Category Archives: Nick Offerman

Emmys 2013: The Snubs

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Enlightened

Perhaps genre confusion was one of the reasons “Enlightened” was robbed. Yes, it’s a half hour show, but it’s often more serious than funny. “Enlightened” was part of a select group of shows committed to reinventing the half hour format. To call it a failed experiment would be unfair though; it now belongs in the pantheon of great shows cancelled too soon. Co-creator Mike White did something that was nearly unthinkable by making a bunch of unlikable characters, including one who’s basically the equivalent of the girl you wish you hadn’t started a conversation with at a party, very likable through his kind touches of empathy. Until the show’s legacy kicks in, at least we have Laura Dern’s nomination for Best Actress to carry us through.

Key Episodes: Higher Power, The Ghost Is Seen, Agent of Change

New Girl

At first, “New Girl” was nothing special. Two seasons later, it’s the funniest sitcom on network television (RIP “Happy Endings”). I could cite it’s rapid fire dialogue, or the mere presence of Schmidt (Max Greenfield) alone. But the real triumph of season two was that it brought new life to the “will they or won’t they” arc. The moment where Nick (Jake Johnson) and Jess (Zooey Deschanel) finally kiss is surprisingly electrifying. It is so well done that I found myself watching it over and over again and feeling just as surprised on each viewing. If season one of a TV show is all about introducing us to the characters, season two is about building character history and further familiarity. In that and many other regards, “New Girl” triumphed where others would fail.

Key Episodes: Fluffer, Cooler, Virgins


Michael Cera (Arrested Development)

The new season of “Arrested Development” was a mixed bag that didn’t really take off until its final stretch. While it’s great to see Jason Bateman up for an Emmy, he wasn’t the only one worthy of the prize. I didn’t want to fill the list up with “Arrested Development,” and it was hard to choose from the likes Will Arnett, David Cross, and Jessica Walter. In the end, I decided to go with Michael Cera. Those who say that Cera always plays the same character should look no further than this current season of “Arrested Development” to see his incredible range. In the episode “It Gets Better,” it is such a joy seeing Cera turn George Michael from timid and awkward to a confident liar of a Bluth man. Cera is not just good comic support; he is a full fledged leading man.


Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreation)

It’s okay I guess that the Emmy voters have snubbed the man who plays Ron Swanson for five years. He already wins at life anyway.

Movie Review: The Kings of Summer

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Stay out of my territory.
In the opening of “The Kings of Summer,” Joe (Nick Robinson) stand in the shower with a hairdo reminiscent of Ferris Bueller. Yet, while he is at a similar age, Joe is nothing like Bueller, he can’t fit in with anybody.

“The Kings of Summer” is a lovable film that some annoying critic will probably call “The king of summer movies!” it’s a childhood fantasy rooted in reality. It’s like “Moonrise Kingdom” except here you don’t have to pay as much attention to what color clothing everyone is wearing.


“The Kings of Summer” takes place in a small Ohio town that’s a little too picturesque to be a small Ohio town. Most high school movies take place over the course of one day, usually on either the very first or the very last day of school. “The Kings of Summer” instead takes place during the entire summer between freshman and sophomore year. Here, the humiliation of high school you try to forget about lasts more than one day. And there’s no getting out of it anytime soon.

Joe can’t take it anymore, and he is especially affected by his sad, lonely father Frank (Nick Offerman, who brings three dimensional misery to the role), He takes his best friend Patrick (Gabriel Basso) and mysterious weirdo Biaggio (Moises Arias) to build a house and start a new life in the middle of the woods. Their new isolated home could best be described as an Island of Misfit Toys. All three kids deserve much praise. Robinson carries the entire movie. But the biggest standout is Arias, who I believe will become a big star after this. As the characters preconceived notions about Biaggio start to dissipate, so do the audience’s. Perhaps part of what is cool about Biaggio is how little is explained about him. For example, he is shown speaking Spanish to his father, who speaks back to him in English. That could mean any number of things.

For a film with such a small budget, “The Kings of Summer” sure does make good use of it. It portrays the forest with the kind of pristine beauty you’d usually only find from Terrence Malick. Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts is as obsessed with the forest as he is with telling this story the whole way through. The small character-driven moments are of equal importance. Perhaps one of the most important moments in the film is when Frank argues with a Chinese food delivery man about the size of the Wontons that he’s given him. It takes a lot to say so much about a person by what they think about a bowl of soup. Not to mention when he finally eats that giant wonton, the sadness and desperation just creepily make it seem like the infamous octopus scene from “Oldboy.”

“The Kings of Summer” is certainly one of the most consistently surprising films I have seen in theaters in a long time. For instance, there’s a predator in the woods that’s hinted at throughout, but it doesn’t end up doing what you thought it would do.

Besides “Ferris Bueller,” “The Kings of Summer” had me thinking of another great coming-of-age film from the 80s: “Stand By Me,” in that there is so much one can learn about themselves when separated from the rest of civilization. “The Kings of Summer” is a fairly real look at the teenage years of one’s life. It doesn’t rap everything up in a pretty bow. In the end, everyone seems happy, but not everyone gets what they want.

Analog This: Ron Swanson Makes a Bobblehead of Himself

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I suggest you put everything down now and watch.

No seriously, I know you are all busy. And I understand, that’s fine. You probably already have enough Kony 2012 videos to watch. But here is a video that might make you a better person, one where you will learn something you never thought you could.

Here is a video of Nick Offerman, better known to everyone else as Ron Swanson of “Parks and Recreation,” making a Ron Swanson bobblehead. Offerman, like the legendary mustached character he plays, is known for being something of a heathen when it comes to technology. Also, woodworking is a hobby of his.  He makes everything from canoes to chairs. It makes me wonder what I could accomplish if social media and the internet were never invented.

Movie Review: 21 Jump Street

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If Hollywood wants to continue remaking movies, then remakes must declare themselves as being one. That helps in making “21 Jump Street,” a modern update of the TV series that made Johnny Depp a star, so good.

Early in the movie, when Chief Hardy (Nick Offerman) is assigning mismatched officers Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) to a new job as undercover officers at a local high school, he notes that the people who make these assignments lack creativity and instead steal old ideas from the 80s. The studio was truly a good sport on this one.


“21 Jump Street” might as well have been called “Not Another Cop Comedy.” It is more “MacGruber” than “Starsky & Hutch,” with a hint of “Hot Fuzz.” “21 Jump Street” works because it knows all of the beats that a cop comedy should go through, yet it is funny and self-aware at each of them. Call it a post-modernist cop comedy, if you want to be all English major about it.

Schmidt and Jenko go back a long way. In high school, Schmidt was president of the juggling society and Jenko was a jock. Jenko frequently beat Schmidt up. However, they form a tight, unlikely bond at the end of high school and go into the police academy together. Schmidt is always the smart one and Jenko, well, he looks and acts like a cop. Or at least the kind you would see in a movie.

The duo find their lives as cops surprisingly dull; they mainly patrol a park while riding bikes and stop kids from feeding the ducks. The scene of them trying to stop a group of drug pushers shows just how many possible ways there are to make riding a bike funny.

Schmidt and Jenko prove to be hopelessly incompetent as cops. Because of their youthful looks, they are placed in a program that puts under cover cops in high schools, under the jurisdiction of the tough Captain Dickson (Ice Cube). It was Ice Cube’s performance here that made me remember what a good actor he can be, and almost made me totally forget those “Are We There Yet?” movies. But I digress. Anyone who watched the show will already know that 21 Jump Street refers to the abandoned church (not sure how it was in the show but here, they worship some kind of Korean Jesus) where all of the undercovers meet. Schmidt and Jenko are assigned to the same high school they once went to in order to bust the kingpin of a potentially deadly new drug. Jenko can’t wait to return, and Schmidt is quite afraid.

Schmidt and Jenko find out that this is nothing like the high school experience they had. Now, veganism and tolerance are popular. So Jenko has a particularly hard time fitting in, especially when he inadvertently commits a hate crime on his first day.

Schmidt, meanwhile, has a much easier time fitting in. He enrolls in a drama class and takes the part of Peter Pan in the school’s latest production. One of the funniest scenes in the entire movie comes during his audition. Soon enough, he gets in on the cool crowd by befriending Eric Molson (Dave Franco, who shows that talent runs in the family).

“21 Jump Street” is the kind of movie that has been done so many times before, and it knows that. And while the plot beats are pretty predictable, it is the way that the story and all of the jokes are done that makes it a winner. Everyone should know from the start that at least one of them will have a relationship with a student, and at least one of them will pursue a teacher. But what is funny about it the fact that the teacher (Ellie Kemper) is actually the pursuer and the fact that the relationship that forms between Schmidt and fellow drama student Molly (Brie Larson) is actually kind of sweet. I give credit to the stellar screenplay by Michael Bacall, a highly talented writer who is also responsible for “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” and “Project X.” He has a good ear and eye for the way teenagers talk and act nowadays, the kind that most writers lack. With this movie and the past two mentioned, Bacall has made himself an indispensable comedy writer.

Usually, two directors working on one movie would seem like a bad thing, like the old saying of too many chefs in the kitchen. But Chris Miller and Phil Lord are a dynamic directing duo, and perhaps both of their sensibilities contribute to the very even balance between comedy, drama, and action throughout. Miller and Lord, with the combination of Bacall, hysterically play with audience expectations throughout. They will only blow something up when they feel like it. It is as if they are shouting “F**k You, Michael Bay!” in certain scenes.

“21 Jump Street” serves partially as a vehicle for Channing Tatum’s comedy career. Seriously, who ever thought Tatum could be this funny? This is the same actor who starred in the “Step Up” movies and was once a male stripper. As Tobias Funke might say, “this is ripe for parody!” Tatum is a standout because he is such a great team player, willing to mock his own appearance for laughs. I don’t know if I could ever see him doing standup, but I could definitely see him acting in more movies like this. Mark Maron could make a great WTF Podcast about him.

Perhaps to the shock of everyone, Tatum gives the movie its heart. Despite once being a jock and a bully, Jenko is sensitive and a loyal friend. Think of him as more Troy Barnes than Andrew Clarke.

Tatum and Hill play off each other well, and they gave me enough reason to want to see the sequel mentioned at the end that may have only been a joke. This is the rare occasion when I actually would not mind seeing a comedy get a sequel. That is, as long as they don’t “Austin Powers” it and make it exactly like the original. If there were to be a sequel, I would hope there would be more scenes with Offerman’s police chief, who is criminally underused here. I suspect that many of his original scenes had to be left out during editing.

I find much joy in the financial success that “21 Jump Street” has had at the box office, and by the end of next week, it will likely cross $100 million. On the one hand, this could drive studios to continue on the sequel/remake trend as an alternate for producing original ideas. Or, this will make them realize that what truly makes a good comedy (or a good movie, in general) is to take a lot of risks, and hire a good writer. “21 Jump Street” is not a short movie, and a large chunk of it involves Schmidt and Jenko going through the side effects of a drug over the course of one day. Yes, it becomes totally necessary that we see the disgusting way in which they try and expel the drug from their bodies. A stupid comedy with a few laughs will do well its opening weekend, break even, and then be totally forgotten about. One that is as funny as “21 Jump Street” will merit repeat viewings.

Horrible Snubs: Why the Emmys Made Three Huge Mistakes this Year

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Yes, this year’s Emmy nominations include not one, not two, but three horrendous snubs. Well, there are more; but three of them in particular are really bothering me. Only rarely do I cover other mediums besides film, but I figured this was worth it.

Let’s start with the most surprising snub: “Community.” It got absolutely nothing, besides being considered a shoo-in as a nomination for a few categories. I consider “Community” to be the best comedy on television. And if some don’t think it’s the best, then they at least have to admit that it’s the most inventive. What other show has brought back the traditional sitcom format while simultaneously tearing it to shreds? Think about “Paradigms of Human Memory,” in which the show mocked the clip show episode that every comedy has. Yet, instead of showing clips from previous episodes, they showed flashbacks that had never been seen, and acted like we knew all about it. They also went meta with Jesus, and became the second show to make “Dungeons & Dragons” seem cool (the first, of course, being “Freaks and Geeks”). All of this should usually lead to recognition. I guess voters don’t find a monkey named Annie’s Boobs as funny as I do.
To be honest, I wasn’t prepared to write about “Community” in a post about Emmy snubs. In fact, “Community” being snubbed didn’t cross my mind in the slightest bit. However, there were two shows I unfortunately expected to not get a thing: “Bored to Death” and “Archer.”
“Bored to Death” probably could’ve gotten more consideration, had its season been more than ten episodes and ended after Thanksgiving. But that’s part of what makes the show so special: it’s short, and that likely helps the creators focus more on making the show so good. While some shows are forced to churn out over 20 episodes a season, a shorter season allows more time to focus on making each episode nearly perfect.
In its second season, Jonathan Ames’s hipster noir tale of a struggling writer who moonlights as an unlicensed detective found its voice. “Bored to Death” is a rare show that actually benefitted from going more over-the-top than its previous season. It brought out the very best in its characters. And for the record, watching characters solve mysteries while stoned is a lot more entertaining than watching detectives find semen on everything a la every cop show that exists.
“Bored to Death” found an almost Woody Allenesque quality in its satire of all things pretentious. Also, “Bored to Death” is one of those shows that has a formula that it follows pretty much every episode. While following an episode-by-episode formula can sometimes harm even the best of shows (admit it: every once in a while, the structure of “Modern Family” can be slightly tiresome), it never hurt “Bored to Death,” as it still maintained a forward moving plot.
What other nominations were missing from “Bored to Death”? Most unfortunately is the inexplicable snub of Ted Danson as Jonathan’s (Jason Schwartzman) boss, who’s age hasn’t quite caught up to him yet, George Christopher. Danson so eloquently delivered some of George’s most inexplicable and offensive lines. I laughed when he tried to alter the evidence of a negative drug test, and then felt oddly inspired when he decided to quit his job at season’s end. And I am going to say it now, lest I totally forget, that Zach Galifianakis, as Ray, is equally deserving of a nomination. In his season long battle to win his girlfriend back, he proved himself more than just the guy who said “ruh-tard” in “The Hangover.”
The next show that lost big, like “Bored to Death” and “Community,” improved ten fold in its second season. However, while those two shows became more manic in order to become better, this one surprisingly went the opposite direction. Well, with a few exceptions.
Animated shows rarely get the credit they deserve with the Emmys. Even in its fifteenth season on the air, “South Park” was still brilliant enough to deserve something. I guess Matt Stone and Trey Parker will just have to live with all of the Tonys that “The Book of Mormon” just won. It is “Archer” that really should have made the cut.
This year, “Archer” went from FX’s answer to an Adult Swim show to something entirely different. Yes, it maintained insanity, but it also became a real story, and it did what any good, developing show should do: it focused on its characters backstories. And not just it’s bumbling, womanizing, alcoholic secret agent whose name bears the show’s title; everyone involved became equally important. Season two delved deeper into Sterling’s mommy issues, revealed Cheryl as a millionaire, and made the old servant Woodhouse into more than just some old servant. Throw in some pretty brilliant wordplay (one word: Meowschwitz), and a darkly hilarious cancer plot line, and ISIS becomes the new funniest place to work television.
“Community,” “Bored to Death,” and “Archer” may have trouble ever getting their due. Maybe it’s because their styles of humor aren’t just some simple laughs, or maybe its because the popularity of each hasn’t reached their peak yet. I don’t know what it is, but the fact that these shows will be empty handed come Emmy night somehow makes them all the better.
While “Parks and Recreation” got a variety of nominations (including Best Comedy), voters totally left out Nick Offerman, who plays the government-hating government employee Ron Swanson. Swanson is literally the best comedic character on television right now. Why he was snubbed is beyond the act of head scratching.