Long Story Short is a Netflix adult animated comedy-drama created by Raphael Bob-Waksberg, his first new animated series since the acclaimed BoJack Horseman. Trading Hollywood satire for something more intimate, the show is a warm, melancholy, and very funny portrait of a single family told across the sweep of its members' entire lives.
The series follows the Schwooper family, jumping freely and non-chronologically through the decades, from childhood and adolescence to marriage, parenthood, and old age, so that a character might be a squabbling kid in one scene and a weary adult in the next. This restless time-hopping structure lets the show explore how families carry their history with them, how old wounds and inside jokes echo across generations, and how small moments accumulate into a life. Its voice cast includes Abbi Jacobson, Ben Feldman, Lisa Edelstein, Paul Reiser, and Nicole Byer.
Rooted in Bob-Waksberg's own Jewish American upbringing, Long Story Short earned strong reviews for balancing sharp comedy with genuine emotional depth, the same alchemy that made his previous work resonate. It is streaming on Netflix.
A comedy based a book with the lengthy title like House of Lies: How Managements Consultants Will Steal Your Watch And Then Tell The Time exemplifies how well some management consultants can "pull the wool" over the eyes of businesses who hire them. Created by Matthew Carnahan (writer producer of Dirt, The Fugitive) House of Lies is a biting satire with devilishly good characters that are fun to watch each week if only to see who they will "screw" next! With a stellar cast including Don Cheadle (Ocean's Eleven, Traffic) as Marty Kaan a cutthroat and highly successful consultant that goes to any lengths to help his clients, Dawn Olivieri (Takedown, Drop Dead Gorgeous) as Marty's pill popping nutty ex-wife Monica, Ben Schwartz (Everybody's Fine, The Other Guys) is Clyde Oberholt a member of Marty's team of consultants. Also starring are Kristen Bell as Jeannie Van Der Hooven, another consultant and Richard Shiff as Marty's boss. Plenty of crazy antics as the "team" go about getting information for their clients by any means possible.
With much humor derived from some cast members of Saturday Night Live and with approval from Lorne Michaels himself, Portlandia was born. The name Portlandia refers to a sculpture with that title found over the entrance doors of the Portland Building which is situated in downtown Portland on Fifth Avenue. The show has the fast paced comedy touch that SNL is well noted for and cast members Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein help keep it moving along. With Lorne Michaels as executive producer and creative writing from Fred Armisen, Jonathan Krisel, and Carrie Brownstein the show appears to have a bright future. We see how popular restaurants along the famous Hawthorne District in Portland handle irate dinner guests when they leave rather nasty reviews on a website titled Yelp! Another episode finds how badly a one man performance can actually be at the Hollywood Theatre, a local historic building in northeast Portland. If it happens in or around Portland it might end up on the show in some fashion, most likely comedic in tone. Portlandia currently runs on the IFC (Independent Film Channel).
Remember Tim "the tool man" Taylor from Home Improvement? Well he's back, sort of. The character Allen plays in Last Man Standing is named Mike Baxter and is practically identical to Tim Taylor in many ways. To make him entirely different would most likely be impossible due to Tim Allen's strong personality and likeability. And while the Taylor character had a wife named Jill (Patricia Richardson) and three sons, Baxter has daughters and a wife (Nancy Travis). Family matters most as it should, especially in the sit-com environment. Mike Baxter also has a "manly" job. He works at an outdoorsy sporting goods store where men buy tents, guns, and fishing gear. Mike used to handle the store's catalog but they seem to be extinct ever since internet sales became so popular. Now his duty is in making promo videos that go up on their web site. Just as with Home Improvement the quality and appeal of Last Man Standing is in the sharp writing and the high quality of the actors involved. Mike Baxter knows far well he's outnumbered with females in his household so turns to his boss (Héctor Elizondo) and friends for some comic relief.
Sketches are a comics best format for television and Nick Swardson has a show that's loaded with them. Each episode displays some sort of rank and raunchy humorous ingredients that will make 7th graders giggle and adults cover their heads. But along the way some of it is actually funny even if rather dark. Skits about cats in wheelchairs, snipers who masturbate, and incestual dreams involving the Nightmare on Elm Street movies are unusual fare for family television nights and when the show's main character sits and tells us about what we are about to see we begin to wonder what world this is. Nick's dead cat, Fitzgerald, is fair game for another episode as are a fatherly bucket list for a dying son, urine powered cars, and even a Gay Robot. Never one to be short on "off the wall" ideas, Nick Swardson's Pretend Time will give viewers a peek into a rather weird place, the mind of Swardson. Imagine, if you will, recovering a time capsule full of sex objects, or following Gay Robot as he buys airplane tickets to visit the alien probe site (area 51 come to mind?), or maybe learn how a forest ranger steps in to break up intimate moments between homosexuals. All this and more can be found on the Nick Swardson's Pretend Time show.
Remember high school and those mean girls who seemed to love tormenting someone who was shy or just didn't quite fit in? Those who took every advantage and used it to pester or torment others who just wanted to be left alone? They were and still remain bullies and mean people. Parents of daughters who now are targeted by a bully at school are trying to help by "toughening" up their daughters or even stepping in to protect them. Mothers of a bully are also finding they need to help. They need to find out why their girls do such mean things and how they came to be such mean people. When Annie Watson (played by Jaime Pressly from My Name Is Earl) notices her daughter Sophie is mocking her and constantly trying to embarrass her own mother, she knows it may be her own fault because she always allowed her daughter to do pretty much whatever she chose. Nikki Miller (played by Katie Finneral from Sex In The City) grew up being fat and unpopular now sees her daughter as the type who used to tease her back in high school. The fathers aren't much help with daughters who bully so it's up to the moms to teach these manipulative young women how to "play nice" and grow up as decent people.
Enlightened brings the very talented Laura Dern to television as Amy Jellicoe, an executive who has found her job and her life to be too much to bear. When she suffers from a breakdown which just happens to be a very public embarrassing situation for her, she finds she must attempt to put her life back together by going through rehabilitation. Watch for Diane Ladd who plays Amy's mother, Helen Jellicoe (she is Dern's real life mother). Amy spends three months in Hawaii where she undergoes therapy to help with her problems, then returns home to face reality and the group of co-workers she embarrassed herself by breaking down in front of, living with her mother who is never short on unwelcome advice, and a lazy ex-husband (Luke Wilson) who enjoys his "recreational" drugs too much. Laura Dern is known for her roles in Jurassic Park, Rambling Rose, & Wild At Heart. Actress Diane Ladd has starred in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Primary Colors, & Wild At Heart. She and actor Bruce Dern are Laura's parents. Luke Wilson has been seen in 3:10 To Yuma, Blades of Glory, & Death at a Funeral; and he is brother of Owen Wilson.
The sit-com opens up with three men, each in their own home, playing online video games and discussing their life goals. Sandwiched in between a new hit comedy starring Tim Allen "Last Man Standing" and the elimination night for "Dancing with the Stars", how can this new one lose? ABC has long had a strong line up on Tuesday evenings, particularly in the area of the situation comedy genre. Starring Dan Fogler (Mars Needs Moms, Take Me Home Tonight), playing Kenny Hayden who sees his ex-wife out with a much better looking man. Kenny's ex is played by Amanda Detmer (Necessary Roughness, The Vampire Diaries). She got fed up with being married to a child who could not, or would not grow up. Christopher Moynihan (House, M.D., Psyche) is Craig Griffith, the sensitive yet manly type who still carries a flame for his ex from the college years. And Will Keen is played by Mather Zickel from TV shows Dislocated and The Cape. Will's wife Theresa, ably played by Teri Polo (Medium, Monk) is gorgeous and makes Will constantly wonder why she married him. Satisfying comedy that perhaps needs some time to find its purpose.
