Posts Tagged ‘funny ‘ha-ha’’

embrace it!

I’m a huge fan of Jason Katims. HUGE. His shows have so much heart they always stay with me after. He was a big part of making two of my all-time faves, the faves of so many… Friday Night Lights and Parenthood.

AS WE SEE IT:  a Comedy? Drama? Dramcomedy? Comdrama?

AS WE SEE IT  on Amazon Prime has the heart and soul of Katim’s trademark, but with lots of twists and turns. I’ve never seen a show quite like it. And you don’t have to take just my word for it, it has an audience score of 100 on Rotten Tomatoes.

It’s about three Autistic Twentysomethings trying to figure out how to fit in. And it’s actually played by three amazingly-talented actors who are on the spectrum themselves. I know it sounds serious, but it’s not. It’s funny and charming and very real and relatable… we all want to fit in, right?

AS WE SEE IT’s Harrison, Violet and Jack

Wants and Needs —

• Harrison (Albert Rutecki) wants to stop being afraid to leave house.
• Violet (Sue Ann Pien) wants a boyfriend
• Jack (Rick Glassman) wants to take care of his father who is taking care of him.
  (And I want it to already be the second season, so there’s more to watch, haha.)

Mandy (Sosie Bacon) plays the Den Mother/Aid with never-ending compassion who’s running away from her own life — or at least trying to figure it out. I first noticed Bacon in MARE OF EASTTOWN. With talent-genes from her parents Kyra Sedgwick & Kevin Bacon, Sosie shows all of the layers of Mandy in AS WE SEE IT.

Adapted from the Israeli comedy series “On the Spectrum,” AS WE SEE IT is lightness and laughter as Harrison, Violet and Jack face their fears —  frequently with catastrophic results (something else I totally relate to).

As I see it, everyone should give AS WE SEE IT a look… It’s that good!

dance whenever! wherever!

Loved, loved, loved seeing ELECTION DEFENDERS make lemonade out of long-line-lemons,  spreading cool moves and positivity to VOTING in Philly.  Rachel Maddow interviewed the enthusiastic Nelini Stamp and showed what creative get-the-vote-out-thinking can accomplish. Nelini’s contagious smile and kick-ass movement: JOY TO VOTERS made me want to boogie back to the polls again.

Imagine a place where no one’s asking what party you’re part of because everyone’s partying together. Yeah,  you might need to go to a SWING STATE to see it —  or you can bring a social-distancing-dance-vote-movement to your own State. Remember, the State of the Union is up to each one of us.

Cha Cha Slide to the POLLS —

It’ll make you believe in democracy again

Otis and Maeve – mixed messages

SEX EDUCATION, a bawdy, bold and big-hearted British comedy series on NETFLIX, is about a 16-year old boy (Otis) with a Sex Therapist Mom (Jean) who gets talked into going into business with a badass cool girl (Maeve.) Maeve spreads the word that Otis is a sex therapist for high-schoolers. BUT Otis is totally inexperienced and in fact can’t deal with his own sexuality… yet he’s surprisingly intuitive when it comes to dealing with the problems of other teens.

awkward and awesome!

Otis and his Mom – love/hate

It’s a little bit of a parallel universe for me, since I’m someone who hates hospitals (especially the one my Mom frequented when she was dying)… yet now I’ve ironically extended my community service sentence voluntarily because (spoiler alert) I’m actually pretty good at helping others deal with being at the hospital. Go figure.

SEX EDUCATION’s outstanding cast is led by Asa Butterfield, as the nerdy inexperienced sex-pert. Gillian Anderson plays his frank, ff-ingly free and boundary-less mother.  Emma Mackey is brilliantly tender and tough in a break-out role that I would’ve loved to have gone out for before I aged-out of hottie-in-high-school parts. So sad…

I laughed and cringed as I binge-watched all eight episodes. It definitely left me wanting more… much more.

scene from a sex manual

True story. A couple of weeks ago…

I’m in Santa Monica, parked on Wilshire Blvd near 3^rd Street Promenade on the far-far right by the curb, facing the Ocean.  The sun is super bright, blinding me.  So I lean over the steering wheel to block out the sun and read/answer an email. Okay, yeah, I admit, it’s a long email.

SUDDENLY I hear a slow siren, then a Man’s DEEP VOICE over a LOUDSPEAKER.  My head pops up. Whaa?!

OMG! An enormous FIRE TRUCK is heading directly toward me! In my parking lane! On the wrong side of the street! Y I K E S!

My eyes dart from side-to-side. Where’s the fire?!

The bellowing VOICE:

Is everything all right?

What did I do wrong? Read the rest of this entry »

nothing’s gonna stop them now

During my Amazing Mom’s much-too-short life she managed to find the funny during the darkest of times, so unsurprisingly I raced out to see THE SKELETON TWINS opening weekend after learning that it’s about family members (Maggie and Milo) who use humor to cope.

It certainly didn’t hurt that it was a Sundance Best Screenplay winner — and then when I read that that Writer/Director Craig Johnson and stars Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader would be doing Q&As after some of the weekend screenings, the deal was sealed. Win/Win for me as I managed to score a ticket (to what would be a sold-out performance) at the Landmark in West L.A. where Johnson and Hader were planning to appear.  Big YAY!

SMART COMEDY

To me Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader are the “best of” modern-day SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE. I’m devastated that now they only guest on the show.  But it’s awesome seeing them on the big screen where they shine even brighter. In THE SKELETON TWINS they take talent to a whole new level tackling layered, complex roles and dramatic situations (like suicide, career failures and adultery) with creativity and expertise.

People say that comedy actors are really smart (Lisa Kudrow/Vassar, Jenny Slate/Columbia, Sasha Baron Cohen/Cambridge) because their brains are so creatively quick. Watch any Robin Williams interview to see how his train-of-thought is light-years ahead of the rest of us. It’s not a skill one can acquire, COMEDY is part of the DNA for the lucky ones.  Lemme tell you after seeing Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig seamlessly dance back-and-forth from drama to dramedy — hitting every mark in every frame — I’m guessing that both of them are off-the-charts smart! Read the rest of this entry »

rom with real com!

Perhaps it’s due to the afterglow from my summer fling with Jorgen, or maybe it’s the best comedy of the summer, but either way I find myself totally into Greg Poehler’s fresh fish-out-of-water half-hour, WELCOME TO SWEDEN.  Sweet, charming and understated so it actually feels real, it’s a welcome relief from those loud, actor-y, in-your-face comedies that hit you over the head trying too hard to be funny. (It’s exactly the kind of project I relate to — would love to be called in for a guest spot, hint-hint!)

A Sweet Set-up —

In this sweet summer treat, single-camera comedy, successful Accountant, Bruce (Greg Poehler) leaves his self-absorbed celebrity clients (like Will Ferrell) and his narcissistic boss (sister and co-producer, Amy Poehler) in the dust as he impulsively moves to Sweden to live with his hot girlfriend Emma (Josephine Bornebusch) without exactly working out the details. The relationship is tested as he navigates his way through foreign everything, while trying to prove his worthiness to doubting potential in-laws, Emma’s parents: Therapist/Mother-without-filters, Viveka (the wonderful Lena Olin who steals every scene),  and stoic, hard-working Dad, Birger (Claes Mansson.)

Pushing Boundaries —

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