akratic

The comedy of it, to the extent it even is a comedy, exists in moments of discomfort. That makes White sound like a British comedian, but he’s more full-hearted than someone like, say, Ricky Gervais. White’s style suggests a cynic who is not sure he should be a cynic, but also an idealist who doesn’t know he’s an idealist. In other words, there’s always this tension in the heart of what he’s doing, something that is not so much self-doubt as it is self-questioning.

“

—

Everybody Should Be Watching HBO’s ‘Enlightened’ by Michelle Dean

Admission: I was slow to really love Enlightened. I liked it from the pilot, watched it week-to-week, and occasionally allowed Laura Dern to suckerpunch me with overwhelming feelings but it took until the season one finale for me to realize how much I truly loved it and this weird world and fucked up character and everything in between. Anyway, there’s been a lot of great, great writing about Enlightened all over the internet recently which makes me happy but I especially want to highlight this one because Mike White’s work is so good and there’s this strange quietness and importance to it, even way back in his Freaks & Geeks episodes, and I’m so glad he got a second season.

(via synecdoche)

michaelpalin:

S01E02 - Be A Pal
S02E01 - Job Switching

thenotes:

To date, the most important moment in Series Four of The Thick of It.

Some of my favorite episodes of MAD MEN.

petetoms:

- Don Draper has to compete against his shadow self in the ad olympics while an old flame (played by a wig that’s on fire) sits on the judge’s committee.

- People in the office start wearing cold cuts on their face. Can there ever be peace between the Clean Chins and the Meatbeards?

- A kangaroo kidnaps a few of the Mads and hides them in her pouch, but that kangaroo isn’t evil, she’s just lonely.

- There’s something sticky on the phone so no one wants to answer it.

- Don realizes he can actually wear 20 rings if he just puts one on top of the other. Can he make that 40? (2 part episode)

- Don’s dog, Dog Draper, begins working for a rival firm (the CIA).

- Roger bets everyone that he can eat an entire gravel driveway. He eats one piece at a time, every 2 weeks. How long will it take him?

- The Mads think there might be a dolphin locked in a file cabinet, but everyone is too scared to open it.

- Accidentally breaking a vase leads Joan to discover that all the objects in her apartment are actually made of hair.

- Pete begins purchasing everyone’s reflection leading to a shake-up at the firm.

- Joan becomes convinced she ate a ghost while she was asleep.

- Every piece of dialog is just the word ‘porcelain.’

“The Mads”

inky:

nostrich:

Bold statement: Fawlty Towers is the funniest television show ever written. And Basil Fawlty is one of the best characters ever written. I like to think of him as a proto-Malcolm Tucker: always angry, constantly and seemingly effortlessly sniping at staff and guests, with insults at least as witty as Iannucci’s.

Every word and every line is delivered just so (Cleese was such a perfectionist that some episodes took months to finish). It’s really quite a treat to watch. I was going to embed a different clip, but I stumbled on this supercut of “Basil-isms” as I was writing this that illustrates him quite perfectly.

I beg of you, watch every episode of this perfect television show. It won’t take long. They only made 12 episodes, which is a crime far greater than the early retirement of Arrested Development.

Bold statement of truth.

This idea that the hillbilly’s poverty is a choice allows more upscale Americans to feel comfortable while laughing at the antics before them.

“

—

What “Honey Boo Boo” really says about American culture - Slate (via nickdouglas)

I read this whole article and it felt like a classic example of how Northerners can never quite understand the Southern spirit. They always focus on things they consider to be “embarrassing” or go really deep on sociological theory and don’t see the happiness and love right in front of their face. Not that there isn’t a big heap of problems with Southern culture (THERE DEFINITELY IS), but there’s a lot of good there too, and you can’t appreciate it if you rely strictly on your rational mind. I’d recommend watching Searching For The Wrong-Eyed Jesus to maybe get a better understanding.

(via dalasverdugo)

peopleintheaudienceonseinfeld:

A couple discusses how funny Jerry is.

202. The Pony Remark

maxistentialist:

Ron Howard:

Arrested Development for Netflix. IT’S ALIVE. This is what the writer’s room looks like.

The second maxim that I can give you, the thing that I always try to communicate to an aspiring writer, is that no one can teach you anything that you don’t already know, and each of you has, in your heart, the capacity, when encouraged by a benign organizing presence, to identify the deepest truths of the human story.

“

—	David Milch