Day Two Hundred and Thirty-three - Robot Chicken: Season 1, Episode 4, "A Behind the Music sketch with The Muppets? Sign me up! Again!"

Alright, I consider doing an episode of Robot Chicken for Couchbound to be almost as close to cheating as Pucca was, due to both of them having really short episodes, but at least Robot Chicken has actual content!

Produced by Seth Green and Matthew Senreich and featuring Emmy-winning stop-motion animation using, I kid you not, old action figures and toys, Robot Chicken is about as close to frat humor that geek society can get as a subculture.

Featuring quick cut, ADHD jokes that last as long as it takes to "change the channel" on the show, this particular episode features several bits with Ryan Seacrest (of American Idol fame) throwing out his trademark outro in several different contexts (my favorite being his revealing dress fetish), as well as a feature on the fall of Muppets house band The Electric Mayhem, an Armageddon parody featuring Harrison Ford (who is impersonated), and an improbable extreme pet sport.

On the whole, Robot Chicken is more crude than insightful, but manages to present lowbrow humor with enough geeky references and celebrity guest stars (not to mention impersonators) to keep things fresh and relatively funny. While it's sometimes a bit too obvious and on the nose, the writing waffling between puerile and clever, even the fart jokes manage to bring at least a smile.

While each episode is an exercise in hit or miss skits, it's hard not to find genius in this particular episode's Muppet sketch. Seeing Doctor Teeth, Floyd, Animal, and Janice (Zoot isn't really featured save as an aside about getting arrested) fall from grace is nothing short of brilliant... especially when Janice talks about getting Hep C from Tommy Lee with Howard Stern. That harsh, "F#$% you, Howard, I'm dah-ying!" is bloody hilarious!

Sure, the animal ski slalom is meh and the Armageddon sketch is more than a tad predictable, most everything else in the episode makes up for it and really evens out the show's rough spots.

I think that I only have two complaints, really.

First, the show is only ten minutes long... not that it would be much of a problem, as it's best in short spurts anyway, it's just that Netflix has that annoying "Are you still watching?" popup that triggers every two episodes. It gets to be a hassle, seeing that thing after only twenty minutes.

Second, like the rest of the Cartoon Network/Adult Swim shows currently running on the Stream, it only has the first season. I mean, really? These shows have been on for years, even well over a decade for some (like Dexter's Lab and Samurai Jack)... and have long since completed their runs for the most part (Robot Chicken is still slowly plugging away, last time I checked). Would it kill Williams Street, et al., to let all the seasons onto the Stream?

Overall, I don't think that Robot Chicken is for everyone. It's geeky, juvenile humor that probably only hits with the Gen Xers and Millennial set. That said, it's a fun ride full of dark humor.

Until tomorrow, Potatoes~

Day Two Hundred and Nineteen - Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Season 1, Episode 2, "That was a bit, um, British, wasn't it?"

When last we saw Buffy, back in the middle of June, she was about to be bitten by Luke (Brian Thompson) and thus end the series on the very first episode: Heroine slain, Evil triumphant, and the World destroyed.

Of course, that didn't happen... the cliffhanger carrying over immediately into the second episode where, luckily, Luke tries to cop a feel (I mean, it's Sarah Michelle Gellar... who wouldn't?) and grabs a handful of demon-burning crucifix. The same crucifix given to her by the startlingly young looking Angel (David Boreanaz).

Anyway, life spared, she and two of the potential Scoobies manage to get away and live to Slay another day.

I love how entirely silly the vampires' plans both to trap Buffy and initiate the Harvest are. It kind of is just like they're in an episode of Scooby Doo and that's really the charm of it all.

Sure, if you want to get real (and forget all the vampires and mystical nya-nya), an evil organization that has been in existence for hundreds of years probably would've planned better than, "let's plant our least experienced member in her group and have him fumble around" or "let's go to the one place in town teenagers (which our mortal enemy is) hang out and start a massacre."

I mean, honestly... Luke should've just gone to a nursing home or something. Tons of docile fleshbags just waiting to kick it. No direct connection to the Slayer and her Scoobies. Easy, simple.

But, that's melodrama for you, and it's hilariously bad and awesome at the same time!

I love Buffy for so many reasons: its camp horror, its archetypal characters, its 90's wit and sarcasm. I even love how dated all the technology is... I mean, just look at the computers that Harmony and Cordelia are "programming" on in the second act.

High-larious!

Sure, a few of the trappings don't hold up, but the series as a whole is still brilliantly silly fun. There's a reason that Joss Whedon is a geek god and I can easily recommend the series... you just have to look at it with an open mind and childlike (or, at least, a teenager's) whimsey.

Also, even wings-over-my-hammy Angel is better than Edward-freaking-Cullen.

Until tomorrow, Potatoes~

Day One Hundred and Seventy-four - Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Season 1, Episode 1, "Oh, Sunnydale... how I've missed you."

It's an almost inevitable constant of every television (or, perhaps, any media) generation that there are shows which encompass the zeitgeist of what it is to be a teen.

In the 80's, the argument could be made in favor of Family Ties, Growing Pains, Family Matters. For the 90's, you would almost certainly throw 90210, Dawson's Creek, and Saved By The Bell into the arena. For the Millenium, you'd be hard pressed to argue against The O.C., Gilmore Girls, and Friday Night Lights.

My favorite started in '97 and carried through seven seasons and a network switch, spawning a spinoff and continuing off the air in the form of Season 8 and 9 comic book series.

Of course, you know already that I'm referring to Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Buffy came out at the perfect time in my life as I was the exact same age as all the characters involved. It mixed elements of horror, scifi, and teen dramedy... what could be more perfect for an ubergeek like myself?

This particular episode started it all (on television anyway)... picking up where Kristy Swanson left off with the movie, Buffy (now played by Sarah Michelle Gellar) is starting her sophomore year in a new town hoping to divest herself of her Slayer identity and reboot her life.

Unfortunately for her intentions, Destiny has other ideas and has lured her to The Hellmouth, Sunnydale's ancient name, where all the various big bads and evils of the world tend to gravitate.

In the first episode we're introduced to the majority of those who would become the Scooby Gang: Xander, Willow, Giles, and an oftentimes reluctant Cordelia. They're all staple archetypes that include the stuffy librarian, the shy brain, the goofy sidekick, and the scene girl. We're also treated to brief scenes with her first love interest, the brooding Angel (David Boreanaz of BONES fame), and her first season long mortal enemy, The Master, who is trapped beneath the city in a ruined church, straining to escape and wreak havoc on the world.

The episode (and the series, as a whole) is a mashup of your prototypical teen drama and the supernatural horror films it loves to emulate. Both of its constituent genres are often fraught with cheesiness and there's no difference here. If anything, they're both amped to extreme levels, the vampire makeup and fight scenes eliciting, at the very least, serious eyerolls to newcomers.

That said, I love every second of said cheese.

It's just so over the top that is bounces right off terrible and firmly in the land of completely entertaining. The bad lines, the awkward social interactions, the silly villains... mixed together as they are, they make all the terrible elements into a relatively thrilling teen dramedy that's much more compelling than anything the networks were throwing at us before, during, and pretty much since.

I highly doubt my seventeen year old self would look anything but askance at today's Vampire Diaries which, thanks to the Twi-hard crowd, is all doom and gloom and none of the glib that made Buffy so great. And my thirty-two year old self can still safely enjoy the uber-cheese from the distance of well over a decade, cringing only here and there at obviously dated fashions, catch-phrases, and pick up lines.

Fair warning, this first episode is a two-parter, ending on a "to be continued" moment as the mid-boss of the pilot, The Master's right hand vamp Luke (Brian Thompson), closes in for the kill (you know he'll get dusted and Buffy will prevail)... but I certainly recommend a series watch.

While the cheese remains the same, the characters developed startlingly well over the arc of the series, shifting from uncertain teens to dedicated adults who suffer loss, love daringly, and find their passions... even if a lot of said passion is kicking evil's butt!

Until tomorrow, Potatoes~