NBC is known for Must See TV on Thursdays and this season they are not disappointing. They start it off at 8p with Superstore. The season premiere picks up a few hours after the season finale when Mateo (Nico Santos) was taken away by ICE.
Jonah (Ben Feldman) has gotten everyone together from Cloud 9 for a vigil for Mateo. Since no one knows what to do, they sing a song that is perfect for them. You have to see it, to believe. That and to find out that Lauren Ash, who plays Dina, can really sing. You go girl.
Now, it is time for everyone to get back to work. Corporate has sent over a new worker to replace Mateo and everyone hates Glen with one “n”. Glenn (Mark McKinney) with two “n’s” hates him the most. Therefore, when they come up with a way to get rid of him, he is all for it.
Meanwhile, Dina is still mad at Garrett (Colton Dunn) for letting her birds accidentally go free, so she continues to torture him. He feels bad, but that is not good enough for her.
Talking about couples, Sandra (Kaliko Kauahi) wants to let everyone know that she is engaged but no one will let her talk.
When it comes to talking, Cheyenne (Nichole Bloom) has not spoken to her BFF since he was taken away. It is just too hard for her. Amy (America Ferrera) decides to kidnap her co-worker and take her to see their friend. Will she go inside?
All of this leads to a moment that will have everyone afraid, very afraid.
If working at a Big Box store was as fun as they make it look on Superstore, we would all be working at one!
Then at 8:30p, Bradley Whitford is back for another comedy on NBC. Perfect Harmony is something to sing about.
Arthur Cochran (Whitford) is the former chair of the music department at Princeton. After his wife died, he pretty much lost his will to live. He returns to her hometown to bury in her in the cemetery at the church she loved, but he is told there is no room. Therefore, he has come to confront them to let her in.
On the way there, the very drunk professor stops in front of another church with a choir rehearsing. They are so bad that he goes in to tell all of them how awful they are. When he is done, he passes out.
The next day, when he wakes up, and they ask him to coach their choir. He doesn’t want to do it, but then he gets his reason. Now he has to work on them to make them all singers whether they like what he says or not.
Ginny (Anna Camp) is a single mom, who is a mother to the group. She is also just so gosh darn nice. Adams (Tymberlee Hill) is not that nice, so she does not want to take Arthur’s advice. Jax is adopted and he is the Kumbaya one of the group. Wayne (Will Greenberg) takes a lot of crap Arthur, but he has potential. Although, not as much as Shep (Geno Segers) who has the deepest voice you will ever hear.
They are a dysfunctional bunch, but together they make beautiful music. That is why this and Carol’s Second Act are tied for my favorite new comedies with Sunnyside in a close second place.
Then at 9p, The Good Place begins its final season. Michael (Ted Danson) and Eleanor (Kristen Bell) are continuing to welcome the four new humans to The Good Place. They know that these four individuals are there to antagonize them. However, they have to work through it to save the human race.
How will Tahani (Jameela Jamil) deal with her gossip columnist arch-nemesis? Jason wants to be with Janet (Manny Jacinto) but she told him no because the experiment is too important. Meanwhile, Janet is busy dealing with all the new people’s request. Especially, the new guy who is there to torture Eleanor. She has enough problems now that Chidi’s (William Jackson Harper) memory has been erased and he does not remember her.
While things are not going smoothly for them, things are going better off down in the Bad Place. Or are they?
You don’t want to miss as our Fab Four tries to acclimate the new kids into their world with a big old party.
A sad party is happening over here because I don’t want this show to end.
Finally at 9:30p, Kal Penn is an elected official in Sunnyside. Scratch that, he is an impeached city councilman for Sunnyside in Queens, NY.
When Garrett Modi (Penn) first ran for office, he had dreams of helping the community. Fifteen years later, he is living in his office because his girlfriend kicked him out, he has no money and he has just been fired from his job. He moves in with his sister, Mallory (Kiran Deol) and she tells him to get a job.
He gets a call to meet some people at a bar to help them pass their citizenship test so they can become Americans. When all of his contacts fails, he decides to help them himself. Luckily, two of his students are really rich, so they throw money his way.
Those two students are siblings, Jim Hoa (Joel Kim Booster) and Mel Lin (Poppy Liu). We do not know where they are from because they won’t say. While they have lots of money, Griselda (Diana-Maria Riva) does not. The Dominican has so many jobs, no one can possibly count them all. Hakim (Samba Schutte) is a taxi driver from Ethiopia. Finally, there is Brady (Moses Storm), he just found out he is from Moldovia and that he was not born in America. His mother brought him here when he was two and she never told him. After he gets caught, the government told him to become a citizen or go back. Since he does not know where Moldavia is, he opts to become an American. Which is why he needs Garrett’s help.
Each week, Garrett will work with them to make sure they get to live the America Dream. Granted the brother and sister are already living all of their dreams and most other people’s. Can Garrett teach them all about the good ole USA?
You are going to want to watch the show that reminds us that we are all immigrants in America. You don’t have to be born here to love America. You just have to live hear to learn you love it! Like we will love this show.
Fifteen years ago, we got to know Harold and Kumar as they went to White Castle. However, it has been almost 8 long years since the BFFs have gotten high and they might be lighting up again!
Yesterday, when Kal Penn was talking to reporters about his new NBC show Sunnyside (that debuts on September 26th) at NBC’s Summer Press Tour Day, someone asked him if he would every play Kumar Patel again. The actor told us that he and John Cho recently spoke with the two writers, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, about doing a fourth movie together. Unfortunately, the latter two are working on Cobra Kai, Penn has Sunnyside coming up and Cho is busy doing his own thang. Therefore, they cannot smoke together until at least the end of the year. The former White House employee says that is when they will try to come up with an idea for the next movie.
I think they should do Harold & Kumar Look for Neil Patrick Harris. NPH just disappeared from sight over the last few years and now they are on a mission to find him. Every time Harris finds out that they are on to him, he finds a new place to hide. All along the way, they try new strains of pot that are local to the area where they have been searching for their arch-nemesis. Giving them a different high at each spot.
How long does Penn think he can play his most famous role? He said, “I would consider myself lucky if I have a chance to make Harold and Kumar 15 when I am like 70 years old.” Could you imagine Harold & Kumar Go to Assisted Living and they try to get all their neighbors high? Actually, they should do that for the fourth one!
Last year, ABC cancelled Designated Survivor and then Netflix picked it up for a third season in September. Today, they announced that they too are cancelling the show. Even though we will not get any more new episodes, the old ones will continue to stream for years to come.
Netflix said this about the cancellation, “We’re especially thankful to star and executive producer Kiefer Sutherland, who brought passion, dedication and an unforgettable performance as President Kirkman. We’re also grateful to showrunner/executive producer Neal Bear for his guiding vision and steady hand, creator/executive producer David Guggenheim and EPs Mark Gordon, Suzan Bymel, Simon Kinberg, Aditya Sood and Peter Noah along with the cast and crew who crafted a compelling and satisfying final season.”
However, the news is not really a surprise. Kiefer Sutherland is busy with his musical career, Kal Penn has a new show on NBC and Italia Ricci is expecting her first child.
Last year, I was OK with the show getting the ax, but this season I am going to miss it. It was as thrilling as the first half of season one when the show was really enjoyable. At least we got one more season.
You know if Netflix keeps cancelling the shows I watch, I might have to cancel them.
When ABC cancelled Designated Survivor last year, I was not that upset about the cancellation. When I heard that Netflix picked up for a third season, I was like that is nice. Maybe I will watch it. Then I saw the trailer for it, and I was like this looks totally amazing. I am so going to watch the show about Kiefer Sutherland becoming President when everyone else in the government was killed except for him.
The third season is centered around President Kirkman (Sutherland) running for President for real as a third party candidate. The season starts off with him losing it at the State of the Union and the results are disastrous. Luckily, Mars Harper (Anthony Edwards), his new Chief of Staff, is there to steer him in the right direction. Not only that the White House Press Secretary Seth Wright (Kal Penn) always finds a way to get the press to talk about him and not his boss.
Meanwhile, as all of that is going on in DC, Emily Rhodes (Italia Ricci), Kirkman’s most loyal employee even before he became POTUS, is in Florida by her dying mother’s side. Seth calls her up and tells her she needs to return to DC to help out Kirkman. She begrudgingly agrees and winds up staying there. Asking her mother to come live with her during her final days. This storyline is so brilliantly acted out by Ricci, she will make you cry harder than she did when she was the one with cancer on Chasing Life.
Kirkman needs a really good campaign manager to help him do the impossible, win the race as a third party candidate. He picks Lorraine Zimmer (Julie White) as the woman to lead his campaign. She will do anything to win, and I do mean that. She will ask Kirkman and his staff to do things they don’t agree with in order to win. She is a tough lady who really uses the ability to curse. Now that the show is not on broadcast television they can say words that they could not say before.
Yes, that is right, there is cursing and a lot of it. It feels natural and gives the show a whole new dynamic with the writing. It is something the drama needed and we did not know it until now.
Back to the show. Besides dealing with the contentious election against Kirkman’s Conservative Secretary of State Cornelius Moss (Geoff Pierson), the show, as it has in the past, will take on current hot topic issues. Throughout the season, they are going to tackle marriages between a minor and an adult, opioid abuse, transgenderism, being HIV positive and undetectable, helping an undocumented child who needs a transplant, assisted suicide, finding out you are the father because you were a sperm donor in college, being proud of your heritage, nuclear threats, domestic terrorism with biochemical warfare and so much more.
And yes, the season ends with us finding out who will be the next President of the United States.
While the show is not as much about the heart that it had the first season, it is still there. Except for this time around Kirkman finally found his balls. He is not being pushed around like he used to be thanks to the strong people around him. He is still the president I want. Can Sutherland run in 2020? If Canuck Ted Cruz could run in 2016, so can fellow Canadian Kiefer Sutherland with the writers of the show writing his presidency for him! Totally realistic right?
The show has a much different feel, one that makes you glad it is bingable. Like a good book, you will want to watch it all in one sitting. You cannot even wait two minutes to find out what happens next.
Why is does the show feel different? Besides being on Netflix and being able to swear, Neal Baer (ER, Law & Order: SVU) took over as EP (something that was always the plan). He helped to make this show more realistic and got rid of the over the top, unnecessary conflicts for the White House to deal with. Those storylines took away from the premise of the show which is about being President when you are not supposed to be. This show is now about a President running the country and running to keep his job.
Whether you have watched the show from episode one or this will be the first time you have seen it, you are going to be hooked from minute 1 of the third season. This is what saving a cancelled show is all about. Thanking the fans for saving it by making it even better.
Somehow Kal Penn was able to fit himself into the overhead compartment on an airplane, and it had an appropriate number on there for him, 69. Knowing that he is a few inches taller than me and those spaces are really small, he can totally 69 himself in it. Wouldn’t that a be a great moment to include in the fourth Harold & Kumar movie? When are we going to get that?
Anyways, back to him. How did he get himself into that position? I need to know. Because then I have to wonder if it is cheaper to fly that way. How much do you want to bet if Spirit can charge to people to fly in the overhead compartments, they would do it. Maybe they already do and that is how he did it? So much to ponder.
