Musings: Funny TV edition

Season Premiere:

"It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia" (Thursdays: 10:00 on FX)

• Back for a seventh season, it astounds me that this series consistently finds fresh ways to illustrate how morally bankrupt these characters are. This episode ("Frank's Pretty Woman") isn’t a classic, but it’s pretty damn hilarious.
• Fat Mac! Most of the pre-premiere buzz surrounded Rob McElhenney’s intentional 50 pound weight gain for hilarity’s sake. It’s true. He’s fat and it does make Mac a slightly funnier character, if only because it means he’s going to wear more Tommy Bahama shirts.
• Frank’s crack-addicted love interest/prostitute, Roxy (Alanna Ubach), is a scene stealer. It’s a real shame she (probably) won’t be back.
•  Dee and Roxy’s semi-reenactment of the boutique scene from “Pretty Woman” had me rolling. Ditto on diabetic Fat Mac and anemic, anorexic Dennis arguing over who’s healthier.
• Everybody in this cast shines, but Danny DeVito and Charlie Day will always be this show’s MVPs in my book. They’re wonderful on their own, but put them in scenes together and it’s like magic. Any episode that pairs those two on an adventure will always be worth your time. What other actors can make splitting a box of discarded jeans they found under a bridge sound like a sincere act of friendship?
•  Hoss Bonaventura immediately goes right to the top of my possible Halloween costumes list.
• Best moment: Charlie vomiting torrents of fake blood on his date, all while in denim-clad, twangtastic character as bridge tycoon Hoss, made me laugh harder than I had in a long time. His subsequent explanation of how swallowing blood “capulets” can make you sick one-upped the puking.

Series Premiere:

"Up All Night" (Wednesdays: 9:30 PM on NBC) 

• If there’s anything we could use less of, it’s domestic sitcoms. We get it. Men and women are different. Kids make everything wackier. Eccentric supporting characters may pop up from time to time to make life difficult. "Up All Night" mines very familiar territory, but it could turn into a good show.
• Christina Applegate and Will Arnett have good chemistry as a formerly hard-partying couple transformed into a working mom and stay at home dad respectively. They felt natural together and that goes a long way towards making these types of shows work.
• The writing in the pilot was not particularly sharp, but it wasn’t woefully unfunny. It did what it needed to do as far as establishing these characters and their situation. 
• Arnett is brilliant, but he’s got a terrible record when it comes to longevity and network sitcoms. I hope this works out for him because he probably should be on TV as much as possible.
• As Applegate’s talk show host boss Maya Rudolph is playing a slightly toned-down version of the Oprah impersonation from her "SNL" days. I love her, but it wears a little thin here and she gets way too much screen time. Her role was expanded from the original pilot, presumably to capitalize on the success of "Bridesmaids."
• Part of the reason I’m going to stick with this show for now is because its creator, Emily Spivey, wrote the classic "Parks and Recreation" episode "Eagleton." I'm just ignoring she also wrote for "Mad TV."
• Not a great pilot. Not even a very good pilot. But with the caliber of talent involved, it’s got some potential. Hopefully, NBC will give it time to find its voice. Also, it would be a real shame if this gets cancelled before "Whitney."

"Hobo with a Shotgun" - the only movie where Rutger Hauer eats glass

“Hobo with a Shotgun” (dir. Jason Eisener)

Grown from a fake exploitation trailer contest held by the South by Southwest festival to promote 2007’s Tarantino/Rodriguez collaboration “Grindhouse,” Jason Eisener’s “Hobo with a Shotgun” (now on DVD/Blu-ray and Netflix) is demented, gory, outrageous and thoroughly enjoyable. Anchored by a genuinely good lead performance by Rutger Hauer, the film is a vivid neo exploitation flick that goes some truly nutso places, but never wears out its welcome.

The titular hobo hops off a train to plant his bindle in Hope Town, a nightmare city run by snarling gangster The Drake (Brian Downey) and his vicious wayfarer wearing sons (Gregory Smith and Nick Bateman). Hope City is a hellhole whose streets are infested with drugs, gangs and perverted mall Santas. As would be expected in such a scenario, the city’s cops are just as the dirty as its criminals.

The hobo’s past is shrouded in mystery. His only desire is to raise enough money to purchase a lawnmower from a pawn shop. When he’s directly confronted with the viciousness of the city’s criminals, the hobo forgoes the lawnmower and picks up a shotgun to become a vigilante as ruthless as the scum he hunts. If the title didn’t already indicate it, it’s a fairly straightforward plot, albeit one with some insane flourishes.

The bearded and disheveled Hauer is really nothing less than riveting here. He never plays it broad, delivering his lines with complete conviction. Whether he’s blowing a creep’s wang off with his trusty shotgun or delivering a monologue on the futility of hope to a room of screaming newborns, he commands your attention. This is undeniably his show. Molly Dunsworth also more than holds her own as Abby, the prostitute who hooks up with the hobo on his quest to cleanse Hope City.

“Hobo with a Shotgun” constantly tries to top itself by devising ever more inventive routes of decapitation and increasingly disgusting one-liners. Featuring torrents of bright red, beyond fake movie blood, the film often feels like a live action version of “The Itchy and Scratchy Show.” This is definitely not a bad thing in my book.

To Eisener and writer John Davies’ credit, “Hobo with a Shotgun” constantly creeps up to the edge of being too ridiculous and self-aware, but never falls over. The filmmakers establish a tone, twisted though it may be, early on and maintain it for the film’s duration. For a film whose final act involves a league of robot monsters called The Plague, a giant man-eating octopus and a woman stabbing a villain with her mangled arm bone, that’s definite praise. 

Be sure to stick around through the credits for the "Hobo with a Shotgun" theme song "Run with Us," a delirious slice of '80s pop that also served as the theme for the Canadian cartoon "The Raccoons." Really.

Marc's Grade: B+