which is obvious. You need people who have great chemistry together, mainly in a comedy genre, and this cast is spot on. You truly believe them that they care about each other, sometimes they drive each other crazy, but at the end of the day, they are there for each other. Plus, this TV show is the perfect example of what I was writing about in my Roxanne review – part of the reason this comedy show works so well, is because there should be only one truly funny character/comedian from our perspective – Jake. All people around him play it (semi)seriously, I’ve never got the feeling like some other actors would be “competing” with him, they all have a role to play, but all of them play them so well, that’s what makes them funny. You could argue the rest of the cast have the harder task of being “accidentally” funny, where they don’t realise that. And that’s what makes this show so great.

The other reason is the occasional serious episode – whether they are dealing with racial issues, LGBTQ+ issues etc. – they always nail those episodes, and that’s not a small feat. When you decide “Hey, let’s shift gears in this comedy show for a bit, and address <insert uncomfortable, yet pressing topic, that should definitely be discussed here> issue” you always are running a risk of either alienating some of your audience, or worse yet, not handling/addressing the issue properly and therefore falling on your face. Brooklyn Nine-Nine doesn’t do these episode regularly, I think you could probably count them on one reasonably healthy hand, but when they do them, it’s something that hits you, in the best possible way. I applaud their writing team for taking risks doing those episodes and nailing them.

What I also admire is the fact that the show continues being great after getting cancelled, and getting picked up by another station almost immediately, after their loyal fans have launched online campaign to save Brooklyn Nine-Nine (originally this show was produced by Fox, from season 6 it’s been produced by NBC) – there is always certain degree of worries – will the new station do everything “correctly” by the writers, will they give them the freedom/resources they need…? In this case, you almost couldn’t tell it’s been produced by a different TV station for the past two seasons (the only reason I’m saying almost is NBC shifted the airing calendar, so the show is not running over Halloween, where as the loyal fans know, is when the famous “Halloween Heists” are taking place, so they had to be creative about that, but so far, they’ve managed well) and that’s definitely a plus for a regular viewer like me.

The show has been renewed for season 8 so far, so all I can hope for is they will deliver yet another great season, and if they need to end it (and I think they should end it after season 9, because, well, see the title of this show is Brooklyn 99, so it would be… you know what, forget it..) I can only hope they will finish on a great note. This show would definitely deserve to end while it’s still on top of the game.

NINE-NINE!

That’s all for this one? Do you like Brooklyn Nine-Nine? What’s your favourite episode? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke