October 27: Mondo Thursday Recap, Halloween Themed

CPT is back everyone. Sorry we've taken so long with our posts, but we've been arguing about the show Whitney for literally a month. One of us say it's good, the other one great, and the other groundbreaking. You could definitely make an argument for any of these, but it's important to remember that even when a show like Whitney is on TV, there are still lesser but ambitious comedies on as well, like Community or Parks and Recreation. Listen, they're not perfect shows, but God knows they try, and, who knows, if they take notes, they could learn a thing or two from Whitney. Oh yeah, and Halloween. Without further ado, here's the Halloween-themed NBC Thursday line-up, the Project Runway finale, and the return of Beavis and Butt-head.

Community 3.05 Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps

Minority Abed and Troy in Pierce's story

Community gets its Treehouse of Horror on with a round circle of scary vignettes. But whereas Simpsons is content to do three funny self-contained shorts every fall, Community roll-calls a story from each of the seven cast members with gusto, deftly developing them into a cohesive episode. Britta is scared that someone in the group has the potential to be a homicidal murderer after administering anonymous personality tests to the group for a psychology class. She tries to glean whose test was the red flag by having everyone tell their version of a scary Halloween story. Highlights included Abed's detached cabin genre story, Shirley's preachy tale putting the other six in hell, and, this writer's favorite, the weekly unwarranted misogyny, racism, and self-inflation from Pierce. Unsurprisingly, Community used the episode as a chance to have fun with form and genre and show off how funny and smart it is. Community isn't just browbeating us into disillusionment with its ironic skill, though. The self-conscious shorts coalesce redemptively (if, like every week, a little cheesily) when Jeff acts like the voice of reason and shows everyone there's gotta be a reasonable explanation, it's okay to be a little zany, and other platitudes that punctuate the end of every show on TV.

Parks and Recreation 4.05 Meet 'n' Greet

It may be too soon in the evening to tell, but my guess is that Parks and Recreation was the one show tonight and this whole week that most organically incorporated Halloween into its episode. I mean, it still revolved around a Halloween party, but the Parks and Rec cast is one of the larger and best-balanced casts on TV. My assumption was that the writers would be working hard to keep their distinctive characters afloat lest they get smeared under the surface Halloween goo. As always, I was right--Leslie and Tom weren't even at April and Andy's party but in some side-plot about a political luncheon for Leslie's campaign, sponsored by Tom's exuberant company. At the Halloween party, every character is in command, even in costume. Dumb Andy, dressed in a mohawk bald cap as Chuck Liddell, bullies passive Ben till he's finally direct about roommate qualms. Half-assed pirate Ron spends the whole night fixing things in April and Andy's unkempt house. Eggplant-costumed Ann perkily helps him. Parks and Rec is still on a strong streak, and they're able to consistently maintain their sleek humor and character dynamics even under the Halloween theme, not getting theatrical and genre-bending like Community, which specializes in that sort of thing anyway, or resting on laurels that it will never live up to again like post-season 2 Office. Speaking of the Office...

Office 8.05 Spooked

The decline of the Office began after season 2. Even though the first two seasons were hilarious, the Jim and Pam storyline eclipsed the humor, something I sensed by season 3 when it was out in the open that Jim and Pam *like-liked* each other, and something I became certain of when I watched that season again recently and realized the sense of humor was the same, but the Jim-Pam exigence wasn't. Well, the show's been meandering ever since it lost that first major directional thread, and it got even flimsier since it lost the other one this season, Michael Scott. This lack or want was evident in tonight's episode. The office was decked out in cobwebs and skulls, everyone was dressed up in costumes, but it's hard to care about anything. The characters on this show are each as distinct as on Parks and Rec, but in a post-season 2, post-Michael Office, they lack the urgency and purpose that made the show worth watching in the first place. Erin and Andy are great supporting cast, but who cares about their loaded romantic hug at the end. The Office needs to bring something stronger than Jim's regular dude but too-cool-for-school attitude (give it up man, you're married with kids and got locked into a career as a paper salesman). If you're willing to just watch a hodge-podge of scattershot jokes interspersed with awesome intense Robert California moments, go ahead. But this show should really just hang it up.

Whitney who cares

Don't have the energy to write about Whitney again. Probably something like the last two times, but where Whitney's dressed as a sexy cat or a sexy cop. Which is unnecessarily elaborate considering that, with her black hair and pale fleshy skin, she's a black t-shirt and a pair of JNCOs away from being an immaculate Korn fan.

Project Runway 9.14 The Finale Part 2

I give you, your winner!

Just because the finale is on during Halloween week, doesn't mean that all the designers needed to send out COSTUMES! Oh. My. God. I am such a bitch. This season of Project Runway was a real let down. The only shining star was Anya, who made great clothes the entire season, but dropped the ball with her final collection. I think what happened was she ran out of juice, brilliantly making snap decisions and churning out great outfits the whole season. But when Tim went to see her last week, she hadn't started on anything and only had like a week left. Well, she got it together, sort of; she put together some competent flowy prints, but as we saw in the one black dress, she can create impressive structural pieces too. Still, the judges know she has the best taste and instincts out of the four finalists and decided to let her win. Which is fair. Even if the collection isn't the best it could have been, at the minimum display of Anya's abilities, it was better than the other designers' best, beating Viktor and Kimberly's Macy's clothes (such) and Josh's neon Williamsburg clothes (a bitch). Take my word for it, and go watch Anya's awesome sex tape instead.

Beavis and Butt-head 8.01 Holy Cornholio

"Because Comedy Central isn't airing Office Space as much as it used to."

Beavis and Butt-head would not make fun of Pauly D for making a joke about Snooki liking hot salamis, they would laugh at that. I don't know whose idea this was, but I can't get with it. I mean, they're still Beavis and Butt-head. Getting bit by a homeless man so they can turn into vampires and get chicks a la Twilight is up there with classic premises like shaving their pubes and taping them on their faces as beards to get chicks. But the basic conceit doesn't work. Beavis and Butthead would not watch anything on MTV. MTV doesn't show any music videos anymore. No one watches TV anymore. Beavis and Butt-heads don't even exist anymore. The last wave of Beavis and Butt-heads went in the early 2000s, with nu-metal and Tower Records. In 2011, people in AC/DC and Metallica shirts aren't Beavis and Butt-head, they're wearing mesh shorts and sandals, watching football and smoking hookah. One thing I like about the revamped series is that the animation looks the same, a little slicker than the original, but not as slick as the movie. But the same feeling =/= the same essence. About the best I can say is that if you put a gun to my head, I'd watch this before the other MTV cartoon about the surfer that looks like Jason from Home Movies.