Childrens Hospital - Season 3

I feel like this year, Childrens Hospital really cemented itself as the best show on Adult Swim that isn't The Venture Bros. Maybe not the highest praise with some of the channel's best stuff no longer airing,but that doesn't mean Hospital isn't itself great. Television comedy is doing extremely well in general right now, but Hospital definitely holds its own against some of the better known shows that have the privilege of airing before midnight. The entire cast is great, the writing is sharp and unafraid to go anywhere, and they seem to be able to draw from a bottomless well of ideas, sending up medical dramas, the business of television, and pop culture in general. There seems to be nothing they won't try.

Plenty of episodes that would be wacky digressions on almost any other show feel pretty standard on Childrens. Kids being trapped in quicksand, a doctor's former police partner being trapped in a blocked off ward with insane patients, an episode all about a creepy, possibly nuts ambulance driver, all just seem like another day at the office for the staff. I loved the return to the news show that went over the history of the show last year and explores all of the cast members' various spinoffs, and stuff like the Our Town parody and the brief Party Down reunion was great as well. The latter is a good example of the show's fantastic casting, which can get pretty much everybody you've seen in alt comedy, and even guys like Jon Hamm, to show up and do something silly for a few minutes. Every episode is unique, and though they're only about 11 minutes long, most of them have more fresh gags than most episodes of sitcoms that are double the length. Season four is coming, and the wait won't be that bad with the way the show has caused an influx of solid comedies parodying various genres of hacky television.

Childrens' Hospital - Season 2

I enjoyed the first season of this show, which crammed the ten original web episodes into five fifteen minute segments. But when they started actually making it for TV, it really came into its own. Malin Akerman and Henry Winkler are fine additions to the main cast, gelling well with the rest of the cast and the show's surreal sense of humor. Things like the six year old with advanced aging disease and a doctor discovering a cure for cancer in butterfly fluids are fun even when they aren't entirely clever, and luckily it is often pretty darn smart. It's a show that doesn't bother terribly with character development, and it really shouldn't, as it's the most fun when everyone's just bouncing off each other and the jokes are flying every five seconds. The guest actors are a lot of fun too, with Michael Cera returning to read the dispatches and the imminently recognizable Kurtwood Smith as the representative of a government agency that wants the cancer cure stopped at all costs.

Although it's not the most inspired subject matter, the show is actually often at its best when it acknowledges that it's a TV show, like the episode that's a cast reunion after the long running series is canceled and especially the completely amazing "live" season finale. It's funny that it aired so soon after 30 Rock's terrible live episode, but it's really a send up of all silly TV stunts, as everything that can go disastrously wrong does. Cameras get broken, actors quit or injure themselves in the middle of filming, and crew keep accidentally getting caught on screen. It's mostly a single take of absolute madcap brilliance, and just the epitome of what this show can do when it's on its game. It's a bit too silly and niche to be a comedy on a real network, but it embraces that and fits perfectly with the Adult Swim lineup despite the relative high profile of its cast. Season three is coming, and it should be fun.

Childrens' Hospital - Season 1

This is a bit of a unique situation, as Childrens' Hospital was originally created as a short web series before Adult Swim picked it up as a show for their late night lineup. So "season one" is the ten original episodes packaged together in pairs, with a bit of new content, a "commercial" between the two parodying overly dramatic shows like NCIS and humorous wrap ups by creator and star Rob Corddry. They'll begin airing brand new episodes in two weeks, and based on just what I've already seen, they're probably gonna be pretty damn funny. Childrens' Hospital is a parody of overwrought medical shows like Grey's Anatomy, with all of the doctors constantly getting together, breaking up, and basically doing everything except pay attention to their patients. Unless they want to sleep with them. Even if they're six year olds in the bodies of adults thanks to advanced aging disease. Yeah, it's that kind of show. A few of the jokes don't hit, but enough do that it's a pretty enjoyable, wacky watch. There are bit parts by some pretty good comedy actors like Nick Offerman and Ed Helms, and while I don't really know any of the regulars besides Corddry and Megan Mullally, they all do a solid job. I'm not sure how much the switch to writing for television will change it, but I suspect not much.

Hot Tub Time Machine

You've probably seen a movie like Hot Tub Time Machine before. A comedy that you like the actors in, and has a funny concept, and is actually pretty humorous, but you still feel a little let down by. It's not a bad movie at all - I'd call it pretty good. But I kind of wish it was more. This is a movie about a group of guys who find a hot tub that can travel back in time... and they spend the whole thing stuck in the 80s. A common complaint with comedies is that all the funny parts are in the trailer, and while that's not really true here, I'd like to make a variation on the idea. There are plenty of laughs that are not in the trailer, but all the laughs that are in the trailer are represented in full. What might have been teases for great scenes, like the one with Craig Robinson reluctantly having sex in the bath, are pretty much exactly as they appeared, with nothing extra you didn't know about. It leads to a movie that's funny but not really ever unexpected.

It's obvious after a point that it's really a send up of 80s movies rather than time travel. A few stars of those films appear, like Chevy Chase as the mysterious hot tub repairman and Crispin Glover as a bellhop who's always close to losing an arm. And it's really a typical 80s comedy in a lot of ways, with characters like Lizzy Caplan's Deschanel-esque quirky perfect girl and Sebastian Stan's douche bag alpha male. There's a lot of gross-out bodily function stuff that doesn't really play anymore and of course a Communist paranoia thread that helps lead to the main conflict keeping the good guys from getting back to the present. All of the main guys are pretty good, and the supporting cast is mostly decent even if some of them didn't really sell the 80s so much as someone's vague memories of the 80s. Rob Corddry is the main comedic catalyst, though honestly it seems like he's trying too hard in an attempt at a broader audience. I liked the movie, I just wish it was better. And after hearing about the whole color correction issue, it was impossible not to notice. If you don't know what I'm talking about, google "teal and orange". Lots of movies are limiting themselves to this palette, and it really doesn't work in a movie that's supposed to represent the 80s. It just looks really weird in spots. Even the DVD box art can't escape the madness.

Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay

The first Harold & Kumar movie looked like another idiotic stoner comedy to me, but for some reason I ended up liking it quite a bit. I'm not sure what it is. It has a lot of the same dumb poop humor and pointless nudity. There's just something about the innocent honesty of the main characters, both intelligent but put upon by those around them because of their race, both high as hell and just wanting some delicious burgers and fries. The sequel continues at pretty much the instant the original left off, and starts with them having the goal of reaching Amsterdam so Harold can pursue the hot girl in his building he knows from the elevator. Obviously from the title though, they get diverted from their quest. Thanks to an incompetent government investigation run by a funny but completely hateable Rob Corddry, Harold and Kumar are believed to be terrorists and journey through the south to get their names cleared by Kumar's ex-girlfriend's fiancé. I'm sure that little detail won't come into the story too much! Woahhh!

Anyway, like the first film, the main characters do what it takes to get to their destination, running into all sorts of people, some who wish them harm, and some who just want to share a joint with them. There's a fair amount of insensitive humor, poking fun at both the south and a lot of racial issues. As with the first movie, some of the better moments come when the pair encounter a highly fictionalized, womanizing, drugged-out version of Neil Patrick Harris played by Neil Patrick Harris, and oh what adventures they have. There's also a scene where the two encounter a certain now-former US President, which I couldn't decide if I actually liked or not. Anyway, the movie eventually ends in a fairly contrived yet enjoyable way. There's apparently a third film on the way, though I'm not sure how that's going to work out with Kal Penn's current job in the Obama administration. In any case, Escape, was a dumb movie that like the original still managed to be endearing.

Blades of Glory

Yes, Blades of Glory is a stupid movie. A very stupid one. But the cast is very talented at making people laugh, and the result is an enjoyable comedy. Will Ferrell is the obvious star, and he's in fine form. After showing he can act in real movies, he still hasn't lost the ability to create a character with his own quirks that is still part of his persona. He has plenty of great one-liners, although many were blown in the trailers. Some of the best stuff in the movie is his character, Chazz' sex addiction and his many tattoos representing trysts with famous skaters. Jon Heder, who shall forever be saddled with the memory of playing the titular protagonist of Napoleon Dynamite, didn't get much screen time in commercials, but he was actually pretty entertaining as the more grounded half of the main duo.

The movie has a lot of great people in smaller parts, all famous for their television work. SNL's Amy Poehler and Arrested Development's Will Arnett as the evil/creepy sibling skate team, The Office's Jenna Fischer as their docile sister, The Daily Show's Rob Corddry as the manager of a children's ice show. There's also a lot of cameos from famous skaters that help create a fun atmosphere. There's obviously nothing that special about the plot, there are lots of traditional plot devices and crap thrown in to justify it as a movie and not just a string of figure skating jokes. It's not great, but it works, and it all flies by pretty quickly. It seems like Ferrell's trying to make a character/movie for every celebrity profession, from news anchoring to NASCAR driving and now to pro skating. It usually works, and I don't mind having simple, fun movies like this.