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Jennie Day Blog

Everything About Buffy Has Already Been Said

February 11, 2016 By jennie

I’ve been trying to write this post for months. Last May, I finally watched the very last episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, after years of watching through all seven seasons. I sat down and tried to write about it then, but I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to say.

So, I decided to put it off until I’d read all of season eight, which was released in comic books from 2007-2011. I finished it earlier this week, and sat down to write, but again: I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to say.

I realized I had to just start writing my thoughts out, otherwise I don’t think I ever will. And I realized that what’s been holding me back isn’t a shortage of thoughts about the show, but lack of originality.

Everything about Buffy has already been said.

I’ve said before that at its heart, Buffy isn’t really *about* vampires. It’s really *about* being a teenage girl in the 90s.

Everything about Buffy is so 90s and I LOVE it.

— Jennie Day (@jenniecday) March 6, 2014

Coming at the height of the “girl power” days, the show is about facing the figurative demons that we all face in our high school years, as well as, you know, literal demons. It’s about teenage romance and how you lean on your friends when your boyfriend turns evil and breaks your heart. Wanting to be normal when you feel like an outsider. And most of all, finding friends who support you and whose strengths complement yours, and how we’re stronger when we work as a team.

Clearly, this is not a show that shies away from clichés or is concerned with being unoriginal. And still, I loved it.

Welcome to Sunnydale High School/welcome to the hell mouth.

A photo posted by Jennie Day (@jenniecday) on May 23, 2015 at 3:26pm PDT

So despite the essays and listicles, the entire books and websites, and even college courses that have been created about Buffy, I’ll risk being a little derivative. Also, a little longwinded. Here goes:

In Every Season, There Is a Chosen Theme

Season one is relatively straightforward – it sets the tone for the show, juxtaposing high school (cheerleading tryouts, prom, etc.) with Buffy’s late-night vampire-slaying. It’s a solid start to the series, including a few small moments of subverting the predictable – for example, a creepy ventriloquist doll makes an appearance but isn’t the villain. And in other places, it totally embraces the predictable, like Buffy’s love interest turning out to be a vampire.

Season two is about teenage romance; it’s the season that launched a thousand paranormal romances. Buffy falls in love with a vampire. It’s probably the best season as a whole, although I like the later seasons better because the show was still stuck to the tried-and-true TV plotlines in these early seasons.

Season three is about learning who to trust. Buffy’s mom doesn’t support her vampire slaying, but she still has Buffy’s back. Then there’s Faith, another slayer who turns up in Sunnydale, and turns out not to be trustworthy. The season ends with the gang finishing high school, and they go out in a big way.

Season four is about independence – Buffy goes to college! There’s a storyline about a government organization (The Initiative) who are also in the business of eliminating demons, and the control that The Initiative has over the demons, its members, and civilians. Paradoxically, season four is the weakest link of the televised seasons, but boasts some of the best standalone episodes: “Hush,” “Who Are You,” and “Restless.”

Season five is about family. Of all the seasons, it is the most emotional, which is much needed after the preceding season. I don’t want to spoil too much, but Buffy gains a new family member and loses another. It has the highest stakes of any of the seasons – the season’s main villain (“big bad”) is a worthy foe, and Buffy goes to the greatest lengths to save the world.

Season six is peak Buffy. It’s the darkest of all the seasons. Frankly, it’s about death, and the consequences of the gang’s choices and actions. This is my favorite of all the seasons – the writers became fearless about showing the characters’ flaws, to great effect.

Season seven is about the legacy of Buffy the character, and Buffy the show. It’s about wrapping up loose ends, like the slayer legacy, which was foreshadowed over pretty much the entire series. It redeems a few characters after season six. Oh, and if you’re wondering how they followed up on six seasons worth of big bads, the final season’s big bad can embody ALL OF THEM.

The Best Characters Are Supporting Characters

Jenny Calendar – The high school computer science teacher turns out to be a great ally to the gang, as she’s a Romani witch and introduces Buffy’s BFF Willow to Wicca. She’s also love interest to Buffy’s mentor, Giles. She remains beloved among fans mostly because her storyline ended abruptly and we weren’t ready for that!

Buffy has a rep for being such a strong, feminist role model for teenage girls, but I honestly think Jenny Calendar is a better one because she’s strong and fearless and gives Willow a boost of confidence, where Buffy is often, well, a whiny, self-absorbed teenager.

Oz – Oz shows up to be the level-headed, down-to-earth member of the gang at a time when they really need one of those, and then it turns out he has some supernatural abilities of his own.

He has one of the best lines on the show, when the rest of the gang tell him (I’m paraphrasing here) “oh, hey, our town is overrun with vampires, take a minute to absorb that information.” And he’s like, “oh, that explains everything.”

Spike – We meet Spike in season two, and Buffy (both the character, and the show) are never the same. He was written off at the end of season two, and I wasn’t sad to see him go. But about midway through season three, I missed him and was happy when he finally returned.

He often served as comic relief, but turned out to be one of the most complex and nuanced characters on the show. It’s unfair to call him a secondary character because sometime during season five, he becomes a regular, and he plays an integral role in the climactic scene of the last episode (but I’m sticking with it because he’s not one of the main trio who appeared in every episode.)

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My Very Favorite Episodes

  • “Nightmares” – This was the season one episode that convinced me to continue watching the entire series. Due to some force of evil or other, the gang’s worst nightmares come to life. It’s the first indication that there’s a bigger picture beyond high school and vampires.
  • “Who Are You” – Faith and Buffy switch bodies. This episode only works because the actresses (especially Sarah Michelle Gellar) NAIL each other’s characters. It’s also the best foreshadowing of Buffy and Spike’s pairing.
  • “Normal Again” – My favorite episode, the episode that has stayed with and haunted me, presents an alternate reality, where Buffy is in a mental institution and has been since the events of the movie (prequel to the series) started.
  • “Once More, With Feeling” – The fantastically cheesy musical episode. It’s terrible and hilarious and perfect. And those of us who’ve been rooting for Spike since he showed up in season two finally get what we want.

The musical episode of Buffy and Dr horrible's sing along blog may as well be the same show.

— Jennie Day (@jenniecday) April 27, 2015

  • “Conversations with Dead People” – Probably the scariest episode, but the reason I like it is that it tried to do something very different (tell one small story in service of the season’s larger story) through four different conversations all spliced together. It’s wise and funny and bittersweet, and very scary.

Foreshadowing

The foreshadowing in Buffy the Vampire Slayer is another of my favorite elements, and part of what made it such a great show. There are tons of examples of it, from the *key* to season five who’s mentioned as early as season three, to the eventual pairing of Spike and Buffy, which was hinted at in earlier seasons (I think the writers were “testing the waters,” to make sure the viewers were receptive to the coupling, but it works.)

I think the most effective foreshadowing on the show is Willow’s magic. Willow gets involved with magic in season two with guidance from Miss Calendar. Giles warns her not to get involved with dark magic, and she tries (eh, kinda) not to for the next few seasons. We see her fear of dark magic in season four, but fear won’t prevent her from giving in to it in season six, and it’s magical mesmerizing.

Finally, the lore about the chosen one, the vampire slayer, comes up in season two, is explained in the finale of season four, and is a major plot point in the final season. The resolution that is reached in the TV series becomes the set up of the season eight comics.

I want to say more, but it’s long and complex and spoilery (not that I haven’t already dropped a ton of Buffy spoilers) but I realized this post is already about 1600 words long, which is probably enough for a show that I claimed everything about it has already been said. Now I kind of want to start back at season one, episode one and watch it all again. I think I’ll wrap up this post now before I actually commit to re-watching the entire series.

Filed Under: TV Shows

Repost: Welcome to Twin Peaks

October 10, 2014 By jennie

This post was originally published in July of 2013, when my friends and I set off to several film locations from the show, Twin Peaks. We happened to plan this little excursion on the same weekend as the annual “Twin Peaks Fest,” and a sign welcoming us to Twin Peaks was conveniently set out.

In light of this week’s news that Twin Peaks will get a 3rd season, belated only by 25 years, I thought this was an appropriate time to repost this. Enjoy!

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I leave you today with some wisdom from Special Agent Dale Cooper: “Harry, I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don’t plan it. Don’t wait for it. Just let it happen. It could be a new shirt at the men’s store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot black coffee.”

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Filed Under: Photos, TV Shows

Last Week, Tonight

July 7, 2014 By jennie

Please tell me you’re watching this show.


My favorite clip, so far

Some of you may remember my obsession last summer with John Oliver’s stint hosting The Daily Show. It’s like last summer all over again, but it keeps going, and yes, there’s dancing.

The other thing I wanted to share is that if you don’t already have HBO (we didn’t) you might try calling your cable provider and asking for a free trial (we did) (they said sure.)

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It’s not TV, it’s HBO! … although so far, all we’ve watched are TV shows. The funny thing about watching HBO shows is that when Joel and I sit down together to watch an episode, after the static fuzz, I expect the Sex and the City theme to follow … Joel expects The Sopranos.

Filed Under: TV Shows

What I’ve Been Watching

May 14, 2014 By jennie

Remember when I said in my last post that I haven’t been doing much? It’s the truth, but only part of it. The whole truth is more like this …

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I’ve been meaning to write a thoughtful and eloquent post about each of these shows for the past couple of weeks, and since it clearly hasn’t happened yet, I’m just going to toss them all into one super-post. Here goes.

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer

I started watching Buffy two summers ago, and I am finally … almost done with the third season. And of course, once I finish the seven seasons, there are three seasons of comic books and a spin-off to catch up on. I’m thoroughly enjoying it, and I suddenly have a new understanding of the “Teen Paranormal Romance” section in every Barnes and Noble.

Watching Buffy is inciting flashbacks of being thirteen, and the hours I spent pouring over Seventeen magazine, trying to duplicate Sarah Michelle Gellar’s hair. Anyway, I’ve said this before, but it remains true: at its core, Buffy is not about vampires or the forces of evil, it’s about being a teenage girl in the 90s.

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Heroes

When this show was airing, I was obsessed with Grey’s Anatomy, and I remember reading about it when I read up on Grey’s spoilers and thinking it sounded so cliche and disinteresting. So … it should come as no surprise that when I actually watched it (with much coercion from Joel) I actually loved it.

It’s basically what would happen if the X-Men were made into a weekly soap opera.

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Wilfred

Honestly, we only started watching this show because we’d finished all Lord of the Rings movies and we I wanted more Elijah Wood. Anyway, neither of us had any expectations but we ended up laughing our butts off. It’s crude and offensive, but still makes witty social commentary … I guess I’d say it’s kind of like South Park, if South Park were live action with a guy in a dog suit.

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What Not to Wear

You probably aren’t surprised to hear that I adore this show. I actually hadn’t watched it in a few years, but caught up on the recent seasons that are on Netflix. I was a bit surprised that the format had changed so much … it’s less about advice for putting oneself together and more about pop psychology and snark. But, really, was it ever actually about fashion advice?

Here’s all the fashion advice you’ll ever need, according to Stacy and Clinton: don’t wear pants with an elastic waist ever, and belt all the things!

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Brooklyn 99

We were really late discovering this show, but Joel and I powered through the entire first season in about a week. It’s SO funny. We couldn’t stop.

It’s basically the 2014 version of Scrubs: a goofy, immature guy works for a boss who’s uptight and seemingly disdains him but inside has a heart of gold. There are fantasy sequences and flashbacks, and of course he’s into one of the girls he works with but won’t admit it.

***

The bad news is that since I’ve been obsessively watching older shows, my DVR is totally full and I’m way behind on the current seasons of my favorite shows. My life is so hard!

Filed Under: TV Shows

Team Piz

February 24, 2014 By jennie

Joel and I just finished watching the last episode of the last season of Veronica Mars last night, and now I understand why longtime fans were so desperate to get a Veronica Mars movie made (the ending is pretty abrupt) but more importantly, now I understand why the season three love triangle has polarized fans in the ensuing years.

With the movie coming out in just a few weeks, I wanted to take a moment to declare that I am staunchly Team Piz.

Two reasons:
1. I get really tired of good girls choosing the “bad boy” in movies and television. Characters on the screen should choose the person who is easy to be with, because that’s how real life works. Sigh. I know I can’t expect TV to be anything like real life, but this is a case where it really bugs me.

I also think that Ilsa made the right choice by leaving Rick in Morocco, in another love triangle that polarized its fans.

2. I get really tired of TV shows abusing the will-they/won’t-they plot line for their entire run. Veronica Mars didn’t take this as far as, say, Friends or Scrubs, but it’s really boring to watch an on-again-off-again couple break up and make up countless times over the course of all the years the show airs.

When Veronica and Logan got together in the first season, I dug it. It was a fun tryst. Vulture posted that creator Rob Thomas is Team Logan, or at least felt that way when watching season 1:

“When I started writing the movie, I would get on my treadmill each day and watch an episode,” said Thomas. Eventually, he reached the season-one episode where Veronica and Logan have their first kiss … and he broke down. “I rewound it and I rewound it and then my wife entered and I have tears in my eyes,” Thomas laughed. “It was an embarrassing moment that I’m watching my own work and crying … but it just felt so earned to me!”

But three years later, it was equally earned when Veronica and Piz had their first kiss.

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I’m sure this makes sense only to the one or two of you out there who are also Veronica Mars fans (marshmallows? Am I using that right?) but I wanted to put it out there because I’m really excited about the movie. I hope I’ve sided with the team that gets the girl, in the end, but I have my doubts.

Filed Under: TV Shows

How I Met Your Father

November 25, 2013 By jennie

Kids, How I Met Your Mother is ending after this season, but the creative team can continue to rest on their laurels even after nine(!) years because the spin-off (How I Met Your Dad) was just picked up.

Viewers met Ted Mosby in 2005 when he decided he was ready to settle down and set off to find himself a wife and he’s been falling for the wrong girl ever since. And notice I don’t say “viewers fell in love with Ted Mosby in 2005” because for its first few seasons, HIMYM was continually on the verge of being cancelled. I personally didn’t start watching until 2009 (as season three was ending) and I remember worrying that the show would end and I would never get to find out how Ted met the mother of his future children.

Obviously, that has not been the case.

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Let me say for the record that I genuinely like the show. The characters are charming and likeable, the dialogue is appropriately witty, and what I liked best in the first few seasons was seeing the gang’s comings and goings in New York City because I’d just come home from my third trip to the city and I secretly wished I could live in NYC and see Barney’s one man off-Broadway show.

How the final season is structured is interesting – it’s pretty clear (to me, anyway) that the final moment of the show will be Ted meeting his future Mrs. (maybe we’ll even learn her name.) We’ve been invested in many (many) of Ted’s previous relationships, so to make sure we have the same investment in this relationship, we’re not being denied the important moments – we’re seeing them in flash-forwards.

Also, every other character on the show meets the mother before Ted does. I really dig the way they’re introducing her into the gang – it’s just as important that she fits in with the other characters; I respect that the writers found a clever way to work that in. It’s cool.

But having said all that, I will probably not watch How I Met Your Dad. Because after nine seasons, I’m really tired of this concept. There are very few TV shows that can go on for nine or ten seasons and still be interesting and pull new tricks out of their hats. HIMYM is not one of them. I don’t remember much from the past three or so seasons because it’s a blur of repeated jokes and story lines.

Also – THOSE POOR KIDS. First, their dad told them a nine-year-long story, and now their mom is going to do the same. And if you were wondering how they’re going to incorporate the kids when the actors look nine years older, they’ve already filmed those scenes. Which makes me wonder if they’re going to keep using the same stock footage of those kids for a new show.

Well, maybe the kids won’t be subjected to a nine-years-long version of the story from their mom’s perspective. I’d be pretty shocked if the spin-off turns out to be as popular as the original, because I doubt I’m the only HIMYM fan who’s burned out on this show. But who knows – maybe it’ll be hugely successful and they’ll just keep making How I Met Your … series indefinitely.

Addendum: It’s been clarified to me that the mother of “How I Met Your Dad” will not be the mother of the same kids; the show will feature an entirely new cast. HOWEVER, I stand by my argument that this is no longer a clever or original premise and I do not intend to watch.

Filed Under: TV Shows

These Agents Don’t Compete in the Whedonverse

September 30, 2013 By jennie

We’re one week in to the new fall TV season, and I’m already behind. My DVR is full of new shows, and I really only made an effort to watch the shows I’m already invested in (like South Park and Parks and Rec and a few others that don’t have “park” in the name.)

The only new show that I took the time to watch was Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (I’m just going to call it “Agents” from here forward, for brevity’s sake, k?) But it actually fits in the category of “shows I’m already invested in” because I’ve seen the movies from the Marvelverse, which spawned the show, and I’m a big fan of Joss Whedon’s other shows, like Buffy and Firefly and Dollhouse.

It’s hard to compare Agents to Whedon’s previous shows because we’ve already met the main character, Agent Phil Coulson, in Iron Man and The Avengers movies. He’s a great character, and I’m glad he’s been revived (or something – his resurrection is being purposefully teased in the pilot episode) but since the viewers are expected to already know him, he’s largely absent from the action so we can get acquainted with the new faces.

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And here’s the thing that bothers me about those new faces – while I love that Whedon reliably uses a diverse cast, it’s a little boring that every actor is super fit and thin with a beautifully symmetrical face. Look at those people. Those are supposed to be the office workers and scientists behind the superheroes. Even though this is TV, wouldn’t it be nice if one of the regular cast members wasn’t a size tiny?

Even Dollhouse, which was (on the surface, at least) a high end prostitution ring, featured Miracle Laurie, who’s an average sized woman in a sea of size zeroes. Here’s a nice blog post I found about Miracle Laurie, and making the case for more average and larger sized actors on popular shows.

I don’t want to be too negative about Agents because I did enjoy watching the first episode. It’s very cheesy and comic-book-esque, but it has potential. I am not convinced that Agent Coulson is interesting enough to have a multi-episode, possibly multi-season show centered around him. But we’re only one episode in, so everything could change.

Actually, honestly, I didn’t get really invested in Dollhouse until the final episode of the first season, called “Epitaph 1” – it validates the existence of the show, and it isn’t until this episode that us viewers at home understand what’s at stake. The previous twelve episodes were about beautiful women and a sketchy organization – “Epitaph 1” is about how that organization changed humanity, and identity in a post-apocalyptic world. It’s those issues that hit close to home that give the show meaning.

Likewise, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a story about a girl who slays vampires, but more importantly, it’s about being a teenage girl and dealing with peer pressure and crushes and parents. And Firefly is on it’s surface about a man making a living any way he can (which often means resorting to criminal measures) but really it’s about being an outcast, and how people become like family when they’re in close quarters.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has the potential to hit those deeper notes, and to be a more widespread hit than the other shows in the Whedonverse. I’m rooting for him and the show in general … so far, anyway.

Filed Under: TV Shows

Welcome to Twin Peaks

August 7, 2013 By jennie

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Remember this show?

Obviously, I don’t remember it from its original run (I was 4) but a couple of years ago, Joel and I decided to watch the entire series. We didn’t make it all the way through – we found, like the viewers in 1990, that we didn’t really care to watch after we knew who’d killed Laura Palmer.

With the film locations being so nearby, one sunny Saturday in June 2011, we set off on a Twin Peaks adventure.

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Click to see full size.

I took just two pictures on that little excursion (the left and the middle – I stole the other one from Joel!)

Last Saturday, we set with our doppelgangers on another Twin Peaks adventure. What we didn’t know was that this weekend was the official Twin Peaks Festival. And at the last stop (where the “welcome to Twin Peaks” sign was placed) we just so happened to bump into the tour group.

Anyway, I took many more pictures this trip. Here they are for your viewing pleasure.

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I leave you today with some wisdom from Special Agent Dale Cooper: “Harry, I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don’t plan it. Don’t wait for it. Just let it happen. It could be a new shirt at the men’s store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot black coffee.”

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Filed Under: Photos, TV Shows

When Jon Stewart Comes Back

July 26, 2013 By jennie

Have you been watching John Oliver’s takeover of The Daily Show this summer?

He’s adorable. And British.

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But my favorite thing? There’s much more dancing on The Daily Show with John Oliver as host. This is just one example:

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Daily Show on Facebook

IMO, the only thing that Jon Stewart has over John Oliver at this point is interview skills, so when Jon Stewart comes back this fall, here’s the format I’d like to see:

Jon Stewart is still billed as host. John Oliver sits next to him at the desk. Jon Stewart still delivers his fine commentary on current events and the state of the world. Jon Stewart still interviews all the guests.

And in between segments and as they go out for commercial breaks, John Oliver dances.

That will be the perfect news show, don’t you think?

Update: NPR published this interview with John Oliver the same day I published this post.

Filed Under: TV Shows

Whose Line Is Back And It’s Older Than Ever

July 19, 2013 By jennie

At least ten years ago (but probably more if I’m really being honest) my little sister and I watched an episode of Whose Line Is It Anyway? with a round of “Props” where this happens:

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Brad says to Wayne “our igloo have cable now.”*

And all these years later, Allegra and I still quote that line to each other and we still laugh about it.

And all these years later, the crew is back with a new season and a new face in the host’s chair (Aisha Tyler – the voice of Lana on Archer where she serves as the love interest and foil to Archer (Jon Benjamin).)

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She’s a funny lady, and it’s really nice to see a woman in the host’s chair (also, a few reviewers have said that she does a little improv in coming episodes, so I’m excited to see that.) Here’s what she had to say about the reboot in an interview with Glamour magazine:

Do you think the reboot is going to be different from the original, or are you trying to stay close to the tried-and-true format?
Aisha Tyler: I think a little bit of both. People who love the original show will be happy to see that Ryan, Wayne, and Colin are back, so there’s a lot of familiar elements for the viewers. But there are also a lot of new games and guest improvisers. So to me, there’s a good balance of the old and the new. The one thing is that a lot of people who watched the show never watched it on TV. They saw it on the internet. There’s a huge crop of young viewers who watched the show on YouTube, so we have this whole new group of fans who have a passion for improv. I think they’re going to get the best of both worlds.

I respect the direction the direction the show’s creators are heading with this – I agree with Tyler that they’re finding a nice balance between having the familiar faces and bits with the new elements, and they have an understanding for how viewers are watching now (mostly in small doses, i.e. YouTube clips.) Also, Wayne Brady was tweeting with fans during the premiere! That was definitely not a thing during the show’s original run.

It’s a little jarring to see Ryan, Colin, and Wayne looking so much older, but they’re as funny as ever. I can’t believe there were doubters who questioned whether they’d still be funny twelve years later. That’s not a real question.

The real question is … will Jon Benjamin be a guest star?

*P.S. here’s the clip with the igloo bit if you’d like to watch the whole thing.

Filed Under: TV Shows

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