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Dolash posted:Just catching up on the thread, but was it mentioned before that Chuck served in the military? Yeah, he was introduced as ex-Marine in I think his first episode in season two? Definitely his second episode The thing about Chuck being ex-military is its only brought up as a plot point so isn't relevant like 90% of the time Propaganda Machine posted:Possibly maybe. We're gonna need the IRC info, again. here's the direct irc link, I'm always online there so ask me specific questions if you have them
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Jul 8, 2014 03:06
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Last Man Standing "Parenting Bud" Season 3, Episode 20 There's one scene of this episode, between Mike, Bud, Chuck, and Ed. The latter three are trading war stories, Mike attempts to pipe up with his own ill-advised two cents, and is thoroughly humiliated by the real veterans before spending the rest of the scene in embarrassed, awkward silence. The rest of the episode could've been about how the KKK is actually a great social welfare organization and I would've given this episode an A, since this scene is something I've been waiting for since starting this goddamn excursion two hellish months ago: the scene where Mike gets truly, utterly shut down. Where he gets revealed for the simpering chickenhawk coward he is, and just has to shut up and eat the poo poo sandwich that he completely, utterly deserves. And it's glorious. Luckily there's some real content within the rest of the episode, too. The episode opens to Chuck, fresh off the events of "Stud Muffin", offering to provide home security to the Baxters. At the same time, Bud and Ed are gearing up to go hunting. Unfortunately, Bud was recently mugged at his weed store, with the bump on the head to prove it. Mike recommends Bud buy a gun for store protection, which Bud quickly refuses, referencing his advanced age and vision difficulties. All this setup leads to the aforementioned confrontation, which to me was some sweet, sweet, long-overdue schadenfreude to just watch Mike Baxter sit and squirm as quote-on-quote "real" men completely and utterly humiliated him. The thing I liked beyond watching Mike Baxter be cut down to size (which I cannot stress enough: I really really loved that part) was how well this episode was able to handle the tonal shift that occurs about 3/4 of the way through the episode. See, it turns out that Bud's aim is just fine- he actually has suffered some deep, deep PTSD as the result of his deployment and vows to never shoot at anything with two legs again. Robert Forster sells the poo poo out of his scene- anyone who saw him on Breaking Bad last year knows his dramatic range -but speaking vaguely and personally, the idea of PTSD having these long-lasting effects felt both true and resonant to me, and completely and utterly landed. I really do have to applaud LMS for being willing to go "there", to that dark place dramatically, and to be able to stick the dismount, something I never really expected Last Man Standing to ever be able to do. Really, bravo LMS. Even speaking beyond that, structurally the episode was impressive as it was able to juggle many different plotlines- Chuck's security business, Bud getting mugged, the hunting trip revealing that Bud was lying about his aim, and even a B-plot involving Kyle and his grandma tying thematically into the episode's climax -and was able to deliver on all of them more or less satisfactorily. Usually LMS doesn't try for anywhere near this level of plot structure and not only was it able to deliver the good, it delivered in spades. A true joy to watch the episode slowly unfold and tease out each reveal and sense of closure, as the final scenes took every plot string into account and tied it all up into a neat bow. This was a really, really great episode of television, and I simply cannot recommend it enough. A true treat to behold, and an uncharacteristically affecting one. Grade: A Random Thoughts:
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Jul 9, 2014 03:52
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E PLURIBUS ANUS posted:Mike holds a gun, points the barrel at the screen, and simultaneously puts his finger on the trigger. Even though it was a prop gun this was a remarkably stupid thing to do and genuinely pissed me off. From memory, this happens in the pilot too.
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Jul 9, 2014 04:18
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E PLURIBUS ANUS posted:Bud: "Look, I don't need a gun for protection. This isn't Florida, where you can go around shooting people for no reason." Chuck: "Oh there's a REASON, same as why I don't vacation in Florida."
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Jul 9, 2014 05:13
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I appreciate that Occ gives shits about trigger etiquette on a multicam sitcom, ex-military or whatever. If America is going to be all GUN RIGHTS HURR we shouldn't be encouraging legitimately dangerous behavior on network television.
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Jul 9, 2014 05:34
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SpiderHyphenMan posted:Wait, what? It's a Zimmerman joke coupled with a "Florida sucks" joke.
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Jul 9, 2014 05:55
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Lycus posted:It's a Zimmerman joke coupled with a "Florida sucks" joke. I think the confusion is that it's coming from the opposite angle you'd expect from this show.
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Jul 9, 2014 06:45
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Oh, pfft, that's true. Maybe the Zimmerman incident just happens to be a particular thing that Tim Allen doesn't agree with most conservatives about.
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Jul 9, 2014 06:51
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E PLURIBUS ANUS posted:Last Man Standing I want to watch this episode, but I cannot stand the canned laughter after every loving line
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Jul 9, 2014 07:09
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pentyne posted:I want to watch this episode, but I cannot stand the canned laughter after every loving line Most of these shows are still filmed in front of studio audiences. 
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Jul 9, 2014 08:47
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Party Plane Jones posted:Most of these shows are still filmed in front of studio audiences. Actually, they tend to pre-record the episode and then show that recording to audiences. It's a lot rarer these days for a 3 camera sitcom to actually be performed on a stage in front of other human beings for their entertainment. Back in the day when All In The Family made that transition in the final season, they were pretty upfront about it, changing the VO mentioning it from "All in the Family was recorded on tape before a live audience" to "All in the Family was played to a studio audience for live responses". Recording live on tape was common in the 70s, but by the 80s it was a lot more common to have a show start off with weasel words trying to make it sound like it was, when really they were playing tape back to an audience. That trend continued into the 90s on certain shows (I think Home Improvement and Everybody Loves Raymond did it, but it's been a long time) but nowadays it tends to not even be addressed. The only show I can think of off the top of my head that actually plays live to an audience is Big Bang Theory, unless I'm mistaken.
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Jul 10, 2014 11:01
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Pretty sure this one does. I recall it being said at the beginning of some episodes.
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Jul 10, 2014 14:35
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Last Man Standing "April, Come She Will" Season 3, Episode 21 I don't this was a good episode of television, but it was surely an enjoyable one, which at this point is realistically all I can ask for from this show. It had a bunch of funny lines, and was genuinely fun to watch, if still problematic and kinda offensive. But, you know, oh well, whatever. The structure of this episode is quite bizarre: The episode opens to two scenes of a storyline involving Chuck, both in quick succession, then focuses on the actual A plot of the story, abandoning the resolution of the Chuck plot to the closing tag. It's a bizarre, unwieldly structure to an episode of television that doesn't do it any favors, and I'm kind of befuddled why, exactly, the show was paced this way. The real A-plot of the episode is focused on the fact that Vanessa's kid sister, April (Christina Moore), has come to visit. (Apparently, the audience is supposed to be aware of who she is despite the last time she showed up in the show before now was two seasons ago, in 124. Even to a diehard LMS fan (please, please please don't exist), isn't it a bit presumptuous for the show to assume that someone who was in exactly one episode before, two fuckin' years ago, is immediately recognizable?) Contextually, I guess she's supposed to be airheaded, shallow, a bit of a slut, and a gold-digging beggar, because that's essentially all she does this episode. April wants to have a kid, but can't afford it (and is post-menopausal) so is begging Mike and Vanessa for the money to cover a donor egg operation. Mandy offers to donate the eggs to her, but has a last-second change of heart due to April being...well...an absolutely terrible human being in absolutely every way. Hooray? The main problem with this plot is April. Now, again, I haven't seen season 1, nor plan on ever doing so, but April's character does not gel with the current cast at all. She isn't fully dimensionalized in any real way; she's every terrible stereotype one could think of to describe a woman, multiplied a thousandfold. This is probably as a result of being a holdover character from a season of a show that was a much angrier, whinier show than current: to LMS' (tiny) credit, even the most exaggerated of strawmen that exists on this show currently, i.e. Ryan, aren't this one-dimensional. Ryan does have positive qualities which the show occasionally deigns to explore, if poorly. In contrast, April seems like what a fifteen-year-old white male who just got dumped for the first time imagines all women to be: just a complete and utter, well, oval office in every way. This makes the episode as a whole kind of awkward as the at least somewhat "real" main cast attempt to interact with her: in one scene, Mandy is excitedly talking about going through the fertilization process for April, who complains that the months Mandy outlines "don't work" for her because April is going to an Arcade Fire concert then and expects to be brought up onstage. Again, this is a forty year old post-menopausal woman saying this to arguably the dumbest character on the show, who is half of April's age, and even Mandy can't seem to swallow this level of self-obsession. It just doesn't really work on any real level, and again seems to be solely due to April being a season one character on the third season of a show; it'd be offensive if...wait, this probably is offensive, it's just at this point I'm absolutely inured to it. gently caress. In comparison, the B-plot involves Chuck struggling with racial profiling while at Outdoor Man, as Mike has decided to mess with him by siccing Kyle on Chuck as he shops, which as aforementioned lays completely unresolved until the post-credits tag, wherein Chuck (who runs the Baxters' home security system), gets revenge by having Mike sweat as he's mistaken for a Peeping Tom. I guess if I were to look at this objectively, I would say it's kind of absolutely hosed up that Mike, at his work, is playing a practical joke on both an ostensible customer and his neighbor, not to mention the only black male character on the show, by pretending-but-not-really to profile him. But on the other hand, I would argue that it's kind of absolutely hosed up that Chuck would play a practical joke on one of his customers by almost having him arrested as a sex offender. All I know is that it was funny, so oh well it works for me. This is the current issue I have with the show. I'm so inured to all of the terrible things this show has done that unless it's really really bad, and not even then (because Christ, objectively some of the poo poo I described is just abhorrent), if the episode in question makes me laugh then I'll give the episode a good grade. Because I can ignore all the troubling, sexist, and just plain offensive stuff as it just washes over me at this point. So I'll give this episode a B, but with the caveat that you should go in if you end up watching this episode to see some terrible, terrible things. But to me, whatever, it was funny. Whatever. I don't care any more. Grade: B Random Thoughts:
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Jul 11, 2014 03:34
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OKAY YES gently caress ONLY ONE MORE TO GO! YES! YES Anyways, yeah, reminder! Tomorrow, Friday, July 11 2014, TVIV irc will have the final episode of season 3, 322, watchalong at 6 pm PST/9 pm EST/I dunno when that is for other places, sorry TVIV irc is here, it'll be fun so you should come and hang w/ us and I'll be going in this blind too so yeah Plus what else are you gonna watch? nothing, that's what. nothing. it's summer and a friday. anyways yeah, 322 review friday night, season 3 in review on saturday
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Jul 11, 2014 03:42
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Sticky for tonight's livewatch. I'll try and be there. 
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Jul 11, 2014 14:56
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Could you change the title to reflect the time of the live watch too Annakie? Thanks dogg
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Jul 11, 2014 14:58
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I've been lurking since this thread was made, and loving it, so I'm definitely going to come. Hopefully the season finale is either actively good or actively super lovely!
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Jul 11, 2014 20:08
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Won't be able to make it this time. Enjoy 
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Jul 11, 2014 20:54
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I am so down for another live watch of this poo poo
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Jul 12, 2014 00:55
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THIRTY MINUTES TO THE LIVEWATCH, BROS. COME JOIN US IN IRC here
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Jul 12, 2014 01:30
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Last Man Standing "Mutton Busting" Season 3, Episode 22 An outright decent, bordering on likable ending to an overall dull season of television. This isn't gonna blow the doors off, quality-wise, but I mean...it's Last Man Standing. What did you expect? The episode deals with two distinct plotlines. In the first, Boyd is being overparented by Kristin, who is helicopter-Moming her way to ensure he suffers nary a scratch. Mike, in a stunning display of disrespect for both his daughter and another person's parenting habits, even if they're wrong, places Boyd on the mechanical sheep that is set up at Outdoor Man. Enter Ryan stage right, who at first is quite distressed about Mike violating Kristin's rule, but quickly acclimates and even encourages Boyd to continue riding the mechanical sheep. Boyd is apparently so good at riding the mechanical sheep that Mike wants to enter him into the the titular Mutton Busting competition, where Boyd would ride a real sheep. Cue the obvious Kristin freakout, Ryan persuading her to acquiesce, and Boyd winning the competition. Functionally speaking, this episode proceeds pretty well. There's a bordering-on-troubling section where Mike talks to Ryan and derides him for letting Kristin walk all over him that brushes up against women bashing, but the result is that we get a nice, honest dialog between Ryan and Kristin about how their parenting responsibilities are unequal, that feels real and to me landed. It was a nice, somewhat emotional moment between the two that to me felt sincere. Plus, the nice thing about this plot as a whole was was that it finally had Ryan recognize that he wanted to be treated as a full partner and co-parent to his child, with the ending reveal that Kristin and Ryan are now engaged! God help me, but I am emotionally invested in these characters and the end-of-episode reveal of their engagement landed with me. Going forward into season 4, much like how the Mandy/Kyle relationship paid off in this season pretty well, I really hope Kristin and Ryan's impending and post-marriage changes up their characters for the better. Especially when you consider the fact that both Kristin and Ryan were the two most stale and overall boring characters on the show, them getting married can only be an improvement. The B-plot of this episode involves Eve going to prom. She wants to go with her boyfriend, of course, but her boyfriend, Justin, is forcing her to wear a dress to prom, despite Eve's desire to wear her JROTC uniform. Meanwhile, Andrew (in case you forgot who he is, he's the nerdy guy who essentially worships Eve) wants to take Eve to prom, to the level that he's been creepily stalking her, using the "Wear her down" method of convincing someone. Eventually, Eve decides to go to prom, but with Andrew because Justin is a sexist controlling rear end in a top hat the entire episode. The resolution to this plot doesn't really fit, because every solution the episode presented was bad: either Eve goes with her sexist douche of a boyfriend, which is a really poor commentary on individuality and for women standing up for their beliefs, or Eve went with Andrew, which is a really poor commentary on the idea that creepily stalking and wearing down a woman will get her to date you. That being said LMS tried to thread the needle as best it could: In the abstract, I'd rather have Eve make a statement about her beliefs and be strong and independent over just rewarding the controlling rear end in a top hat. The writing staff even tried to blunt the implications of Eve going with Justin by having her make explicitly clear that neither Justin or Andrew will be anything but temporary, so hopefully going forward into Season 4 she dates someone who isn't a creepy tool. Overall, the episode acted as a good season finale should: close certain loops while opening new ones. Incidentally, the renewal for LMS came weeks after this episode aired, which meant it came months after this episode was written, so this episode was written from the point of view of people writing a potential series finale. As a series finale, I think the episode works well enough: I would argue the Boyd character is the driving force of the main overall "plot", one could say, of the show, and closing it by having the formerly-deadbeat dad, Ryan, arc to the point where he wants to be a part of Kristin and Boyd's life ostensibly permanently is a good moment to end the show on. If this were the series finale, and LMS wasn't renewed for a fourth season, I'd personally think that this episode closes the way the episode "should". I have to say that despite my feelings overall for the show, I'm personally kind of excited for season 4, simply because I think the show has set up the characters in the right ways so when it comes back in September, I'm at least interested to see how the show moves the characters forward from here. This show still isn't good, but God help me, I'm invested in it. Grade: B Random Thoughts:
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Jul 12, 2014 03:42
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 MOD CHALLENGEBefore Last Man Standing Season Four starts you must also do Season One! Good luck to you sir!
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Jul 12, 2014 03:47
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Deadpool posted:
WHAT
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Jul 12, 2014 03:49
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