Since it feels like there's not a lot going on these days that I find all that amusing, today's Tuesday TV Touchbase will turn our attention to the current sit coms that Andrea and I are watching.
St. Denis Medical has been renewed for a 2nd season which is good news as this series continues to put on a good show, delivering laughs and unexpected moments of pathos. A recent episode involved a patient with a "do not resucitate" order leaving the family to just wait for death. They fill the time with yelling, arguing and threats. Until doctor Bruce calls the time of death and the family finally stops shouting and hold one another.
Speaking of dying, hospital administrator Joyce decided to update her will and wants head nurse Alex to be the executor of her estate. Like all things Joyce does, she's going WAY overboard in planning and wants to drag Alex (always overworked and doesn't see her family enough) away for a whole weekend to work on her will.
There's a moment Alex looks at the documentary camera weary and silent then says: "New plan: I need to die before Joyce does."
Alex tries to finagle Joyce in making doctor Ron her executor but Ron finagles it right back,
Played by David Alan Grier, Ron is my favorite character, a grumpy curmudgeon who is (in Ron's own words) not to be trifled with.
Night Court continues on our watch list and I think the show is slightly funnier. The addition of Wendie Malick to the cast helps a lot. The show has been more willing to embrace a more absurdist approach.
This was exemplified by the recent guest star appearance of Mayim Bialik who appeared as "Mayim Bialik", the psychotic former star of Blossom and now neuroscientist (which she insists on bringing up as much as possible) who is stalking Blossom fan Judge Abby Stone and perhaps intending on holding her captive.
The resolution of that plotline is dumb as a brick but I thought was genuinely amusing.
The current thinking is that NBC will not be renewing Night Court for a 4th season.
Abbott Elementary has been renewed for a 5th season. The current 4th season has engaged in some long form serialized storytelling. Jabob has a student who is not engaged and Jacob is determined to reach him, to find out what sparks his passion, his interest. A breakthrough is made but Jacob laments to the documentary crew that there are so many other students like that and he can't reach them all.
There have been hints that Barbara may be considering retirement after 30+ years. Which kind of makes sense for the character but it would be shame to lose Sheryl Lee Ralph from the cast.
The recent crossover with It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia was very funny with the nefarious reprobates of Paddy's Pub forced to volunteer at Abbott as part of their community service. Sweet Dee tries to steal Gregory away from Janine (Dee fails and concludes that Gregory is gay) and Charlie learns to read. (No wonder he was so horribly bad in that office mail room job in the season 4 episode "Sweet Dee Has a Heart Attack". Charlie can't read!)
(I am not a regular watcher of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia but I've watched enough to know who the characters are and what their deal is. But while I understood Charlie is profoundly stupid, I never realized he was illiterate.)
Happy's Place is more for Andrea than me. I find the show is more sweet than laugh out loud funny. My favorite recent episode is when Bobbie's daughter, Gracie (Emma Kenney) returns home on leave from her military deployment. Gracie has an ascerbic sense of humor that cracks the sweet candy shell that exists around Happy's Place.
Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage is finally back after a nearly 2 month hiatus. The most recent episode had a surprise connection to Young Sheldon when Georgie visits a bookstore and encounters Sheryl Hutchins (Sarah Baker) the Medford High librarian who also works at the bookstore who is still the glum lonely person she was before.
The still teenage Georgie seems to have a better handle on life than his 12 years older wife Mandy. His sales acumen is coming into play working for his father in law's tire store which sets up Georgie's future success with his own tire store chain as established in Big Bang Theory.
Ghosts is back and ghost Isaac has agreed to stop butting in on the design of Jay's restaurant. Isaac is an investor using his part of the money that Sam made from the book based on his life.
The storyline from the Christmas episode where Jay finally got to see the ghosts because he was dead and ghost Pete was occupying his body was very funny and needed change (albeit temporary) to the status quo. The funniest dynamic comes from Sam and Jay not being on the same playing field when it comes to interacting with the ghosts.
Well, that is that for this week's Tuesday TV Touchbase.
Next week, I'll catch up on our game shows including THREE versions of Jeopardy.
Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.
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