ABC has
become the new NBC. A year ago, the peacock network infamously jerked around
the cult favorite TV show Community
by putting it on
indefinite hiatus, then bringing it back and renewing it for a fourth
season, only to fire
its creator and creative mastermind Dan Harmon and push
back its premiere from an already-late October date to February. The network’s behavior
displayed an open disregard for fan opinion and the show itself and with brand new show-runners on board, it apparently just hasn’t
been the same, though personally, I think the show dropped off well
before Harmon left and NBC started messing with its schedule.
How does this relate to
ABC? Well, let’s start with a show called Don’t
Trust the B---- in Apt. 23. Starring Krysten Ritter as a con-artist and
party girl in New York City who strikes up a unique friendship with her new
roommate, it was supposedly a pretty damn good show, albeit with a small
fanbase, and had started to hit its stride when ABC abruptly, though not
unexpectedly, pulled it from their schedule with eight episodes left in the
season, announcing that it was officially
canceled not long afterwards. To be fair, the show had pretty ugly ratings,
but what do you expect to happen when you not
only air episodes out of order, but multiple seasons simultaneously? The cancellation of Apt. 23 naturally prompted fears regarding the fate of its constant
Tuesday night companion, the slightly-higher-rated and excellent Happy Endings. Like Apt. 23, the kinda-sorta Friends-esque
comedy aired
episodes out-of-order (including having a “lost”
episode) and has experienced a roller-coaster ride when it comes to
scheduling, frequently getting preempted or yanked
for little apparent reason, adding an additional
timeslot in the same week, airing multiple episodes a day and getting
cut out of the March schedule to make room for Dancing with the Stars. Eventually, the show mysteriously vanished
from TV after its back-to-back January 29th episodes before the
network finally told everyone that it had been moved to Friday nights (a.k.a.
where TV shows go to die) in
favor of reality shows Celebrity Wife
Swap and The Taste and
wouldn’t be returning until March 29th.
I understand that TV is a
business, and the networks can only be expected to do so much when a show does
pulls in crappy ratings; one silver lining of NBC being so incompetent they can’t
even beat Univision anymore is that shows like Community, Parks and Rec.
and even 30 Rock, when it was still
around, have likely only survived for as long as they have because there isn’t
anything better to put in their place, and at least they have hardcore, devoted
fans. I get the sense, though, that ABC might not be quite as patient or have
such low standards. The fact that the network has started
a “save the show” campaign (either a comforting or cynical move, depending
on how you look at it) and that it’s only one season away from syndication
gives me some hope that Happy Endings
might get one last renewal, but if more people don’t start tuning in, which
seems unlikely to happen given the timeslot, it’s headed straight toward cancellation.
If you’re one of the many, many
people who hasn’t seen Happy Endings,
you should know that it’s an ah-mah-zing
show. Revolving around a group of friends in the nicer side of urban Chicago,
it brings consistent laughs and features one of the best (and most unheralded)
casts in any comedy – or any kind of show, for that matter – working on TV
today. Even better, it’s never too late to jump on the bandwagon, and its
return at 8:00 PM EST tonight provides a perfect opening for newcomers. So,
without further ado, here are ten reasons why you should tune in (I apologize in advance for the wall of text):
1. It doesn’t require a lot of legwork to get
caught up on. Aside from some general, long-term character and relationship
arcs, Happy Endings is decidedly not
serialized, meaning that each episode largely focuses on its own self-contained
plot. This makes it a relatively easy show to jump in cold, and there’s also
enough non-character-based humor that you don’t need to be extremely familiar
with the protagonists to find it funny. Furthermore, compared to a cerebral,
experimental show like Community, it’s
pretty straightforward and accessible to the point where I suspect it might’ve
even been able to build a decent-sized audience if ABC had promoted it better
early on and had not messed with its schedule so much during its first season.
Though I highly recommend going back through the first two-and-a-half seasons
since there’s so much good stuff there, those who don’t have the time for that
and want to just tune in to give it a try shouldn’t have any problem following
what’s going on.
2. The friends actually seem like friends.
The basic premise of Happy Endings –
that it’s a chronicle of the lives and loves of a group of buddies whom the
audience grows to enjoy spending time with each week – is so common that it has
its own genre: the hangout show. Pretty much every sitcom relies on this
concept in some form or another, from early classics like Cheers and The Mary Tyler
Moore Show to How I Met Your Mother,
New Girl and, of course, Friends; even shows that don’t start out
like that usually turn into a hangout show at some point during their run (see:
Parks and Rec.). However, recent
sitcoms tend to be based on a group of people who are forced together and come
to learn to get along with and care about each other over the course of a few
seasons, and it’s easy to see why as throwing strangers together creates a
natural tension that might be more difficult to develop with people who have
known each other for a while and have already formed strong bonds. Happy Endings belongs to the latter, a
suddenly rare breed. More than anything else, what makes the show work is the
way its central protagonists completely click with each other. They form a
cohesive, believable whole yet are different enough to still be distinct as
individuals. Even three seasons in, the show continues to find new nuances,
layers and dynamics to their relationships, a pretty remarkable feat given that
there are almost no recurring or major supporting characters to be found, and
there’s a genuine sense of history and complexity to them, the kind that you
find in real-life, long-term friendships. There are no characters on TV right
now that I’d love to be friends with more, and the endearing nature of the
characters always makes up for the occasionally cliché storylines. Which brings
us to…
3. Meet the best cast in the universe.
Okay, fine, that’s obvious hyperbole, but Happy
Endings certainly boasts one of the best ensembles currently working on a
TV comedy. Unlike most shows, particularly sitcoms, I’d venture to say, where
it’s usually fairly easy to choose a favorite or two out of the main cast of
characters, here, they’re all pretty much equally great, so much so that my
favorite often changes from episode to episode, much less season to season. Out
of the six leads, there really isn’t a weak link (some would say Zach
Knighton’s Dave, but I heartily disagree). Part of this is due to the ability
of the writers to balance their storylines and allow them all to have their
moments in the spotlight, but the majority of the credit has to go to the
terrific actors that the show managed to find. With Eliza Coupe, who a few
people – and I do mean “a few” – might recognize from the Scrubs: Med School spinoff that never happened as far as I’m
concerned, as the most familiar face, the cast lacks a big-draw, A-list star, but
it more than makes up for that with pitch-perfect comedic timing, some genuine
acting chops and, perhaps most importantly, butt-loads of effortless chemistry
with each other. They appear more than game to tackle the challenges presented
by the show, from the regular physical comedy bits to the dizzyingly-paced
dialogue, and they manage to make their characters empathetic, even when
they’re being petty, selfish or even offensive.
As Madeline
Davis over on Jezebel puts it, they may not always be
likable, but they’re always lovable.
4. It feels like a mash-up of all the other
comedies you adore. If that sounds like a backhanded compliment, it isn’t
meant to. The truth is that Happy Endings
is often reminiscent of and borrows elements from other popular sitcoms. For
starters, its basic formula follows that of traditional comedies like Seinfeld or Friends with an episodic structure composed of A, B and C
storylines that typically pair off the protagonists in their own separate plots
of varying importance each week. Though it isn’t looking to revolutionize the
way we think of sitcom conventions, the show takes advantage of this
tried-and-true formula to give each episode an anchor of familiarity, keeping
the focus on the characters and relationships instead of indulging in complex plot
mechanics or narrative gimmicks. Beyond that, Happy Endings has the quirky yet winning characters and physical
humor of Scrubs, the rapid-fire,
laugh-and-you’ll-miss-one joke delivery of 30
Rock and the pop culture-savvy and occasional meta-awareness of Community. Mix all those together and
you get a show that feels comfortable but fresh, that borrows some of the best
aspects of its sitcom predecessors but still manages to have a distinctive and compelling voice.
5. It’s laugh-out-loud funny and has all the
quotable lines and GIF-able moments you could ever want. With 30 Rock now gone (we shall never forget you,
Rural Juror), for my money, Happy
Endings is now the most flat-out hilarious comedy on TV. They pile on the
jokes like a normal sitcom on steroids or Adderall, one coming after another so
quickly that it’s easy to miss one or several of them because you’re still
laughing at something that happened minutes ago, and even better, if a joke
falls flat, there’s no need to worry because a better one is no doubt coming
along so fast you won’t even have time to blink. Frankly, it’s astonishing that
the cast can even say their lines without tripping up. Like Tina Fey’s NBC
satire, this show gets its fair share of critics accusing it of being nothing
more than a joke machine, which isn’t an entirely inaccurate assessment, but
it’s so damn funny and, as discussed above, the characters are so appealing
that the lack of storylines with significant dramatic or emotional weight
hasn’t proven to be an issue so far. Plus, when you can establish catchphrases
like Penny’s ahmahzing or this endlessly applicable gem
and write lines like this
tongue-twister, this and this, to pull
just a very limited sample, do you really need
to do anything else? As long as the laughs and snark keep coming, this show has
nothing to worry about. Bonus: with its clever, goofy dialogue and an
incredibly expressive cast, it is perfect for GIF-ing. Here are a few of my
favorites to give you a taste of the awesomeness:
6. Even the episode names are amusing.
“Boyz II Menorah”. “Four Weddings and a Funeral (Minus Three Weddings and a
Funeral”. “The Butterfly Effect Effect”. “Kickball 2: The Kickening”. How can
you not love a show with episode
titles like that?
7. Brad and Jane are the best married couple
on TV. When you think about it, there actually isn’t very much competition
for that title. Married couples in dramas can be fascinating studies of human
behavior, sure, but they also tend to be deeply unhappy, and it’s usually only
a matter of time before they get divorced or one of them dies (for instance, Don
and Betty Draper on Mad Men). Because
their shows typically revolve around hook-ups and the troubles of their love
lives, nearly all sitcom characters are single, merely dating or divorced,
making it easier for the show to experiment with chemistry and a variety of
pairings, and when they do eventually tie the knot, their relationship is
pretty much guaranteed a swift, boring-as-hell death that kills the spark that
made them work as a couple in the first place (ahem, Jim and Pam on The Office, ahem). There are occasional
exceptions to this; April and Andy on Parks
and Rec. come to mind, for one, but even they didn’t start out the show as
husband and wife, and their relationship has been frequently left on the
sidelines as of late. Brad and Jane not only came into the show as a married
couple right off the bat, but also act as the true focal romantic relationship
(sure, there’s resident will-they-won’t-they couple Alex and Dave, but let’s
face it, they’re nothing to get worked up about). Fueled by some top-notch
chemistry, both of the sexual and comedic variety, between Eliza Coupe and
Damon Wayans Jr., they’re funny, romantic, raunchy and, surprise!, actually,
genuinely, fully happy together – and not in a sappy, puppy-love kind of way,
but a nuanced, mature, this-could-really-last-a-lifetime way. On the flip side,
they also argue, get into fights and deal with marital conflicts that real
couples might face in their everyday lives, such as when Brad has to figure out
how to tell Jane that he got fired from his job, rather than the usual
contrived, will-they-won’t-they-cheat scenarios too often foisted on characters
in long-term relationships. In short, they’re pretty much perfect together, and
they serve as evidence that sitcom couples don’t have to lose the humor or
romance just because they’re wearing wedding rings.
Also, this
8. It has prominent minority characters that
go beyond token stereotypes. This isn’t to say that Happy Endings isn’t, to some extent, guilty of conforming to the
conventional white, upper-middle-class, hetero, cisgendered centrism that
dominates mainstream media in general, and arguably sitcoms in particular. It
certainly can be clumsy when handling minorities (a
recent storyline involving a visit from an old, lesbian ex of Jane, who is
bisexual, could have been better executed). However, Brad and Max, who are
respectively black and gay, represent two rare instances of mainstream TV
minority characters who given as much attention and depth as the white,
heterosexual characters on the show. Forming one half of an interracial couple,
which is still a relatively rare sight on TV, Brad is – shocker! – not an
athlete, gangster, rapper or cop, starting the show as a successful businessman
and, after getting fired through no fault of his own, later gets a new job at a
daycare center when he realizes that he enjoys working with kids. While some
might be disappointed by this since it could be seen as an emasculation
of the character, the transition from career man to someone more home/family
focused not only brings a different dynamic to his and Jane’s relationship,
where he’s more of a stay-at-home husband and she becomes the primary
breadwinner, but also reflects how the character refuses to conform to
traditional standards of masculinity. In contrast to hyper-aggressive, brawn-over-brains
archetype of black men that dominates the pop culture landscape and a white
imagination that continues to value black men almost solely based on their
physical attributes, Brad is well-educated and shows an affinity for romantic
comedies, going to spas and other activities more frequently considered
feminine; at the same time, as his official bio
on ABC.com says, he also enjoys watching sports, hitting the bar for a
drink with work buddies or friends and playing video games. It’s a refreshingly
flexible view of masculinity. Still, as great as Brad is, the even bigger
success here is Adam Pally’s Max, who is one of the best characters on TV right
now. As a sloppy, lazy, self-centered and stubbornly impulsive and sardonic
man-child (oh, how I hate that word, but there’s really no better term to
describe him), Max defies the two most traditional gay stereotypes: that of the
flamboyant, fashion-obsessed drama queen and the sensitive, helpless victim.
He’s one of the few homosexual characters whose personality and storylines
don’t entirely revolve around him being gay, though his coming-out episode
remains one of the show’s best, but the writers and actor also treat his
homosexuality as an integral part of his identity, not some trivial gimmick
that they can just pay lip service to it in order to be called “progressive”. In
fact, what makes both him and Brad work so well is that they never feel like
they were written as straight/white characters who were later slapped with
minority labels – that is, their sexual orientation and race, respectively, go
more than skin-deep, so to speak, and have a noticeable impact on their lives
just as such things do in the real world. In other words, they’re treated as
actual, complicated people, something that is still sadly atypical for the
entertainment industry.
9. You can bitch about the inevitable Emmy
snubs. Happy Endings boasts some
of the best writing and acting of any TV comedy, yet unsurprisingly, they were
completely shut out of last year’s Emmy nominations. The lack of recognition
for Adam Pally and Casey Wilson is, for me at least, especially egregious. Now,
we all know that the Emmys are hardly a reliable arbiter of quality television
(any awards show that never nominated The
Wire, which I admittedly haven’t gotten around to yet but many people see
as the all-time best show ever, and has such a deep genre bias that it never
even acknowledged John Noble’s phenomenal performance on Fringe has absolutely zero credibility), but their triviality doesn’t
stop everyone from getting up in arms when their favorites are snubbed every
year. If you watch this show, you can have another reason to sigh with
exasperation at the unavoidable Modern
Family sweep in September.
10. You’ll catch the show at its peak. Okay,
fine, there are some people who’d tell you that Happy Endings has dipped in its third season from its excellent
second one. If you ask me, though, that’s complete nonsense. For the past two
years, it’s been consistently hilarious and enjoyable, and considering that it
aired one of its absolute best episodes the week before it went on hiatus with
“The Merry Prankster”, there’s no reason to think it’ll decline soon. With 30 Rock gone from our screens forever, Community and The Office mere withered shells of their former selves (and the
latter preparing to finally come to an end at least two seasons too late) and Parks and Rec. starting to settle intothat comfortable but unexciting groove of bland familiarity that comedies oftenreach once they hit four or five seasons, why not check out a sitcom that’s in
its prime? Trust me, you’ll be glad you did. As for those people whining that
it’s already “not as good as it used to be”, I say:
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