Where are the Good Thanksgiving Centered Television Shows and Movies?

While walking past my wife's home office this afternoon I noticed some turkey stuff on her screen. As I got a closer look it was tv actors in turkey outfits or eating turkey. I asked what they were doing and she said they were having people put down their favorite movies or tv shows centered around Thanksgiving. It seemed like a relatively normal thing that offices do.

After looking at her screen for a minute I went for a run, and then my wheels started to turn. I think a lot when I am out on my own running. So I started to think of tv shows or movies that I enjoy centered around Thanksgiving. I have not seen "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" from start to finish in my lifetime. I remember my mom really liked a movie called "Home for the Holidays", which is solid but also very depressing. "Thankskilling" is also a solid option, but that is a movie that is so bad it is good, and I wouldn't necessarily call it a "Thanksgiving" movie.

My mind wandered to tv shows. There are a lot of tv shows that show a Thanksgiving, or feature a turkey, but no show has a real "Thanksgiving" episode in my mind. And let me be clear, these are tv shows that I watch. I've never seen "Friends". I stopped watching "New Girl" after two seasons. I do not watch a whole lot of regular channels tv programs. But I do watch a ton of "Simpsons". I was racking my brain. They have the episode where Homer is Mr Burns' prank monkey, but that is more of a Christmas episode. It centers on Homer being Santa in the Thanksgiving Day Parade. They also have other episodes that feature a turkey, but again, Thanksgiving is not the holiday being celebrated. I noticed someone on my wife's computer put the episode of "Seinfeld" on there where Newman imagines Kramer as a turkey. But this is not a Thanksgiving ep at all. This is all about Kramer using butter as sunscreen and shaving cream and he sits outside for too long. He also stays in his hot tub too long. There is not even a mention of any holiday within the twenty-two minutes. The closest I can think of a tv show that fully features Thanksgiving is "Bob's Burgers". They have full eps dedicated to the holiday. But, even within these shows, it is all about Bob's joy of cooking the meal. They do not give thanks. There is no real fighting. They do not have turkeys everywhere. The episodes are wonderful, some of my absolute favorites, but they do not scream out Thanksgiving like other shows do with other holidays. Hell, even a show like "The League", which is all about football, barely even mentions the holiday outside of one episode in a late season. I mean, look at a show like "The Office". Their Christmas episodes are legendary. I could say the same thing about "The Simpsons''. Outside "Treehouse of Horrors' ', they tackle Christmas the best. Back to "The Office '', they did a Valentine's Day episode that was classic. "Parks and Rec" also had some really excellent Valentine's Day episodes.

I just do not get why Thanksgiving does not get the love on the shows I watch. But please, tell me some good Thanksgiving stuff you all watch. I want to know what to seek out, what I should be watching this time of year. I am going to remedy my lack of seeing "Planes, Trains and Automobiles", but I need more recommendations. I want more as well. Enlighten me everyone. Tell me what to seek. Thanks in advance.

Ty

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

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.  

Millennial Nostalgia: "The League" was Great Television Anchored By Three Great Actors

I have been re watching "The League" on Hulu for the past couple months. I was a fan of the show when it was on, I watched it on Netflix, and when I saw it was on Hulu, I decided to give it another viewing. The show is very good. It is well written, well acted and it seems like the people involved had a lot of fun making it. It was also pretty cool to see a show centered around fantasy football.

In this third viewing of the show I have realized 3 of the performances stand above all else. The other actors are still great, I enjoyed them all, but Paul Scheer, Nick Kroll and Jason Mantzoukas are, far and away, the best part of the series. Paul Scheer plays Andre, the put upon friend that everyone else makes fun of, even though he may be the most successful. Andre is the number one plastic surgeon in Chicago, he has a humongous apartment and seems generally happy. He even won the league twice in the series run. But, everyone makes fun of him. He is the butt of all the jokes. He has to do the worst punishments. And he takes it all in stride. The way Scheer portrays this character is so perfect. We all know people like this. We all had or have that friend that we keep around to bag on. Sometimes it may be you that is that friend. But the way Scheer does it is so good. He is funny. His outfits that he wears are so bad, and when he tries to rationalize how great they are, you almost believe that he truly believes it. His unlucky love life is hilarious. Be it the girl he blinded or his crazy Uber driver or Meegan, he plays them all perfectly. And to be the type of guy that buys into whatever fad is the thing at the time, I loved it. When he was an urban forager I loved it. When he was wearing a daishiki, hilarious. When got into vlogging and internet culture, it was tremendous. Scheer was so, so good on this show. It is the best thing I have seen him in to date, and that includes "The Disaster Artist" or "The Good Place". He was phenomenal on "The League".

Nick Kroll, as the smug and arrogant Ruxin, was equally as great. He played the insecure and over confident lawyer so well. He was the shit talker of the group, yet he still believed that everyone was colluding against him whenever his team got beat. He was never really secure with much of anything going on in his life. Every time Taco, Jon Lajoie, was at his house, hanging with his wife, you could see the jealousy. When his friends would convince him to do something stupid in fantasy football, he would just do it against his own will. He was the one fantasy player that constantly second guessed himself. Even when he lost his wife, a very weird turn in the final season, he still tried to get easy fantasy football wins. His own wife's death didn't stop him from trying to win a stupid trophy. His smugness, his shit talking, his tinkering, it was all so perfect. This is clearly one of his best roles.

But, the best of the best, and this may be a hot take, was Jason Mantzoukas as Rafi. He is so gross, weird, scary and absolutely hilarious. My favorite episodes are the ones that feature him and Dirty Randy, Seth Rogen. A lot of people hate these, but I adore them. The episode entitled "When Rafi Met Randy" is my favorite of all time. To see them in a mental institution, and turn into the characters they became there was so amazing. Outside of the episodes featuring him and Randy, whenever he showed up with the main cast, I always got pumped up. I knew it was going to be great. When he first shows up, and he, Pete and Andre go to a party, and he agrees to be the designated driver, then gets hammered, awesome. When he starts to date Ruxin's au pair, played by Brie Larson, tremendous. When he "meets" up with sex addict Russell, Rob Huebel, it was disturbing and hilarious. When he helps film a porno in Andre's loft, I was cracking up the whole time. But, outside of the Dirty Randy episodes, again, was after Sofia died, he stays to help Ruxin grieve. It is so weird and gross and disturbing, yet I found myself enjoying his performance more and more.

"The League" was a great show, but Scheer, Kroll and Mantzoukas were far and away the best part of the 7 seasons. If you are considering watching the show, or revisiting it, watch these three a little closer. They really stand out. I'm glad I watched it again, and I'm glad that I paid more attention this time to all the actors. These three really shined.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He is next thinking of going into the way back machine and find out just what is “Blue’s Clues”

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.

Cloves and Fedoras: Listen and Enjoy Wolfie's Just Fine Debut Album "I Remember But Then I Forgot"

Last week the band Wolfie's Just Fine released their debut album, "I Remembered But Then I Forgot", and it is really good. Now, for those of you that haven't heard of Wolfie's Just Fine, I bet most of you know their lead singer and guitar player, Jon Lajoie.

Lajoie is a comedian and actor from Canada. He has had small parts in movies and TV shows, but he is best known for playing the role of Taco on "The League". He and Rafi(Jason Mantzoukas) were my personal favorite characters on the show. Taco was the younger, stoner brother of Kevin(Steve Ranizzissi). He was always broke, but coming up with new business ventures. Anytime Lajoie was on, it was bound to be hilarious. He also has released solo, comedy music records under his own name. I own these albums as well. I bought them after I heard him sing on "The League". I thought the stuff he did on the show was funny, and the albums are just the same. It's goofy music. He sings folk, rock, pop and rap songs, but they are all very vulgar and very hilarious. He has some great songs on his first couple of solo records. Some of my favorites are "Stay At Home Dad", a Rage Against the Machineesque rock song about changing diapers, feeding his baby and making dinner for the family. He also has a folksy tune about the horrifying "2 Girls One Cup" video, where he almost makes it a love song. It's disgusting and terrifying and awful, but damn it's catchy. He has a fake, almost comically bad rap song called "Show Me Your Genitals", that is exactly what you think it's about. The way Lajoie raps the song is great and very funny. Basically, all his early music and his YouTube channel is based on comedy. He doesn't take himself too seriously, and I like that.

About a month ago, I had heard rumors that he was going to make a "real" album. No jokes, very little swear words and have a real, straight up folk band backing him up. I was intrigued. This wasn't the same feeling I experienced with Donald Glover when I found out he was a rapper who went by Childish Gambino. I thought he would be jokey, but he is a straight up rapper, and he is very good. The feeling I had when hearing that Lajoie was going to put out a real folk album was gloom. I didn't know if it would work. His comedy stuff is so funny and plays to his persona so well, I didn't want him to stray from that.

Then, about 2 or 3 weeks ago, Lajoie released the first single from Wolfie's Just Fine, "It's a Job", and I listened with caution. Instead of the gloom I initially felt, I immediately loved the song. His voice was a perfect fit for this style and genre of music. The backing band was great, never playing too loudly or too softly, they hit the sweet spot. I don't know why I had the gloom feeling at first, because a lot of his comedy music is folk based. So, instead of being dirty or gross, he just wrote and sang regular old folk songs and the single is awesome.

The album came out last Friday and I bought it that day. I have listened to the album three full times now, and it gets better and better to me every time. I love Lajoie's voice on every song. I love the band on every song. I love the lyrics and I love the music. I genuinely love this entire album. It's all folk, but the band does both slow and upbeat folk songs. It's really good guys.

Besides, "It's a Job", there are some other great songs like "I Forgot", "Todd and Janelle", "Never Me", "Marie-Eve" and "Running From My Savior". "I Forgot" is one of the slower folk songs, with a great guitar riff and great lyrics. The song slow burns and the riff running through the whole song is wonderful. It's a beautifully slow, throw back folk song. "Todd and Janelle" is a great, faster love song about two people that don't seem to really like each other. It's the only song with swear words on it, but it's not to shock, it's needed to explain the relationship between the two title characters. The music is faster, with a great drum groove. I didn't like the song at first, but on the third listen, I was on board and it's one of my favorite tunes on the whole record. "Never Me" has a great piano groove and awesome vocals from Lajoie. The song is very Billy Joel esque, but in a good way. I don't care for Joel personally, but I do enjoy his faster piano music and this is Lajoie's best interpretation of a good Billy Joel song. It's one of the more fun songs on the record. "Marie-Eve" is a wonderful love song. It's all the best things about old school folk stuffed into one 3 minute song. This song could have easily been written and sung by a young Bob Dylan. I wouldn't have been surprised had it been on the soundtrack for "Inside Llewyn Davis" had it been released at the time. I love this song. It's probably my favorite song on the whole record. The closer, "Running From My Savior" is so good and kind of boastful. It's a very good mix of rock and folk, definitely leaning more folk, and it finds Lajoie calling himself a God at the end of the song and during the chorus. I like that he can still be boastful, even when making a legit album. It also doesn't hurt that the song is very well written and very well played by the band.

I love this whole album, obviously. I hope Lajoie continues to do both styles of music. I still really enjoy his comedy music, but I really, really like this new direction he has taken. As I've written many times before, it's nice when musicians and singers take chances, and this is a huge risk taken by Lajoie, that totally pays off. I hope this album gets Lajoie noticed and recognized more in the music business. He's a well known actor by now, but he needs to be more well known as a musician.

Remember when listening to Wolfie's Just Fine, if you are already a Lajoie fan, it is not comedy, it is legit music. Don't expect jokes. But, I think if you are a true fan of his, you will really enjoy this album and really like this direction he is moving in. I love the band and I love the album. Go check it out if you are already a fan of Lajoie's, but also check it out if you are a fan of folk music. It's worth a listen, and I think all fans will really like it. I know that I do.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He is getting more and more interested in the world of comedy - music fusion. His most anticipated film of 2016 fits this bill. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

After a strong episode, Ty is optimistic about the end of "The League"

One more episode, then I can turn the TV off

Spoiler alert, in fact this whole blog will be a spoiler alert for the whole season, so watch the episode before reading this.

Last nights episode of "The League" on FXX, "The 13 Stages of Grief" has been, hands down, the best episode of this, their final season. 

We found out in the last episode, , Ruxin's(Nick Kroll) wife, Sofia(Nadine Velazquez) was killed during a plastic surgery blunder. They had a funeral and everything, but there is still some question as to whether she's really dead. I say this because last nights episode opened with all the actors hanging around at a lunch table and asking Ruxin if he's grieved enough so they can get back to keeping regular score in their fantasy football league. Ruxin still seems pretty shook up, but he relents and says it's okay for them to go back to keeping real score. Ruxin leaves the lunch and heads to his empty home. When he walks in the door, he sees two table setting with pasta and bread and some lit candles. He thinks it's Sofia, but when he turns around, Rafi(Jason Mantzoukas) is standing right behind him. Any episode that is Rafi heavy are my favorites. So, when I saw him, I was immediately into the episode. Rafi was Sofia's younger brother, so he tells Ruxin that he is there to help him grieve the loss of Sofia and that he was putting him through his 13 stages of grief.

For those of you that don't know about the show or Rafi, he's a disgusting, dirty and downright nasty person. He has a drinking and drug problem. He shoots pornography with his buddy Dirty Randy(Seth Rogen). His sex life doesn't just include people, he has relations with animals and food. He is a garbage person to a t. He's so gross.

Back to the episode.

While telling Ruxin that he's going to help him grieve, he says that he prepared the dinner in his "toilet-kitchen". This is so foul, especially to Ruxin, he's a HUGE germaphobe. In Kevin's(Steve Ranizzissi) house, the rest of the crew is talking fantasy football. Pete(Mark Duplass) walks in and starts to talk about his daily fantasy team. This is off limits to the rest of the crew. They say, and I agree, that daily fantasy football is a useless, non strategic form of fantasy football. They will not allow Pete to talk about it. Jenny(Katie Aselton) goes as far as calling it "cheating on your fantasy wife and bragging about it". They, and I, hate daily fantasy leagues.

Later on we see Andre(Paul Scheer) talking to Ruxin at Ruxin's house, asking how he's doing, how's he dealing with his loss. But, the main reason he's there is to see if Ruxin is still keeping his reservation at the Michelin star restaurant that the whole crew is going to the week before fantasy playoffs. After Ruxin kind of hints that he doesn't know if he still wants to go, Rafi shows up with a bloodied bag that we come to find that there's a dead raccoon in. Rafi says this is stage 3, the episode doesn't give us every stage, facing death. He wants Ruxin to look the dead raccoon in the face, Rafi is calling it Sofia now, and drink it's blood. He swears it will help him get over Sofia and that he's already drank some of the raccoon's blood. This is where Andre leaves. He cannot stand Rafi. The whole crew doesn't like Rafi in fact.

Later on, the whole crew is hanging out and all of the sudden their league is shut down due to graphic material on their fantasy message board. They have always had very cruel, hurtful and hateful speak on the boards, so they can't figure out why, now, they were being shut down. Rafi emerges and asks if they have seen the video he just posted on the board of him and Dirty Randy having relations with a chicken in Mexico. So, that's why they were shut down. They now have to do all their fantasy stuff offline, like the old days they say. This leaves Kevin, he's the commissioner, with a ton of work. He has to track add/drop players, scores, trades, pretty much anything that you can do with a click of a button now in fantasy sports, he has to do by hand. It's very hard to keep track of it all.

While Kevin is doing all this work, Andre goes to the restaurant to try and put the reservation under his name, but it doesn't work. At another point, Kevin goes to Ruxin's house to try and figure out all the players he wants to add and drop and we get an excellent scene between Ruxin and Rafi arguing while Kevin watches. Rafi shows up with a tank top and an apron, giving them chips and salsa and says that this is part of the grieving. Ruxin has always had someone around to feed him and his friends during games, so that's what Rafi is doing now. They fight and nag, much to the chagrin of Kevin. The fight ends when Rafi throws a pregnancy test at Ruxin and says, "by the way, I' pregnant. I shit on it this morning and it's positive". I was crying laughing. Ruxin even sniffs the test and is immediately repulsed exclaiming, "why would I sniff it!?". So funny.

Near the end of the episode, Rafi tells Ruxin that the last step in the grieving process is for the two of them to sleep together. Did I mention he was wearing Sofia's underwear? No, well he was. He tells Ruxin that he never got one last time to be intimate with his wife, so he would give him that since he and Sofia are blood related. Ruxin wants no part of this, so he lights a vanilla scented candle. The scent of vanilla makes Rafi gag and while he's getting sick, Ruxin actually says that he is through grieving. The process is over and it worked.

The rest of the crew is at the restaurant with Taco(Jon Lajoie) posing as Ruxin. Their plan isn't working, but Ruxin comes in and saves the table and the dinner. At said dinner, they all want to know who made the playoffs. Kevin presents them with scores, but the math is all wrong and nobody is pleased. They decide to let everyone on the playoffs and make it a one week, winner take all for the Shiva. High score wins, low score gets the Sacko, the last place trophy. They all go to the Shiva and give praise one last time and proceed to leave the restaurant. When leaving, Meegan(Leslie Bibb) is there. Meegan was married to Pete in season one, they got divorced and it was revealed this season that her and Andre were dating. They eventually broke up and this is the first they're seeing each other since ending it. Meegan takes off her coat to reveal that she's pregnant and the episode ends there.

I was so happy at how good this episode was. This season has been kind of so so, but "The 13 Stages of Grief" hearkened back to the best of "The League". They have one episode left and if it's half as good as this one, I will be very happy. This was a great first step towards ending the show and let's hope the series finale follows in the same foot steps. I'm more happy and prepared for the series finale today than I have been all season with "The League".

Now end it strong.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. The daily fantasy he participates in is the one about all of his kids sleeping through the night. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.