Salon.com > Happy Endings

Channel surfing: “Scandal” gets all “ZDT” and “American Horror Story” flips the best bird

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 18:11:00 +0000

My observations of the past week of TV that are too short to stand on their own and too long to keep to myself.

1. It’s often weird how all the shows that air on a specific night seem to be in conversation, as if the writers of every show that broadcasts on Thursday had a secret conversation about making "Treme" jokes all at once. This past Tuesday was identity politics nights over on “New Girl,” “The Mindy Project,” and “Happy Endings”: Schmidt tried to get Winston to share his “blackness” with his housemates, Mindy’s Indian little brother flirted with quitting Stanford to be a rapper, and on “Happy Endings” Max went on a quest to find his particular gay subculture. “New Girl” and “Happy Endings” did a nice — by which I mean funny — job with both of those stories. (Schmidt’s pronunciation of “crack kuh-caine” was wonderful; Winston as the straight-but-not-boring man, finally, really worked; and “Happy Endings'” creation of “optimistic red velvet walruses” was so sweet and funny, I will ignore the fact that Max is pretty much just a bear.) But I found the rapping on “The Mindy Project” to be so distracting I can barely tell if that story line worked. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t good. Was it supposed to be good? If it wasn't supposed to be good, why did we see so much of it? If it was bad, why didn't the show say so? The rapping was kind of like the character of Mindy herself: The show doesn’t know yet whether it wants you to like her or dislike-her-while-thinking-she’s-funny and it keeps trying to have it both ways.

Channel surfing: “Happy Endings” battles helmet hair, “Glee” celebrates Hanukkah

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 17:20:00 +0000

Observations about the past week of TV that are too short to stand on their own and too long to keep to myself.

1. Great moments in product placement ("great" moments): On “Parenthood,” cancer-stricken Kristina (Monica Potter) recorded a video for her children so the "Parenthood" audience could cry more. Her husband, Adam, watched said video on his Mac, which got major pride of place. A crowded Apple dock was visible for most of it and Adam very notably used the volume button as he settled in to watch. Macs, with volume functionality! Also the perfect computer to use when assembling your “If I die, know that I loved you” speech!

2. For a change this week, "Modern Family" decided to put the shrewish, dream-crushing shoe on Phil, not Claire Dunphy. Claire wanted to buy a house to flip it, Phil thought it was too risky, but didn't want to be the one to say no, and had to go through all sorts of contortions to play the part Claire usually plays. It was a nice role reversal — Oh, look, Phil can be an adult sometimes! — and one that suggests "Modern Family" doesn't always have to make Claire the shrew to structurally work.

The year TV broke out in song

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 20:00:00 +0000

“Nashville” finished up the first part of its season last night with Juliette Barnes dominating a church, Gunnar and Scarlett selling a song, and Rayna Jaymes hesitating to go on tour with her younger rival. (Do it already!) In just eight episodes, “Nashville” has delivered some of the best musical moments on scripted TV this year. So on the occasion of its winter recess — and, also on the occasion of "Suburgatory's" homage to Rebecca Black last night — here is some of the year’s best singing and dancing, from “Mad Men's" "Zou Bisou Bisou” scene to "Happy Endings," with Adam Pally wearing a giant crucifix earring, and of course, because it's a show about a Broadway musical, we have to include a little number from that crazy show called "Smash."

From “Nashville”

“Nashville” has been full of great music, but it’s the duets that have been mesmerizing, more effectively distilling and tracking the characters’ changing emotions than any dialogue. The three best: the first episode’s “If I Didn’t Know Better,” which presaged the inevitable Gunnar-Scarlett puppy-dog love story; the Deacon-Rayna duet “No One Will Ever Love You,” a bit of singing that’s emotionally tantamount to adultery; and Rayna and Juliette’s how-could-I-really-hate-you-when-singing-with-you-is-so-much-fun peace treaty, “Wrong Song.”

Adam Pally: Why would we make comedy for your parents?

Sun, 25 Nov 2012 20:00:00 +0000

On ABC's "Happy Endings," a sitcom about the lives of six unusually close friends, Adam Pally plays Max, a boorish, bro-ish, hilarious dude who just happens to be gay. On a recent episode, Max tricked his best friend Penny (Casey Wilson) into keep her full-upper-body cast on for an extra week so he could continue sleeping with her very attractive masseuse. Casey forgave Max at the end of the episode after she remembered she had once done the exact same thing.

This story line encapsulates the "Happy Endings" vibe: six ludicrous, oddball, often amoral pals behave badly while loving each other unconditionally.

Pally spoke with me about the series, his love of Mandy Patinkin, his lack of interest in likability, and why he doesn't care if your parents think "Happy Endings" is funny.

Do you feel like Max, and the other characters, have gotten a little meaner than they were before?

“Happy Endings”: The best worst friends on TV

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 16:14:00 +0000

The wacky, cutting, pop-culture quipping “Happy Endings,” a high-energy sitcom about six devoted Chicago-based friends who spend all their time together, returns for its third season tonight on ABC. As established by “Friends,” the key aspect to any show about a group of pals is how enjoyable it is to be their friend, too, the person who sits invisibly in the corner, laughing at their jokes, enjoying their generation-specific references, reveling in their company. You like your real buddies even when they make bad jokes, and when a “Friends”-style show is working, its characters get the same pass. Every single person on “Happy Endings,” including the ever-bland Dave, gets such a pass from me, even though they're are all kind of jerks — lovable, appealing, watchable jerks.

“Will & Grace” changed nothing

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 00:10:00 +0000

The strange thing about all the “progress” we’re always hearing about when it comes to gay and lesbian characters on TV? Nothing ever seems to change.

Take the latest dubious example, the new CBS sitcom “Partners,” which premiered last week to deservedly tepid ratings and mostly negative reviews. The giveaway is right there in the tag line: “From the Emmy-winning creators of ‘Will & Grace.’” The series follows gay Louis (Michael Urie) and straight Joe (David Krumholtz), lifelong buds and business partners, whose platonic intimacy is forever getting in the way of their romantic relationships. It’s “Will & Grace” with a gender reassignment — an attempt by creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick to explore what it might mean, in our post-metrosexual era, for two men to find emotional sustenance from a person of the opposite sexual orientation.