The SeedSing (half) Year in Pop Culture: The Top Five Television Shows of 2015

Find the nob and change the channel

Day three of my best of 2015 countdown will be my top five shows pf the year. All the shows are in their second, third or fourth season except for one of them. The shows don't have to necessarily be shows that premiered this year. Sometimes the second or third season of a show is the best. Take the US version of "The Office". That show peaked in year four but they went on to make five more seasons. The majority of my countdown is all comedy shows. That's what I prefer. Sure, there's one show that could be considered a dramedy, but I'm a comedy fan. No "Mad Men", which I loathed this final season. I also don't watch any of the superhero one hour shows, be they on Netflix or basic cable. So, don't expect what the majority has put as their best of 2015. Comedy takes a certain taste and most publications writers don't have that taste. On with the countdown.

At number five I have "Better Call Saul", the dramedy of the group. I was very skeptical of this show when I first heard about it. I thought the writers of "Breaking Bad" did an excellent job of tying up the story of Saul Goodman, so why make a prequel type show for him? I began to get on board when I saw that Vince Gilligan and the majority of the "Breaking Bad" writers were hired to write the series. Then I watched and I couldn't look away from the TV. This was a show when it was on, I was focused. No cell phones or computers to look at, "Better Call Saul" needed my undivided attention. The show has many characters but make no mistake, this is Bob Oedenkirk's show, he's the star. And he does a damn fine job as the title character. We meet him as Jimmy McGill, his name before he became a "criminal" lawyer and he's a schlubby, down on his luck kind of guy. He lives in his brothers shadow, played excellently by Michael McKean. His brother has a melt down and won't leave the house, so Jimmy tries to take up the slack. There's a ton of great episodes in the first season. Jimmy becomes a lawyer for the elderly, he gets some skateboarders involved in a hit and run scam and he even helps a family launder thousands of dollars. You can see early on that he is a shady person. The best episode, by far, of the first season was when we get Mike Ehrmantraut(Johnathan Banks) back story. We all remember Mike from "Breaking Bad" and this episode lets us see why he does what he does on both shows. It's an incredibly moving and powerful episode. It's one of the finest 44 minutes TV has had on in quite a while. "Better Call Saul" goes into season two in February and if it's half as good as season one, we will have a mega hit on our hands.

My number four show is "Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp". This show was perfect in every sense. I love that all the original actors from the cult hit "Wet Hot American Summer" recreate their roles. They've all aged the 10 or so years since the movie, but they're actually playing younger versions in this series. The fact that it was on Netflix was awesome because I watched the whole thing in one day. I loved this show. I also like that they brought in new actors like Kristin Wiig, Chris Pine, Jordan Peele and Jason Schwatzman. They were all great. Jon Benjamin as the camp counselor that becomes the can of talking vegetables was hilarious. This show was great in every possible way. Paul Rudd shines once again and Michael Showalter was just as hilarious. My favorite episode was when Elizabeth Banks, who's a reporter at a magazine, poses as a teenager to get a story on how real teenagers act. All she has to do to look like a teenager you ask, pull her hair into a side ponytail. Hilarious. I hope they do more episodes because this show was just what the fans of the movie needed.

My number three show is "Last Man on Earth". When we left the first season, Phil(Will Forte) and Carol(Kristin Schaal) were on the move from Tucson. We picked up this season with them trying to find a new place to live. Nothing was as good as Tucson so they went back to find it completely abandoned. We come to find out that every else moved to Malibu. When Phil and Carol end up in Malibu, that's when all the hilarity starts. First of all, we get a cameo from Will Ferrell. He doesn't say one word and is spooked to death by Carol, literally. Everything else that ensues is great. Phil, who is now going by his original name, Tandy, is put in stocks and has an electric dog collar on until they find it fit for him to live with everyone again. Carol is her usual upbeat self, even when the worst things are going on around them. Todd(Mel Rodriguez) and Melissa(January Jones) break up. The other Phil(Boris Kodjoe) professes his undying love for Carol, but finds out he's impregnated Erica(Cleopatra Coleman). And Gail(Mary Steenburgen) is deeply distraught by the fact that her lover, Ferrell, was scared to death. There's a lot going on this season and the season finale was very heavy, but this show was pretty damn funny all season long.

My number two show is "Review". This show is the weirdest, most innovative thing I've seen on TV ever. Andy Daly plays Forrest McNeil, a guy that reviews everyday life. Not movies or TV or music, just life situations much to his and the people he loves demise. This season saw him start a cult and lose the cult to his girlfriend. The girlfriend he got in an earlier episode was from a review that was to sleep with a teacher. He gets his first girlfriend locked up for stealing pills from a hospital on the first episode of the season. He now lives with his dad and he got both his dad's home and summer home destroyed this season. He also tries to get the perfect body, but becomes addicted to steroids. Everything is so hilariously messy and the best episode was when he had to review, "killing someone". He doesn't want to, obviously, but he accidentally kills a man that he was in a fight with earlier in the episode. This leads to him going to jail and reviewing life experiences from jail. He says that the producers of the show are not who he thinks they are and that they want him to struggle and lose everyone he loves. He even has a chance to get back together with his ex wife, but that blows up in his face as well. "Review" is an excellent show and I love that Andy Daly finally has a project that suits his comedy to perfection.

Coming in at number one is "Nathan For You". What else is there to say about this show that I haven't already said. He's made man caves in women's clothing shops, he's walked a tight rope to make someone else famous, he made a play that was literally just people sitting at a bar smoking cigarettes and talking about absolutely nothing. He did so many crazy things this season. The best for me was the outerwear that supported Holocaust history and the fitness craze, The Movement, that he started. The Holocaust thing was absurd, upsetting and hilarious. The setup he had, with a rabbi's blessing, in that store was downright appalling, but he found a way to make it funny. He's also earned over 300,000 dollars for Holocaust awareness due to his new line of jackets and hats. The fitness craze episode was just bizarre. He convinced a body builder type guy to be the spokes person for losing weight and gaining muscle by only lifting and moving boxes. The episode as a whole is one of the most cringe worthy, yet laugh out loud funny things on TV all year. I'm currently reading the book that a ghost writer wrote, who Nathan Fielder hired off of Craigslist, wrote in two days. "Nathan For You" is by far the best show on TV and I cannot wait to see how he tops himself in season four.

So there you have my top five TV shows of the year. Come back tomorrow for the best podcast episodes, in my opinion, for 2015.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He is building muscle mass by moving Christmas presents from one house to another. Learn all about his secret by following Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Being a reality show moron does not make a person a better cook

The proper way to serve oysters

I watch a lot of cooking shows.  I've written about my love for Ina Garten and "Barefoot Contessa". My wife and I watch "Chopped", "Cutthroat Kitchen", "Pioneer Woman", basically any type of show that makesfood the star. We love them. It's an escape and it's nice to have some noise on in the background while doing stuff around the house.

I've become to grow wary of the competition cooking shows though. These shows take themselves WAY too seriously. The way the chefs and the judges act is downright laughable. You hear the chefs talking about stupid shit like doing food "farm to table" or "cooking saved my life" or "I'm the type of chef that will smile in your face, then cut your throat out to get what I want". It's all ridiculous. Sure, I do believe, for a very small few, that cooking may have saved someone's life, but ease up. I'm sure there's other things that helped to save your life. Maybe rehab or loved ones or growing up. All those are more important than cooking, in my opinion. This whole "farm to table" started out as a nice idea, but it's been beaten to death. I'm so tired of hearing these young chefs, most born after 1995, talking about the good old days of cooking. You're 20 years old, the good old days were 1990 to you. Just stop with the whole "farm to table", unless you're a farmer. And this new breed of chef, the asshole chef I'll call them, they're insufferable. These chefs act like cooking is a sport. No offense to the elderly, but my grandma cooked until the day she died at the age of 84, and she was a much better chef than these punks that think it's a sport. Get over yourself, you're a chef, not a professional athlete.

Like I said, I'm growing very wary of the competition shows and the worst offender is "Top Chef". "Top Chef" is laughably bad now. These chefs are the worst of the new asshole chefs. They're all young, douchebag chefs. On "Top Chef", the "cheftestants" take themselves so seriously, you'd think they were saving lives with their food. Calm down, all your doing is making food. Your job isn't that important. Almost anyone can cook. And before you say I don't know what I'm talking about, my brother is a great chef. He's made that his career, but he's not an asshole. He doesn't take himself seriously at all. He knows what he does is universal. He's a great, special person that I love, he's an awesome bigger brother, but his cooking skills aren't what makes him great, it's his love he shows for me and our family. But, I digress, back to "Top Chef" bull shit. These contestants are much too passionate about a job that any 15 year old child can get. I hate the waythey present their food like its a god damn gift to the person eating it. Screw you, it's not that good. I hate how hipster and not self aware these young chefs are. They couldn't be any more ridiculous.

On a recent episode of "Top Chef", one of the contestants served oysters on a hot rock. What the hell! Is he some kind of idiot? He claimed, "I like to use the elements outside to present my food". Screw you you asshole. You suck. Don't serve something that's supposed to be ice cold on a burning hot rock. Gross. This same contestant goes on later in the episode talking about him and his wife serving food at Coachella, because of course he went to Coachella to serve food. Could this guy be anymore of a douchebag? Ugh, I hate this guy. He's chef Phillip on the current season if you're curious and want to watch a supreme dick head on TV.

Which brings me to the judges. They talk about this food like they're going to send the losing chef to jail for making sub par food. They say stupid things like, "the bass needed 4 or 5 grains of salt to really put it over the top", or "this is good, but there's a whole piece of star anise in there and if I ate that, my palette would be completely blown out". I HATE these judges. You guys are judging food! Your job is less important than the chefs! You guys suck too. I hate that they get so mad at chefs for leaving out little things on all these free meals they're getting. Ugh, you are the worst. The absolute worst judges are Padma Lakshmi and Tom Colicchio. They take their jobs MUCH too seriously. They get legitimately mad at these chefs sometimes for the smallest things. Lakshmi, at one point, said she's "never had to wait for a table before and I'm not going to start now". Ugh, screw you. Sorry we aren't all as privileged as you. And Tom Colicchio, stop with the act that you're these chefs friends. You're just as bad as any other judge on any other cooking competition show. And don't act like you're more important because your show is on Bravo. You know what else is in Bravo, any style of "Real Housewives" crap.

"Top Chef" is just as trashy as any other reality show. You guys aren't more important than any other garbage cooking competition show. You're worse. I'm sick and tired of how serious these shows have become. I'm done watching them and I'll stick with my "Barefoot Contessa". Ina cooks for the love, not the competition. She will forever be a better chef than any douche on "Chopped", "Cutthroat Kitchen" and most importantly, the god awful "Top Chef".

Screw these shows forever.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. Not only does he think Ina could outcook any cheftestant, he would take her in a straight up fist fight with any of those idiots. Join Ty's anger by following him on twitter @tykulik.

The trashy "Bar Rescue" performs a record breaking dumpster dive

This strip club is way below my trash standards

ed note: Since the popularity of this article, Ty has decided to review each new episode of Bar Rescue. Look for his column on the latest episode every Tuesday.

I'm a big, big fan of the show "Bar Rescue" on Spike TV.

It's everything you'd want in reality TV. It's staged, it's trashy, people talk over one another so you can't hear what anyone is saying and the host is ridiculous. Jon Taffer is utterly insane. First of all, during the opening credits, he claims to be a member of the Nightclub Hall of Fame, whatever the hell that is. Second, his best way of delivering advice is to scream and yell and demean the owners of these failing bars. He also looks like a goblin, literally. He calls everyone failures and forces people to fire friends and family. This all sounds bad, but it's quite hilarious. His "specialists" that he brings in are just as absurd. They're all yes men and women. They look like bobble heads, anything Taffer says, they nod and agree, no matter how absurd or terrible the idea is. This show is the perfect reality show.

Taffer and his people have "rescued" a lot of bars. In fact, you can go to their website and see how many of the bars are still open. Last I checked, he had about a 50 percent save rate, not that good for all his talk. Well, on their latest episode, they did something I thought I'd never see on this show. I mean, it's pretty classless, but last night, they took it to a disgusting level.

Last night, they "saved" a strip club in Detroit. And yes, it was as gross as you'd think it could be. When they arrived, the club was called Chix on Dix. Ewwwwww! That's so appalling and very foul. When Chix on Dix first opened, the owners claimed they were making millions, I don't buy that. Then, the problems started. The club became dirty, the workers and strippers were disinterested and one of the co owners just stopped showing up. The strippers were not happy and they looked like it. They started to drink, sleep on the job and flat out quit doing their job. They also changed the name from Chix on Dix to Industrial Strip. Another terrible pun. What was the worst though, the new owner wasn't reprimanding customers that physically touched the dancers. Even I know that's illegal and I've only been to one strip club in my 33 years on Earth. I think strip clubs are depressing and gross, but that's not the point of today's blog. At this point, Jon Taffer and his "experts" are outside the club watching the action on a video in the car. Typical Taffer, he sees something he doesn't like, storms into the club and starts yelling almost immediately. Now don't get me wrong, these people deserve to be put down a couple of pegs, but Taffer could've gone about it differently. But, his go to move is to yell and berate. Taffer and his team assess the situation and get ready to go to work. His bartending expert actually had the easiest job because the current bartender was okay. She was lively and energetic, she just needed to be taught how to properly pour drinks. But, his cooking expert and his strip club consultant had their work cut out for them. The chef was the owner of the night club. Taffer hates this and addressed it right away. He made the other owner show up and be the boss and made the other owner become the chef. Needless to say, he struggled mightily. My only question, who eats at a strip club? Is the club not disgusting enough? Who goes to a strip club and thinks, I could use a meal? My only guess, A monster, but that's just my opinion. The strip club consultant, aka a lady who got to old to strip, but couldn't find a new job, had little to nothing to work with. The dancers were still disinterested no matter how hard this lady tried and she really tried. She showed them her tricks of the trade. She showed them how to interact. She showed them how to make extra tips. It all fell on deaf ears. Try as she might, these girls weren't interested. Instead of really pushing them, they just decided to bring in newer, more professional dancers. This is another Taffer staple. When he doesn't get results, he fires the old crew and brings in his people. That's pretty lazy in my opinion. After all this and the remodel of the club, Taffer renamed it The Power Strip. Another god awful pun. He put in new drink systems and new poles and cleaned the place up a bit.

As with the end of every episode of "Bar Rescue", the club looks like it's saved. Everyone is happy and flashing money along with their smiles. This episode was no different, but they went back six months later. The owners admitted that they weren't making as much money and the staff was going back to their old ways. Not surprising if you ask me. I was grossed out by this whole episode. I don't like strip clubs, as I said before. I don't drink and I definitely would not drink at a strip club. The people were flat out mean and nasty. I knew that this day was coming on "Bar Rescue". They were bound to do a strip club, but why did they pick such a gross one? It was very upsetting. I won't stop watching "Bar Rescue", but I will read what each episode is about now because I don't ever want to see them try and save another strip club.

This episode will forever haunt my nightmares.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man. Little does he know that the head editor has had plenty of meals at strip clubs, they were all for business meetings. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Where the Hell are the Responsible Adults on "PJ Masks"?

Next season on PJ Masks, the police will lock up all the adults

Having children means having to watch shows you don't care for. I've watched stuff like "Doc McStuffins", "Team Umizoomi", "Handy Manny" and "The Octonauts". These shows I do not care for. They're boring and loud and dull. I've also seen stuff like "Wally Kazaam" and "Yo Gabba Gabba". I really like these shows. "Yo Gabba Gabba" has cool music and cool guests and there's always a good lesson. "Wally Kazaam" may be the most clever and best written children's show I've ever seen. There's been some jokes that have made me legitimately laugh out loud. "Wally Kazaam" is my favorite show that my son has watched.

Lately my son has been watching a show called "PJ Masks". This show is fine. It's not good, but it's not that bad. The show follows three young children that, at nighttime, become superheroes when they put their pajamas on. Sounds pretty cute, right? That's what I thought when I first saw this show, but then I actually sat down and paid attention to what was going on and I've got to say, the negligence of the parents on "PJ Masks" is downright criminal. I'd venture to say that they are worse parents than the parents from "Charlie Brown".

First things first, at least the parents in "Charlie Brown" are present. Sure, we can't understand what they are saying and the kids never take their advice, but we know that they are there. The parents in "PJ Masks" are non existent. And, when there is an adult around, they just leave when the situation turns sour. I'll tell you about a recent episode that had this happen. The kids were just regular kids and they were about to watch a puppet show. The puppet master, apparently one of their teachers, shows up and sees that the puppets are missing. All he says is, "My puppets are gone. I guess there will be no show today" and then he just leaves. Doesn't investigate the problem, doesn't tell the children he will be right back, in fact he doesn't tell the children anything except that the show is cancelled, and he just leaves, never to be seen or heard from again. That's insane! He's an adult and he just lets the kids deal with this problem on their own! WTF!

This leads me to my main problem with the parents of the three main kids. These children, maybe 7 or 8 years old, are allowed to leave their houses in the middle of the night and go fight crimes. The parents have no say and just let this happen. Where on Earth is this ever a good idea? Why would you let a child go out into the streets in the middle of the night. That is the whole point of the show. These kids turn into superheroes when they go to bed and put their PJ's on. I say again, this is insane! And the parents just let them go, I DON"T GET IT!

You are all probably asking the names of the three main kids, so I'll tell you. You have Owlette the girl, Gekko the shy one and Catboy the athlete. They fight villains, yes this show has children as super smart villains, Romeo, Luna Girl, Night Ninja and the Ninjalenos. It's so surreal. One saving grace, you never see actual fighting. They have races and they play party games and they use gadgets, but they never actually fight. I guess the parents at least gave them the proper rules that fighting is wrong. But, that doesn't excuse the fact that these kids are out in the middle of the night. Also, where are the police in this town and why aren't they doing anything about this? Now, I'm upset at not only the parents, but all the adults in the "PJ Masks" universe. Why do you all let children decide what to do? I'm all for letting kids figure things out for themselves, but there's a time and a place for that and it's not after midnight. I just don't get why there are no rules for these kids.

Also, what kind of parents do Romeo, Luna Girl, Night Ninja and the Ninjalenos have that these kids are super villains? Romeo is some kind of tech genius, but he hates the PJ Masks, and I mean hates the PJ Masks. He is some kind of tech wizard, going so far as stealing their voices in one episode. Are his parents some kind of tech wizards? If so, at least they taught him how to use technology, but he uses it for evil. How messed up is that?! Luna Girl just wants to stop the PJ Masks from having fun. That's straight up mean. She is the definition of a "mean girl", but she too is a child. Why does she have all this hate in her tiny soul? Night Ninja is a spoiled baby and he has the Ninjalenos answer his every beck and call. Why is he so spoiled and how did he train four little kids to be his helpers? What kind of family do these kids come from?

I guess, overall, I'm just disappointed in the adults in this world. I know, it's a children's show, it's a cartoon, it's fantasy, but my brain won't allow me to look at it that way. I want to know why the adults aren't involved at all. At least in "Charlie Brown" and "The Simpsons" the parents are there. They may not be the best people in the world, but they are there and that's more than I can say for the adults and parents in "PJ Masks". I'm sure this show will fade much like all the other shows my son watches, but I will still wonder, long after he stops watching, why weren't the grown ups more involved? What were they doing and why was that more important than making sure their kids were in their beds like they should be? I'm sure I'll never know, but I know that it will haunt me for the rest of my days. Shame on you adults in the "PJ Masks" universe. Take more interest in your children and maybe they won't go out in the middle of the night and argue about cake and toys and balloons. Get off your cell phones and take the time to get to know your kids.

You sicken me.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He thinks judging others is easy, and fun too. 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.

Marc Maron's interview of Lorne Michaels was mostly gristle and very little steak

Sometimes a sword, sometimes a surrender flag

Last Monday, Marc Maron finally got his white whale.

He had an interview with Lorne Michaels. Saturday Night Live has been a big obsession for Maron. He has interviewed many SNL cast members. He is always very forward with these people. He wants to know about their audition. He wants to know about fellow cast members. He wants to talk about certain hosts and musical guests. But, most importantly he wants to know about Lorne Michaels. He has so many questions about Lorne Michaels. It can get uncomfortable at times and you can hear in some of the interviewees voices that they're uncomfortable with the barrage of questions about Michaels. Sure, most of them aren't on the show anymore, but they don't want to speak ill of Michaels. In most cases, he gave them their break, and without him, they probably wouldn't have a real career.

I, for one, like when Maron pushes the envelope. I like all the questions, because I want to know too. I'm from Saint Louis and New York and SNL are like mythical beings to me. I have a real love hate relationship with SNL, and I want to know all I can. I like to hear from these people about their experience. I like knowing that SNL is a cutthroat place to work, and you have to stay on your toes if you want to keep your job. But, much like Maron himself, I want to know about Lorne Michaels. He is a mysterious show biz person and he seems to be a real hard ass. He, at least on the surface, doesn't seem like a guy that takes crap from anyone. He's a star maker and may be a career ender, if you cross him.

I've been listening to Maron's podcast since the beginning. I'm a big fan of his and I look forward to listening to his podcast every Monday and Thursday. He's gotten pretty big recently as well, the interview with President Barack Obama putting him on everybody's map. I weirdly looked forward to this interview as much as I did the Presidents. As I stated before, I love SNL and I was very interested to see how hard Maron would come at Lorne Michaels. Maron has had a bone to pick since he wasn't picked to be on the show when he auditioned back in the 90's. He's brought this up a lot, so when I saw that Lorne Michaels was going to be on last Monday, I figured he would press him hard on this, and a lot of other things. The fact he wasn't picked for SNL has always been a big bone of contention for him. I figured, finally, some closure.

Then, I listened to the interview. It was fine. Maron asked some questions and Lorne Michaels answered in kind. But, the questions were softballs in my opinion. He just kind of lobbed some stuff to Michaels and he answered very predictably. It kind of felt like Maron was told by Michaels people that he could only ask certain questions, and to not push him too hard on the tough questions. The interview was like an appetizer. It was good, but not filling. We just got the tip of the iceberg. This was a two hour interview also, so the fact that nothing was pressed on Michaels, in two hours, left me disappointed. When Maron did ask about his audition and the process of not being selected, Michaels gave a very typical answer. He told Maron that "his voice wasn't right for the show". Yeah, no duh Lorne Michaels. Maron is a foul mouthed comedian. He is filthier than Norm Macdonald on his filthiest day. Maron assumed that he would be a Weekend Update guy, and while that fits his identity, his style isn't a good fit at SNL. We all already knew this. This was no revelation.

After they settled Maron being passed over, the rest of the interview was very blasé. It was like a pat on the back session after that. Lorne Michaels praised Maron's comic voice and what he's done with the podcast medium. I say again, we all know what he's done. They talked about doing an internet show before the internet was popular. Not that big a deal. Maron never really asked any really tough questions. When it comes to Lorne Michaels, he couldn't have been more congratulatory of himself. He gave himself the credit for young generations wanting to be on TV and do comedy. He credited himself for making Jimmy Fallon a late night star, something which makes me angry because I cannot stand Jimmy Fallon. He said that he's never forced anyone out of SNL, and that he's still friends with "pretty much everybody". He couldn't have been more pleased with himself. I understand what he's done for late night TV, and how big he made SNL, but show some humility. He claimed that while he wasn't the guy in charge for 5 years, he never watched the show. I believe that, because he comes off as arrogant, so why would he watch something he had nothing to do with?

I guess, overall, I was just disappointed with the interview. It left so much to be desired. And even at the end, when Maron does his usual sign off, he said he got closure. I don't know, because as a listener, I felt like he could've gotten so much more out of this once in a lifetime interview. My excitement was dashed pretty early on in this WTF episode, but not all of them can be winners. I think even Marc Maron would agree with me about this. I should also temper my expectations because, not every interview is going to be President Obama's interview. I love WTF and I'm a big Marc Maron fan, but this episode just left me wanting more.

Oh well, this Monday he has Harry Potter himself, Daniel Radcliffe on. Hopefully, this one will be better.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He figures Lorne Michaels should have more humility after the Donald Trump SNL appearance last week. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Ty is overjoyed about "The Knick" and "Ash vs Evil Dead"

Good tv is on. The couch is calling

Today I'm going to talk about two TV shows on premium cable channels that I absolutely love. One is new and the other is currently in it's second season. One's on Cinemax, the other, Starz. They're both great, but for totally different reasons and I'll tell you why I like them both.

First, we will start with the Cinemax show that's currently in it's second season. The show is called "The Knick". "The Knick" takes place in the early 1900's at the Knickerbocker Hospital in New York. They focus on the earliest days of surgery and the doctors and people involved with the hospital. The way they film the surgery and show how primitive it was back then is astounding. The surgeons don't wear gloves. They hand crank blood through tubes. They always have a group of people watching the procedure while the lead surgeon explains what they're doing, almost teaching a class. Every surgery has the risk of being fatal. They use liquid cocaine and morphine as anesthesia. It's truly incredible and heart racing to watch them perform the procedures. The main character in the show is John Thackery, played eloquently by Clive Owen. Thackery is a surgery genius. He knows more than anyone in the room and he's always finding new and inventive ways to perform surgery. Problem with Thackery, in season one, he's addicted to cocaine and can only do procedures when he's high. Clive Owen plays Thackery as a junkie very convincingly. You can see when he's craving the drug, and you can see how it makes him laser focused and the best surgeon in the world. You also see him at his worst, be it bedding a nurse, taking way too risky chances in surgery or hanging out in an opium den. Spoiler alert, at the end of season one, Thackery is taken to a rehabilitation center and to get him off cocaine, they give him a new drug called heroine. That's where season two picks up, but there's another critical story line, there's a lot of critical story lines, but this is the most important in season one. A young African American surgeon, who's almost as talented as Thackery and just as smart, is brought to the Knick to work with Thackery. Here we meet Dr. Algernon Edwards played fantastically by Andre Holland. As I said, he's just as smart and innovative as Thackery, but he's a hot head that gets into fights on purpose and he's a man of color in the early 1900's, so there's a lot of turmoil surrounding Edwards. He's not accepted at the hospital by Thackery at first, but as season one goes on, Thackery sees that Edwards can help move this hospital into the for front of modern surgery and they begin to work together. There's many other characters, all very good, but these are the main two characters of the show. Back to season two. They're three or four episodes in now and during the season premiere, we see that Edwards is now chief of surgery since Thackery is in rehab. One of the other doctors goes to the rehab facility and saves Thackery from the abuse the doctors there are putting on their patients. Thackery returns to the Knick to see that things have changed with Edwards at the helm and he's miffed. Thackery also cannot perform procedures because he is off cocaine. He eventually gets back to doing cocaine, but he's now snorting heroin as well. In the most recent episode, Thackery saved his old love from dying from syphilis by giving her a fever of 108, and by gosh, it works. This is the Thackery I've been waiting for. We haven't seen a whole lot yet from Edwards, but I know spmething big is coming and I'm giddy at what the rest of this season will bring. Steven Soderbergh is the genius behind "The Knick" and I'm glad they have a show like this on television. "The Knick" is must watch TV.

The other show lands in multiple genres. It's gory, it's horror, but most importantly, it's a comedy. This show is on the Starz network and it's "Ash VS. Evil Dead". This is a reboot of sorts. "Evil Dead" was a very popular B horror movie in the 80's with Bruce Campbell playing the lead role of Ash. Everyone knows that in "Evil Dead", Ash and his friends and girlfriend find a book and the book releases the evil dead on society in search of putting Ash six feet under. The movie was huge for both Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi. It gave them horror and comedy cred. I love "Evil Dead", so when I heard a TV show was in the making, I was very excited. Two episodes in and I absolutely love the show. It's just as gory as the movie. It's just as scary as the movie. But, most importantly, it's funnier than the movie. The show is played to huge laughs coming from Bruce Campbell and his sidekicks, Pablo(Ray Santiago) and Kelly(Dana DeLorenzo), his colleagues at his crappy job. Bruce Campbell as Ash is just as funny and aloof, yet a shockingly good fighter, as he was in the movie. His trademark chainsaw hand is back too. That was awesome when they busted that out in the season premiere. In the premiere, Ash and his book summon the evil dead while he and a prostitute get stoned together. Ash is the only guy who knows how to fight the demons, and he's the best man for the job. As I said before, the gore is still alive and well on "Ash VS. Evil Dead". If you remember the movie, you have to completely remove the demons head to kill them. They do this with gusto on the show. It's so gross and brutal, but Ash has a quirky or stupid catchphrase every time he defeats a demon, it's played to uproarious laughs. They're only two episodes in, but they've already killed a dozen demons. That's a lot of death for two episodes. This show has all the potential in the world and I'm happy to see Bruce Campbell in a starring role that he desperately deserves. He's awesome and "Ash VS. Evil Dead" is awesome.

"The Knick" is on Friday nights on Cinemax and "Ash VS. Evil Dead" is on Saturday nights, so you can watch them during the weekend. "The Knick" is in it's second season, but the first only had ten episodes and they've only aired three or four from season two, so catching up will be easy. "Ash VS. Evil Dead" is only two episodes in, and you can watch both of them On Demand. Do yourselves a favor and watch these shows. They're totally different from each other, but they're both great.

You'll thank me later.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He first thought "The Knick" was about former NBAer and US Senator Bill Bradley solving crime on Capitol Hill with his epic basketball skills. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

"Barefoot Contessa" is one thing you and your mother in law can agree on

Oh the things Ina could do to you

What does one do with a new baby and his working wife on maternity leave?

As I stated yesterday, I've been watching a good amount of day time TV with my wife being home. I've also let it be known that I've been watching a good amount of the Food Network. The Food Network is pretty much the perfect channel to have on in the background if you like ambient noise. During the day, it's pretty much all straight forward cooking shows. The night time is when the competition shows come on. So, during the day, having that ambient noise in the background is nice when I'm blogging or when I'm cleaning or doing something around the house. I do watch pretty much all the competition shows too. With my wife being home, we watch shows like "Pioneer Woman" and "Everyday Italian" and "The Best Thing I Ever Ate". We also enjoy the competition shows like "Chopped", "Cutthroat Kitchen" and any iteration of the "Baking Challenge", be it Halloween, Thanksgiving or Christmas. The only shows we avoid on the Food Network are, anything involving human douchebag Guy Fieri and their awful rip off of "The Chew" called, "The Kitchen". First of all, "The Chew" is terrible, but, "The Kitchen" makes "The Chew" look like "Breaking Bad". "The Kitchen" is awful.

None of these shows compare to what I believe to be the greatest show the Food Network has ever created. I'm talking about "Barefoot Contessa" with Ina Garten of course. This show is absolutely perfect on every level. First of all, Ina Garten is the best host of any cooking show ever and yes, I think she's much better than Julia Child was. She has a very soft, calming way of talking about food. She never raises her voice to show appreciation of food like Fieri does. She doesn't need any catchphrases like "BAM!" or "winner, winner, chicken dinner" or, "that's money", she just talks about food like a normal person. She also seems to get the very best ingredients. She made steak the other day and my mouth was watering when she brought out the cut of meat. It looked so good and it was clearly the best quality her butcher had. Same thing when she made bone in lamb chops on a recent episode. She has an affinity for fruit tarts. The fruit she gets is the freshest fruit I've ever seen. I didn't know strawberries could look that red and fresh. She also hand makes all the crusts for these tarts. When the finished product comes out of the oven, I want to go into my TV and eat this delicious looking food. She also makes all her drinks fresh. Sure, most people do this with alcohol, but how many people go out to their garden and grab the freshest mint leaves I've ever seen? The only person involved with my life that does this is my mother in law. I've never seen anyone else use fresh herbs from their garden to cook besides from mother in law and Ina Garten. Ina also made a fresh hot chocolate for her husband Jeffrey, I'll talk more about him later, and it looked dynamite. She boiled milk and half and half in a big pot, used big hunks of what I'm sure is expensive milk chocolate, put semi sweet chocolate and used vanilla extract and ground decaf coffee. I used to work at a Saint Louis Bread Company and we used real milk and Hershey's syrup to make our hot chocolate and RD, my brother and founder of the website, used to refer to this as "orgasmic" (ed note: yes it is). Ina's hot chocolate puts Bread Company's to shame and I don't need to taste it to know this, I can judge it simply based on seeing it. Simply look at the ingredients I listed.

Now, the food is the main part of her show, as it should be, but she also seems to be the most genuinely happy person I've ever seen. She has the perfect life. She loves her husband Jeffrey and he reciprocates this love ten fold. When he gets home from work or a trip and Ina has a big meal ready for the two of them, he lights up. But, he doesn't just light up at the site of the food, he's happier to see Ina and she's just as happy. Each embrace is different, but they all share the same amount of love. These two are clearly soul mates. When Jeffrey is working, Ina seems to have an endless number of friends involved in many different occupations. She's friend with carpenters, florists, college students, painters and butchers, just to name a few. These people love Ina and she loves them back. It doesn't hurt that she's making them delicious food and has these friends of hers be her "tasters". We all know the food is delicious. I'd love to befriend Ina and become one of her "tasters". Very few things would make me happier in my life. She also has a beautiful home in the Hamptons. Jeffrey and her are clearly well off and the pictures of her home during the show hammer home this point. I don't say this because I'm envious, I say this because Jeffrey and her deserve this. They both work hard and are very accomplished in their fields, so why not live lavishly? Good for them.

One other thing I like about Ina was told to me by my mother in law. She never competes on these competition cooking shows because she feels like 1) cooking shouldn't be a competition, you should cook because you love it and 2) she won't compromise her ingredients, she believes you should use the best ingredients available to you. This makes me like Ina even more, and I'm already a HUGE fan. I wish there were more chefs and personalities on the Food Network like her, but Ina is one of a kind. I don't think her show is on anymore, she's probably happily retired from making a show and doing whatever she wants, as she's want to do, but at least we have reruns. I look forward to these episodes twice a day. I love her show and her whole vibe. Ina Garten is the best thing that the Food Network ever had and I'm glad they still air "Barefoot Contessa".

Ina, you're a national treasure, thanks for everything you do. And thanks for being you, you're the greatest.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. "Cooking a Steak" would be Ty's favorite food show, if only it existed in the real world. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Join Ty while he checks paternity tests with "Maury Povich"

You are NOT the father. Now who is a good boy.

Sometimes the worst television can be the best entertainment.

With my wife on maternity leave, I've been watching some day time television with her that she normally doesn't get to watch since she doesn't get home from work until 4pm. I don't usually watch any day time TV, my son and I are usually out doing stuff, and my newly born daughter will be joining us on these excursions when my wife goes back to work. But, my wife has two months left on her leave, so day time TV will be a staple. One of the shows that she loves is "Maury Povich".

First things first, this show is utterly ridiculous and totally fake. These people know exactly what they're doing on this show, and if they have any questions as to how to act, producers and the behind the scenes crew gives them direction. This, I'm sure of. But, I've grown to not only enjoy "Mo Po", as we call it, but I look forward to watching it everyday at 3pm Saint Louis, Missouri time. It's like a train wreck. It's terrible, just down right awful, but I cannot look away. I love how bizarre and insane and just plain wacky this show is. Nine times out of ten, it's a DNA test to find out who is the father of some infant, or it's a lie detector test to find out if someone is cheating on someone else. In the rare case, we get both of these in one episode. Man, this is exciting when you know, not only is a DNA test coming, but there's a lie detector test as well. Sometimes, very rarely, they do a "where are they now", or a "boot camp" episode and we do not tune in for these, but that barely ever happens as I've already said. "Maury Povich" is the epitome of bad reality television. Like I said, it's completely fabricated, but that doesn't make it any less hilarious.

Now, it is bad, but it's watchable bad. It's a better version of "Sharknado". Readers know how I feel about "Sharknado". "Mo Po" is enjoyable. It's dysfunctional and stupid and a total mess, but I've grown to love it over the past couple of weeks. And Maury Povich seems to have taken this lot in life and run with it. He was, at one time, a true journalist with a moral compass. Go look at some of his older versions of his show, most of the time the topics were legit topics. He was a real journalist tackling real subjects. He was good at it too. He met and married Connie Chung and they're still married to this day. They were both reputable journalist and TV personalities and one day, that all changed. Connie Chung is off TV now, to the best of my knowledge, and look no further for her "breakdown" to the moment she was singing on top of a piano and "dancing". It's a hard watch, but it's also pretty god damn hilarious. And Maury's case, I think one day, when he was reputable, he thought that it would be a good idea to have a lady or ladies on that may not have known who the father of their child was. Sure, at the time, the mid 90's I believe, this was a good and groundbreaking idea. It would give these ladies closure and these fatherless children would at least know who their dad was as they grew up. Then, one day, the DNA test results came back negative and the man on the set was not the father. Holy shit was this a huge deal! The crowd went nuts. People on the stage were either crying, cheering, dancing or doing all three at once. This was the moment when Maury just ran with it, in my opinion. I think, since he's a pretty smart person, he saw an opportunity and he figured, okay , this is what I am now. He decided that he would do only DNA test result shows at first. These gained a lot of steam, but after awhile, they became stale and predictable. That's when he introduced the lie detector tests and the decoys. Boom! A total new thing for his talk show was born and it's been like this ever since. As I said before, it's either a DNA test or a lie detector test, or both, Monday through Friday on "Mo Po", and I love it. These are always met with the same response. The people on stage are always yelling and talking over each other, someone inevitably calls Maury 'Murray" and the tests results always deliver both good and bad news. Sometimes, when the man isn't the father, the guy starts doing a dance and the lady runs off the set screaming and crying. These are my favorite moments. They're hysterical. When the guy is the father, or he's lied during the lie detector test, or he's caught hitting on a decoy, the reaction is always the same. The guy claims he was set up, or that the lie detector was wrong, or he will take care of the child, but he wants nothing to do with the baby's mom. And their reaction to this news is always hilarious. You can tell the guys who know they're going to get caught because they always have a coy smile when the lady is talking about them cheating or not taking care of their baby. During all this, Maury just sits back, let's the fight build to a boil, and just when it's about to get physical, he gets the results folder and they get down to business, it's fantastic.

The real reason for this post today is not only to give love to "Maury Povich" the TV show, but to let everyone know that I will be live tweeting today's episode from the seedsing account. So, read this article and at 3pm Saint Louis time, check in with @seedsingrdk to see my tweets. My wife will be watching with me, of course, and she will chime in with her thoughts too. Join us for the hilarity.

See you all later today.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He does not feel the need to go on Murray's show to get DNA results for his kids, at least not yet. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Treehouse of Horrors is one of the only good things about Halloween

No trick or treating for me. The Simpsons is on.

With Halloween only two days away, FXX has been showing all of the "Treehouse of Horrors" episodes of "The Simpsons".

It's been quite nice.

I wasn't a big fan of the first iterations of these Halloween themed episodes, but since I met my wife, I've grown to enjoy them quite a bit. She has always been a fan and she has turned me into one as well. When they first started to show up, around the second season I believe, they took them too seriously, in my opinion. The first "THOH" was and still is a classic, but the three stories were pretty dark, especially the "Raven" segment. They took Edgar Allan Poe's famous poem , made Homer the main guy from the story and had a raven that had Bart's head super imposed on it. He recited the poem as Homer went crazier and crazier. It was funny in some parts, but for a "Simpsons" episode, it was dark. Homer went insane. This became a tradition after the huge hit that was their first "THOH". They do one every year, usually airing them the week after or a week before Halloween. Today, I'm going to tell you about some of my personal favorites and some of my wife's favorites. I'll pick out mainly segments because sometimes the whole episode isn't great, but of the three segments, one is usually a home run.

I want to start with a recent "THOH". Season 26 had a great second segment with "A Clockwork Yellow". Barney, Homer and Moe played the cronies from "A Clockwork Orange", with Moe playing the Malcolm McDowell character, Alex. This was a fantastic spoof of a classic movie. Moe went through all the same things Alex did, but played it for laughs. For example, when Alex was being reprogrammed, they forced his eyes open and made him watch horrific videos of heinous crimes. In the "Simpsons" "THOH", they did a close up of Moe, eyes pried open like Alex's, but he says, "this is the only way I can sit through terrible Fox programming". It was genius. My favorite part of the segment was when Homer, playing the oafish thug, meets Marge and they play the scene where, in "A Clockwork Orange", it's very sexually graphic and pretty gross, "The Simpsons" played it with Homer eating massive amounts of food, sleeping and totally ignoring Marge. They pulled it off like only "The Simpsons" can.

Season 12 had a great opening segment to their "THOH". It was entitled "G-G-G-Ghost Dad" and it was about Homer's death being for told via a newspaper horoscope. Despite the family's hesitance to let Homer leave, he does anyway, not scared of death, and awaiting a comment from a "handsome" co worker, he presumes it will be Lenny. On his way to work, Homer gets hit by a pick axe, nearly misses being crushed by a metal structure, has an unexplained growth thing and gets bitten by a rattlesnake. He arrives at work and gets his compliment from Lenny, saying," if I may compliment you Homer, that's a mighty nice rattlesnake biting your arm". He arrives home and is fine, but then he eats one single piece of broccoli and immediately dies. He becomes a ghost, eats the broccoli again, dies again and becomes a ghost once more. He has to do one good deed before he can get into heaven, and all his attempts end in failure until he saves a crying baby from going into a busy intersection. Unfortunately, the angel doesn't see this and Homer is banished to hell where Satan gives him noogies and weggies while saying "ha ha" the whole time. It's hilarious.

One of my favorite "THOH" of all time is from season 10, titled "Hell Toupee". In this segment, Homer gets a hair transplant from newly dead convict Snake. At first everything is all peaches and cream and Homer looks great. But, prior to dying, Snake tells the three people that ratted him out that he was going to get them. After the hair transplant, at night, the hair takes over for Homer and controls his actions. He gets revenge on both Apu and Moe, two of the three guys that ratted him out. The third is Bart. This is where the conflict begins. Homer and his new hair do trap Bart is his room, and Bart does everything in his power to convince his dad to not hurt him. Homer finally rips the hair off, thus saving Bart, but the hair comes to life and tries to get him. They get the hair off Bart and while it's trying to escape one of the funniest moments on the "Simpsons" occurs. The hair, that has sideburns, lifts one of the sideburns, a la a fist, and wags it in anger before Chief Wiggum guns it down. It's a classic "THOH" segment.

My personal favorite "THOH" is from season 8 entitled "Citizen Kang". This one is great from top to bottom. We get Bob Dole and Bill Clinton impressions. Kang and Kodos become Dole and Clinton. While dressed like Dole and Clinton, Kang and Kodos hold hands to " give each other protein strains", speak in their typical monotone voice and are together constantly. We get great lines like, "abortions for none, BOO!, ok, abortions for all, BOO!, ok, abortions for some, miniature American flags for all, yeah!" or, " well, I guess I'll just vote for a third party candidate. Go ahead throw your vote away, ha ha ha" and, my favorite coming from Kent Brockman, " Clinton's contributors credited his attitude to an over tight neck tie" when talking about Kang disguised as Clinton saying something very wrong. This is, by far, the best segment of any "THOH" that "The Simpsons" has put out.

I know that my wife loves any "THOH" that has Kang and Kodos involved. She really liked the new one where Sideshow Bob finally gets Bart and keeps killing him over and over again, she's a big Sideshow Bob fan. I know she likes the segment where you find out Maggie is really Kang's daughter and they go on "Jerry Springer". Those three are just off the top of my head. She likes them all, but she talks to me about those more than others.

For all the flack that I give Halloween as a "holiday", I truly despise it, at least we do get a new "THOH" every year. I know that they will always be good because it's part of "The Simpsons" universe and pretty much everything they do is great. "THOH" may be one of the few things I like about Halloween. I still have to deal with the stupid puns and people in their 20's and 30's, with no kids, dressing up like it's a real holiday, but at least I get one thing that I know I'll enjoy and that I look forward to every Halloween.

I guess I'm trying to say, Halloween will always be lame, but "The Simpsons" will always deliver with a great new "Treehouse of Horror".

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He likes people and thinks clown make-up is ok, but people wearing clown make-up are the worst. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

The Excellent and Uncomfortable Humor of "Nathan for You"

We're saving this one for Nathan

Let's all take a minute to soak in the genius that is Comedy Central's "Nathan For You".

The show is in its third season now and it just gets better and better. The first season was a very nice surprise. He put out the basis of the show. He's a business school grad and he wants to help small businesses grow. This is all played for laughs because, his ideas are insane. The two notable ideas from season one were, the poop flavored frozen yogurt and the pig saving another animal from drowning in a lake. The latter idea became a viral sensation. People thought this was a real event and it even made it on national news. To watch Nathan Fielder and his team put this all together was hilarious. I love that it was blown this much out of proportion.

In the poop flavored frozen yogurt episode, I believe it was the series premiere, he convinced a small frozen yogurt place that the only way they could compete with the heavy hitters in town was to have "unique" flavors. He convinced this store owner that poop flavored yogurt would not only drive customers to his store, but it would put this guy on the map. This, of course, didn't work out and the guy nixed the idea after one day. Very, very funny. Season two brought us the infamous Dumb Starbucks. This was genius on so many levels. He used an iconic logo, bringing in tons of customers, and all he had to do was put the word dumb in front of Starbucks. This was, much like the pig story, nationwide news. Everybody talked about this. It was on every news network from MSNBC to my hometown, Saint Louis', local news. Everyone knew of this prank. He also had a running gag throughout all of season two that was great. He kept asking random people how he could be more approachable and cool. These people gave him what they thought was good advice. It was terrible and Fielder did everything they said. He dyed his hair jet black, he wore very skinny jeans and deep, deep V neck shirts. He looked like a total douche. When he met new people and they commented on how bad he looked, he'd confront the people that gave him the advice, and their whole tone changed. They'd claim that they didn't tell him to wear such skinny jeans, or the necks were too deep in his shirts. But, if you go back and watch, he did everything, exactly as these folks told him. Once again, very funny.

So far, we are two episodes into season three, and it's just as good as the first two, if not better. The first episode has Fielder helping an electronics store owner who's losing customers to Best Buy. Fielders theory, Best Buy takes competitors coupons and matches them, so Fielder tells the store owner to have a big store wide sale on TV's, selling them for 1 dollar. There's a whole plethora of hoops to get through to get the cheap TV, but the whole idea was to buy out all the TV's at Best Buy for a dollar using this competitors coupon. Best Buy won't match because this is absurd, but Fielder is so determined, he threatens to take Best Buy to court. He quickly finds out that he can only win if the owner of the small electronics store is determined clinically insane. He takes this man to a psychiatrist, tells the, therapist, confidentially, that his friend is insane, and she agrees. But, they again quickly realize that they won't be able to beat Best Buy, they're too big and powerful. I know this all sounds nuts, but it's so funny and really awkward. It's great TV. Last nights episode had a couple of different ideas. One was a ranch that wouldn't allow anyone over 220lbs to ride a horse. Fielder gets the idea to attach helium balloons to bigger people, thus causing them to feel lighter and get these people horse rides. Good idea, but too pricy and too ridiculous. Nathan even scolds two on lookers for laughing at the gentleman that has three huge helium balloons attached to him while riding a horse. In the second part of the episode, he explains that a company called Tiaga, a jacket maker and a brand he loves, is in bed with a holocaust denier. This upsets him and he comes up with his own line of soft shell jackets with a holocaust education attached. When he pitches this to a store, they let him do a trial run, all done up with holocaust literature, pictures of holocaust victims and even an oven with a fake skeleton in it. Needless to say, it was extremely uncomfortable, wrong and nixed by the owner immediately. All the awkwardness from Fielder, the store owner and even a rabbi was uncomfortable in every possible way, but also extremely hilarious. His final idea in the episode was setting up a "man zone" in a women's clothing store. As he puts it, "a place for bros to hang while the lady shops". His first hang out session doesn't work so well, and Fielder decides that he needs to talk about sex to get the guys to hang out longer. The stuff these men say, on camera, is appalling and hilarious. Fielder delivers the best line of the night. When the guys are first hanging out, he leans back in his chair, trying to be cool, and says, "all I need when hanging with my bros is a mother effin beer". Those exact words. Fielders awkwardness makes this great on so many levels. I love this show. It's fantastic and awkward and goofy and funny. Nathan Fielder is a true comedy genius and this show is a must watch.

I'm so excited for the rest of the season and I hope there's many, many more to come.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He learned all about business from the "Buddy Bands" episode of "Saved by the Bell". 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.

Tracy Morgan brings some glory back to SNL

Tracy Morgan is bringing comedy sunshine the dark landscape that has been SNL.

Back to your regularly scheduled programming from me.

I know I've been blogging a lot about basketball and sports lately, and I'm still going to do that, but now I'm going to get back into the groove and give you pop culture from a lot of different angles. I'll get back to movies, TV shows, music and everything else starting today.

Today, I'm going to tell you about the sheer greatness that was last Saturday's SNL. Tracy Morgan, making his triumphant return to TV, crushed as the host of the 41st seasons third episode. The season premiere, featuring Miley Cyrus wasn't very good, and Amy Schumer did a better job on the second episode, but Tracy Morgan, hosting the third episode, hearkened SNL back to it's glory days. He seemed so comfortable and calm on that stage. This was the perfect place for him to make his official return to TV. As I written before, he's most comfortable at 30 Rockefeller Center and that's where his career took off, both on SNL and "30 Rock".

I did want to touch on the cold open before I get to the meat of the episode. My wife and I usually never watch cold opens because they're always political and we, quite frankly, don't care for humor involving politics. But, due to some social media searching, we both found out Larry David would be making an appearance. I'm a HUGE Larry David fan and this piqued my interest. So, we watched the cold open, hoping that it would be worth it, and boy was it totally worth it. David played Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. I can't think of a better character for him to play besides himself. This was a grand slam, getting David not only to appear, but also to play his doppleganger, Bernie Sanders. He was absolutely hilarious, and had you told me the lines David was reciting were actual Sanders quotes, I would've believed it. Bernie Sanders is a total nut job, and Larry David played that almost as perfect as comedian James Adomian does. Seriously people, if you liked David's impression, check out James Adomian's impression, it's better. Needless to say, the cold open set the tone for this being a really, really good episode. Oh, and I didn't even mention that Alec Baldwin showed up playing, a senator I think, named Jim Webb. But, David's appearance outshined everyone else on the stage.

Now, let's get to the return of Tracy Morgan. First of all, during the monologue, he started to talk as if he had a stroke. I was taken aback, but he immediately said he was joking and I was already laughing. The monologue was very good. None of the singing that usually goes on now, in fact, he talked about his old show "30 Rock" being prophetic about his accident. Which reminds me, he said that maybe the accident made him smarter because he now knew what prophetic meant and how to use it in a sentence. Back to the "30 Rock" episode. It was on the same stage, obviously it wasn't a real "30 Rock" episode, and cameos were made by Tina Fey, Jane Krakowski, Jack McBrayer and Alec Baldwin once again. They all reprised their roles from the show and talked about Tracy Jordan being in an accident. Morgan appeared as Jordan and let everyone know he was okay. This bit was played to many laughs. And, it's always good to have old friends and cast members appear on SNL. Pretty much all of the sketches were hilarious, and they brought back two beloved characters that Morgan played while part of the cast.

The first character they brought back was Brian Fellows. They did the Brian Fellows Show and anyone who watched when Morgan regularly did the show, knows how insane and bizarre this sketch is. It was just as crazy, with Fellows at one part, accompanied by a dream bubble, thinking about a beaver smoking cigarettes. He also yelled his titular line, "I'M BRIAN FELLOWS!".

It was great. During Weekend Update, we got a cameo from Tina Fey, hilariously making fun of Playboy not being a nudie magazine anymore. She even showed off some of the poses she always wanted to do, if she ever got a chance to pose for Playboy. During Weekend Update, while Michael Che was talking to his always upbeat neighbor, Willie, Morgan showed up as the bum who thinks he's way more important than he really is, Woodrow. Woodrow was Willie's life coach and the two of them sang a sweet, but very sad song. This was a great use of this character.

Some of the other good sketches were, one where, it was set up like a musical and all the cast members were joyously singing what they were doing. Well, when Morgan showed up, he sang what was literally on his mind. For example, one of his lyrics were, "I just peed". It was so weird, but Morgan made it funny because that's what he does. There was another weird sketch that Morgan made work called "Where's Jackie Chan At?". Morgan and Keenan Thompson played two guys that simply asked the question, where's Jackie Chan at. They had callers and even a person to person chat with Chris Tucker, played excellently by Jay Pharoah, and no one knew where Jackie Chan currently was. I loved this sketch, because I'm still trying to figure out, where's Jackie Chan at. They did one of their premade videos and it was very funny. The "movie" featured Pharoah, Shasheer Zamata, Taran Killam and Morgan. Killam and Zamata are a couple at the bar and Killam's character is clearly upset. Apparently, Morgan's character said something to her in passing and Killam was waiting for the right time to broach the situation. He finally does, and it's revealed that Morgan's character wants to dance. They keep saying, "you want to dance", insinuating a fight, but Morgan literally means dancing. He even has ballet flats on to prove how serious he is. They get into a whole back story about how Morgan's dad never let him dance, and made him act tough, and finally Zamata says she will dance with him because his story is so sad, but Morgan says he needs to dance with Killam because, "I can't lead, I don't know how". It ended with the two of then getting ready to dance, it was pretty funny.

The best sketch of the entire show was the first sketch after the monologue. They did a "Family Feud" sketch and I was in stiches the whole time. First of all, if there's a better impersonation of Steve Harvey than what Keenan Thompson does, I haven't seen it. He does a spot on Harvey impression, going so far as to call everyone player. It's great. During this sketch, we find out that the two families involved in the game are Tracy Morgan's new family, he got divorced six months prior, and his ex wife and three kids. This was a very, very funny premise for a sketch. We first met Morgan's ex wife, played by Leslie Jones. She's a star and needs to be on this show much, much more often. The kids are played by Pharoah, Zamata and Che. Morgan's new wife and family were as lily white as they come. His new wife was played by Cecily Strong and his kids were the new cast member, his name escapes me at the moment, and Vanessa Bayer. The only question asked during the feud was, "name something someone forgets". Jones rings in first and exclaims, "COMMITMENT!", clearly still upset about the divorce. She gets the answer right and her family gets to play. Pharoah answers, "not coming to your son's clarinet recital because it's not manly" and Zamata says, "not being there as a male role model, so now I have to strip". They each get strikes, and when they get to Che, he's gone to the other family because, "they're happy and always smiling". The whole time, Morgan is yelling back at his ex wife and children and it's hilarious. This was a great sketch to open with.

Obviously, I loved this episode. Tracy Morgan was phenomenal and exceeded my expectations by a million miles. I'm so, so happy that he's healthy and back doing what he loves. The comedy world has missed you Tracy Morgan, but your future looks bright after your triumphant return to SNL.

Welcome back.

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.

"The Jim Gaffigan Show" Season Finale and Looking Forward to Season 2

All set for the next great show

This past Wednesday the season finale of the first season of "The Jim Gaffigan Show" aired.

I wrote about the show after the premiere and, as I wrote back then, I really enjoyed the episode. The season only got stronger as the first season went on. The show consistently got better and funnier. Gaffigan is a hilarious comedian and he and his wife wrote a very, very good show. Michael Ian Black and Adam Goldberg were pretty fantastic in their roles. Michael Ian Black was Jim's wife's ex boyfriend. It's quickly revealed that he's gay now and he and Jeanie are best friends. He's a realtor, but that's not what made him so good in this role. He and Jim Gaffigan are not friendly towards each other. Their scenes together are great. Every time they were on screen together, it was hilarious. Adam Goldberg plays Jim's comic friend Dave that still lives with his mom in her nursing home. He's the complete opposite of Jim Gaffigan. He has no wife and kids, therefore, no responsibilities. I didn't know what to expect from Goldberg in this role, he seems like an intense dude, but he was really, very funny. I enjoyed him a lot. Ashley Williams plays Jeanie, Jim's wife. As I mentioned in my previous blog, she's really excellent on this show. I knew nothing of her before, but I really liked her on this show. Besides Jim Gaffigan, she was the best one on the show by far.

There's other primary characters, the Gaffigan's nanny, the people that work at the deli, the children, but the one non main cast member I want to point out was Macauly Caulkin. He played himself and he would show up in random spots throughout the season. He was an employee at a coffee shop, you saw him walk out of Scores Strip Club with a date, he showed up at a party full of comics, and he made an appearance in the finale hanging out with Alec Baldwin. It was so bizarre and excellent. I loved that he took this role, and the fact that he played it so well. Kudos to Macauly Caulkin.

But, I'm here to talk about the finale. It was really good. The show has already been renewed for a second season, so I think this kept the writers and actors at ease, and they all had a really good time doing this episode. The finale started with Jim Gaffigan and Dave going to lunch at the Katz Deli they frequent throughout the season. Dave is telling him that he's going to Melbourne, Australia for the Melbourne Comedy Festival. It's a one month commitment and Jim lets him know that he turned down his offer because of his wife and kids. He has five children after all. They both run into another comic, John Mulaney, and he and Dave are talking about the great time they're going to have in Melbourne. Gaffigan seems jealous of what the two of them are planning. He definitely wants to go, but he just can't. His house is also all getting over the stomach flu, adding more insult to the injury of him not being able to go to Melbourne. This does produce a hilarious line from Gaffigan talking to Dave. Dave is "scared" to visit his house because it's "crawling with disease" and Gaffigan counters this by saying, "you ever puked while having diarrhea? You go right through the five hole". Absolutely hilarious. Gaffigan returns home and all the kids may or may not have lice. There was an out break at the school and Jeanie, always one to over prepare, is making sure no one has lice. This annoys Gaffigan. He is tasked to watch one of the kids in the tub and he looks away for a split second and another one of his children throws his laptop in the full bathtub. This makes Gaffigan extremely angry. He's yelling at his wife and kids and he needs to leave the house to get some air. He feels like he's suffocating. While out, he runs into his preacher and tells him, in a fit of rage, that he wishes he never had a wife and kids. He then sees Steve Buscemi about to get hit by a bunch of bicyclists, steps in the way and he gets knocked out. Then, the "Scrooged" effect comes into play. Buscemi plays his guardian angel and takes him around town in a world where he never met Jeanie and they never had kids. In this world he's a filthy comic, we all know Gaffigan works clean, and his comic friends hate him. He has a full head of hair, but he looks like an a hole frat boy. He now lives with Dave. In this universe, Dave is the responsible one, threatening to kick Gaffigan out if he doesn't stop bringing home loose girls and not paying his part of the rent. His preacher thinks he's a crazy homeless person and doesn't try to help him. But, in Gaffigan's mind, the worst thing of all, Jeanie owns a bar and is married to Michael Ian Black's character, who's put on a lot of weight. Jeanie looks like a punk rocker and proclaims to Jim that she would never marry him and that she hates kids. Meanwhile, Michael Ian Black is a huge fan of Gaffigan's and tells him his standup is not only great, but it makes him love all food. Everything is different, for the worse. After the Jeanie from this universe claims she hates kids, she punches Jim in the face. This takes us back to present day in real time. Gaffigan wakes up, realizes everything is normal again and immediately runs home. We get to his house and his real wife Jeanie is cooking in the kitchen. His real children all come to hug him and Gaffigan is happy once again. When Jeanie asks him why he's acting so weird, he says he had a dream that a television network filmed a bunch of actors portraying their real lives. Then, the cast of "The Gaffigan Show" all appear and start singing "Auld Lyn Syng". They all proclaim they're excited for season two and the finale ends.

It was a great ending to a great first season of "The Jim Gaffigan Show". I'm excited for season two and I'm happy that Jim Gaffigan has a platform to put his family friendly standup and stories on the air. Thanks TV Land and Nickelodeon. You guys made a great choice. And thank you Jim and Jeanie Gaffigan for sharing these excellent stories with us.

Bring on season two.

Ty

Ty is the pop culture editor for SeedSing and the co host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Ty does not envy the choices one makes when they have diarreha and have to puke. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

The Great Characters of "Key and Peele" Will Be Missed

Toss out the tv, there is nothing good on anymore

Last week one of the greatest sketch comedy shows on TV aired their final episode.

"Key and Peele" has their series finale last Wednesday. I know I'm a week late, but I needed this time to reflect on what made "Key and Peele" so great. This show came out of nowhere to me. I knew of Keegan Michael Key and Jordan Peele from their appearances on "MadTV". They were the only ones on that show that left an impression on me. I'm a SNL fan, so "MadTV" was, basically, a joke to me. It came and went, and people may say, look at Will Sasso he's been mildly successful, or look at, I've already run out of names after one person. Keegan Michael Key and Jordan Peele came later, and they were the only memorable ones on the show. When I heard, three years ago, that they were working on a sketch show for Comedy Central, I was excited. I like both of them, and they each would pop up in movies or shows every once in a while, but the fact that they were getting their own show, had me intrigued.

The first season of the show was just as great as I hoped it would be. In the first sketch of the first season, they put out one of the most quotable and memorable skits that lasted all the way through the five seasons, coming to an end in the final episode. Two husbands were hanging out, with their wives in other rooms, and they were complaining about their significant others. They would get to the end of the complaint, lean in and whisper, "I said biiiiiiitch", and each of the guys would congratulate the other one for standing up to his wife. But, when the wives would enter the room, both men would tense up and say, "we aren't talking about anything". It's one of, if not their most, memorable sketches. Through all the seasons we were also introduced to recurring characters like Wendell, Luther(Barack Obama's anger translator), Andre and Meegan, substitute teacher Mr. Garvey, the East/West Shrine Bowl players(some of the funniest names I've ever heard), MC Mom and many, many other hilarious characters. Wendell, played by Jordan Peele, was a nerdy, loner that would order a pizza, or go to a sex addicts group and make up wild stories. He would always claim to have way more friends than he actually had, his friends were his action figures, and his stories got larger and less true as they went on. Barack Obama's anger translator, Luther, was one of the best characters on sketch TV of all time. Keegan Michael Key played Luther, and Jordan Peele would do his spot on Obama impression, and when Obama spoke, Luther translated every word into a super loud, very angry speech. In the final season we even got a Hilary Clinton anger translator to argue with Luther. It was very funny. Luther was such a popular character, he actually spoke at one of Obama's recent speeches. It was great. Andre(Key) and Meegan(Peele) were your typical mid twenties, douchey couple. Andre was a total pushover, dressed head to toe in gaudy Ed Hardy gear, and he would literally follow Meegan to the ends of the Earth. Meegan was the epitome of a bitchy, over privileged, snotty twenty something year old. Her high pitched tone and the way she treated people was so grating, that everyone who came in contact with her hated her, except for Andre. They almost broke up in the final episode, but Meegan tricked Andre into staying together. The East/West Shrine players had some of the funniest, most ridiculous names I've ever heard. Key and Peele's portrayal of these players were spot on. Some of the names included Hingle McCringleberry or X Wing @aliciousness, just absolutely absurd. Some rumors were, they got the idea for this recurring sketch when they heard there were real players named D'Brickashaw Ferguson and Ha Ha Clinton-Dix. Those are real football players, with Clinton-Dix actually appearing in one of the East/West sketches. MC Mom seemed to be almost a throw away character, but the further she got into her rap, the better the sketch became. This portrayal by Peele was phenomenal and it brought back one of "Key and Peele" most famous catchphrases, "Put the Pussy on the Chainwax!". Fans of the show know exactly what I'm saying with that catchphrase. Substitute teacher Mr. Garvey was the best recurring character on this show. Played to perfection by Keegan Michael Key, Mr. Garvey had an anger that only a substitute teacher could have, and he pronounced all the students names wrong. For example, Aaron was pronounced A a ron or Denise was pronounced De Nice. It is such a funny, yet at the same time, true sketch for all of us who've ever had a substitute. There's so many more excellent characters that they both played, but these are my favorites.

When the show premiered, they used to do it in front of a studio audience, a la "Chapelle's Show" and I really liked that. In the third season, they switched to the two of them driving in a car on a long stretch of road with the desert to each side of them. I was frustrated at first, but as it went on, some of the funniest moments were produced between the two of them simply talking to each other. In the long run, it was clearly a set up to end their very first sketch, the "I said biiiiiiitch" sketch, and it totally paid off.

Both of these guys will continue to work because they're so talented and I'm glad that Comedy Central gave them a platform so more people could find out how funny they are. The two of them wrote a movie that will be filmed soon, and both are working in TV and movies very consistently now. I will miss you "Key and Peele".Wednesday nights will not be the same without you, but you ended the show at the right time for yourselves and it was a very pleasing ending to fans like me. Thanks for the three plus years and five seasons of some of the most hilarious sketch comedy I've ever seen.

You guys definitely put the pussy on the chainwax.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the co-host of the X Millennial Man podcast. With all of his shows ending, what will he watch next? Supergirl? Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Ty is ready to embrace SNL again with the news that Tracy Morgan will be hosting

Go ahead and get the tv out of storage

With the recent news that Tracy Morgan will be hosting the second episode of the upcoming season of "Saturday Night Live" I have a renewed faith in the people at NBC.

I'm so happy and was extremely pleased when my wife told me this news and I confirmed for myself by checking online. As most of you know, I'm a HUGE Tracy Morgan fan. He was my first stand up comedy show I went to. I've seen the majority of the movies he's done(he was exceptional in his last role in "Top five"). His character, Tracy Jordan, on "30 Rock" made him the household name he deserved to be. That is one of the most iconic and hilarious characters that's even been on TV. I would love to see the movies that Tracy Jordan had the posters of in his dressing room, especially "White cop, Black Cop". But, what I liked most, was the absurd characters he did on SNL. Brian Fellows is one of my all time favorite skits that's ever been on SNL. Astronaut Jones was so bizarre and uproarious. His impression of Star Jones in the best one out there. When he played Shaquille O'Neal's dad on a skit and had to give him a spanking, I was laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes. I could go on and on about the many hilarious characters he played during his stint on SNL. The fact that the people at NBC and, Lorne Michaels especially, reached out to him and asked him to host is so, so great. For all the shit that's talked about Lorne Michaels, he does do some great, thoughtful things sometimes. Sure, the episode Morgan hosts will get great ratings, but what Michaels did by inviting him is an extremely classy move. He's putting Tracy Morgan in a very comfortable situation for him, by putting him back on the stage where he became a star. This is also a great idea and place for him to make his return to comedy and acting. Like I said before, he's being put in a low stakes situation, for himself, other people take the hosting of SNL way too seriously. Morgan will thrive on this stage. He knows the SNL stage like the back of his hand. He was there for a good amount of time and appeared on many skits during his run. I can't think of a better spot for him to return to the small screen.

This gives me hope that SNL may be turning a corner and getting back to some good skits and writing with the decision to have Morgan host. Normally, they'd stroll whoever the flavor of the month is, like last season when they had the girl from "50 Shades of Grey" host. That episode was awful. There were some decent hosts last season, Chris Hemsworth blew me away with how funny his episode was, but for the past couple of seasons, SNL has been in a rut. I think that should change with the people they've booked to host the first couple episodes of the upcoming season. They have confirmed flavor of the month, but also a comedian of big fame and a hugely successful movie, Amy Schumer and they have one of their prodigal sons returning in the aforementioned Tracy Morgan. Schumer will be good, because this is what she does. Tracy Morgan will be great, because he's done it before and he deserves this more than anyone right now. He's a comedy legend and that legend began on the stage of SNL. I can't think of a better way for him to honor the memory of his deceased friend by going out on that stage and crushing SNL. I hope they do all his famous characters because that will make me remember the good old days and he is so comfortable doing them. I love that Morgan is hosting and I haven't been this excited for an episode of SNL in quite some time. Thanks SNL and, more importantly, thank you Tracy Morgan for doing this. The world needs you and your comedy back and I cannot wait for you to host SNL.

I'm filled with joy and anticipation.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for SeedSing and co host of the X Millennial Man podcast. When he heard Tracy Morgan was going to be on SNL, Ty did the Super Bowl shuffle. Follow him on twitter @tykulik.

The non-Simpson Legends of "The Simpsons"

Faux wood paneling helps prevent fal-a-part

I've written and talked about "The Simpsons" before on this website, and I'll do it many more times. Today will be one of those days.

Instead of talking about the Simpson family today, I want to talk about secondary characters. Characters that don't have the last name Simpson. I'm talking about people like Sideshow Bob, Chief Wiggum, Principal Skinner, Edna Krabappel, Ned Flanders, the list goes on and on and on. There's an endless number of secondary characters. So many in fact, some have had multiple, entire episodes dedicated to things that have happened in their lives. I have three personal favorites, and those are the ones I will focus on today. I'll come back to this topic many more times on the site, but, just today, I'm picking my three favorites to tell you about.

When it comes to secondary characters, I'll take Troy McClure, Milhouse Van Houten and, far and away the best secondary character, in my opinion, Dr. Nick Riviera. These three have had story arcs and multiple episodes that focus solely on them. Hell, Dr. Nick had a somewhat monumental occurrence happen to him in " The Simpsons Movie", when he was crushed by the dome and said his trademark line, with one huge difference, "bye everybody". That was heartbreaking to me, but I'll touch on that later in this piece.

I first want to talk about Troy McClure. Voiced by the genius and hilarious Phil Hartman. He died way before his time, especially for his voice work on "The Simpsons". There could've been so many more stories than they already had, but the ones that they do have are great. It's a shame that he died so young, just a shame. But, let's focus on the hilarity we did get from Troy McClure. Troy McClure was Springfield's "movie star". He was once a TV movie star, a long time ago, and as time went by, he settled for roles in student teaching films. He was a has been, that never really was. He had a moment in the spotlight. He married Marge's sister, Selma, and, for a very brief moment, studios were all over him because he was a married man and the rumors about him and fish were a thing of the past. He even had a shot at being McBain's new sidekick(McBain is Rainier Wolfcastle's, Springfield's legit movie star, best known role) if he and Patty could have a baby. But, the marriage was a sham and they didn't really love one another, so why bring a baby into the world. McClure lost out on the role and was exiled back to his student films. The fact that he is always confident and doesn't realize that he's a joke of an actor, makes me like his character even more. He's in the clouds and oblivious to the world around him. He always greets people with, "Hi, I'm Troy McClure and you may remember me from my role in" add any terrible, TV movie. He is/was such a great impression of these actors that think they're a big deal, but most people know that they're a has been, or in Troy McClure's case, a never been. I love me some Troy McClure and I recommend you watch the episode where he marries Selma ("A Fish Called Selma" season 7, episode 19) to see Troy McClure at his best. It's a great episode.

Next, we have Bart Simpson's nerdy, pushover of a best friend, Milhouse Van Houten. Milhouse is the epitome of a dork. He does anything Bart tells him to do, no questions asked. He's in love with Lisa, but she could care less about him. Homer refers to him as a wiener on multiple occasions. Hell, he even looks like the nerd on the Dating Game board game the Simpsons play when they stay at the Flanders' summer cottage. Milhouse has some of the greatest and most memorable moments on the show. There's the episode where Bart steals the video game, earlier in the episode Milhouse tells Bart how great the game is and Millhouse has only entered his name, Thrillhouse. But, when the camera shows you his name on the game, it reads Thrillho. He couldn't get the last three letters in. Another great Milhouse moment happens when Homer becomes an artist and floods the town. Milhouse is complaining about his flood pants, but the water comes and he rejoices, "my shoes are soaking wet, but my ankles are bone dry! Everything is coming up Milhouse!". That's a classic line. In the episode where Bart gets Laddie, Bart and Milhouse are talking about lost pets and he says to Bart, "remember that time you said I never had a fish, but then I found the bowl? Why did I have the bowl Bart, why?". I love stuff like that. When he moves to the big city with his mom and tries to become a cool kid by dying his hair and giving Bart a wedgie is hilarious. He's such a failure at being cool, and he loves Bart so much, that while he's giving him a wedgie, he tells Bart that he will always love him. The best Milhouse episode is easily when he becomes Fall Out Boy in the "Radioactive Man" movie ("Radioactive Man" season 7, episode 2). We see some Milhouse depth and sadness in this episode. He doesn't want to be famous and is so distraught, he runs off the set during the critical acid spill scene. Another thing I like about this episode, you see Bart's jealousy, but also love for his friend when, he's talking to what appears to be Milhouse, then Milhouse blows up, but we very quickly find out that it's a dummy for the movie. Bart is so sad, he keeps saying, "I wished him well, I wished him well!". So, Bart has an equal amount of respect that Milhouse has for him. Milhouse Van Houten is a power house on "The Simpsons".

Lastly, my personal favorite besides Homer, we have the incredibly hilarious Dr. Nick Riviera. He's the greatest secondary character of all time on any TV show ever made. He's laugh out loud funny. He's Springfield's cheaper alternative to Dr. Hibbert. He went to a fake medical school and has crazy ways of doing his job. For example, he needs Lisa's help to perform surgery after Homer has a heart attack. He tells Homer, during a different procedure, one to put hair on his head, to take this medicine to knock him out, but Dr. Nick takes the laughing gas, and he punches Homer instead. He offers to give free nose jobs. When Homer wants to gain 61 pounds so he can work from home, he seeks out Dr. Nick for advice, and he's more than willing to help him gain the weight. He even tells him that, if he has any doubt the food isn't unhealthy enough for him, rub it on the table and the grease will tell you if it's healthy or unhealthy. I even use Dr. Nick's famous catchphrase, "Hi Everybody!", as my opening to the X Millenial Man podcast. The bar none, best Dr. Nick episode is the one with 22 short stories ("22 Short Films about Springfield" season 7, episode 21). He has a very small part, but it tells you everything you need to know about him. He enters in front of the infractions board at the hospital and he's in trouble for using a knife and fork to perform surgery. His response to these allegations, "I cleaned them with my napkin". Next, Grampa Simpson is complaining of a problem and demanding a "quack". Who should answer the call, Dr. Nick. He tells Grampa that he has a disease called Bonus eruptus, when the skeleton tries to leap out of the body through the mouth. He proceeds to electro shock Grampa every five seconds, and the board drops all the charges against him. That's when he offers free nose jobs. It's a classically great "Simpsons" episode. Like I said earlier, he "died" in the movie after being crushed by a piece of the dome. This upset me because it meant that I wouldn't get anymore Dr. Nick centric episodes. He's popped up here and there, but he doesn't get lines or any interaction, he's just there. Dr. Nick has, for all intents and purposes, "died". It's a bummer.

So, those are my three favorite secondary characters involved with "The Simpsons". I will retread this topic and the Simpsons many times, but I wanted to point out how great these three particular characters are. They're awesome and watch the three episodes I mentioned for each to get a good idea of what makes them so memorable.

These three background characters are many of the true legends of "The Simpsons" and the Simpson universe.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the co-host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He will keep Hi Everybody alive and well until a dome covers the St. Louis area. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

What did Ty think of HBO's Ballers and the Brink?

Sometimes this machine does not beam garbage into your television

Last night HBO aired the season one finales of "Ballers" and "The Brink". I've written about these two shows on the site, both about their premieres.

One, "Ballers", left me wanting more during the premiere. It was a watered down version of "Entourage", and I hated "Entourage". What kept me coming back to "Ballers" was Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. That guy oozes charisma and charm. He's a star because he's so easy to watch when he's on the small and big screen. Rob Corrdry is one of my favorite comic actors, so when I saw that he was in the cast, that was another point before I watched one episode of "Ballers". Then the premiere happened and some more episodes happened and then the finale happened. Nothing of importance or consequence really happened on that show. Like I said earlier, it is a watered down version of an old, crummy HBO show. There were moments, but for all intents and purposes, NOTHING truly happened. The star player got his multi million dollar contract, Dwayne Johnson and Rob Corrdry got what they wanted, enemies became friends and then season one just ended. The finale really left nothing, for me, to be desired. There's no reason or desire for me to come back for season two. A second season has already been confirmed, but I won't be watching. I gave it one season and I feel that's enough for me. "Ballers" has it's fans, but you can't count me as one of them. Best of luck to "Ballers".

"The Brink", on the other hand was great all season long. The stakes were raised each week and the finale was excellent and left me wanting more. I cannot wait for the second season. "The Brink" has been picked up for a second season as well, I believe. Tim Robbins, playing the Secretary of the State, was phenomenal. He deserves an emmy for his performance. He was rude, crude, chauvinistic, oddly lovable and the smartest guy in the room. His performance is an education in how to play smart, political humor that even novices like me can understand. He was great. Jack Black was his typical character. He was working at the US embassy in Pakistan, but he was a buffoon that didn't take his job too seriously. A typical role for him. That being said, he was good and when the stakes were high for his character, he stepped up to the plate and performed really well. One particular scene, in the finale, had him trading stories with the crazed leader of Pakistan and he plays scared, yet in control of the situation, to perfection. Aasif Mandvi was pretty great in his role as Black's driver and only true friend in Pakistan. His family was heavily involved in the show and he was at the center of all the conflict between them and Jack Black. He's a very good, underrated actor and I feel like his role on "The Brink" is perfect for him. He should be a house hold name. The next best person on this show, Tim Robbins is the number one best person, is Pablo Schrieber. He plays the Navy's best fighter pilot, but he's also a screw up with his girlfriend back home and he's a pill popping alcoholic. I had only known Schrieber from his roles on "Orange is the New Black" and the second season of "The Wire". Those were two very different roles and he played two very different types of people. On "The Brink" though, he plays a comically hilarious soldier boy and I loved every second he was on screen. He's a very good comic actor. The finale, unlike "Ballers", ended with consequence and a build up to a second season. Schrieber's fighter jet was flown into a disguised tanker that was actually a bomber about to land on Pakistan. Schrieber and his co pilot escaped the crash by ejecting from the jet and they ended up somewhere in Africa. As the finale comes to a close, you see a young African child with a goat see the damage from the planes crashing, and there's one missile left, unharmed. Next, we see what seems to be a war lord and his troops putting the missile on a truck and they drive away. The music and credits play immediately after this scene. Talk about building up the tension for the next season. It was a great finale. I'm very pumped for season two.

So, "Ballers" left me wanting more, giving me nothing and the decision by me to not return for season two. On the other hand, "The Brink" has me amped and ready for season two with a fantastic finale. HBO needs to quit with the "Entourage" clones and keep making new, interesting shows like "The Brink". "The Brink" was the standout of the two new shows that HBO premiered this summer.

Happy binge watching for those that need to catch up on HBO Go or HBO Now.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for SeedSing and co-host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He is in search of a new (or old) show to watch. Give him some ideas and follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

"Playing House" is one of the best comedies on television

USA has to be on the UHF band

Last week season two of "Playing House" premiered on the USA Network.

I was out of town and my wife and I were unable to watch. We got back from our trip last night and not only were we able to see the season premiere on On Demand, but we got to see the next two episodes as well. "Playing House" is back and it's just as good as the first season. Lennon Parham and Jessica St. Clair are comedic geniuses. Not only are they excellent comedy writers, but they're phenomenal actors. They're both so funny and their chemistry is great. It's easy to see that they are best friends in real life.

USA is a great network for this show to be a part of. St. Clair and Parham had a show on NBC a couple of years ago, but it wasn't a good fit. USA lets them take chances and they let the show be a bit risqué. In the three episodes we saw last night I heard them say asshole and shit. That doesn't happen on channels like NBC. I feel, and I think they'd agree, that the cancellation from NBC was the best thing for them. This opened up the possibility of doing the show they wanted on a network that would let them take chances. USA hit a home run by putting "Playing House" on the air. They scored even more points for me when they renewed it for a second season.

In season one, we all know that Emma(St. Clair) left her high powered job in China to move home to help a very pregnant Maggie(Parham) get ready for the birth of her baby. We also found out that Maggie's husband, Bruce(Brad Morris) was cheating on her, so she needed her friend more than ever. In the season two premiere, we see Maggie, Emma and the baby posing for pictures at a mall. The baby girl, Charlotte, looks to be about four months old. St. Clair and Parham play up the photo shoot for very big laughs. After the photo shoot, they run into "Bird Bones"(Lindsay Sloane) and Mark(Keegan Michael Key), friends from the town that they can't see anymore because Emma is in love with Mark and "Bird Bones" isn't happy with that. "Bird Bones" and Mark are working out their relationship problems, so they are at the photographers to get family photos with their new dog Renee. It's supposed to be a bonding time for them, but it's just awkward after running into Maggie and Emma. We find out later that Maggie is secretly bringing Charlotte over to Mark's house so he can see her and they can continue their friendship. This encounter runs us into the big problem they run into in the premiere. Charlotte has a doll called Mr. Kooky and it's the only thing that can get her to sleep. Maggie and Emma go over to Mark's house, Maggie knows the code to get in, and look for the doll. We then see Renee chewing on Mr. Kooky. Maggie and Emma eventually get the doll back, but by that time, "Bird Bones" and Mark arrive home. It eventually gets found out that Maggie and Emma are in the house. The four of them have a big talk where they reveal all their problems and, having this out in the open, makes everyone more comfortable around each other. Maggie and Emma are told that they can have the toy back, but we then see Renee humping it, so they leave Mr. Kooky be. When Maggie and Emma go to Bruce's house to get Charlotte, Charlotte is sound asleep. When they ask him how he got her to sleep, Bruce replies, "I told her she's the love of my life, kissed her and put her to bed". Simple as that. The three of them are looking at their picture from the photo shoot and while Emma and Maggie are unhappy with how they look, Charlotte looks great and that's all that matters. A very sweet ending.

It was a very solid season two premiere. I don't want to spoil the next two episodes from anyone, but they're both very funny and very good. Jane Kaczmarek is back as Emma's mom and Zach Woods is back as Charlotte's uncle. They both have very good scenes in the next two episodes. The real standout to me, so far, is Keegan Michael Key. He is so funny and a very good actor. He plays Mark as a strong, but understandable husband and friend to the three ladies in his life. He's a top notch comedy actor. I'm so happy that "Playing House" is back on the air. It's a very solid show, and fans of comedy should be watching.

Check it out.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the co-host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He plays house with a living baby, a dog, and his hard working wife. Follow him on twitter @tykulik