Ty Watches "Brooklyn 99" Series Finale

Last night "Brooklyn 99" came to a close. I have loved this show from the start. I'm a big Andy Samberg fan, and when he is involved with something, I watch it. He is funny and charming and a very good comedic actor. Add on Mike Schur and I was sold. I also really enjoy Chelsea Peretti, so this show did not have to do much to win me over. Then to get me familiar with actors like Melissa Fumero, Terry Crews, Stephanie Beatriz, Joe Lo Truglio and Andre Braugher was a total plus. I now really like these actors, and have followed them since I first saw them on this show.

I was curious how they were going to end the series though. The final season has been very different from the rest of the series. This is due to many things. We have COVID, people being afraid and angry with the police and all these actors have grown up. I have enjoyed the final season, and the finale was a great way to close this all out.

For the finale they did a heist episode. Fans of the show know exactly what I am talking about. These are their best episodes in my opinion. So doing that, and making it a series finale was the absolute correct choice. I was enthralled the whole hour. I hung on every twist and turn that the episode gave us. I was also very happy to see Chelsea Peretti and Jason Mantzoukas and the guy who plays Bill and Fred Armisen all reprise their much loved characters. I also really enjoyed that Captain Holt and Jake and Terry all had these grand plans for the heist, but they were all sidetracked by one another. Holt, Jake and Amy were all leaving the 99, and with Rosa already gone, this was one of their last hurrahs as a group. This made the heist even more fun and funny. Everything they did in this episode was perfect. This is what a show like this should do to wrap everything up. I appreciated and liked that they touched on all the issues in the world that pertained to them on the show, but going out with a straight up goofy and wild episode was the thing to do.

“Brooklyn 99” has always been about jokes and relationships. They do touch on stuff in earlier seasons too, namely the episode where Terry gets racially profiled, but they always come back with a super funny follow up episode. That is what the "Grand Heist" was last night. It was just a blast to watch. They did tug at the heart strings too. Amy and Rosa have a very touching moment where they say I love you to one another. Gina does what she always does, but seems nicer about it. Terry is laughing and joking with everyone. But the ending moment between Holt and Jake was where they got my wife and I. This was great. Holt has always been Jake's father figure and to hear the words he says to him, I'm getting choked up as I write this just thinking about it. It was wonderful and poignant and brilliant and simply perfect.

"Brooklyn 99" is one of the best sitcoms that has been on TV in some time. It gets its due, but I feel like it deserves even more credit. I love this show, and the ending was the best possible way they could have closed it all out. I will miss you "Brooklyn 99". Thankfully I have Hulu so I can continue to watch this series over and over again.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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The SeedSing (half) year in Pop Culture: The Top Five Podcasts of 2015

Time to remember the mic's best guests

Continuing my week long best of 2015 countdown today I'll pick my top five podcast episodes of the year. I'm a very, very big fan of podcast, mostly comedy podcast. Comedy podcasts are very well represented in this countdown, but there's one pretty serious, not very comedic episode that tops my list. I could've easily done a top 25, 50 or even 100 for this topic, so paring it down to five was tough. Here it goes.

My number five podcast episode of 2015 was the return of "Go Bayside" when they critically deconstructed the "Saved By the Bell: Hawaiian Style" movie. By they I mean the excellent and very hilarious host, April Richardson and her equally as funny best friend, Millie De Chirico. I was so pleasantly surprised and happy when my podcast app showed me that there was a new "Go Bayside". I put time away to go on a hike so I would not be bothered while I listened. April Richardson took a long time off after she finished doing all the pertinent episodes of "Saved By the Bell", but she promised to return to do this movie and the one when Kelly and Zack get married. This episode made it well worth the wait. Richardson and De Chirico come out hot from the start, just chastising the racism in this movie. It was so funny. I loved how upset they both got t the fact that there was a principal's convention in the exact same spot of Hawaii that the students were vacationing in. They couldn't fathom a world that in all of Hawaii these people picked the same spot to vacation in. I couldn't agree more with them. They constantly bad mouthed Kelly's vacation boyfriend for being a creep and this actor totally deserved it, he was terrible. My favorite thing in the whole episode was how they kept going back to the piece of paper that the hotel lease was written on that was literally, a plain sheet of paper. They kept asking why this wasn't a more important document that they would keep in a special place and I found myself asking the same questions. It's baffling. This was such a great episode of my all time favorite podcast and I can't wait until April Richardson does the wedding of Zack and Kelly on what I assume will be the final episode ever of "Go Bayside".

Number four is the episode of "Doughboys" where they talk about In and Out Burger. "Doughboys" has been my new favorite podcast and this episode takes the cake. In most episodes, there's a back and forth between Mike Mitchell and Nick Wiger and the guest just chimes in with whomever they are friends with. It's all very funny, but this episode was bizarre in the best possible way. Their guest was Armen Weitzman. Comedy fans know who Weitzman is, and how weird he can be, but he was off the handles in this particular "Doughboys". He would go back and forth between talking about the food to talking straight nonsense. While I was listening, I was enthralled at how wacky this episode was becoming. Even Mitchell and Wiger seemed to be taken aback at where all this was going. They even stopped their bickering towards each other and let Weitzman go on some long, strange rants. The best part was Weitzman explaining why his basketball podcast with Mitchell never came to fruition. This was the most bizarre thing in a completely absurd episode. I loved every second and I've listened to it multiple times just to hear the craziness. Not every episode is like this one, but I'm glad they have this, because it's one for the ages.

Coming in at number three I have "The Bill Simmons Podcast" episode with Michael Rappaport. As we all know by now, Simmons was fired from ESPN, took a social media hiatus for a couple of months and finally announced he'd be returning with a podcast and a TV show soon. The podcast was first and his early episodes were with friends and former athletes. It was basically the same thing as the "B.S. Report". Then, he had Michael Rappaport on and it was magical. He talked about everything fro his love for Knicks basketball to Rocky's trainer being a ladies man. He professed his love for Knicks rookie Kristaps Porzingis, calling him the "Latvian Gangster". He also kept calling Latvia, Lativia. He added an "I" that didn't need to be there. He also pushed Simmons to say something bad about ESPN. I loved how he was all in his business trying to get Simmons to say anything about his firing and what led to it. Simmons didn't say anything on air, but I like to imagine he crushed ESPN off air. Rappaport was a great relief from all the Patriots, Red Sox and Celtics love that flooded the first month of Bill Simmons new podcast. He was lively, constantly cursing and just being himself. I loved it and I know most of his listeners did too. I can't wait for part two because there needs to be a part two.

My number two podcast episode was Comedy Bang Bang's fourth edition of "Farts and Procreation". This was bittersweet. Harris Wittels unfortunately overdosed and died the week before this episode came out. It was tragic and he has been greatly missed. He died way too young and had a horrible addiction problem. I didn't even know him and I miss him, so I can't even imagine what was going through Scott Aukerman's head when he did the intro. Well, his intro was an absolutely beautiful homage to his friend. He spoke of the good and the bad times they had and their close friendship. These two were very good friends. I'll admit, the intro brought me to tears. Then, they played their annual episode and it was as funny as one could've hoped for. Wittels, Chelsea Peretti and Adam Scott were as goofy and funny as they were on the previous three. Aukerman did his thing as the host, keeping the pace. Wittels did his classic "Harrison's Foam Corner" where he tells jokes that aren't ready for the stage yet and it was, once again, riotous. Peretti and Scott were great too. This was a great sendoff to the great career of Harris Wittels that was cut way too short. This is another episode I go back and listen to because it reminds me how truly talented Harris Wittels was. He was a great comedy writer nd he will be deeply missed.

And that brings us to my number one podcast episode of 2015, the "WTF with Marc Maron" episode where he interviewed President Barack Obama. This was a watermark moment in podcast history. I know that Obama was on other podcast, but not a comedian's podcast that thousands of hard core comedy fans listen to. This was a huge deal to me because I am an Obama supporter and I'm a Maron fan, so put those two together, I'm immediately on board. Maron did a great job with the interview, asking him all types of questions. Obama was even better, answering everything and telling more. He spoke of his father not really being around. He spoke of his love for his mom. He praised his wife. He talked about being a dad to teenage girls. He came off as a regular guy, not the President and I loved that. This was easily the best one hour of podcasting I listened to every year. And, I'm glad it was Maron that got the interview. He's gotten some big time people to be on his show, but he got the President and to people of my generation, this was great for us to hear this powerful man sound like an everyday guy. Maron and Obama did a great job with this episode. I mean, how could anything else be number one beside this episode.

So there you have my top five podcast episodes of 2015. Come back tomorrow where I wrap it up with my top five sports moments of 2015.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Next year his top five podcasts will all be ones he is a featured guest on. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik. 

Sunday Night TV on Fox is Mostly All Right

Stop hanging out with Mother Nature. Good TV is back on.

Sunday night TV is back people.

I've been waiting all summer, now we are in fall technically, for good TV shows. In the summer, we are subjected to reality show after reality show. These shows are cheap to make and viewers flock to them for reasons I'll never understand. My wife loves reality TV. She watches all the iterations of "Teen Mom", she likes all the reality cooking shows, anything except the Kardashian crap that's on TV basically. I inevitably end up watching some of these shows with her because I enjoy spending time with her. But, these are really awful shows. They're all the same and they tend to be very boring because reality is pretty boring.

There was some good summer TV though. I loved "Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll", season two of "Married" has been great, and "Review" is the best show on TV right now in my personal opinion. But, most of these are just about done with their seasons as summer comes to an end. Well, last night Fox returned to its Sunday night programming with four of the best, most enjoyable shows on TV right now. There's technically five shows on their Sunday night lineup, but I don't care for "Family Guy", so I don't watch it. But, we got season premieres from "Bob's Burgers", "The Simpsons", "Brooklyn 99" and "Last Man on Earth". I absolutely adore all four of these shows. Everyone who reads my writings knows that I'm a HUGE "Simpsons" fan and if you listened to the most recent podcast, you all know how I feel about "Last Man on Earth". "Bob's Burgers" and "Brooklyn 99" are just as good.

The night started off with "Bob's Burgers". In the season premiere, we got three different stories, one from Gene, one from Tina and one from Louise, each talking about what would've happened had Bob and Linda never got married. This topic is brought up because Bob is losing his mustache, which is his most attractive quality to Linda. Tina believes that, no matter what, fate brought her parents together and, mustache or no mustache, they still would have found and married each other. The kids stories are all hilarious, Gene's being my favorite, and the episode is great. "Bob's Burgers" is the type of show that just gets better and stronger as each season goes on. I was very pleased with the premiere.

Next, we got the biggest story of the summer, in sitcom news, that Homer and Marge were going to split up on the season premiere of "The Simpsons". The episode started with the two of them in therapy, due to Homer's new found narcolepsy, and Marge is fed up with Homer's excuses. Homer isn't listening, classic Homer, and he falls asleep. Here we get the Simpsons version of the movie "Inception". Did Homer and Marge really split up, or was it just a dream from Homer? Marge was asleep at one point, so was it a dream from Marge? I'll leave that up to your own interpretation. Lena Dunham was excellent as Homer's new girlfriend. Another solid season premiere from "The Simpsons". I love that a show that's been on the air for almost thirty years can still come up with fresh and funny ideas.

"Brooklyn 99" started right where the last season left off. Jake and Amy kissed and their relationship is the thru line for the whole episode, but they get a new captain and we get to see where Holt and Gina are now. The precinct's new captain was played hilariously by Bill Hader. He was a total hard ass, but had an aortic problem and would have involuntary heart attacks. Hader was really, really good. Amy and Jake decide to date for real and the whole precinct eventually finds out, even with the two of them trying their best to keep it secret. Holt is now working for Wunch in a terrible circumstance. They hate each other and she's his superior and she's giving him tedious, menial tasks. The shouting match between the two of them is very funny. Gina is his secretary and she is still very full of herself and really great. Chelsea Peretti is perfect for this role. Back at the 99, Hader has a for real heart attack and dies, so they get yet another captain. The new captain is "the vulture", those of you who watch the show know exactly who I'm taking about, and everyone is extremely upset.

The final show of the night was "Last Man on Earth". When we left last season, Phil had been kicked out of Tucson and was told not to come back. To everyone's surprise, Carol came to his aid and they drove away. We opened this season by seeing a stealth plane on the streets of DC and Phil and Carol are driving to the store to get tequila. There's great moments in the White House with the two of them laying together in the margarita pool, they play with busts of the presidents, Carol tries on a lot of the former First Ladies clothes and they ride dune buggies around the house. We learn that they haven't found a place to stay yet and it's clear that Carol wants to go back to Tucson. This starts a fight between the two of them and Carol retreats to the back of the RV to sleep. Phil stops at a gas station to siphon gas and Carol goes into the store, unbeknownst to Phil, to get some clothes. Phil finishes with the gas and starts the RV and drives away, loudly listening to music. Carol gets stranded, and it's not until hours later that Phil realizes Carol isn't there and he turns around to try and find her. He ends up back in Tucson, but it's a ghost town and there looks to have been a fire. Carol isn't there and Phil doesn't know what to do next. All the while this is going on, there's another story involving Phil's brother who's in outer space. He's looking for any sign of life, but no luck so far. As the episode ends, Phil, Carol and Phil's brother are all alone. It was sad, but such a great ending to the season premiere.

I'm so excited for all four of these shows to be back. Sunday's are now complete and will be during these shows runs. So, make sure you all stop watching reality TV now that Sunday nights on Fox are providing you some excellent, original material.

As Homer would say, "woo hoo!"

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He thinks HBO Sunday night is for suckers who still hide their 20 sided die. Follow him on twitter @tykulik.