Sitcom Mania! 3.18–3.25

How I Met Your Mother | S08E19: “The Fortress”

In this episode, we didn’t really get any closer to finding out who the mom is, via clues or what not. This episode was instead, focused on Barney and Robin’s furthering relationship. Robin wanted Barney and her to find a place to move to that fit her instead of being a bachelor pad. Meanwhile Lilly and Marshal are having issues in their relationship. Marshal is feeling left out, as if he never sees her anymore, thanks to her new job. In the end, Robin decided not to have Barney sell his pad, and Lilly decided to say no to her boss to say yes to Marshal. It was an okay episode, about averagely funny, but we are coming up on the season (maybe even series) finale, and I’m wanting some major answers to previous questions. Let’s go!

Go On | S01E19: “Go for the Gold Watch”

Ryan has his dream job, he is working at the best radio show in Los Angeles, but still isn’t happy. So, he decided to play cupid, or matchmaker, or whatever you want to call it and get the two lovebirds Danny and Sonia together. Meanwhile, Mr. K uses his algorithm to find how much two people are a match to find out that Steven and Lauren are actually a 99%. By the end of the episode, we find out one secret about him, hinting at the possibility that there may be more than they could ever possibly imagine…or something like that. Decent episode, but not all that it could be. Definitely a so-so in the world of Go On.

New Girl | S02E19: “Quick Hardening Caulk”

When Nick decides to do a guy’s night at the bar, Jess decides that she wants him…bad. Throughout the rest of the episode, she continually saw signs that pointed towards sex in various methods. Meanwhile, Schmitt misses Cece, and decides to get over her by exchanging his obsession of her with an obsession with a sea lion, which of course was a metaphor for Cece. Kids probably shouldn’t watch this episode. Well…in general, kids shouldn’t watch the show period, but especially this episode, because it was all about sex, but it was more about metaphors. Sure, there were sexual metaphors, but there was also the sea lion metaphor. It had a pretty good conveyance that when we want something so desperately, we begin to see it in everything, no matter what that is. That applied to both scenarios here.

Community | S04E07: “Economics of Marine Biology”

This episode should really be called “Physical Education Education”, because that was the best part of the episode. The real title doesn’t quite make any sense to me. Basically, a rich guy’s kid shows up to the school trying to see if this community college was the right choice for him. To try to persuade his decision, they do whatever he wants. Meanwhile, Jeff actually bonds with Pierce. This season seems to be centered on focusing on Chang, to which Chang was randomly in one scene of non-importance. Since we just found out he was lying, I thought they would expand on that, but no go. Funny episode, as always, but not important.

Suburgatory | S02E17: “Eat, Pray, Eat”

Insecurities, insecurities abroad. When Dallas buys George a new electric guitar for his birthday, Tessa buys him a framed blueprint of his old home, which included his ex’s room on display. So she takes up eating stress foods, or fatty calories, and it was up to George to fix it by singing her a song on the new guitar. Meanwhile, Noah finds out that his psychiatrist has been seeing Carmen behind his back. Pretty funny, as usual, and it still feels like a unique show.

Last Man Standing | S02E18: “College Girl”

And…enter JTT, Mr. Jonathon Taylor Thomas. Remember him? He was that one kid in Tim Allen’s successful sitcom series, Home Improvement. As you could imagine, there was a lot of allusions to the old series, more so than I can possibly talk about on here, but basically, he plays a significant character that changes things up on the show, and I’m sure we’ll be seeing him again next season (this was the season finale). You see, he got Kristin a new job, so she was able to get a new apartment and invited Ryan to live with her and Boyd. Interesting stuff, great episode, actually.

Sitcom Mania! 3.11-3.18

The Office | S09E17: “The Farm”

Here it is, the episode we have all been waiting for…for seemingly the entire month, the episode that acted as a pitch to a spinoff show of The Office. Basically, it takes place mostly on Dwight’s farm as he decides to operate his late Aunt’s farm after she passed. There were funny bits here and there, but there is no way anyone would ever watch it for a show on its own other than to see Dwight, which wouldn’t last very long. So thank God NBC turned it down. It was awful. The actual funny parts of the show revolved around Packer showing up and giving the gang laced cupcakes.

Community | S04E06: “Advanced Documentary Filmmaking”

Interesting episode for Community. We dive down the mockumentary route, like The Office, and follow around the gang as they investigate Changnesia. Jeff tries to expose Chang for who he is, but his alter ego, Kevin, seems to be too smart for even Jeff, which makes Jeff open up to the idea of believing him. By the end of the episode, we finally find out what we’ve already been guessing, Kevin was fake all along, and Chang really is up to something.

Parks and Recreation | S05E16: “Bailout”

In Parks and Recreation, April asks Ann if she would write a recommendation letter for her for a veterinary school, but instead of doing it right away, she forces April to do girly best friend things with her for a while, and they kind of hit it off (kind of being the key word). Meanwhile, Leslie tries to save a movie rental shop from getting closed down, but her efforts only get the shop transformed into a porn shop. Finally, after Chris looked after Tom as his own child, he decided he wanted to donate his sperm to Ann.

Last Man Standing | S02E17: “The Fight”

When Al returns to Last Man Standing, well…not Al, but you know who I’m talking about…he is drunk. Well, he accidentally spills beer on Boyd, so Ryan punched him in the face, which scared Boyd. Meanwhile, Mandy got her gadgets removed for her obsession with Twitter (that we haven’t ever seen on the show before but doesn’t surprise us anyway). She eventually runs into her dad’s CV Radio, and talks to old veterans who tell her first accounts of World War II to help her write her paper. All around good episode, but I’m still wondering why Al was such a good guy last time, and all of a sudden he’s a jerk. I guess in the end…who cares, really?

Sitcom Mania! 3.05-3.11

Go On: S01E18 – Double Down

After his big breakup with Simone, Ryan decides a good and healthy way to get over the depression of the breakup is to get back into his addiction of gambling. Of course, one episode is plenty enough for a man to fully get back into an addiction that has caused him so much pain in the past and leave it in the same episode…television. However, at the end of this episode, something important happened between both Ryan and Annie, they tied their marriage rings to helium balloons and for the first time, really took their next step. What I’ve always liked about this show vs. “Mr. Sunshine” is that this has a good amount of honest drama when it needs it, while the other really didn’t.

Suburgatory | S02E16: “How to Be a Baby”

This episode was centrally focused on Noah and Jill Werner. To be more specific, it had a stronger focus on Noah and his sudden love for his previous housekeeper, Carmen. While  George tries to stop Noah from making a stupid mistake, Tessa agrees to work for Jill as an intern, but she quickly realizes that Jill is nuts, forcing her to beg Dallas for her old job back. At the end George lets Noah loose, only for Carmen to say she only likes him as a boss.

Community | S04E05: “Cooperative Escapism in Familial Relations”

On Community this week, it’s the Shawshank Redemption, or Thanksgiving special rather. Yes, yes I know it’s only March, but as you all know, Community started late, so this is what we get in return. Jeff decides to meet his real dad for Thanksgiving while the rest of the group heads to Shirley’s.  However, this was a Thanksgiving to fear for both, as the group started to plan a prison break, narrated by Abed, and Jeff blew up on his dad in front of his half-brother. No worries though, by the end of the episode it was all smiling faces because they had each other.

Last Man Standing | S02E16: “Private Coach”

I’m starting to think these titles that they come up with for the Last Man Standing episodes are incredibly lazy and put in there last minute. Think about it, each one seems to be based off of just…an aspect that the show is about, but usually has absolutely nothing to do with what the episode is really about. The show was really about how we should “Never give up, never surrender” (actual line spoken by Tim Allen, same one from his movie ‘Galaxy Quest’). This episode dealt with Eve’s soccer coach coming into the Baxter’s home to be Eve’s private coach…that’s where the private coach title comes from. Then we go on to the ladies of the house drooling over him. This leads to Mandy’s relationship with Kyle, when Kyle calls her Kristin’s name. They then had to work things out.

Sitcom Mania!

Sorry for the late post, I completely forgot about this feature…sorry…everything is still new on “Smaller on the Outside“. Basically, this feature will be mini-recaps for sitcoms, because sitcoms are not all that important. This last week, there was a lot more sitcoms than listed below, but since this website really got its start mid last week, some of the sitcoms have already been given a full recap and are not listed here. So enjoy!

COMMUNITY

S04E04: “Alternate History of the German Invasion”

For those of you that are really bad with history, the original German Invasion, or Invasion of Poland is what started World War II in 1939. Almost 74 years later, “Community” released an episode to hilariously provide an “Alternate History of the German Invasion”, which of course, is the title of the episode. In this episode, a group of Germans infiltrate the group’s study room, and they must find a way to win it back. Good episode, not on par with some of Communities better episodes, but it did expand on the Changnesia arc of the season – this time Chang re-entered the college.

LAST MAN STANDING

S02E15: “Breaking Curfew”

Forget about curfews, this episode of “Last Man Standing” was all about lying. Breaking curfew was part of it, but everyone and their mom was lying. This was more about the budding romance of Mandy and Kyle, and her tendency to move along in relationships quickly made her and Kyle lie to Papa Baxter. No worries though, because if anyone can talk Kyle out of making a possible mistake, it’s good old Mike. Interesting note: there was no Vlog from Mike in this episode.