Women in TV week: Mindy Kaling

In 2007 Christopher Hitchens for Vanity Fair wrote a provocative piece entitled 'Why Women Aren't Funny' (they followed this up a year later with a women in comedy cover story), with this in mind I wanted to look at one area of television where women seem to be making a big impact at the moment and that is in comedy. Women in comedy TV shows is obviously not a new concept; I Love Lucy, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Golden Girls all spring to mind as great examples of this. It would seem at the moment that on NBC primarily it is women who are the cornerstone to the Thursday night comedy line up and when thinking of these shows the names Tina Fey and Amy Poehler automatically spring to mind for good reason. The idea though behind my blog this week is to profile women who are inspirational but who might not get the coverage that they deserve and for me the funniest woman in TV at the moment is Mindy Kaling. 

Mindy Kaling plays Kelly Kapoor in The Office and is also a writer and a co-executive producer on the show. Kapoor is the girl in the office who is primarily concerned with romance and celebrity gossip and like many of her co-workers her role at Dunder Mifflin is an after thought. A lot of the brilliance of Kelly is through her incessant chatter about whatever real life relationship crisis is occurring at that time or what is going on with Brangelina in the gossip world. I especially love the gossip references as I am a not so secret gossip junkie, I love all things ohnotheydidnt and Us Weekly so I am always especially thrilled when this type of stuff gets a mention. The long standing on/off relationship between Kelly and Ryan (BJ Novak) is another highlight in this show with one of my favourite moments being when after Ryan slates Dunder Mifflin in his business lecture (Business School 3.16) Michael punishes him by moving his desk to the annex with Kelly (this also in turn punishes Toby (Paul Lieberstein)). Kelly in the season four episode Dunder Mifflin Infinity pretends that she is a pregnant to get Ryan back, this plan does not go according to plan with Ryan even trying to outsource Kapoor's job to India in retaliation.  

The brilliance of the Office is that the array of characters from the leads to the group as a whole keeps the programme funny and fresh and it is quite often that the moments with the side characters such as Kelly, Angela or Creed are the funniest of the episodes. I think that this has helped the longevity of the show as the more peripheral characters have developed further which has led to a range of stories beyond Michael (Steve Carell), Pam (Jenna Fischer), Jim (John Krasinski) and Dwight (Rainn Wilson). 

It is not just Kaling's portrayal of Kapoor that makes her vital to the world of The Office as she has to date written 14 episodes including this seasons big Pam and Jim wedding episode Niagara which I don't mind admitting got me all misty eyed. Other favourites of mine that she has written include season 2 'The Injury', season 4 'Branch Wars' and season 5 double bill 'Lecture Circuit'. It is this position as writer that shows that women can both act funny and write funny and that even though female comedy writers are not all that common, there are at least some who show that it can be done. I actually was aware of Kaling from her writing before I actually saw any of The Office as I was late to the show having only really caught up on the entire run last year. An article that Kaling had written in Marie Claire magazine about living alone caught my eye and for some reason stuck with me, it was the mix of humour and pop culture references that caught my eye that when I started watching The Office and realised that this was the same person as Kelly it made a whole lot of sense that she was also one of the writers. The gift that Kaling has with comedic writing was further exemplified in a short piece she wrote for the New York Times about constructing a fake family rather than telling a parking attendant that she was unmarried and didn't have kids. Once again working in references to pop culture treats such as 'Big' and 'Elf' as well as being able to capture emotion and humour is why I really like Kaling's work. This is why I am looking forward to her work outside of The Office which includes teaming up with fellow Office scribe Brent Forrester to write the film The Low Self Esteem of Lizzie Gillespie.

This week also marks Kaling's first episode of the Office that she is directing, as previously she has directed the short Office video 'Subtle Sexuality' (which I will include at the end). This video was genius mixing the fashion and dance moves of Beyonce and Lady Gaga and it also cemented my love for new character Erin, and any video that has Ed Helms singing is a pure win for me and I hope that there will be more of this on the season 6 DVD. Kaling is also a big tweeter and you can follow her @mindykaling on twitter, it is well worth it for Office scoop and other observations on the world which include her love of fashion, movies and pop culture.

Subtle Sexuality

Subtle Sexuality is the girl group that Kelly (Mindy Kaling) and Erin (Ellie Kemper) from the Office have formed, which is another brilliant webisode series that the creative greats at the Office have devised. The group appears to be part Beyonce, part Lady Gaga and have done a music video to their song 'Male Prima Donna' which is about Ryan. The video also features perhaps my favourite Office character Andy as the 'Nard Dog and Ryan who does a spectacular rap as Mr Understood. I've really liked the addition of Erin to the Office team and it is good that Kelly has a fellow pop culture/celebrity junkie to spare with and this video really is the culmination of this. This is also Mindy Kaling's first time directing and she has done a terrific job, as it takes from other music videos of right now and adds a great comedic twist. Not that the song is not actually a good pop song as I have had it stuck in my head all day.

Here is the video:

  

Top 5 Halloween TV episodes

1) Buffy the Vampire Slayer: 'Halloween'

In this second season episode the Scooby gang become what they have dressed for Halloween due to a spell that Ethan Rayne (with his first of several appearances) has put on all the costumes from his shop. As Halloween is normally a day that demons have off this would normally not be an issue, however Spike uses the opportunity to try and take down the Slayer who unfortunately dressed as an eighteenth century lady, losing all of her slayer knowledge and fainting at the sight of a monster. Willow becomes a ghost, having the power to walk through walls but not touch anything and Xander becomes a soldier, which will prove useful for later episodes when he retains all his soldier training and codes for military buildings. What makes this episode great is to see Buffy vulnerable in this role reversal 'come as you aren't' theme for Halloween. It is also the first time we get to here the name Ripper in relation to Giles, realising that he is much darker than his library man exterior suggests.

2) Bones: 'The Mummy in the Maze'

What makes this a great Halloween episode is that all of the characters end up trying to solve the murder and mummification of two girls as well as attempting to stop the death of another girl whilst dressed up for the Jeffersonian Halloween party. The costumes are varied as seen in the picture above, Angela is Cher, Hodgins the captain of the Titanic, Zack is the end of a cow (miss you Zack), Cam is Cat Woman, Brennan is Wonder Woman and perhaps funniest of all is Booth dressed as one of the squints and he attempts to be a nerdy as possible (though none of them dress as badly as his interpretation). Debates about who is better between Wonder Woman and Cat Woman (Wonder Woman is the consensus) and Brennan spinning around are some of the highlights. Though I think Booth and Brennan tracking down the killer in full costume and saving the girl is the highlight as well as the continuing joke of Brennan wanting a gun and then accidentally shooting Booth with a ricochet.

3) Chuck: 'Chuck versus the Sandworm'
The Halloween element of this episode is relegated to the subplot however it deserves a mention for several reasons, the nerd element is pretty high with Chuck and Morgan's costume being the Sandworm from Dune and Sarah comes as slave Princess Leia which is enough to drive any fan boy crazy. Awesome and Ellie in a continuing joke about how perfect they are goes as Adam and Eve with leaves covering the bikini suit areas. The highlight for me as a fan of Josh Schwartz though is the moment where they recreate the moment from the New Years episode of the OC where Ryan rushes to get to Marissa before midnight strikes and Dice by Finley Quaye (featuring Beth Orton) is playing, instead it is Chuck rushing to get to Morgan so they can do their Halloween costume together.

4) The Office: 'Halloween' and 'The Employee Transfer'

The above pictures are from the season 5 episode 'The Employee Transfer' in which it is only the opening that concentrates on Halloween but it is definitely worth noting and is perhaps one of my favourite starts to an Office episode. The Joker was probably one of the most popular costumes last year and it was brilliant to see Kevin, Dwight and Creed all as the Joker with varying degrees of scary with Creed being particularly frightening. It was also great to see Dwight have his pencil disappearing trick ruined by the lift door closing on him. The costume nightmare that Pam had in the Dunder Mifflin branch in New York also made me chuckle as she was the only person who had dressed up, her Charlie Chaplin costume would become Hiltleresque if she removed her hat.

Three hole punch Jim is from the season 2 episode 'Halloween' and demonstrates the extreme effort that can go in to a costume, or rather a lack of effort and it also shows how opposite Jim and Dwight are with Dwight spending over a hundred dollars on his Sith Lord suit. Though Jim's costume does give Dwight the excuse to punch. Also from seeing promo from this years Halloween episode it looks like it will be another humdinger.

5) Ugly Betty: 'The Lyin', the Watch and the Wardrobe'

Recently I haven't been enjoying Ugly Betty as much as I use to but I picked this episode mainly for Marc dressed as Betty (which Wilhelmina says is so cruel that he deserves a raise). Betty has also been fooled in to thinking that everyone in the office will be dressing for Halloween, which is not the case, but I do like he butterfly costume very much.

I know there are many other great Halloween episodes (Angel, My So Called Life and Friends to mention a few) but I thought I would go with five. Are there any show that you would like to see do a Halloween episode? Are there any shows that should have done a Halloween episode? The X-Files springs to mind as a show that could have done a great one but never did.

Happy Halloween everybody, I have to go and make some birds for my costume.

Don Draper vs Jim Halpert

So in light of Don Draper topping the poll of AskMen.com 49 most influential men of 2009 I stumbled upon a Newsweek blog from August entitled 'Why the Ladies Love Jon Hamm of Mad Men' which upon reading raised an interesting topic that woman would rather fantasise about Don Draper from Mad Men than Jim Halpert from The Office. The article states that:

"Why are we so wild for Draper? By any measure, the character's a cad. He constantly cheats on his wife. He skips town for weeks and won't write or call. [...]  And yet he excites an attraction among women—particularly ones my age, women in their late '20s and '30s who were born after the era that Mad Men portrays—that seems unmatched by any leading man on television today, with the possible exception of Lost's con artist, Saywer (another strapping scoundrel with a deeply troubled soul)."


And:


"After all, we don't believe in that evolutionary "me Tarzan, you Jane" nonsense anymore. We're supposed to want men who are sensitive and respectful; men who emote and help around the house, and talk openly about their feelings. And we do want these things. Don't we? So then why are we fantasizing about Draper rather than Jim from The Office?"





So where do I stand on these thoughts and why should they matter any way. Well firstly, yes Don Draper is a desirable character despite all of his many flaws, which is why it does matter that women are attracted to him in spite of these flaws and why it matters that he has been voted by men as the most influential man of 2009.  Does this in turn make the actions and behaviour of Don Draper considered acceptable by both men and women? I think the majority would still say what he does is deplorable and he is just a figure of fantasy, he is the kind of man that you would have an affair with rather than a relationship (the Newsweek article concludes with this summation as well "So we lay it out very clearly: we don't want to wed Don Draper. We know madness that way lies."). They also lay this out so men don't think that that is what women actually want, who wants a generation of men who think that it is ok to cheat your way through everything. 
So then comes the point as to why Jim from The Office would not be considered a figure of fantasy because he is what is considered to be an ideal modern man, someone who cares about his fiance (wife by tonight- hopefully) and is not ashamed to show these feelings, but this is one area of the article that I disagree with and it might be because in most TV shows it is always the slightly dorky characters that are my favourites, not the leading brooding man. Characters like Charlie in Lost, Dr Reid in Criminal Minds, I prefer Sylar when he is Gabriel glasses included, Will Tippin in Alias, Hodgins in Bones, Greg in CSI, I even have a weird thing for Andy 'the 'Nard Dog' in The Office and don't even get me started on Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. Now I know that these guys could be considered good looking in one manner or another but they are on programmes generally where there is an alpha male, who broods and gets the girl. So it would seem that I would definitely choose Jim over Don. Oh and in the debate of which Chuck I would choose between Chuck Bartowski (Chuck) and Chuck Bass (Gossip Girl) it would be Bartowski every time.
Even with Mad Men, I think Don Draper is great (but terrible at the same time) but I am actually a huge Pete Campbell fan (though not in the same way I think of Don), I just find his character so compelling because most of the time he can be a major douchebag but also because there is the conflicted side of him where he just doesn't know who he and how he should act. Although after last weeks episode I hope that we see some positive action from him, as he stepped way beyond the line of what is morally acceptable, but such is the power of the writing in Mad Men that there are no black and white characters.
At first when reading the article I was thinking 'Of course I would choose Jim over Don' but after writing this and thinking about it my answer becomes less certain, I know which one I would want a relationship with, that's easy but who would I choose (and the feminist in me is not happy that I am even asking that question)? 

Date Night

So technically this is a film related post rather than a TV one, however this first look at the new Tina Fey and Steve Carell comedy has me very excited because they are two of the funniest actors on TV at the moment:

The supporting cast includes SNL star Kristen Wiig, Mark Ruffalo, James Franco, Mark Wahlburg, Mila Kunis and Leighton Meester, all of whom I have liked in one role or another. I look forward to the trailer being released, and I hope that it is as good as the 40 Year Old Virgin and Baby Mama.

I also have a weird crush on Steve Carell when he is anyone but Michael Scott and my boyfriend has a not so weird crush on Tina Fey so hopefully we will have an awesome date night watching Date Night (sorry that was a tad on the cheesy side). Any one else excited for this film? Or any other movie which features fantastic TV stars?

It's been a long time

The new TV season is upon us and despite my lack of blogging over the month of August I am excited about several old shows returning and a few of the new starters as well. I will be writing with more consistency (I hope) over the following weeks and months about these shows. The old returners I am looking forward to are; Bones (thought the bones promo below is pretty cool), Fringe, Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Office (once I have seen season 5- the DVD is on the way as I speak).

I will also be looking at the new season of Mad Men, that has been on for the past few weeks, so far I am enjoying this season and will be writing further on this in the coming week. Oh and I am really looking forward to the return of The Daily Show after the three week hiatus that it has been on, I've been missing my Jon Stewart fix, I'm so glad that the web site has all the old episodes on there to watch.

New starters that have produced an interest include Community (I'm a big fan of Joel McHale, as previous mentions of The Soup will testify), Flash Forward and the new HBO show Bored to Death. Other shows that I am currently catching up on (and need to catch up on) include Damages season 2, 90210 (got to love the trash TV), Dexter, 30 Rock and Harper's Island (I saw the first two episodes the other day and thought it was ok, like watching a long TV horror movie really). Oh and I will finally be catching up with The Sopranos soon as well having only ever seen bits and bobs from each season- though I am totally spoiled for the final episode, which sucks.

So there is plenty for me to be writing about, and I will be tackling many of the above shows in one way or another. See you all soon.

The Office Season 4

Yesterday I finished watching season 4 of The Office and I must say that I really did enjoy it, despite some reviews I had read saying it wasn’t as strong as previous seasons I would have to disagree with this and say that it was consistently funny throughout and the only draw back was that it was cut short due to the writers strike. I will be discussing this season in detail so spoiler alert for any one who hasn’t seen this season. I am now very much looking forward to season 5 coming out on DVD in September.

Highlights of the season in no particular order include:

- Jim and Pam staying on Dwight’s beet farm and the return of Mose (The Office writer/co-executive producer Michael Schur). This episode (‘Money’) was particularly melancholy with Michael’s money problems and Dwight’s pain over Angela breaking up with him, but even in the saddest situations the show still finds room for comedy such as the interaction between Michael and Ryan regarding the PowerPoint.

- That the first four episodes of the season were double the usual running time, I was unaware this was the case, so was pleasantly surprised when watching these that they ran longer, it makes up a little for the 14 episode long season.

- The fun run and how each of the characters completed the course, whether by taxi, stopping via a garage sale, almost not completing it or the horrible but very funny sight of Andy’s bleeding nipples (this was matched by his blister covered hands in ‘Job Fair’)

- Ryan’s hideous beard and his evolution into a massive douche and his subsequent fall into fraud; can’t wait to see if he is in jail in season 5.

- All things Creed

- The impressive attempts to cover up Angela’s real life pregnant belly with carefully positioned desks, cubicles and bags.

- Pam and her glasses.

- The trip to Utica in ‘Branch Wars’ to prank Karen’s Dunder Mifflin branch after she attempts to poach Stanley.

- The super uncomfortable but equally funny dinner party at Michael and Jan’s house.

- Andy’s hideous blue trousers (as seen in the picture above)

- Pam and Jim, it is always a concern when a show gets the will they/won’t they couple together but I think it has been handled and executed brilliantly on this show, particularly in ‘Job Fair’ when Jim closes the deal.

- Michael and his GPS

- The directors cut of the Dunder Mifflin Scranton advert

- Dwight and Angela hooking back up, unfortunately I was spoiled for this but it was still pretty funny regardless.

- Stanley and Michael sorting out their issues in an adult way that was actually quite touching.

- That Pam may become more than just a receptionist.

- Any Kelly monologue.

- The introduction of Amy Ryan.

So I will leave it at that particularly long list, I am sure that I have missed many more moments but these are the ones that stuck with me. Also the DVD has some pretty good special features which I haven’t managed to consume all of yet, the blooper reel is an episode long and it makes The Office set seem like an awesome place to work. Other features include a lengthy writers panel which is both insightful and amusing as well as the usual collection of deleted scenes and commentaries which is the ones that I haven’t got round to yet. I would definitely recommend this boxset despite it being a shorter season they do make up for it will content.

Summer watching and reading

So with the summer officially here the amount of TV shows that I watch has dwindled, it is lucky then that I have several shows that I would like to catch up on and that I also have a stack of books to get through, so here is my must list of shows/books that I would like to get through this summer:

• Friday Night Lights season 3: this arrived on DVD a few days ago and I only have three episodes left, it sucks that it is such a short season but I have thoroughly enjoyed what I have seen so far and will blog more on this when I have finished it (which will probably be by tomorrow).
• The Office seasons 4 and 5: so as I wrote about previously I finally got round to watching this show and have fallen in love with it. I’ve heard that these two seasons are not as good as the second and third but I am looking forward to seeing how the coupling of Pam and Jim will affect the shows dynamic.
• I need to catch up on Dexter season 3 and so will get it on DVD when it comes out in August, also in August the return of Mad Men to the small screen which I am also super excited about.
• I am weirdly tempted to get the new 90210 on DVD when it comes out this summer, good or bad decision? I do like teen shows such as The OC and Gossip Girl, but not ones like One Tree Hill and from what I have seen it does seem to fall in to the first category, and it has a Bluth in it.
• Speaking of teen drama, yesterday I started reading a Gossip Girl book, the prequel to be exact just to see how the TV show has evolved and deviated from the original source material. So far it is ok, not great, although I was surprised by the extreme attention to detail, but I guess it is this attention to materialistic items that the TV show can do in one shot that a book unfortunately needs sometimes excessive words to describe.
• On the book issue, I’m also considering reading a Kathy Reichs Bones book to see how different this is from the show. I also got extremely cheaply a Bones adapted novel not by Kathy Reichs but in the style of the show, so that will be intriguing (and potentially bad). I will write more on these when I get round to reading them.
• I also have the second volume of the Heroes graphic novel to read, I enjoyed the first volume so hopefully this second one will be just as good and perhaps fare better than the show has done of late.
• Also, thanks to Doc Jensen’s suggestion over at Entertainment Weekly for Lost inspired summer reading I am also tempted to read ‘Replay’ by Ken Grimwood.
• Other TV ideas that have been suggested include; over on Alan Sepinwall’s blog to rewatch Band Of Brothers which is by far one of my favourite programmes ever to appear on TV and over on Chucktv.net to watch Chuck from the start to keep focus on the show whilst it is on a long hiatus. I’m also going to start watching Lost from the beginning so to fill the Lost void that it the next eight or so months.

 

So this is my summer viewing/reading plan so far which I’m sure will adapt and have things added to it.

TV updates

So a few days after writing my piece on Fringe one of the cast members has been fired according to his facebook page. The cast member in question is Kirk Acevedo who plays Special Agent Charlie Francis, who I really liked in this role and thought he had good chemistry with Anna Torv. All other parties have declined to comment so far but there is a casting call out for a female FBI agent, who I would assume would be taking his place. Hopefully an explanation will be given and there will be a decent reason as to why his character will be leaving the Fringe team.

    Other TV updates include the end of American Idol, I didn’t really watch it this year after being hooked for the first time last season but I was definitely surprised to see that Adam Lambert didn’t win considering how much exposure he has been getting (even getting his own Entertainment Weekly cover story).

    I have also finally started to watch the American Office and have now almost finished season 3. I’m thoroughly enjoying it and will write a longer post on it when I have finished season 3. Really love the random pop culture references especially from Dwight, one of my favourite so far being his Alias reference (season 3 episode 14):

“Jim: Have you ever seen a stripper before?

Dwight: Yes, Jennifer Garner portrayed one on Alias. It was one of her many aliases.”

    I am also awaiting the delivery of Friday Night Lights season 3 on DVD which came out this week, really looking forward to watching some more Panther action.