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Biggest Surprise of the Spring TV Schedule: aside from a weak pilot and a mediocre season-finale, Happy Endings turned out to be pretty funny, especially when it wasn't concerned about the "main" couple's relationship garbage. I hope the first thing the Russo Bros. do for next season's episodes is figure out a way to permanently end the relationship between Dave and Alex, since it's absolutely useless.

Happy Endings is fast becoming my favorite comedy on TV. These past few episodes have been the most enjoyable of any sitcom this season, and while it falls squarely within sitcomy scenarios of bad dates and ridiculous problems it does so with this knowing wink toward the genre's conventions that the light material doesn't suffer because of it. While NBC may have the market cornered in genre-testing shows like Community and 30 Rock, it's nice to have a show that's just as (arguably more) enjoyable that doesn't feel the need to test the waters but instead stretches its legs within a classic formula of 20-somethings in a big city.

I picked up the Season One set (probably on your recommendation) a while ago, I'll have to move it up in the TV show set queue... will there ever be a time when there's not a thousand things to watch?

I think the characters take some adjusting to as at first I found them fairly irritating, but now that I've settled into the show their group dynamic has become much more enjoyable.

Hope you enjoy it!

Murdoch wrote:Happy Endings is fast becoming my favorite comedy on TV. These past few episodes have been the most enjoyable of any sitcom this season, and while it falls squarely within sitcomy scenarios of bad dates and ridiculous problems it does so with this knowing wink toward the genre's conventions that the light material doesn't suffer because of it. While NBC may have the market cornered in genre-testing shows like Community and 30 Rock, it's nice to have a show that's just as (arguably more) enjoyable that doesn't feel the need to test the waters but instead stretches its legs within a classic formula of 20-somethings in a big city.

Murdoch wrote:I think the characters take some adjusting to as at first I found them fairly irritating, but now that I've settled into the show their group dynamic has become much more enjoyable. Hope you enjoy it!

Finally someone else on the board is singing this show's praises! It's probably the most consistently funny network sitcom on TV right now (though P&R is probably a little more successful with it's mix of awkward comedy and sincere emotion ... then again, Happy Endings is a little bit of a different beast), mostly because their modestly self-aware of the fact that they are a network sitcom about 20-somethings, yet the comedic chemistry of the cast just seems highly unique and allows the show to maintain its delirious energy and rapid pace. It really shouldn't work and yet it still does, possibly because it seems comfortable always being cranked up to 11.

The show's manic energy is an acquired taste, but it immerses itself so completely within this relentlessness that it seems like the writing packs what would be two episodes of dialogue for an average sitcom into a single story.

What really won me over to the show, though, was Max, whose cynical, gay man-baby is the most enjoyable male sitcom character on TV right now. Also,

Spoiler

any show that invents a Hello Kitty knockoff called Greetings Feline deserves some praise.

Okay, so Happy Endings is hilarious and great escapism, good call board. Glad to have another really funny show to follow

Update: Love this show so much I actually paid to download Season Two from iTunes because I couldn't wait to see more episodes. Paid for a legit download, what am I, someone's mother?

Another one on board! And with a third season on the way maybe we can draw some Community-like buzz around this little gem.

It should perhaps be noted that the guys handed the reins on Community going forward were producers for Happy Endings.

swo17 wrote:It should perhaps be noted that the guys handed the reins on Community going forward were producers for Happy Endings.

That's the biggest reason why I'll still be eagerly anticipating episodes of Community next season. It will certainly lose something without Harmon at the reigns, but it might be just as sharp, loopy, and manic with its humor as it ever was.

swo17 wrote:It should perhaps be noted that the guys handed the reins on Community going forward were producers for Happy Endings.

And Anthony and Joe Russo are exec. producers on both shows. I did not care for the 15 minutes I watched of this once (I'll give it another shot soon), but I have to congratulate them on having the best gay character on TV right now.

Matt wrote:

swo17 wrote:It should perhaps be noted that the guys handed the reins on Community going forward were producers for Happy Endings.

And Anthony and Joe Russo are exec. producers on both shows. I did not care for the 15 minutes I watched of this once (I'll give it another shot soon), but I have to congratulate them on having the best gay character on TV right now.

Since Arrested Development, I'm always enthusiastic whenever I see their names attached to a TV project ... but their actual track-record is fairly inconsistent, with a handful of rather puzzling projects and a number of failed pilots (though that doesn't necessarily have much to do with quality). I do think Community and Happy Endings have easily been their most successful projects since Arrested Development ended, though their pilot for The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret was pretty hilarious for a pilot (and I believe I've stated my misguided fascination with Running Wilde elsewhere). The best thing about them is that they seem willing to take some rather big risks with premise and the likeability of their characters.

domino harvey wrote:Update: Love this show so much I actually paid to download Season Two from iTunes because I couldn't wait to see more episodes.

Does iTunes include the so-far-yet-to-be-aired episode of Season 2? There was apparently one last episode that they were going to air sometime in the spring, which was supposedly meant to originally air prior to the season finale. ABC kind of just left it vague as to when that episode was going to be shown, but my PVR has yet to pick it up.

No, but it aired in the UK so it is floating around on the Internet

It's a good thing we won't be confusing this with a massage thread.

I'm trying to find proper masseuse equipment, can someone direct me via direct message to the massage board message board?

My wife: "I watched a few episodes - it's not funny." It took me a few months after that evaluation to realize that LQ DOESN'T RUN MY LIFE and I should give this show a shot, and when I wanted to have a panic attack at the prospect of catching up on the last two seasons of How I Met Your Mother (which should have ended after Season 4), I decided to watch Happy Endings instead.

Whoa, this might be the funniest, most solid pilot episode of anything I've seen. It has a very breezy Scrubs-y quality that doesn't try to do as much as that show, but feels just as confident. I could do without the music cues and I'm hoping they'll go away, but if it's all uphill from here, you guys have another fan in me!

And apparently most people don't even like the pilot (though I like you thought it was great from the outset), so I think you're definitely in for a good experience as you progress (assuming you're watching in production order like on the DVDs and not the garbled broadcast order). I'm in the middle of season two and it just gets better and better-- the replay value on the show is very high, too, and it's fun to go back and catch all the lines I missed from laughing the first time through

Not sure what order I'm watching in. Is there a cooking class plotline in the 2nd episode proper?

Yep, sounds like you're good

The hipster episode... my lord is this good stuff

Over it

Someone posted this on Tumblr: a handful of shooting scripts/drafts from the first two seasons, with tons of didn't make it to air gags. Can't believe they cut this line from the second season premiere:

Spoiler

ALEX
Ooh, nice socks. You look like a gay ninja.

MAX
That’s redundant. Who else would kill people with stars? Failed it!

mfunk9786 wrote:My wife: "I watched a few episodes - it's not funny."

haha, not at all what I said. In fact, I think the show's writing is (at times) very clever and funny, based on the handful of episodes I watched months ago. My disconnect lies with the characters, whom I find inoffensively bland at best, and with the actors playing those characters, who don't appear to have the talent to rise above living, breathing quip machines.

But, like Matt, I'll be willing to give it another shot. I've been taught to trust this board's taste in television comedies.

Amazing Chappelle's Show "Making the Band" sketch reference ("That's what's hot on the streets?!") means I'm a fan for life. Nothing like watching a whole season of a teevee show in one day.