Ty has Very Strong Committed Feelings for "Love"

It is nice when the show title reflects how I feel

Yesterday I finished the new Netflix show "Love" and it was totally awesome. I literally loved everything about this show. It was the perfect comedy/love story show. It was, in my opinion, so much better than another similar Netflix show, "Master of None", and I really enjoyed "Master of None".

One of the things that I enjoyed more on "Love" than "Master of None" was the female lead. Gillian Jacobs was so much better than Noel Wells. Noel Wells was very good, but she was your typical, I need a guy in my life, but when things get too serious, I'm jumping ship and moving on. Aziz Ansari is a great writer and created a great show, but Noel Wells character was pretty one dimensional and I didn't watch that show for her, I watched it for Ansari, who is awesome. Gillian Jacobs was absolutely phenomenal on "Love". In the first episode when we meet her, we immediately see that she is a troubled person, that doesn't realize it yet. She always thinks that she is right and that she is the cool one and that she has no problem, but all of those things couldn't be further from the truth. She is, for the most part, wrong 9 times out of 10. She is not cool, she is a mess that relies on other people way too much. And she has a ton of problems. She is an addict. She is addicted to drugs and alcohol and sex and love. Gillian Jacobs, her character's name is Mickey, is an absolute mess as a person. She plays this role to perfection. I believe every single moment of struggle and awkwardness and anger that she so excellently portrays. This is a real star making role for her. She is absolutely phenomenal on "Love". This is also a completely different role for her. She is not the same character she was on "Community" or "Girls" or any movie role she has had. She usually has her head on her shoulders or realizes that she is a screw up, but not on "Love". It takes her a real long time before she even considers that she may have a problem.

"Love" much like "Master of None", I know I'm comparing the two shows but they are basically the same thing released only months apart from each other so it's an easy comparison, Paul Rust co created this show and stars in it much like Ansari does for his show. Paul Rust is terrific. This is a great vehicle for his brand of comedy and his style of acting. When he is on screen, which is most of the series, you cannot take your eyes off of him. He commands the attention of the audience. Rust plays Gus, your typical nice guy that tries to hard to impress the girl. He's a hard worker, but he has a nothing job. He is a tutor on the set of a fake witch show. Pretty familiar premise for a leading man, but what Rust does with the character Gus is excellent. At first, he is a pushover. He will do whatever his girlfriend wants him to do. When they break up, he constantly blames himself although he was not in the wrong at all. When he meets Mickey, he is putty in her hands and Mickey knows this. She uses him and his kindness to her advantage and Gus is just happy that a pretty girl is talking to him. When he starts to gain confidence, after telling Mickey how he feels, his character becomes more confident, and once again, I completely believe his transformation. He is still a dork, but he is a confident dork. The growth of his character is so believable, I swear I have friends that have gone through the same transformation as we have grown up. Much like Gillian Jacobs, this is also a star making turn for Paul Rust. The two of them have been steady actors, but never been the lead in anything, save for Rust in the not as bad as I thought it was "I Love You Beth Cooper", but "Love" is the perfect platform for them to truly shine.

Jacobs and Rust  may control and demand the audiences attention, but the supporting characters are just as good. Comedic actors like Mike Mitchell, Armen Weitzman, Neil Campbell, Seth Morris and Brett Gelman are great. So are Claudia O'Dougherty, who is really, really great on this show, Charlyne Yi, Bobby Lee, Kerri Kenney and Traci Thoms. Iris Apatow is wonderful as the lead actress on the show that Rust works as a tutor for. She is a very good actress with a very bright future. There are many other supporting actors that I didn't mention that are equally as good.

"Love" is a very good show. I'd call it a great show to be honest with you. I really enjoyed "Master of None", but it felt a little long to binge, at least for my taste. "Love", on the other hand, had the same amount of episodes running the same amount of time, but I breezed through it in three days. It was such an enjoyable watch and I cannot recommend it enough. I don't want to spoil anything because I want everyone to go out and watch this show. It is very, very good and Paul Rust and Gillian Jacobs are tremendous.

I cannot wait for season two.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He loves to binge watch old Michigan football games. Do you have twitter? So does Ty, go follow him @tykulik.

The Greatest Television Ever: NBC Thursday Night Comedy

In the coming weeks and months, we at SeedSing will be doing our favorite TV shows. It will be a lot like our greatest American band debate, each week picking a show or a season or just particular moments from TV shows that we enjoy.

I'm going to kick it off today by talking about one of my favorite two hour blocks of TV on NBC. There was a time that the Thursday night line up on NBC had four of the best sitcoms that I've ever seen. It was epic, must watch TV for me and any other fan of comedic television. The four shows they trotted out were "30 Rock", "The Office", "Community" and "Parks and Recreation". Talk about a murderers row of great, great TV. These four sitcoms are all in my personal top ten of TV shows. I love these shows and I love them all for different reasons.

First we'd get "30 Rock". This show is one of the all time greats. Tina Fey is a genius. Her writing and acting are beyond genius. She's on a whole different level from any other sitcom writer I've ever seen. She is a legend. But, it wasn't just Tina Fey that made that show great. We got Tracy Morgan, Jane Krawkowski, Jack McBrayer and, of course, Alec Baldwin. Tina Fey basically revived both Morgan's and Baldwin's career with their roles on this show. And they were both fantastic. Any episode that revolved around Morgan's character, Tracy Jordan, was so hilarious and so well written. Anytime he interacted with McBrayer, or Grizz and Dot Com or with Liz Lemon or Jack Donaghy was great. Morgan's first appearance on the show, naked, except for underwear, freaking out on the highway, waving around a fake light saber, was a perfect introduction to his character. And when he tries to get the EGOT, that was a great run of episodes. Alec Baldwin as Jack Donaghy was the perfect representation of the arrogant, yet idiotic studio head that has no clue how to run a network. He was so great on this show. Two of my favorite lines spoken on a sitcom were said by him. The first, Liz asks him why he's dressed so nicely and he says, "it's after six, what am I, a farmer?", loved it. The only line I like better is when Donaghy is talking about his hard working father and he says, "he worked the day shift at the graveyard and the graveyard shift at the Days Inn", that is exquisite writing. I love "30 Rock" and I could go on forever about it, but I need to talk about the other three shows.

After "30 Rock", we got "The Office". This is my second favorite show of all time, behind only "The Simpsons". When this show was great, it was the best thing on TV. Seasons 1-4 of "The Office" is some of the best TV that's ever been aired. We got three phenomenal episodes in those first four seasons. In season one they had the episode where the sales team challenged the warehouse workers to a game of basketball. It was so good. Michael Scott(Steve Carrell) warming up and then playing basketball is so god damn funny. I love that episode. Season two gave us "The Dundies". That was the award show that they had for the employees of Dunder Mifflin. It was cringe worthy comedy, with Michael Scott and Dwight Schrute(Rainn Wilson), emceeing this train wreck. It was so funny and it was the first time that Jim(John Krasinski) and Pam(Jenna Fischer) kissed. This episode is great. The best episode of "The Office" came in season four. The episode titled, "Dinner Party", is the most uncomfortable 44 minutes of brilliant comedy ever written. Michael and Jan(Melora Hardin) constantly fighting while they have four employees over to their condo is so good, yet so uncomfortable. I still love this episode to this day. It is excellent comedy. I adore "The Office" and it will always hold a special place in my heart. It is the second greatest show of all time, in my personal opinion.

Then, we got the weird, off the wall, bizarre comedy, "Community". At first glance, I didn't think Id really like this show, but the more I watched it, the more I grew to love it and look forward to it every week. Joel McHale finally got his chance to be the lead role on a show and he did it so well. He is criminally underrated for his work on that show. But the other actors were just as good. Danny Pudi. Gillian Jacobs, Donald Glover, Jim Rash and Ken Jeong were great. Alison Brie and Yvette Nicole Brown were also really good. The only person I didn't really care for was Chevy Chase, but he's an asshole. I loved the off beat humor that Dan Harmon brought to major network TV with "Community". The show was an almost perfect representation of community college life. I could relate to the people because I ran into the exact same people in my almost two years of community college. There were athletes, nerds, regular joes, old people and good looking ladies that never got into a four year school, so they had to go to community college. Sure, "Community" is a glorified version of community college, but they made it relatable, especially when Dan Harmon was the main writer and show runner. They had ups and downs, but there were way more ups than downs when it comes to "Community". And yes, the paintball episodes are as good as the fans say they are. Go back and watch those and be amazed at how well "Community" was done. It's an underrated cult classic show.

NBC would close the night with probably my third all time favorite show, "Parks and Recreation". This show is a classic that only got better and better the more seasons it got. I loved the first season, but each season that followed was better than the last. This show was the exact representation of what it's like to work for a parks and recreation department. My sister in law, that works for Columbia's parks and rec department, even confirmed this. Ron Swanson(Nick Offerman) and Tom Haverford(Aziz Ansari) are real representations of people that take government jobs in parks and rec and just sail from there. They don't take their jobs seriously at all because it's not a serious job. They plan parties and races and community gatherings, not that tough of a job. Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope was the perfect post "SNL" role for her. She was so, so good on that show. She excelled. When shows bring new people on, it's usually a bad sign, but the additions of Rob Lowe, whom I've written about before, and Adam Scott made this show that much better. Rob Lowe, as the always upbeat and exercising Chris Traeger, was the perfect foil for Ron Swanson. and Adam Scott as Ben Wyatt, failed mayor and Leslie's love interest, was perfect. When these two showed up, "Parks and Rec" went to a whole new level. Chris Pratt, Retta, Aubrey Plaza and later on, Jon Glaser and Billy Eichner were also excellent on the show. I love every episode of "Parks and Rec", there isn't a bad one. If you haven't seen it and you're looking for a starting point, start at the end of season two, when Rob Lowe and Adam Scott show up, that's when the show went from good to great.

So, there you have the first entry in our greatest TV choices on SeedSing. I figured I'd come out of the gates strong, and this Thursday night lineup is a slam dunk. Come back for more TV later. I already am writing "The Simpsons" blog in my head now.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He desperately wanted to add "Andy Barker P.I." to his list, but then realized the show was no "Andy Richter Controls the Universe" Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Rob Lowe is the current MVP of Television Comedy

Rob Lowe has a new show? I'll watch that for a while.

Today I'm going to take my time to talk about how Rob Lowe is killing it on TV.

Not only is he back, but he's starring in comedic TV shows. I knew he had comedy chops when I was a kid since he was so funny as the bad guy in "Wayne's World", but before and after that, he appeared in pretty much straight dramas. He was on procedurals, in dramatic movies and was part of the "brat pack". He's always been a good actor, but I'm a comedy nerd and I love comedy. Those are my favorite types of movies and shows. If you can make me laugh in a 30 minute TV show or a 2 hour movie, I'll be your biggest fan. Hell, until recently, I used to stick up for Adam Sandler come hell or high water, but he's a nut job. That's another blog for another day though.  

Recently, Rob Lowe has made me not only a fan, but his appearances on recent shows like "Parks and Recreation" and "The Grinder" have been appointment viewing in my household. I also hear very good things about the animated show "Moonbeam City" on Comedy Central. I haven't seen it, but I've heard that it's pretty good. It's a spoof of 80's cop procedurals and Rob Lowe voices the main character. I'll probably start watching it soon since Lowe is involved, and the good reviews don't hurt. But, let's first look at his role on "Parks and Recreation". Lowe, playing the super upbeat, super in shape Chris Traeger was so funny. His addition, along with Adam Scott turned "Parks and Rec" into a great show. It was already good, but those two made it great. When they joined, the dynamic was, Lowe was the good guy and Scott was the bad guy. They played city financial planners and one of them had to be the good guy. This role was perfect for Lowe. Not only is he very handsome, but he also seems like a genuinely nice guy. First, all the female characters would comment, playing it for jokes, about how attractive he was. They all thought that the happy go lucky thing was just a front, assuming that someone that attractive couldn't be this good of a person, but he's also a really good guy. He first approaches Anne, played by Rashida Jones, and at first she rejects him, but they end up together. They have a typical TV relationship, and when Chris eventually breaks up with her, he does it so nicely, she doesn't realize he's broken up with her. Rob Lowe does this to absolute perfection. He later dates Jerry Gergich's daughter, Millicent, and she actually breaks up with him because she thinks he's too old and can't keep up with her. This is a shock to the Chris Traeger character. He's never been dumped, but what's worse, in his opinion is, the fact that she didn't think he could keep up with her. He's the most in shape person in all of Pawnee, but he is getting older, and time always wins. This was an interesting spin on this character, because we, the audience, saw doubt in Traeger's eyes for the first time. Rob Lowe played this very, very well. He was sad, but the sadness was played to many laughs. It was excellent. He and Anne decide to have a child together in the second to last season. They don't want to date, but Anne wants Chris to father the baby since he's perfection in her eyes. And Anne is pretty attractive as well, so they both agree that they'd make beautiful children. She eventually gets pregnant, and after awhile, they decide to couple up again. They even talked marriage, but they decided that as long as they loved each other, they wouldn't need a ring to symbolize it. They moved to Michigan in the season six finale and Lowe plays this to tears and laughter. Anne has Leslie and we all knew that would be emotional. Chris, on the surface, seems to only have Ben Wyatt(Adam Scott), but it's revealed that Tom(Aziz Ansari), Andy(Chris Pratt) and even Ron(Nick Offerman) like Chris. They revealed that they will miss him, and give him a meaningful present as a goodbye. This was played to some tears, but it was mostly laughter. Rob Lowe was phenomenal on "Parks and Rec", and it put him back on my radar. I remembered his excellent work in "Wayne's World", and "Parks and Rec" reaffirmed that he could do comedy.

Early this fall, I saw commercials for a show called "The Grinder". It stars Lowe and Fred Savage. Lowe was an actor on an "SVU" type of lawyer show called "The Grinder" and Savage is his younger brother that is an actual lawyer. Lowe's show comes to an end and he moves back to his hometown to live with his brother and become a real, bona fide lawyer. I know, the premise sounds stupid, but this show is hilarious, and it's due to Lowe and Savage, mostly Lowe. It's nice to see Fred Savage act again because he's a pretty good actor. He's been directing a lot lately, but he's just as good in front of the camera as he is behind it. But, the star and main voice of comedy on this show is Rob Lowe. He's always narrating his life, asking ridiculous questions and some how, some way, winning unwinnable cases, just like he did on his TV show. Two things I really like that he does on the show are, one, whenever he's questioning someone about a case, he has sunglasses on and he slowly takes them off, a la David Caruso when he was on a cop procedural. Clearly this is the writers and Lowe poking fun at that, and it's hilarious. The other thing I like, he makes Fred Savage's younger son watch all the old episodes of "The Grinder" with him, and that's how the episodes start. It's Lowe and the son watching an old episode of his show, and them critiquing it. This is also, very hilarious. "The Grinder" is one of the better new shows to come on TV in awhile, and everyone needs to start watching it if you aren't already.

This brings me back to the reason for my blog today, and that's the fact that Rob Lowe is, quickly and easily, becoming one of my favorite comic actors and just crushing it in general. I know a celebrity of his fame doesn't need anymore accolades, but what he's doing right now requires some kind of recognition. Rob Lowe is a great comedic actor, and people need to realize it.

Keep doing what you're doing Mr. Lowe, because it's working and you are making weekday TV better with your roles.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He thinks Rob Lowe learned comedy while filming "Schoolboy Father".  Practice safe sex and follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Comedy is thriving with podcasts. Get the best with the new app Howl.

Where do I turn the dial to hear this great comedy?

As all of you know, I'm a big, big fan of podcasts. 

I listen to podcast ranging from sports to comedy. Comedic podcasts are where my bread is buttered. I love listening to funny people being funny. There's something great about podcasting that allows these comedians and comedy writers to be funny in a free flowing environment. There's no real structure. Sure, you have an intro and an outro, but what happens in the middle is the best part. You get to hear these people use improv. That's so cool, because a lot of these people are great improvisors. People like Doug Benson, Scott Aukerman, Mike Mitchell, Nick Wiger, The Sklar Brothers, Paul F Tompkins and Matt Gourley are all great comics and actors, but on podcasts, they shine. Podcasting gives them the ability to do whatever they want. No notes from network executives, or people telling them to wrap something up. They have free rein. 

Podcasts have also introduced me to very funny up and coming actors and comedians like Lauren Lapkus, Jon Gabrus, Hayes Davenport, Sean Clements and even an old timer like Brendon Walsh. Ben Schwartz is so hilarious whenever he and Scott Aukerman do their "solo bolos" on Comedy Bang! Bang!. Actor Adam Scott is very, very funny during his appearances on multiple podcasts. Nick Kroll is a comedy powerhouse, especially with his many different characters on Comedy Bang! Bang!.  How Did This Get Made introduced me to Paul Scheer, June Diane Rapheal and the extremely funny, Jason Mantzoukas. I had barely ever seen or heard from Andy Daly until he started to pop up on different podcasts and now he has one of the best shows on TV, "Review". I could go on and on and on.

The main reason I'm writing today is to tell you about the great new podcast app called Howl. Howl gives you unlimited access to every single Earwolf, Wolfpop and WTF With Marc Maron that's ever been recorded. That means every episode of Comedy Bang! Bang!, How Did This Get Made, U Talkin U2 To Me, Analyze Phish, what I'm trying to say is, you get every single episode of every single Earwolf show. On most podcast apps, you get the last six months. On Howl, you get every episode ever, and the old ones are remastered with no commercial interruption. Same thing goes for the fairly new sister network of Earwolf, Wolfpop. You get Maltin on Movies with Baron Vaughn, I Was There Too, The Canon and so on and so forth. Every episode ever and the old ones are commercial free.

That would be enough for me, but they also give you every single WTF with Marc Maron. On his free app, he only gives the last sixty episodes for free. Howl gives you every episode ever. That's right, you can go back and listen to the two part Louis CK episode, voted best podcast ever, commercial free as many times as you want. You can hear Marc Maron interview Robin Williams. You can hear him from his start, interviewing his comedy buddies all the way to his high point of interviewing President Barack Obama.

Now, this app does cost money, but it's only 5 dollars a month. That's not much at all considering what you're getting. There is also shows that are only part of the premium Howl app. New shows from the Sklar Brothers, Lauren Lapkus and Jermaine Clement just to name a few will be on the premium app soon. There's also a TON of comedy albums available. You can hear albums from comics like Jen Kirkman, Doug Benson, Jim Gaffigan, Nick Kroll, Aziz Ansari and many, many more. I know, this sounds like an add, but it's not, I really just love this app and I think comedy podcast listeners will too. This is the holy grail for comedy podcasts. All these hours upon hours of uninterrupted shows is, in a word, phenomenal. It's a nice way to give back to these people that give us all this free content. Five dollars a month is nothing, and it's totally worth it. I love the Howl app and I'm really happy to have it. This is the first movement in the future of podcasting and I couldn't be happier about having all this content. Keep up the great work people of Earwolf, Wolfpop and WTF.

You guys have a fan for life.

Ty 

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and co-host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He did not get paid by any advertisers for writing this, . Follow Ty on twitter .