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.

John Hodgman doesn't do your Normal Comedy Show, and that is Good

Boats + Maine = Comedy

Last night I went with a friend of mine to see comedian, podcaster, and actor John Hodgman at the Ready Room in St.Louis.

I didn't know what to expect from Hodgman's standup show. I knew, prior to the show, who he is. He's been a correspondent on "The Daily Show" for years. He appears on a television show I enjoy quite a bit on FXX called "Married". He has his own podcast, "Judge John Hodgman" and he appears on many other podcasts as a guest. And yes, almost everyone knows him as the PC in the old Apple Computers commercials. But, he just started his own standup tour, and like I said before, I didn't know what to expect. Everything he's done before has been a mishmash of comedy, drama and total absurdity. He was straight forward as the PC. He's a married guy that's sex crazed on "Married". On his podcast, he simply judges things. People give him two topics and he picks a winner, simple as that. When he's a guest on other podcasts, he's usually a glorified version of himself. On "The Daily Show", he's a smart ass street reporter.

That's what I expected going into last night, "The Daily Show" version of John Hodgman. And, he did deliver on that version, but his show was so much more. I was very pleasantly surprised at all the stories within the two main stories he told. He seemed to be more a humorist than a standup. That made me happy. Yes, he was his character from "The Daily Show" except more vulnerable. He told the audience that every story was 100 percent true, and we all believed him. It was different from other standup shows I go to in it's structure. The majority of standup comics tell stories or they have jokes that come at you nonstop. The only time most comedians stop is to let the laughter stop and then bam, they hit you with another joke. That's what I'm used to. Well, last night, John Hodgman was on stage for almost 90 minutes and he told two total stories. I'd never seen anything like this before. What made it so enjoyable to me was the fact that I was never bored. You'd think that if you only heard two full stories in 90 minutes you'd get bored, but that wasn't the case last night. And yes, he'd tell little mini jokes in the stories. He's a comic, comics tell jokes. But, he's not your typical standup. Like I said before, he's a humorist, as pretentious as that may sound.

His first story was about his summer home in Massachusetts. He regaled us with stories about taking trash to a dump and having to make up stories due to his own insecurities. We learned that he has two children that are at the age where their parents are too old to hang out with. He and comedic musician John Coulton are long time friends. He told us how the both of them got super high, went swimming in a river and made cairns. The best part of this story was that college students slowly drove past them, turned a corner and came back to where they were, Hodgman extremely frightened at this point, and were shocked that the two of them were hanging out in their small town. The college students were huge fans of both of them. There were many other stories and bits attached to this first story, and they were all great.

The second story was about his other summer home in Maine. It was at this point where I heard one of the funniest things in standup that I've ever heard. After telling us that he had a second summer home, he said "welcome to a night of white privilege comedy"! That was hilarious! He knew that it wasn't relatable, but he managed to find a way to make it absolutely hilarious. We got stories during his second part of his show about how sad and gloomy Maine is. He told us about a tourist shop that has all the trappings of your typical tourist shop. You couldn't use the restroom there, there was aisle after aisle of crappy toys and souvenirs and, of course, they sold fudge. I was happy to hear that he doesn't care for fudge because, "it's disgusting and looks like shit". His exact words and I couldn't agree more. I hate fudge. My favorite part of this part of the show was him talking about buying a boat. Another unrelatable story that he made very funny. He told us all about the maker of the boat and how he was a famous guy in the town they have their summer home in. Apparently this guy was a huge asshole and he only made 107 of these "peapod" boats. He told his wife that, just to have fun, they'd bid on the opening bid. The boat was being sold at auction. He asked around and the townspeople told him that the last boat sold for over 10,000 dollars. So, he figured opening bid was enough and someone would eventually outbid them. Well, the opening bid came in at 3,500 dollars and his wife raised the placard. But, no one else was bidding, much to Hodgman's dismay. Finally someone pushed the bid to 3,600 dollars and he thought they were in the clear. Not the case. Hodgman's wife was caught up in the auction and bid 3,700 dollars. After seven minutes of no one bidding, the boat was sold to them. So, now he owns a boat. The story he told of the townspeople congratulating him and his wife for how cheap they got the boat was very funny.

Just when we thought the show was over, Hodgman pulled out a ukulele and played two folk songs. Nothing humorous about the songs, just two sweet, very nice folk songs. And, my goodness does he have a very good singing voice. I was shocked and loved every second of how he ended his show. It was completely off the wall and super, super cool. Go out and see John Hodgman's Vacationland if he's coming anywhere close to you. It's not your typical standup show, but you will enjoy yourself.

I know I did.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the co host of the X Millennial Man podcast. It is funny how many comedy shows Ty attends. Follow him on twitter @tykulik.