The Grinder: Grinding Away the Competition

After being disappointed last week by a show containing a couple of my favorite actors and actresses, I was really hoping that I wouldn't be let down by Rob Lowe's performance in The Grinder. Parks and Recreations is one of my favorite shows, and I would have been devastated if his performance in this new show was subpar. Thankfully, its 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes is well deserved, and the show is pleasantly humorous and well put together.

The show opens with Dean Sanderson Jr. (played by Rob Lowe) and his family gathered around a TV watching the season finale for a show called “The Grinder". What a coincidence, am I right? In this episode, it becomes apparent that Dean Sanderson Jr. is the star, playing a successful lawyer in the dramatic law show. With the show ending, Dean had returned home to his family in Idaho, and seems to be lost, not knowing what to do with himself. The season finale of “The Grinder" ends with Dean's character settling down and having a family which might be foreshadowing for what's to come. We also learn from this first scene that Dean is conceited and caught up in the character that he has played on “The Grinder" for the past nine years. Throughout the episode Dean mouths his lines and even tears up at his own performance.

After the finale concludes, Dean's family is in awe and a few of his family members are even in tears, congratulating Dean on a job well done. However, Dean's younger brother, Stewart (played by Fred Savage), is not impressed. He's even less thrilled when Dean decides to stay in Boise to work at the family's law firm, where he works as an actual lawyer.

We get to see Stewart in action at one of his cases and learn that he has severe stage fright and is a terrible speaker. He always reads from a stack of notecards at a super fast pace, and never makes eye contact with anyone in the courtroom. In an attempt to help Stewart's career, Dean steps in, using the knowledge he's gained from playing a lawyer on his TV show, and taking advantage of his large fan base. Once Dean gets involved, the otherwise unremarkable case between a landlord and his tenants becomes a media circus, and the rest is history.

I will definitely be watching more episodes of this show, and hope that the rest of the season is as good as the pilot episode. The Grinder is a fresh and interesting new twist on the typical comedy sitcom following a family. It also has a unique plotline with charming characters that you can't help but love.

According to the extremely wise Rob Lowe,

Credits to Tumblr

so don't miss out on this great show!

“Albert Krantz is not a menace to society... he's a menace to intelligence, because the man's an idiot." -Dean

P.S. If you guys have any shows you want me to watch next, feel free to leave a comment and let me know!

Angel from Hell: Not Heavenly Enough?

After watching the trailers, I was super excited for the pilot of this show, but its Rotten Tomatoes score of 41%, and IMDb rating of 6.5/10 weren't looking too promising. Despite these pretty low scores, I was still willing to give it a chance because let's be honest, who doesn't love Jane Lynch?

The episode opens in a farmer's market, where Amy (played by Jane Lynch) is performing street magic for passersby. Meanwhile, Allison (played by Maggie Lawson) is busy shopping for groceries for the house warming party she will be throwing to celebrate her boyfriend Evan (played by David Denham) moving in. After purchasing the radishes she'd been eyeing up, Allison grabs Evan's hand to leave when she accidentally bumps into Amy who had just bent down to pick up her hat filled with her day's earnings. An obviously original and never before used way to have two characters meet.

After both apologizing for being clumsy, Allison is shocked when Amy seems to know everything about her, including her name, profession, and the fact that her boyfriend Evan is unemployed. Thinking it was all a coincidence, Allison quickly leaves, thinking that she'd never see Amy again. But boy was she wrong. Amy shows up at Allison's coffee date with her brother and excitedly says “Dr. Allison! It's me, Amy, from the farmer's market. How random is this running into you?" After extensively and uncomfortably flirting with Allison's brother, Amy leaves and waits to confront Allison again outside of the coffee shop. At this point, Allison is thoroughly freaked out, and between swigs of some mystery beverage in a flask, Amy tells Allison that she's her guardian angel.

Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed by this episode. I had high expectations since I've always loved Jane Lynch, and I've had a soft spot for Maggie Lawson ever since I binge watched all eight seasons of Psych. Although all of the cast members did a great job acting, the writers were just not nailing it with the jokes, or lack there of. I only laughed a couple of times throughout the whole episode, and I didn't feel the warm, fuzzy feeling a good comedy show I usually get after watching a good comedy show.

Overall, this episode was very “meh". I think the concept is very unique and has potential, and plan on giving it another chance and watching a couple more episodes to see if the writers end up improving the comedic portion of the plot. However, I don't plan on getting too attached since articles have stated that this show hasn't been picked up for a second season.

Evan: “I was going to make you guess what my job was!"
Amy: “You're unemployed."
Evan: “Actually, I'm developing an app."
Amy: “Do you get paid for that?"
Evan: “Yeah, I'm talking to some investors." 
Amy: “Yeah, you're unemployed." 

Scream Queens: Horrifically Funny?

Don't be fooled by the scary title or the fact that the show is produced by the same guy who created American Horror Story! Scream Queens makes fun of anything and everything, from everyone's obsession with pumpkin spice lattes, to our generation's inability to be separated from our technology. It also pokes fun at stereotypical sorority girls, a topic that we as college students have heard about all too often.

The hour and a half pilot episode started with a flashback to 1995. A Kappa Kappa Tau pledge, who thought she'd been hiding nothing more than the Freshman 15 underneath her dress, gives birth in a bathtub upstairs, while a full out college party rages on downstairs. Her fellow sisters are disgusted as one asks, “Who told you you could have a baby here tonight?". They then decide that taking care of their friend would have to wait since dancing to their jam Waterfalls is obviously way more important. By the time that they return, they find their friend dead, in the bathtub.

The show then fast-fowards 20 years to 2015 when we're introduced to the present-day queen of Kappa Kappa Tau, Chanel Oberlin (played by Emma Roberts), and her minions Chanel No. 2 (played by Ariana Grande), Chanel No. 3 (played by Billie Lourd), and Chanel No. 5 (played by Abigail Breslin). Despite being the most exclusive sorority on campus, all is not well in the Kappa House. The new Dean, Dean Munsch (played by Jamie Lee Curtis), is convinced that Chanel was involved in an awful spray tan incident, which left the last Chanel burned and disfigured. To punish Chanel, Dean Munsch announces that any students that are interested can become a Kappa pledge.

Every villain has their superhero counterpart, and Grace (played by Skyler Samuels) is the Snow White to the Evil Queen, Chanel. Grace and her best friend Zayday (played by Keke Palmer), plan on rushing Kappa Kappa Tau together. However, Chanel can't stand the fact that anyone has the opportunity to pledge her precious sorority, and plans to fake a death in order to scare away all the pledges. Much to her surprise, her plan doesn't go as planned and things go terribly wrong.
Grace doesn't like what she's seen and decides to find out the truth about Chanel.

Although the plot line makes the show seem like purely a horror show, the pure stupidity of the characters, and awesome one liners made it the perfect mix of mildy scary horror and comedy. The Chanels fill every aspect of the "typical sorority girl". Despite the length of the episode, I was never bored. The casting was also very well done and I had multiple “Ohmygosh! What other show do I know this actor/actress from?" moments. It was also great seeing singers such as Ariana Grande and Nick Jonas branch out into acting during this episode. If you're looking for a unique comedy show, this is the show for you!

Chanel Oberlin: “She's dead."
Grace: “Well of course she's dead, you just burned her face off!"
Chanel Oberlin: “Shut up! You don't die from getting your face burned off."