No, "The Walking Dead" Will Never be Great Again

Time to take a barbed wire stick to "The Walking Dead"

Last night was the season finale of "The Walking Dead", and I wrote about it's hopes of me continuing to watch it afterward last week, and it was so maddeningly, infuriating, boring and a stupid waste of 90 minutes of my life. I understand that I have gotten to watch this show for free for the last seven seasons, and I understand that they don't owe me anything at all, but come on, this was absolutely atrocious and, if you call yourself a true fan, you should feel the same as me.

This finale was everything that has been wrong with this show for about 4 seasons now. It was so boring. It was wildly stretched out to inconceivable measures. The story was dumb as hell. All the lead up to Negan was for naught. I didn't care that the original survivors kept getting caught by Negan's crew. I kept checking my phone every 5 minutes to see how much time was left in the episode. I absolutely loathed all the slow, no dialogue parts. I hated the beginning part with Carl and his weirdo girlfriend. Basically, this episode, in my personal opinion, was terrible in every possible way, especially the stupid, moronic, spit in the face that was the ending.

This stunk.

That ending was so, so stupid. The show runners and writers and producers and AMC are getting way too big for their britches with all the stupid ass tease endings that they do on their scripted shows now and this "Walking Dead" finale was the high point, or low point, if you ask me, of this new trend. I thought this finale was ten times worse than the "Mad Men" series finale, and I hated the "Mad Men" series finale. This ending though, what the hell? What a load of dog crap. This was absolutely ridiculous. Sure, there may be some spoilers coming up, but not too many with the dumbass way they ended this season. Let's get into it. 

So, we finally meet Negan, with about 15 minutes left in the episode. Everyone knew he was being played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who is a very talented actor, but his portrayal, I thought, was way too over the top. He gives about a 10 minute speech and, instead of being filled with tension and heart pounding moments, I found it very dumb and Morgan couldn't have chewed more scenery while performing said speech. He said each word as if every single thing he said was as important as the next. In all seriousness, he was basically giving a speech about how he was going to brutally beat up, possibly murder, one of Rick's crew. It was a pointless speech for what he ended up doing. The camera kept panning around from the original survivors to Negan and his crew, and it was frustrating and very irritating. I HATED everything about this monologue. God, it was dumb as hell. Then, to decide who he is going to beat up, Negan plays the old kid game, eenie meanie minie mo, changing from person to person, with the camera showing all of the original crew. Hated this as well. Then, when he finally and mercifully picks someone, they decided to not show the viewer who he picked. They have teased a big name death all season long, and when they finally get to the scene where Negan picks someone, all we see is a fading image of Negan and his bat, Lucille. We have no idea who he may have beaten to death.

Screw you "The Walking Dead" for doing this.

This is a cop out and a slap in the face to the viewer. This show has never done this before, but this season, and last season for that case, has been all about bull shit teasing. This is so maddening. They can't promise the viewer something all season long, then not deliver. If I did something like that to my kids, promised them something, but then not deliver, I would be viewed as a mean parent. Why do shows and show writers think they can continue to do this? What gives them the right? It is the worst kind of cop out that a show can do. The people heavily involved with this show have been clearly persuaded by the uproar over the rumors of Daryl's impending death from the internet. It was rumored all season long that Daryl would be the big time character that would die, then when he got shot last week, rabid fans of the show took to the internet to openly complain that they shouldn't kill him, going as far as to start a petition. So, I think all this gave the writers a tough decision and they chose a tease ending instead of just doing what they had planned all season long. This is exactly what happened last season when they supposedly killed off Glenn, only to reveal in the next episode that he was covered by another guy being eaten by a zombie. That was bull shit and so was last nights finale. As I wrote last week, horrible things are supposed to happen in the horrible world that the "Walking Dead" creators have created. They killed off a lot of important people early on, Shane and Rick's wife to name a few, but they seem to be giving in to the mass media and public now. That really pisses me off. I can't think of another show, in the same vain as "The Walking Dead", doing what they have done over the past three or four seasons. It has been one cop out after another.

Besides this terrible excuse for the ending, the rest of this episode was a pile of garbage. I mentioned the opening scene with Carl and his girlfriend. That was dumb. All the Morgan and Carol stuff was pointless. I didn't care about the guy trying to make Carol suffer. I didn't care about Morgan finding a horse. I didn't care about Carol leaving Morgan's care. I just flat out didn't care about anything the two of them did or said to each other. It was stupid. I didn't care about Negan's crew showing up everywhere Rick's crew went. I didn't care about the preacher. I absolutely hated the "hero's" sendoff they gave to the guy with the mullet, I can't remember his name. I just didn't really care about anything that happened or about anyone in this finale, most of all being Negan. We were told all season long that he would be the "best villain ever on TV". He was going to be like no one we had seen on basic cable before. He was supposed to be great. Well, we got 15 minutes with him that seemed at times rushed, but then, at other times, very slow. He was a very uneven, very boring character. As I said before, I hated the monologue and he didn't scare or fill me with any tension whatsoever. The people most involved with the show built this character up way too much and I felt that he didn't deliver at all. Some of that is the writers fault and some is Morgan's fault. There's all kinds of blame to throw around.

In my article last week, and at the beginning of this post, I told the readers that this finale was going to be my decision maker as to if I was going to continue watching "The Walking Dead" and I can equivocally and without hesitation say that I will not be watching this show anymore. I loathed this finale and I do not care to continue watching. I had hopes that they could return to past glory, but they continued with the terrible and boring writing and stupid teaser endings that they have hung on to for the last four years. I feel like a weight is off my shoulders now that I'm done watching this show. I don't have "homework" on Sunday night anymore. This finale was terrible in every sense of the word and they lost one viewer last night. Good riddance to what has become bad rubbish.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. With his new found free time on Sunday nights, he wants to catch up on recent pop music. The guests on last week's X Millennial Man Podcast have some ideas. Like Ty's ideas? Follow him on twitter @tykulik.

We Need to Talk About Superman

I don't want to know how he feels about leaping tall buildings, I just want to watch the man fly

A few nights ago I saw Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and left the theater kind of frustrated. I did not hate the movie like the gang of obsolete film critics so desired, I actually thought the movie was mostly enjoyable. What was so frustrating was the way actor Henry Cavill and director Zack Snyder treated the Man of Steel. There was no humor, very little humility, and no awe to the last son of Krypton. These problems were in Man of Steel and they were present once again in Batman v Superman (I will not keep writing the full title, you know what movie I am talking about). Once I took a few days to think about the movie, and tell my closest friends all about it, I started to realize that Cavill and Snyder were not ruining my love for a big screen Superman, the actual Man of Steel is what is wrong.

I adore Superman. He is far and away my favorite comic book hero. As a member of Generation X I grew up with the Christopher Reeve Superman movies. I even remember seeing the third and fourth films, and not hating film forever (they are horrible movies, do not see them). I was willing to give anything Superman a pass. By the time the "Death of Superman" comic series came out I was too old to be buying comics, but I bought those stories. I watched Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and played the horrid N 64 game. While many of my peers were moving on to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I was watching Smallville.  In more recent years I have started to seek out Superman comics again. I am very fond of graphic novels like Red Son, Kingdom Come, and All Star Superman. Anything related to Superman and I was interested. I was especially interested in any movies that would feature the boy in blue with a red cape.

In 2006, almost twenty years after Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, we finally got a new big screen adventure for the Man of Steel. Superman Returns hit the theaters a year after Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale redeemed the film version of the Dark Knight with Batman Begins. Many people, myself included, were hoping that director Bryan Singer and actor Brandon Routh could bring the big blue boyscout into the 21st century. Unfortunately Superman Returns was a fairly boring rehash of the Richard Donner / Christopher Reeve vision for the last son of Krypton. The only new power given to the Man of Steel was the ability to be a deadbeat dad to a very confused child. Superman Returns was not considered a critical or box office success. The 20th century version of Kal-El was not ready for 21st century audiences.

In order to create a Superman for the modern movie goer, Warner Brothers tapped The Dark Knight Trilogy's Christopher Nolan to produce and Watchmen's Zack Snyder to direct the latest reboot. Relative unknown Henry Cavill was tasked with bringing to life a modern look at Clark Kent / Superman. Man of Steel opened in the summer of 2013 to tepid reviews and fairly good box office. Many of the critics disliked the movie because of it's lack of humor and the overall darkness that surrounds one of America's earliest comic book heroes. The final destructive battle between Superman, General Zod, and the other Kryptonians is often held up as the biggest failure to Man of Steel. How many people died in Metropolis? Why did Superman not take Zod to the moon and fight? Why did Superman kill Zod? I was part of the chorus of people asking these questions. I was blaming Nolan, Snyder, and Cavill for smearing the good name of my favorite superhero.

This brings me back to Batman v Superman and my overall frustration. Christopher Nolan, Zack Snyder, and Henry Cavill once again presented us with a violent and dour Superman. Even Clark Kent is humorless and jerky. I found myself getting bored and annoyed whenever Superman, and his friends like Lois Lane and Perry White were on the screen. Whenever I saw Batman/Bruce Wayne, or Wonder Woman/Diana Prince, or Alfred, I was enjoying a great movie. I personally loved Ben Affleck's performance as a violent and unhinged Dark Knight. Jeremy Irons is now my favorite Alfred ever. The little bit of time Gal Gadot gets as Diana Prince, and the criminally less amount of time she gets as Wonder Woman, are incredible. My only real problems with Batman v Superman were the parts with the Man of Steel. That was frustrating because Superman is my favorite of all the heroes. He is the best of the Super Friends, the greatest of the Justice League, and the comic book hero all others should be judged by. Why can I not get a good Superman on my big screen?

The week before I went out to see Batman v Superman, I watched Man of Steel again. I really enjoyed the movie. It had been a couple of years since I first saw it in the theater, but I feel like time has been good to that movie. The opening scenes on Krypton are awesome. Russell Crowe's Jor-El and Michael Shannon's Zod are great takes on classic characters. The action scenes are easy to follow, and quite exciting. The plot is well executed and the character motivations make perfect sense. I really enjoyed Man of Steel, I just did not care that much for Superman. Then I figured it all out. It is not Bryan Singer, Brandon Routh, Zack Snyder, or Henry Cavill that are ruining Superman. It is the character of Superman that is ruining these movies.

In the comics Superman is all powerful (most of the time) and all good (again most of the time). The Christopher Reeve films focus on Clark Kent and how he fits in a world he barely understands. The best characters in Superman I and II were Clark Kent and Lois Lane. A show like Lois and Clark was more like the 1960's Adam West Batman. The best character was Lois Lane. Smallville focused heavily on the characters around Clark Kent and explored what Superman meant to them. The best character was Lex Luthor. Superman Returns focused on nothing new and interesting and every character was worthless. Do not waste your time on this movie. Many of the great Superman comics looked at what it meant to be the Man of Steel, not who the man actually is. Red Son imagines the last son of Krypton as someone who represents truth, justice, and the Soviet way. The best characters are Lois Lane, Wonder Woman, and Batman. Kingdom Come shows us an older and bitter Superman who is ineffectual because he is out of touch, a Superman who needs his friends. The best characters are Wonder Woman, Batman, and Magog. All Star Superman has the Man of Steel facing imminent death, and it is a joyful and celebratory journey. The best characters are Lois Lane and Lex Luthor. Superman stories work best as a light hearted affair, or one of philosophical ruminations. The greatest stories about Superman focus on the people around him (mostly Lois and Lex), they focus on how Superman effects them personally.

I am not frustrated with the people bringing Superman to the big screen, I am frustrated that these people keep trying to make movies with Superman as a main character. The last son of Krypton is more interesting because of what he is to others, not because of who he is personally. Superman is super because of his unmatched power, and unmatched humanity. That does not make for a very interesting protagonist. Why does Batman distrust someone like Superman? That is an interesting tale. How does Lois Lane deal with being in love and having a relationship with someone like the Man of Steel? That is a story worth telling. How does the existence of Superman effect genius sociopaths like Lex Luthor? I would leap tall buildings to see that particular film. The people who are directly impacted by the Superman have the more interesting stories to tell. They should be the main characters in any film concerning the big blue boyscout.

We need to accept the fact that there will never be a good stand alone Superman movie. The character is too much a part of our cultural identity. When producers like Christopher Nolan, and directors like Zack Snyder try to give the Man of Steel some depth, we end up with a dour film and have a Metropolis leveled. Batman v Superman was a great film when Superman was not the focus. The final climatic battle saw the Man of Steel working with the Dark Knight and Princess Diana of Themyscira, and it was glorious. We could see Superman's awesome powers being complimented by the two other heroes. Superman is my favorite comic book hero ever because of what he means to everyone else. His purity does not need to be tinkered with. DC can own the superhero world by focusing on everyone else. We will always know that Superman is in the back ground to help out. The world of superhero movies is better off with the Man of Steel backing up all of the World's finest.

RD

RD is the Head editor at SeedSing. He will keep seeing Superman movies, and he will keep reading Superman comics, because Superman is the best. Do have a better superhero? Well let us know.

Will "The Walking Dead" get Back to Being Great?

"The Walking Dead" has been exciting as watch this paint peel.

This Sunday, AMC will have a 90 minute "The Walking Dead" season finale. Some big things are supposed to happen in this finale we've been told. Some big name character will die, we will get to meet Negan finally and the group will be left in some kind of disarray. This seems to happen every finale, at least in the past three finales, with "The Walking Dead". Sometimes it hits, like when Beth was accidentally killed by that crazy cop at that hospital two finales ago, but it also misses. Case and point, I don't even remember how last season ended. I think Daryl may have lost his crossbow, but I honestly cannot remember anything else. I could also be wrong about Daryl as well.

For a show that started so incredibly strong, these past three seasons have been very dull and, quite frankly, boring. Yes, I'm still watching, as is most of the country, but it's staring to feel like homework and I'm beginning to not enjoy it so much anymore. They came out of the gates on fire. That opening scene in the series premiere, where Rick wakes up in an abandon hospital, and realizes something is not right in the world, is absolutely incredible. It only grew from there in the first season. The show was great, with great scenes, but it wasn't just a zombie show, it also dealt with the survivors. The show asked and tried to answer questions that included, how do we survive in this kind of world, and do we really want to survive in a world like this? I didn't want to watch this how at first, but I'm very happy my wife convinced me and I was immediately hooked. I couldn't wait for what they'd do next.

Then, in either season two or three, they found a farm and that's when the show started to turn. Yes, it was still very good and there was some excellent episodes, but when they went looking for Carol's young daughter, those specific episodes, it became very tedious. I thought, this is just a small part and they will get through this boring stuff very soon and, at first, they did. The stuff in the jail was great, Morgan returning was great, they seemed to have righted the ship. But, in the coming season, they found Alexandria.

Now, not to be this guy, but I'm totally going to be this guy, when they found Alexandria in the graphic novel, that's when it went from good to great, but the TV show just couldn't seem to find the right footing. Where the graphic novel still focused on the question of how to survive and live in this world, if that was even a good thing, the show decided it was time to start making up love stories and talk about the people to the point of tedium. They tried so hard to give Rick a relationship with some lady, who's husband was an abusive alcoholic, that I couldn't have cared less about. She also had some weirdo son that Carol befriended, I couldn't have cared less about that as well. They did too much of the point-counter point talking that worked well for them early on, but they had established a new world, and the talking made for very long and very boring episodes. I wasn't even really all that moved by the lady who ran Alexandria husband died in the finale. Spoiler alert, he was killed by Rick's new love interests crazy husband, in a fit of rage trying to fight Rick, then, with the "blessing" of the "mayor", Rick brutally murdered that man. I didn't care about any of that. The best thing about that finale was Morgan walking in right after Rick shot this guy. But, we had to wait an entire off season before we got to see anything from Morgan again. If that specific finale was supposed to make me feel something, all it did was make me angry. I didn't care about Rick and his new girlfriend and I didn't care about the original crew's plan to take over Alexandria. All I wanted, and they teased it all season, was to see Morgan, and all we got was that final shot. That was a bummer.

Then, last season happened. That last season was incredibly boring. I literally didn't care about anything that happened. I watched the season while I played on my phone, or wrote for this site. It was on, but I was half in and half out. I didn't care that Maggie was pregnant. I didn't care about the "Wolves". I didn't care that Carl had some new, weird girlfriend. I didn't care about Rick's girlfriends weird son and his relationship with Carol. I didn't care that Carol was becoming some badass that acted like a soccer mom. I did care that they barely used Michonne last season. She is awesome and when they used her, it was to be Rick's police partner. She had no huge story line or anything that important happen to her. She is the best one on the show and she was criminally under used during that season. I was ready to give up on the show after that uneventful finale I mentioned earlier, but I figured I'd give it one last shot. This show was great at one point and I thought they could do it again. I told my wife that the season premiere would be my gauge if I was going to continue or not.

Well, the premiere was very good. They got back to their roots. They focused on the story telling with the original crew. They had some awesome fight scenes. They made me care again. I was back on board. But, the second episode was pretty boring and pretty uneventful. The rest of this season has been wildly inconsistent. They've had some great episodes, but they've also had some duds. It's been very up and down. Some good stuff, the humongous fight scene in Alexandria was great, Rick finally has a cool girlfriend in Michonne, Michonne is being used more, a scene between Maggie and a guy from another town involving a trade for goods and services and meeting Negan's crew. Some bad and boring, Abraham and Rosita breaking up, the under utilization of Morgan, Rick going completely off the deep end, the character of Jesus and Carol's change of heart back to being a loner and all of the sudden a god fearing person. I just can't get my finger on what they are trying to do. In last week's episode, another spoiler alert, it ended with a gunshot in Daryl's direction and the shooter saying, "it will be okay". Some were outraged because they assumed that Daryl is dead. First of all, Daryl was never in the novel, so who cares if he is gone. And second of all, if they do kill him off, they can bring him back, just like they did, in super cheap fashion, with Glenn last season. I don't get the upheaval. People are supposed to die in a show like this. That's what happens. They also said a big name character would die. Someone important is not going to be in the upcoming season. Deal with it. We will finally get to meet Negan in Sunday's finale as well. I'm mixed on this, because I want to meet him, but I'm also wary of all the writers and showrunners saying that "he will be the best villain on TV ever". Don't say things like this, let the viewer decide. That's what they did so well early on, but now they feel that they have to sell everything and that scares me.

So, yes, I will watch all 90 minutes of the finale and I hope that it's worth it. If not, I will most likely give up on this show. It started so well, but it's been very hit or miss for the last four seasons and it's becoming tough to care and watch and pay attention every week. Hopefully they do something big and regain my full attention, but I don't think that will happen. Hopefully Negan is a great, once in a lifetime villain, but I wish the people involved weren't pushing him on me so much. I want "The Walking Dead" to be great again, but I fear it's time is up. We'll see this Sunday.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. In case of a zombie outbreak, Ty will hole up at Chesterfield Mall. Make sure the chopper is on time. Before the apocolypse you should follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Jonathan Banks Turns Great Shows into Classic Television

New Mexico is much more beautiful with Mike Ehrmantraut in it.

I just want to take a minute to talk about how awesome of an actor Jonathan Banks is and has always been.

Jonathan Banks is new to me, the first place I saw him was on "Breaking Bad" as Mike Ehrmantraut. He was phenomenal on that show. He was the badass assistant that Gus Fring needed. He was the perfect hitman, bodyguard, money guy, basically, he was the jack of all trades, as long as it was shady. When Mike showed up in season four of "Breaking Bad", that's when that show went from great to a classic masterpiece. He really turned an already great show into absolute, must watch TV. He was so great and was almost as fun to watch as Gus. No one, and I'm including Walt and Gus and Jesse, was as good on that show as Mike was. He was awesome.

Now I'm a big fan of "Better Call Saul". I put season one in my top 5 shows of 2015, both on the podcast and on my blog. It's a really great show. I had my doubts, it was released so close to the end of "Breaking Bad", so how could they even come close to what they had with that show, but they have pulled it out. It doesn't hurt that Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould still produce and write a lot of the episodes and that the majority of the original actors appear as themselves on "Better Call Saul". That helps the show even more.

Bob Oedenkirk is the star of the show, but what makes shows like "Better Call Saul" and "Breaking Bad" so great is the fact that any number of actors can have their moments. In "Breaking Bad", it wasn't always Bryan Cranston as Walt that made it great. There was also the afformentioned Gus and Jesse, but also Krysten Ritter as Jesse's junkie girlfriend or Walt's brother in law Hank, his thieving wife Marie, Walt's wife, Skyler and, of course Saul and Mike. They all had episodes that featured their characters in pivotal roles and some of the episodes that featured these people, like when Walt watches Jesse's girlfriend choke and die on her own vomit, were compelling as any Walt heavy episode. Same thing goes for "Better Call Saul". There is plenty of episodes that focus on Saul's brother Chuck, played expertly by Michael McKean, and his struggles with electronics and paranoia and the fact that Jimmy is still a crook. There is also the stuff that features Jimmy's, that was Saul's name before he became Saul Goodman, girlfriend/work buddy Kim. She's played a pivotal role in 2 of the first 5 episodes of season 2 already. There is also Howard, who is co owner and creator of the law firm that Chuck started and Jimmy could never get a real job at.

Every episode of "Better Call Saul" is great television ,but the best episodes, and I'm including the ones that are Jimmy centric, are the ones that focus on Mike. He is wonderfully brilliant on this show. The fact that we get to see him alive again, spoiler alert, is fantastic. And man does Jonathan Banks knock it out of the park with this role. He is so god damn good. He plays the same type of character that he did on "Breaking Bad", but on "Better Call Saul", we get to see what turned him into this shady back door bag man and body guard and hit man and con artist. The episode in season one of "BCS" where we learn why he left the police was one of the best, most heart wrenching 45 minutes of television I have ever witnessed. That episode is a masterpiece and it should be shown in film and TV schools because it needs to be studied by the future TV and movie writers. It is so, so great. Go back and watch that episode. You will cry and you will feel things you never thought a TV show could make it feel. It is a work of art.

This season on "BCS", it seems that they have taken a more forward approach to making Mike more of a main character and the show is so much better for doing that. Jonathan Banks as Mike is so soft spoken and calm, yet you can see the anger and violence that he has behind those eyes. He never gets to amped up or too crazy about anything or any situation he's thrown in. He always has the same look on his face and the same tone to his voice and he carries himself with the same demeanor. He's always calm, but you better not cross him, or he will make you pay. Take an episode earlier this season. The guy from Minnesota, that he was essentially a body guard for, shows up in a humongous bright yellow hummer to go do a drug deal and Mike calmly tells him that he will not get in that car that screams arrest me and that if this guy goes to the deal alone, he will pay some kind of consequence. The guy doesn't listen and his home eventually gets robbed and his treasured baseball card collection is stolen. Mike cleans everything up for this guy in the next episode, but he is not happy about it. He did it for the money. Then, there is last nights episode, where he helps get Tucco arrested. Tucco's assistant, Nacho, wants Tucco killed and asks Mike to do it, but Mike calmly explains how this is a terrible idea for everyone involved. Instead, he hatches a plan to get Tucco arrested where no one will suspect any foul play and it works to perfection.

Jonathan Banks is a excellent actor. I'm just upset that it took for me to watch "Breaking Bad" to realize this. He was great on that show and he has been the best thing about "Better Call Saul" and I love that show. Hopefully he gets awards or at least recognition for the awesome things that he is doing on TV. Jonathan Banks is a wonderful actor.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He forgets that Johnathan Banks taught a lot of young men about the biology of a young woman (thanks to Conan O'Brien for digging this gem up). Learn from Ty by following him on twitter @tykulik.

Ed note: We misspelled Jonathan Bank's name when the article was posted. Ty got it right, I was wrong. It has been corrected. Sorry

The Greatest Television Ever: A Millennial History of Cartoons

As a child of the late 80's and the early 90's, cartoons have played a pretty pivotal role in my life. Everyone watches, and for the most part, loves at least one cartoon. They're impossible not to like and there is something for everyone. I'm not alone in this, I love cartoons, be they old or new. When I was growing up, I didn't watch too much TV. It's not that my parents forbade us from watching TV, it just wasn't really a viable option. They would send us outside when the weather was nice to play with friends and to play sports, and when it was cold outside, they always had some kind of activity for us to do, be it art, inside play, or when they would get crafty, we'd play "games" that involved cleaning the house. But, I did have friends that were allowed a lot of TV time, and when my folks would let us watch TV, I found plenty of cartoons that I thoroughly enjoyed. I was a big time Nickelodeon fan as a young child. I watched stuff like "Doug", "Rugrats", "Animaniacs" and "Pinky and the Brain". Those were my shows. They were wild and zany and goofy and just plain fun to watch. That was the type of cartoon I went for as a young child. The goofier, the better.

I know, I haven't brought up the "Simpsons" yet, but I feel like that would be unfair to the other cartoons and animated shows I watch. I've written plenty about the "Simpsons", and will write more, and I've talked about it on the podcast almost regularly. It's not only my favorite animated/cartoon show, it's my favorite show. There will be more "Simpsons" talk at later dates, I promise.

During my teen years I looked for more "grown up" cartoons. I was growing weary of the zany and the goofy things that I watched as a young child. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed these shows, especially "Rugrats", but I needed some older, more grown up humor. I was a teenager and the kids shows weren't doing it for me anymore. Then, when I was either 13 or 14, I was over at a friends house watching MTV and one of the greatest animated shows I laid my eyes on appeared on his TV. That show was "Beavis and Butthead". This show was AMAZING. I absolutely loved everything about this show. Beavis and Butthead were the ultimate slackers and ultimate troublemakers. They hated school and they hated pretty much everyone that they came into contact with, unless they were old enough to drink. I'm not a drinker, but when I was a teen, people that were old enough to drink, no matter how douchey they were, were cool as hell to me. Also, what teen truly likes school? Me and my friends all despised school and "Beavis and Butthead" portrayed this perfectly. This show was also bizarre and kind of started to shape my love for absurdist humor. They would do weird things during the episodes, things like playing frog baseball or helping a burnout steal things or cause some kind of trouble at school and with their elderly neighbor, basically things that teens were told not to do, they did and they did it with supreme hilarity. What made Beavis and Butthead truly excellent, they would break two or three times in the middle of the episodes and they would critique music videos. Yes, MTV used to play music videos and yes, I'm old enough to remember when they still did. This was the best part because they would absolutely rip apart boring, slow music and crappy pop songs. But, when they played a hard rocking video, Beavis and Butthead loved it and would head bang and it was glorious. "Beavis and Butthead" was a great show and it was my first true entryway to more adult humor that animated shows could pull off. I'm forever indebted to "Beavis and Butthead" for starting to shape my comedy taste.

Watching a ton of "Beavis and Butthead" made me search for more adult themed cartoons. I found things like "The Critic" and "The Tick", but Cartoon Network started showing cartoons late at night on a platform they called Adult Swim. This was a life changer for me. I discovered shows like "Space Ghost Coast to Coast" and "Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law" and "Tom Goes to the Mayor". These shows were weird and absurd and like nothing I'd ever seen before and it was magnificent. They were so weird and so funny. I was immediately hooked on pretty much everything Adult Swim put on TV. Then, one night I stumbled across what may be my second or third all time favorite cartoon. That glorious little show was called "Aqua Teen Hunger Force".

You want to talk about absurdist humor, "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" epitomized it. The premise of the very first episode was about three "things" that were detectives. The three "things" I speak of are a life size shake called Master Shake, a hovering humongous carton of fries that was called Frylock and a childish, goopy meatball they called Meatwad. This show was so perfect for my newfound taste of comedy. The cherry on top of this great show was their neighbor, a balding, yet super hairy on the shoulders and back, gold chain wearing, always angry Carl. Carl was always mad at the Aqua Teen Hunger Force and he always loudly let it be known. Carl is one of the greatest TV characters of all time. Like I said, they were supposed to be detectives, and in the premiere, they did solve a case, but from there on out, they just had wacky adventure after wacky adventure. The show never really followed a true story line. It was basically a platform to do whatever weird and wild thing the writers of this brilliant show wanted to do. The episodes never made sense, but they were always funny. Another great thing about this show, and many others on Adult Swim, it was a short 11 minute show. They'd get in and get out and pack as many jokes as they could in 11 short minutes. "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" would always start off kind of slow for about the first 5 or 6 minutes, but that last 5 minutes was absolute gold. They always had their best jokes in that last 5 minutes and it always delivered. The thing that made this last minutes so great, Carl was usually involved in some capacity. He was always there with his anger and he would always take it out on the Aqua Teen, mainly Master Shake.

"Aqua Teen Hunger Force" is one of the greatest animated/cartoon shows to ever appear on TV. This, much like "Beavis and Butthead", one hundred percent shaped my love for comedy TV and comedy cartoons. I love the bizarre and the absurd, and "Aqua Teen" did this to perfection. If you haven't seen an episode of "Aqua Teen", do yourself a favor and binge the entire series. There's a ton of episodes, but they are only 11 minutes long, as I said before, and they are great. If you enjoy absurdist humor, you will love "Aqua Teen". It was such a great and bizarre show and they pulled it off excellently. I will forever love and thank "Aqua Teen" for showing me how far you can really take animated comedy cartoons. It's a masterpiece.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. Do you like reading about Ty's love of cartoons, well tomorrow you can hear him tell the tales on the X Millennial Man podcast. If you want more great Ty thoughts, follow him on twitter @tykulik.

Ty has Very Strong Committed Feelings for "Love"

It is nice when the show title reflects how I feel

Yesterday I finished the new Netflix show "Love" and it was totally awesome. I literally loved everything about this show. It was the perfect comedy/love story show. It was, in my opinion, so much better than another similar Netflix show, "Master of None", and I really enjoyed "Master of None".

One of the things that I enjoyed more on "Love" than "Master of None" was the female lead. Gillian Jacobs was so much better than Noel Wells. Noel Wells was very good, but she was your typical, I need a guy in my life, but when things get too serious, I'm jumping ship and moving on. Aziz Ansari is a great writer and created a great show, but Noel Wells character was pretty one dimensional and I didn't watch that show for her, I watched it for Ansari, who is awesome. Gillian Jacobs was absolutely phenomenal on "Love". In the first episode when we meet her, we immediately see that she is a troubled person, that doesn't realize it yet. She always thinks that she is right and that she is the cool one and that she has no problem, but all of those things couldn't be further from the truth. She is, for the most part, wrong 9 times out of 10. She is not cool, she is a mess that relies on other people way too much. And she has a ton of problems. She is an addict. She is addicted to drugs and alcohol and sex and love. Gillian Jacobs, her character's name is Mickey, is an absolute mess as a person. She plays this role to perfection. I believe every single moment of struggle and awkwardness and anger that she so excellently portrays. This is a real star making role for her. She is absolutely phenomenal on "Love". This is also a completely different role for her. She is not the same character she was on "Community" or "Girls" or any movie role she has had. She usually has her head on her shoulders or realizes that she is a screw up, but not on "Love". It takes her a real long time before she even considers that she may have a problem.

"Love" much like "Master of None", I know I'm comparing the two shows but they are basically the same thing released only months apart from each other so it's an easy comparison, Paul Rust co created this show and stars in it much like Ansari does for his show. Paul Rust is terrific. This is a great vehicle for his brand of comedy and his style of acting. When he is on screen, which is most of the series, you cannot take your eyes off of him. He commands the attention of the audience. Rust plays Gus, your typical nice guy that tries to hard to impress the girl. He's a hard worker, but he has a nothing job. He is a tutor on the set of a fake witch show. Pretty familiar premise for a leading man, but what Rust does with the character Gus is excellent. At first, he is a pushover. He will do whatever his girlfriend wants him to do. When they break up, he constantly blames himself although he was not in the wrong at all. When he meets Mickey, he is putty in her hands and Mickey knows this. She uses him and his kindness to her advantage and Gus is just happy that a pretty girl is talking to him. When he starts to gain confidence, after telling Mickey how he feels, his character becomes more confident, and once again, I completely believe his transformation. He is still a dork, but he is a confident dork. The growth of his character is so believable, I swear I have friends that have gone through the same transformation as we have grown up. Much like Gillian Jacobs, this is also a star making turn for Paul Rust. The two of them have been steady actors, but never been the lead in anything, save for Rust in the not as bad as I thought it was "I Love You Beth Cooper", but "Love" is the perfect platform for them to truly shine.

Jacobs and Rust  may control and demand the audiences attention, but the supporting characters are just as good. Comedic actors like Mike Mitchell, Armen Weitzman, Neil Campbell, Seth Morris and Brett Gelman are great. So are Claudia O'Dougherty, who is really, really great on this show, Charlyne Yi, Bobby Lee, Kerri Kenney and Traci Thoms. Iris Apatow is wonderful as the lead actress on the show that Rust works as a tutor for. She is a very good actress with a very bright future. There are many other supporting actors that I didn't mention that are equally as good.

"Love" is a very good show. I'd call it a great show to be honest with you. I really enjoyed "Master of None", but it felt a little long to binge, at least for my taste. "Love", on the other hand, had the same amount of episodes running the same amount of time, but I breezed through it in three days. It was such an enjoyable watch and I cannot recommend it enough. I don't want to spoil anything because I want everyone to go out and watch this show. It is very, very good and Paul Rust and Gillian Jacobs are tremendous.

I cannot wait for season two.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He loves to binge watch old Michigan football games. Do you have twitter? So does Ty, go follow him @tykulik.

The Greatest Television Ever: "The Simpsons" Best Episode, Ever

For our greatest television debate I'm going to talk about my favorite episode of my favorite TV show. By now, everyone knows that I'm a huge fan of "The Simpsons". I've written about the show a lot so far, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Not only am I going to write about it today, but I will have many posts in the future that will be "Simpsons" centric. That show is the best and I can't say enough great things about it. Just for today I want to tell you all about the most perfect episode of "The Simpsons". This episode is "The Simpsons" at it's absolute best. The episode I'm going to talk about today is "Behind the Laughter", the season 11 finale.

This is their parody of all the "Behind the Music" stuff that VH1 did, but "The Simpsons" do it ten thousand times better. I absolutely love that they took something that is very popular, yet very depressing, and made it hilarious. It is just a perfect episode. The episode opens just like any other "Behind the Music" episode does, with the announcers voice over, explaining the Simpson family humble beginning, even stating that they are from Iowa. It's your typical "Simpsons" episode, Bart is being a terror, Lisa is being shunned, Maggie is being Maggie, Marge is questioning, yet still supporting Homer, and Homer, he brings up the fact that "there aren't any families like ours on TV". Marge then says to the filmographer, "So I told him, piss or get off the pot", where the voice over guy responds, "and piss, he did". This leads us into Homer's pilot episode for his show, "My Funny Family". It's ridiculous, of course. Homer is inviting his boss, played by Bart, over for dinner, he gets a stain on his clothes and he overloads the washing machine with way too much detergent. His catchphrase for his show is "Mamma Mia!", which when he's saying it, he grabs his cheeks, a la Kevin McCallister in "Home Alone". When the washing machine is overflowing, even Maggie does the hands to the cheeks implying that she's saying "Mamma Mia!". Bart is your typical over the top boss, constantly yelling at Homer. Even though he brings this pilot to many TV offices, places like NBC, CBS and even Telemundo, the only one that bites is Fox. I love this because only "The Simpsons" can constantly rag on the network that their show is on and get away with it. Imagine if "Friends" tried to do something like that to NBC when it was on. They would have pulled it in a heart beat. While filming later episodes of the show, Homer is caught strangling Bart, because that's what Homer does, and the people filming and the network execs that are present love it. They tell Homer that he should do this in every episode and he does. After this, as Homer puts it, "horrific act of child abuse", the show becomes a huge hit. The Simpson family is making so much money, Marge exclaims, "we were using 20 dollar bills as toilet paper, and toilet paper as dog toilet paper". There's another scene of their house being flooded by a big dump truck that has the word CAVIAR in big bold letters on the side and another dump truck with the words TOAST POINTS dumping all this into their living room. The family starts to get so famous, they begin merchandising everything, including diaphragms with Marge's face on them. They also start a music career, with their hit song, that sweeps the Grammy's that year, "Simpson Family Boogie". They naturally follow that hit up with a holiday themed album, entitled "Simpson Christmas Boogie", also a huge hit. But, with all the success, fame and money, trouble found them.

See, that is what is so great about this episode, they perfectly ape the ridiculousness that is "Behind the Music". Bart becomes kind of the spoiled bad boy type. He is a parody of a Corey Feldman or MaCauly Caulkin. He's showing up late to couch gags, he's making terrible movies because he has "fair weathered fans to feed" and he even gets himself kicked out as a judge of a beauty contest. He has to go away at some point, and his good friend Richie Rich fills in for his role. Lisa is so upset at what her family has become, she writes a tell all book. She complains that Homer makes her work too much and is giving her anti growth pills. She spills everything on Bart and complains about Marge phoning in some episodes. Marge is just upset that her family is falling apart and she wants everyone to just be nice to one another again. But Homer has the best bad luck. He buys MC Hammer's old house, smashes out the HAMMERTIME written on the front gate and changes it to HOMERTIME, but he's found to be a big time tax evader and he gets everything repossessed. He has also developed a terrible painkiller addiction from doing all his own stunts. He says during this segment, "the stunts were like a drug to me, but what was more like a drug, was the drugs". That's exceptional writing. After he gets clean, he has to take on some pretty awful acting jobs after that, just to pay the taxman. He plays the role of "landlord" in "RENT", and as he tells it, I literally chewed the scenery and holds up a piece of the set that has literal bite marks out of it. Bart goes on to replace Lorenzo Lamas in a "Renegades" remake and that's a disaster. Marge has her own one woman show that she has to perform in dingy bars. And Lisa, she is still spilling the beans on the family to anyone that will listen.

One of my absolute favorite parts is when they sit down to a Thanksgiving meal together. Everyone has brought their own lawyer, and Lisa's lawyer is the biggest badass of them all, yelling "That is assault!", at Marge after she bad mouths Lisa for writing a tell all book. Homer has one of the best lines here too, saying, "it was the best Thanksgiving ever. The emotional distress was terrible, but the gravy", then he does his drooling noise. They split after this. Bart goes to rehab to get his life back together, Lisa goes off and does her own thing, Marge continues her one woman show and Homer finds a new passion, dusting and cleaning sound mixing boards. Then, an awards show hosted by Willie Nelson individually invites the whole family, each member separately, and that's the first time they'd been on stage together in a long time. They begin to sing a song, which turns into a fight, but then Willie Nelson saves the day. He explains that the award show is fake, much to the dismay of a Woody Allen type character, and it was just a rouse to get the family back together again. They relent after they hear the entire crowd chant "HUG! HUG! HUG!", and they go back to normal. They begin shooting the show again, just like they originally had it planned. The episode closes with the family by an editing board, the voice over guy saying that there will be many more "Simpsons" episodes to come, and we hear Homer say, "this will be the last season".

From start to finish, this is, in my opinion, the most perfect episode of "The Simpsons". There is not one dull moment and everything about it is absolutely hilarious. "Behind the Laughter" took me by surprise, but I will still watch it anytime it's on FXX, or whenever I put on my season 11 DVD. When I watch the DVD, I watch that episode at least 5 or 6 times. I love it.

"Behind the Laughter" is not just the best "Simpsons" episode ever, it is the best episode of any TV show, ever.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. With over 500 episodes, Ty has a couple years worth of Simpson's related tv articles to still write. Make sure you are one of Ty's follows on twitter to hear his true thoughts @tykulik.

The Greatest Television Ever: "Undeclared"

Getting back to our debate about great TV shows, TV moments and seasons of certain shows, I'm going to talk about one of my favorite shows that only got one short, 17 episode season, but it was a phenomenal season and very memorable. The show I'm going to talk about today is "Undeclared".

"Undeclared" is one of the best, most underrated shows of all time. It was so far ahead of it's time and anyone that watched the show, and spent at least one semester in college, could relate to it 100 percent. "Undeclared" is the best representation of everyone's freshman year in college. Every topic they covered in their lone season, every college student went through one way or another. It was that relatable.

Take their pilot episode. Steven(Jay Baruchel), meets his roommates, Ron(Seth Rogen), Lloyd(Charlie Hunnam) and Marshall(Tim Sharpp) and they are stand offish at first because that's how 18 year olds act when they first meet. It doesn't help that Steven's dad, played by Loudon Wainwright, won't leave his side because he's depressed about his divorce and the fact that his son his going away to college. Steven also meets Lizzie(Carla Gallo) and he's immediately smitten. He was a nerdy high school kid that never really had any girlfriends, so he figures college is the perfect chance to change his image. He wants to be a cool guy now and he tries this on Lizzie, and it works. She sleeps with him that night, but we come to find out later that she has an older boyfriend, played by Jason Segel, that lives back home. Lizzie only slept with Steven because she was fighting with her boyfriend, and she wanted to get revenge. Steven thinks that they are now a couple, but after many conversations with his roommates, he comes to realize that he was just a pawn and that Lizzie wasn't going to leave her boyfriend. This is a great representation of all the things that could go wrong on your first day of college. Crazy stuff can happen that will forever alter your life.

We also meet Lizzie's roommate in the pilot, Rachel(Monica Keena), and she's one of the first characters I'd ever seen on TV that showed the same type of anxiety that I had when I went away to college. She was frightened, lonely and missed her high school friends and her family. I personally related to all of that. Now, Monica found ways to deal with her anxiety and her character only grew from there. I wimped out and left college after one semester.

That first episode had it all. It one hundred percent got the first day of college correct. I was hooked. Look at some of those names I mentioned too. People like Jay Baruchel, Seth Rogen, Charlie Hunnam and Jason Segel were all still relative unknowns while on this show. Now, most of them have had very successful careers, especially Rogen and Segel.

Back to some of the themes in the episodes that epitomize freshman year of college. There's an episode where Steven decides he wants to join a fraternity and he is put through hell, only to get his revenge on the president of the frat, played by Samm Levine. This episode was great. They made Steven do some stupid, childish things that no person should be made to so, but that's what dumbass fraternity guys do. Steven gets fed up, and with the constant urging from his roommates to not even join the frat, Steven and his roommates come up with a plan to make the president of the frat do the same stupid stuff. And, after they catch him and try to force him to eat an entire jar of pickles, he relents and says that all the frat stuff is stupid and lets Steven walk with no consequences. Or, there's the episode centered around Marshall's crush on Monica. Monica is so sweet and nice, but she is oblivious to Marshall's feelings and after she finally realizes this, it's too late to tell him she just wants to be friends, Marshall is in too deep and he will always love Monica. She doesn't reciprocate the feelings, but they stay friends throughout the show's run. We could talk about any episode with Lloyd and how he is a total ladies man and the envy of his roommates, but how not every girl is receptive to his moves. He has the smooth English accent, and while it works on most ladies, there is an episode where it totally backfires and he has to lick his wounds and realize that he may not be the ladies man he has made himself out to be. The character of Lloyd is a perfect portrayal of the student that comes from overseas and thinks they are the coolest guy, but they are just like every one else in college, just trying to find their way. They also have run ins with RA's, they go to a live Adam Sandler show and then get to hang out with him and his crew afterward, they have dorm parties and they talk and deal with the good and the bad like any real life college student would.

"Undeclared" is excellent. This show also had some huge guest stars. Some were recurring, others may have been on only once or twice. I just mentioned Adam Sandler, but some other guests were Jenna Fischer as a badass sorority girl, Amy Poehler as an over sexualized RA obsessed with Lloyd, Fred Willard as a professor that's lost his love for teaching, Will Ferrell as a Ritalin dealer that also has answer keys to finals and Martin Starr as Steven's super nerdy high school best friend. This was another Judd Apatow show that Fox gave up on way too early, much like "Freaks and Geeks". Apatow had a knack for grabbing these certain moments in young kids lives and portraying them perfectly for the TV viewing public. He hasn't made many great movies lately, but I will always be thankful to him for creating "Freaks and Geeks" and, more importantly for me, "Undeclared".

If you haven't watched "Undeclared", go back and check it out. I believe it may be streaming on Netflix (ed note: It unfortunately left Netflix late last year). and it is well worth your time. You'll thank me after you watch it, I promise you that, especially if you spent at least one semester in college. It is very, very relatable and extremely well made.

I will always have a spot in my heart for the great "Undeclared".

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He left college because they had no major for podcasting, since the term and technology was yet to be invented. You must absolutely follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

The Greatest Television Ever: NBC Thursday Night Comedy

In the coming weeks and months, we at SeedSing will be doing our favorite TV shows. It will be a lot like our greatest American band debate, each week picking a show or a season or just particular moments from TV shows that we enjoy.

I'm going to kick it off today by talking about one of my favorite two hour blocks of TV on NBC. There was a time that the Thursday night line up on NBC had four of the best sitcoms that I've ever seen. It was epic, must watch TV for me and any other fan of comedic television. The four shows they trotted out were "30 Rock", "The Office", "Community" and "Parks and Recreation". Talk about a murderers row of great, great TV. These four sitcoms are all in my personal top ten of TV shows. I love these shows and I love them all for different reasons.

First we'd get "30 Rock". This show is one of the all time greats. Tina Fey is a genius. Her writing and acting are beyond genius. She's on a whole different level from any other sitcom writer I've ever seen. She is a legend. But, it wasn't just Tina Fey that made that show great. We got Tracy Morgan, Jane Krawkowski, Jack McBrayer and, of course, Alec Baldwin. Tina Fey basically revived both Morgan's and Baldwin's career with their roles on this show. And they were both fantastic. Any episode that revolved around Morgan's character, Tracy Jordan, was so hilarious and so well written. Anytime he interacted with McBrayer, or Grizz and Dot Com or with Liz Lemon or Jack Donaghy was great. Morgan's first appearance on the show, naked, except for underwear, freaking out on the highway, waving around a fake light saber, was a perfect introduction to his character. And when he tries to get the EGOT, that was a great run of episodes. Alec Baldwin as Jack Donaghy was the perfect representation of the arrogant, yet idiotic studio head that has no clue how to run a network. He was so great on this show. Two of my favorite lines spoken on a sitcom were said by him. The first, Liz asks him why he's dressed so nicely and he says, "it's after six, what am I, a farmer?", loved it. The only line I like better is when Donaghy is talking about his hard working father and he says, "he worked the day shift at the graveyard and the graveyard shift at the Days Inn", that is exquisite writing. I love "30 Rock" and I could go on forever about it, but I need to talk about the other three shows.

After "30 Rock", we got "The Office". This is my second favorite show of all time, behind only "The Simpsons". When this show was great, it was the best thing on TV. Seasons 1-4 of "The Office" is some of the best TV that's ever been aired. We got three phenomenal episodes in those first four seasons. In season one they had the episode where the sales team challenged the warehouse workers to a game of basketball. It was so good. Michael Scott(Steve Carrell) warming up and then playing basketball is so god damn funny. I love that episode. Season two gave us "The Dundies". That was the award show that they had for the employees of Dunder Mifflin. It was cringe worthy comedy, with Michael Scott and Dwight Schrute(Rainn Wilson), emceeing this train wreck. It was so funny and it was the first time that Jim(John Krasinski) and Pam(Jenna Fischer) kissed. This episode is great. The best episode of "The Office" came in season four. The episode titled, "Dinner Party", is the most uncomfortable 44 minutes of brilliant comedy ever written. Michael and Jan(Melora Hardin) constantly fighting while they have four employees over to their condo is so good, yet so uncomfortable. I still love this episode to this day. It is excellent comedy. I adore "The Office" and it will always hold a special place in my heart. It is the second greatest show of all time, in my personal opinion.

Then, we got the weird, off the wall, bizarre comedy, "Community". At first glance, I didn't think Id really like this show, but the more I watched it, the more I grew to love it and look forward to it every week. Joel McHale finally got his chance to be the lead role on a show and he did it so well. He is criminally underrated for his work on that show. But the other actors were just as good. Danny Pudi. Gillian Jacobs, Donald Glover, Jim Rash and Ken Jeong were great. Alison Brie and Yvette Nicole Brown were also really good. The only person I didn't really care for was Chevy Chase, but he's an asshole. I loved the off beat humor that Dan Harmon brought to major network TV with "Community". The show was an almost perfect representation of community college life. I could relate to the people because I ran into the exact same people in my almost two years of community college. There were athletes, nerds, regular joes, old people and good looking ladies that never got into a four year school, so they had to go to community college. Sure, "Community" is a glorified version of community college, but they made it relatable, especially when Dan Harmon was the main writer and show runner. They had ups and downs, but there were way more ups than downs when it comes to "Community". And yes, the paintball episodes are as good as the fans say they are. Go back and watch those and be amazed at how well "Community" was done. It's an underrated cult classic show.

NBC would close the night with probably my third all time favorite show, "Parks and Recreation". This show is a classic that only got better and better the more seasons it got. I loved the first season, but each season that followed was better than the last. This show was the exact representation of what it's like to work for a parks and recreation department. My sister in law, that works for Columbia's parks and rec department, even confirmed this. Ron Swanson(Nick Offerman) and Tom Haverford(Aziz Ansari) are real representations of people that take government jobs in parks and rec and just sail from there. They don't take their jobs seriously at all because it's not a serious job. They plan parties and races and community gatherings, not that tough of a job. Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope was the perfect post "SNL" role for her. She was so, so good on that show. She excelled. When shows bring new people on, it's usually a bad sign, but the additions of Rob Lowe, whom I've written about before, and Adam Scott made this show that much better. Rob Lowe, as the always upbeat and exercising Chris Traeger, was the perfect foil for Ron Swanson. and Adam Scott as Ben Wyatt, failed mayor and Leslie's love interest, was perfect. When these two showed up, "Parks and Rec" went to a whole new level. Chris Pratt, Retta, Aubrey Plaza and later on, Jon Glaser and Billy Eichner were also excellent on the show. I love every episode of "Parks and Rec", there isn't a bad one. If you haven't seen it and you're looking for a starting point, start at the end of season two, when Rob Lowe and Adam Scott show up, that's when the show went from good to great.

So, there you have the first entry in our greatest TV choices on SeedSing. I figured I'd come out of the gates strong, and this Thursday night lineup is a slam dunk. Come back for more TV later. I already am writing "The Simpsons" blog in my head now.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He desperately wanted to add "Andy Barker P.I." to his list, but then realized the show was no "Andy Richter Controls the Universe" Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

The SeedSing (half) Year in Pop Culture: The Top Five Television Shows of 2015

Find the nob and change the channel

Day three of my best of 2015 countdown will be my top five shows pf the year. All the shows are in their second, third or fourth season except for one of them. The shows don't have to necessarily be shows that premiered this year. Sometimes the second or third season of a show is the best. Take the US version of "The Office". That show peaked in year four but they went on to make five more seasons. The majority of my countdown is all comedy shows. That's what I prefer. Sure, there's one show that could be considered a dramedy, but I'm a comedy fan. No "Mad Men", which I loathed this final season. I also don't watch any of the superhero one hour shows, be they on Netflix or basic cable. So, don't expect what the majority has put as their best of 2015. Comedy takes a certain taste and most publications writers don't have that taste. On with the countdown.

At number five I have "Better Call Saul", the dramedy of the group. I was very skeptical of this show when I first heard about it. I thought the writers of "Breaking Bad" did an excellent job of tying up the story of Saul Goodman, so why make a prequel type show for him? I began to get on board when I saw that Vince Gilligan and the majority of the "Breaking Bad" writers were hired to write the series. Then I watched and I couldn't look away from the TV. This was a show when it was on, I was focused. No cell phones or computers to look at, "Better Call Saul" needed my undivided attention. The show has many characters but make no mistake, this is Bob Oedenkirk's show, he's the star. And he does a damn fine job as the title character. We meet him as Jimmy McGill, his name before he became a "criminal" lawyer and he's a schlubby, down on his luck kind of guy. He lives in his brothers shadow, played excellently by Michael McKean. His brother has a melt down and won't leave the house, so Jimmy tries to take up the slack. There's a ton of great episodes in the first season. Jimmy becomes a lawyer for the elderly, he gets some skateboarders involved in a hit and run scam and he even helps a family launder thousands of dollars. You can see early on that he is a shady person. The best episode, by far, of the first season was when we get Mike Ehrmantraut(Johnathan Banks) back story. We all remember Mike from "Breaking Bad" and this episode lets us see why he does what he does on both shows. It's an incredibly moving and powerful episode. It's one of the finest 44 minutes TV has had on in quite a while. "Better Call Saul" goes into season two in February and if it's half as good as season one, we will have a mega hit on our hands.

My number four show is "Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp". This show was perfect in every sense. I love that all the original actors from the cult hit "Wet Hot American Summer" recreate their roles. They've all aged the 10 or so years since the movie, but they're actually playing younger versions in this series. The fact that it was on Netflix was awesome because I watched the whole thing in one day. I loved this show. I also like that they brought in new actors like Kristin Wiig, Chris Pine, Jordan Peele and Jason Schwatzman. They were all great. Jon Benjamin as the camp counselor that becomes the can of talking vegetables was hilarious. This show was great in every possible way. Paul Rudd shines once again and Michael Showalter was just as hilarious. My favorite episode was when Elizabeth Banks, who's a reporter at a magazine, poses as a teenager to get a story on how real teenagers act. All she has to do to look like a teenager you ask, pull her hair into a side ponytail. Hilarious. I hope they do more episodes because this show was just what the fans of the movie needed.

My number three show is "Last Man on Earth". When we left the first season, Phil(Will Forte) and Carol(Kristin Schaal) were on the move from Tucson. We picked up this season with them trying to find a new place to live. Nothing was as good as Tucson so they went back to find it completely abandoned. We come to find out that every else moved to Malibu. When Phil and Carol end up in Malibu, that's when all the hilarity starts. First of all, we get a cameo from Will Ferrell. He doesn't say one word and is spooked to death by Carol, literally. Everything else that ensues is great. Phil, who is now going by his original name, Tandy, is put in stocks and has an electric dog collar on until they find it fit for him to live with everyone again. Carol is her usual upbeat self, even when the worst things are going on around them. Todd(Mel Rodriguez) and Melissa(January Jones) break up. The other Phil(Boris Kodjoe) professes his undying love for Carol, but finds out he's impregnated Erica(Cleopatra Coleman). And Gail(Mary Steenburgen) is deeply distraught by the fact that her lover, Ferrell, was scared to death. There's a lot going on this season and the season finale was very heavy, but this show was pretty damn funny all season long.

My number two show is "Review". This show is the weirdest, most innovative thing I've seen on TV ever. Andy Daly plays Forrest McNeil, a guy that reviews everyday life. Not movies or TV or music, just life situations much to his and the people he loves demise. This season saw him start a cult and lose the cult to his girlfriend. The girlfriend he got in an earlier episode was from a review that was to sleep with a teacher. He gets his first girlfriend locked up for stealing pills from a hospital on the first episode of the season. He now lives with his dad and he got both his dad's home and summer home destroyed this season. He also tries to get the perfect body, but becomes addicted to steroids. Everything is so hilariously messy and the best episode was when he had to review, "killing someone". He doesn't want to, obviously, but he accidentally kills a man that he was in a fight with earlier in the episode. This leads to him going to jail and reviewing life experiences from jail. He says that the producers of the show are not who he thinks they are and that they want him to struggle and lose everyone he loves. He even has a chance to get back together with his ex wife, but that blows up in his face as well. "Review" is an excellent show and I love that Andy Daly finally has a project that suits his comedy to perfection.

Coming in at number one is "Nathan For You". What else is there to say about this show that I haven't already said. He's made man caves in women's clothing shops, he's walked a tight rope to make someone else famous, he made a play that was literally just people sitting at a bar smoking cigarettes and talking about absolutely nothing. He did so many crazy things this season. The best for me was the outerwear that supported Holocaust history and the fitness craze, The Movement, that he started. The Holocaust thing was absurd, upsetting and hilarious. The setup he had, with a rabbi's blessing, in that store was downright appalling, but he found a way to make it funny. He's also earned over 300,000 dollars for Holocaust awareness due to his new line of jackets and hats. The fitness craze episode was just bizarre. He convinced a body builder type guy to be the spokes person for losing weight and gaining muscle by only lifting and moving boxes. The episode as a whole is one of the most cringe worthy, yet laugh out loud funny things on TV all year. I'm currently reading the book that a ghost writer wrote, who Nathan Fielder hired off of Craigslist, wrote in two days. "Nathan For You" is by far the best show on TV and I cannot wait to see how he tops himself in season four.

So there you have my top five TV shows of the year. Come back tomorrow for the best podcast episodes, in my opinion, for 2015.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He is building muscle mass by moving Christmas presents from one house to another. Learn all about his secret by following Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Being a reality show moron does not make a person a better cook

The proper way to serve oysters

I watch a lot of cooking shows.  I've written about my love for Ina Garten and "Barefoot Contessa". My wife and I watch "Chopped", "Cutthroat Kitchen", "Pioneer Woman", basically any type of show that makesfood the star. We love them. It's an escape and it's nice to have some noise on in the background while doing stuff around the house.

I've become to grow wary of the competition cooking shows though. These shows take themselves WAY too seriously. The way the chefs and the judges act is downright laughable. You hear the chefs talking about stupid shit like doing food "farm to table" or "cooking saved my life" or "I'm the type of chef that will smile in your face, then cut your throat out to get what I want". It's all ridiculous. Sure, I do believe, for a very small few, that cooking may have saved someone's life, but ease up. I'm sure there's other things that helped to save your life. Maybe rehab or loved ones or growing up. All those are more important than cooking, in my opinion. This whole "farm to table" started out as a nice idea, but it's been beaten to death. I'm so tired of hearing these young chefs, most born after 1995, talking about the good old days of cooking. You're 20 years old, the good old days were 1990 to you. Just stop with the whole "farm to table", unless you're a farmer. And this new breed of chef, the asshole chef I'll call them, they're insufferable. These chefs act like cooking is a sport. No offense to the elderly, but my grandma cooked until the day she died at the age of 84, and she was a much better chef than these punks that think it's a sport. Get over yourself, you're a chef, not a professional athlete.

Like I said, I'm growing very wary of the competition shows and the worst offender is "Top Chef". "Top Chef" is laughably bad now. These chefs are the worst of the new asshole chefs. They're all young, douchebag chefs. On "Top Chef", the "cheftestants" take themselves so seriously, you'd think they were saving lives with their food. Calm down, all your doing is making food. Your job isn't that important. Almost anyone can cook. And before you say I don't know what I'm talking about, my brother is a great chef. He's made that his career, but he's not an asshole. He doesn't take himself seriously at all. He knows what he does is universal. He's a great, special person that I love, he's an awesome bigger brother, but his cooking skills aren't what makes him great, it's his love he shows for me and our family. But, I digress, back to "Top Chef" bull shit. These contestants are much too passionate about a job that any 15 year old child can get. I hate the waythey present their food like its a god damn gift to the person eating it. Screw you, it's not that good. I hate how hipster and not self aware these young chefs are. They couldn't be any more ridiculous.

On a recent episode of "Top Chef", one of the contestants served oysters on a hot rock. What the hell! Is he some kind of idiot? He claimed, "I like to use the elements outside to present my food". Screw you you asshole. You suck. Don't serve something that's supposed to be ice cold on a burning hot rock. Gross. This same contestant goes on later in the episode talking about him and his wife serving food at Coachella, because of course he went to Coachella to serve food. Could this guy be anymore of a douchebag? Ugh, I hate this guy. He's chef Phillip on the current season if you're curious and want to watch a supreme dick head on TV.

Which brings me to the judges. They talk about this food like they're going to send the losing chef to jail for making sub par food. They say stupid things like, "the bass needed 4 or 5 grains of salt to really put it over the top", or "this is good, but there's a whole piece of star anise in there and if I ate that, my palette would be completely blown out". I HATE these judges. You guys are judging food! Your job is less important than the chefs! You guys suck too. I hate that they get so mad at chefs for leaving out little things on all these free meals they're getting. Ugh, you are the worst. The absolute worst judges are Padma Lakshmi and Tom Colicchio. They take their jobs MUCH too seriously. They get legitimately mad at these chefs sometimes for the smallest things. Lakshmi, at one point, said she's "never had to wait for a table before and I'm not going to start now". Ugh, screw you. Sorry we aren't all as privileged as you. And Tom Colicchio, stop with the act that you're these chefs friends. You're just as bad as any other judge on any other cooking competition show. And don't act like you're more important because your show is on Bravo. You know what else is in Bravo, any style of "Real Housewives" crap.

"Top Chef" is just as trashy as any other reality show. You guys aren't more important than any other garbage cooking competition show. You're worse. I'm sick and tired of how serious these shows have become. I'm done watching them and I'll stick with my "Barefoot Contessa". Ina cooks for the love, not the competition. She will forever be a better chef than any douche on "Chopped", "Cutthroat Kitchen" and most importantly, the god awful "Top Chef".

Screw these shows forever.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. Not only does he think Ina could outcook any cheftestant, he would take her in a straight up fist fight with any of those idiots. Join Ty's anger by following him on twitter @tykulik.

The trashy "Bar Rescue" performs a record breaking dumpster dive

This strip club is way below my trash standards

ed note: Since the popularity of this article, Ty has decided to review each new episode of Bar Rescue. Look for his column on the latest episode every Tuesday.

I'm a big, big fan of the show "Bar Rescue" on Spike TV.

It's everything you'd want in reality TV. It's staged, it's trashy, people talk over one another so you can't hear what anyone is saying and the host is ridiculous. Jon Taffer is utterly insane. First of all, during the opening credits, he claims to be a member of the Nightclub Hall of Fame, whatever the hell that is. Second, his best way of delivering advice is to scream and yell and demean the owners of these failing bars. He also looks like a goblin, literally. He calls everyone failures and forces people to fire friends and family. This all sounds bad, but it's quite hilarious. His "specialists" that he brings in are just as absurd. They're all yes men and women. They look like bobble heads, anything Taffer says, they nod and agree, no matter how absurd or terrible the idea is. This show is the perfect reality show.

Taffer and his people have "rescued" a lot of bars. In fact, you can go to their website and see how many of the bars are still open. Last I checked, he had about a 50 percent save rate, not that good for all his talk. Well, on their latest episode, they did something I thought I'd never see on this show. I mean, it's pretty classless, but last night, they took it to a disgusting level.

Last night, they "saved" a strip club in Detroit. And yes, it was as gross as you'd think it could be. When they arrived, the club was called Chix on Dix. Ewwwwww! That's so appalling and very foul. When Chix on Dix first opened, the owners claimed they were making millions, I don't buy that. Then, the problems started. The club became dirty, the workers and strippers were disinterested and one of the co owners just stopped showing up. The strippers were not happy and they looked like it. They started to drink, sleep on the job and flat out quit doing their job. They also changed the name from Chix on Dix to Industrial Strip. Another terrible pun. What was the worst though, the new owner wasn't reprimanding customers that physically touched the dancers. Even I know that's illegal and I've only been to one strip club in my 33 years on Earth. I think strip clubs are depressing and gross, but that's not the point of today's blog. At this point, Jon Taffer and his "experts" are outside the club watching the action on a video in the car. Typical Taffer, he sees something he doesn't like, storms into the club and starts yelling almost immediately. Now don't get me wrong, these people deserve to be put down a couple of pegs, but Taffer could've gone about it differently. But, his go to move is to yell and berate. Taffer and his team assess the situation and get ready to go to work. His bartending expert actually had the easiest job because the current bartender was okay. She was lively and energetic, she just needed to be taught how to properly pour drinks. But, his cooking expert and his strip club consultant had their work cut out for them. The chef was the owner of the night club. Taffer hates this and addressed it right away. He made the other owner show up and be the boss and made the other owner become the chef. Needless to say, he struggled mightily. My only question, who eats at a strip club? Is the club not disgusting enough? Who goes to a strip club and thinks, I could use a meal? My only guess, A monster, but that's just my opinion. The strip club consultant, aka a lady who got to old to strip, but couldn't find a new job, had little to nothing to work with. The dancers were still disinterested no matter how hard this lady tried and she really tried. She showed them her tricks of the trade. She showed them how to interact. She showed them how to make extra tips. It all fell on deaf ears. Try as she might, these girls weren't interested. Instead of really pushing them, they just decided to bring in newer, more professional dancers. This is another Taffer staple. When he doesn't get results, he fires the old crew and brings in his people. That's pretty lazy in my opinion. After all this and the remodel of the club, Taffer renamed it The Power Strip. Another god awful pun. He put in new drink systems and new poles and cleaned the place up a bit.

As with the end of every episode of "Bar Rescue", the club looks like it's saved. Everyone is happy and flashing money along with their smiles. This episode was no different, but they went back six months later. The owners admitted that they weren't making as much money and the staff was going back to their old ways. Not surprising if you ask me. I was grossed out by this whole episode. I don't like strip clubs, as I said before. I don't drink and I definitely would not drink at a strip club. The people were flat out mean and nasty. I knew that this day was coming on "Bar Rescue". They were bound to do a strip club, but why did they pick such a gross one? It was very upsetting. I won't stop watching "Bar Rescue", but I will read what each episode is about now because I don't ever want to see them try and save another strip club.

This episode will forever haunt my nightmares.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man. Little does he know that the head editor has had plenty of meals at strip clubs, they were all for business meetings. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Where the Hell are the Responsible Adults on "PJ Masks"?

Next season on PJ Masks, the police will lock up all the adults

Having children means having to watch shows you don't care for. I've watched stuff like "Doc McStuffins", "Team Umizoomi", "Handy Manny" and "The Octonauts". These shows I do not care for. They're boring and loud and dull. I've also seen stuff like "Wally Kazaam" and "Yo Gabba Gabba". I really like these shows. "Yo Gabba Gabba" has cool music and cool guests and there's always a good lesson. "Wally Kazaam" may be the most clever and best written children's show I've ever seen. There's been some jokes that have made me legitimately laugh out loud. "Wally Kazaam" is my favorite show that my son has watched.

Lately my son has been watching a show called "PJ Masks". This show is fine. It's not good, but it's not that bad. The show follows three young children that, at nighttime, become superheroes when they put their pajamas on. Sounds pretty cute, right? That's what I thought when I first saw this show, but then I actually sat down and paid attention to what was going on and I've got to say, the negligence of the parents on "PJ Masks" is downright criminal. I'd venture to say that they are worse parents than the parents from "Charlie Brown".

First things first, at least the parents in "Charlie Brown" are present. Sure, we can't understand what they are saying and the kids never take their advice, but we know that they are there. The parents in "PJ Masks" are non existent. And, when there is an adult around, they just leave when the situation turns sour. I'll tell you about a recent episode that had this happen. The kids were just regular kids and they were about to watch a puppet show. The puppet master, apparently one of their teachers, shows up and sees that the puppets are missing. All he says is, "My puppets are gone. I guess there will be no show today" and then he just leaves. Doesn't investigate the problem, doesn't tell the children he will be right back, in fact he doesn't tell the children anything except that the show is cancelled, and he just leaves, never to be seen or heard from again. That's insane! He's an adult and he just lets the kids deal with this problem on their own! WTF!

This leads me to my main problem with the parents of the three main kids. These children, maybe 7 or 8 years old, are allowed to leave their houses in the middle of the night and go fight crimes. The parents have no say and just let this happen. Where on Earth is this ever a good idea? Why would you let a child go out into the streets in the middle of the night. That is the whole point of the show. These kids turn into superheroes when they go to bed and put their PJ's on. I say again, this is insane! And the parents just let them go, I DON"T GET IT!

You are all probably asking the names of the three main kids, so I'll tell you. You have Owlette the girl, Gekko the shy one and Catboy the athlete. They fight villains, yes this show has children as super smart villains, Romeo, Luna Girl, Night Ninja and the Ninjalenos. It's so surreal. One saving grace, you never see actual fighting. They have races and they play party games and they use gadgets, but they never actually fight. I guess the parents at least gave them the proper rules that fighting is wrong. But, that doesn't excuse the fact that these kids are out in the middle of the night. Also, where are the police in this town and why aren't they doing anything about this? Now, I'm upset at not only the parents, but all the adults in the "PJ Masks" universe. Why do you all let children decide what to do? I'm all for letting kids figure things out for themselves, but there's a time and a place for that and it's not after midnight. I just don't get why there are no rules for these kids.

Also, what kind of parents do Romeo, Luna Girl, Night Ninja and the Ninjalenos have that these kids are super villains? Romeo is some kind of tech genius, but he hates the PJ Masks, and I mean hates the PJ Masks. He is some kind of tech wizard, going so far as stealing their voices in one episode. Are his parents some kind of tech wizards? If so, at least they taught him how to use technology, but he uses it for evil. How messed up is that?! Luna Girl just wants to stop the PJ Masks from having fun. That's straight up mean. She is the definition of a "mean girl", but she too is a child. Why does she have all this hate in her tiny soul? Night Ninja is a spoiled baby and he has the Ninjalenos answer his every beck and call. Why is he so spoiled and how did he train four little kids to be his helpers? What kind of family do these kids come from?

I guess, overall, I'm just disappointed in the adults in this world. I know, it's a children's show, it's a cartoon, it's fantasy, but my brain won't allow me to look at it that way. I want to know why the adults aren't involved at all. At least in "Charlie Brown" and "The Simpsons" the parents are there. They may not be the best people in the world, but they are there and that's more than I can say for the adults and parents in "PJ Masks". I'm sure this show will fade much like all the other shows my son watches, but I will still wonder, long after he stops watching, why weren't the grown ups more involved? What were they doing and why was that more important than making sure their kids were in their beds like they should be? I'm sure I'll never know, but I know that it will haunt me for the rest of my days. Shame on you adults in the "PJ Masks" universe. Take more interest in your children and maybe they won't go out in the middle of the night and argue about cake and toys and balloons. Get off your cell phones and take the time to get to know your kids.

You sicken me.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He thinks judging others is easy, and fun too. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

After a strong episode, Ty is optimistic about the end of "The League"

One more episode, then I can turn the TV off

Spoiler alert, in fact this whole blog will be a spoiler alert for the whole season, so watch the episode before reading this.

Last nights episode of "The League" on FXX, "The 13 Stages of Grief" has been, hands down, the best episode of this, their final season. 

We found out in the last episode, , Ruxin's(Nick Kroll) wife, Sofia(Nadine Velazquez) was killed during a plastic surgery blunder. They had a funeral and everything, but there is still some question as to whether she's really dead. I say this because last nights episode opened with all the actors hanging around at a lunch table and asking Ruxin if he's grieved enough so they can get back to keeping regular score in their fantasy football league. Ruxin still seems pretty shook up, but he relents and says it's okay for them to go back to keeping real score. Ruxin leaves the lunch and heads to his empty home. When he walks in the door, he sees two table setting with pasta and bread and some lit candles. He thinks it's Sofia, but when he turns around, Rafi(Jason Mantzoukas) is standing right behind him. Any episode that is Rafi heavy are my favorites. So, when I saw him, I was immediately into the episode. Rafi was Sofia's younger brother, so he tells Ruxin that he is there to help him grieve the loss of Sofia and that he was putting him through his 13 stages of grief.

For those of you that don't know about the show or Rafi, he's a disgusting, dirty and downright nasty person. He has a drinking and drug problem. He shoots pornography with his buddy Dirty Randy(Seth Rogen). His sex life doesn't just include people, he has relations with animals and food. He is a garbage person to a t. He's so gross.

Back to the episode.

While telling Ruxin that he's going to help him grieve, he says that he prepared the dinner in his "toilet-kitchen". This is so foul, especially to Ruxin, he's a HUGE germaphobe. In Kevin's(Steve Ranizzissi) house, the rest of the crew is talking fantasy football. Pete(Mark Duplass) walks in and starts to talk about his daily fantasy team. This is off limits to the rest of the crew. They say, and I agree, that daily fantasy football is a useless, non strategic form of fantasy football. They will not allow Pete to talk about it. Jenny(Katie Aselton) goes as far as calling it "cheating on your fantasy wife and bragging about it". They, and I, hate daily fantasy leagues.

Later on we see Andre(Paul Scheer) talking to Ruxin at Ruxin's house, asking how he's doing, how's he dealing with his loss. But, the main reason he's there is to see if Ruxin is still keeping his reservation at the Michelin star restaurant that the whole crew is going to the week before fantasy playoffs. After Ruxin kind of hints that he doesn't know if he still wants to go, Rafi shows up with a bloodied bag that we come to find that there's a dead raccoon in. Rafi says this is stage 3, the episode doesn't give us every stage, facing death. He wants Ruxin to look the dead raccoon in the face, Rafi is calling it Sofia now, and drink it's blood. He swears it will help him get over Sofia and that he's already drank some of the raccoon's blood. This is where Andre leaves. He cannot stand Rafi. The whole crew doesn't like Rafi in fact.

Later on, the whole crew is hanging out and all of the sudden their league is shut down due to graphic material on their fantasy message board. They have always had very cruel, hurtful and hateful speak on the boards, so they can't figure out why, now, they were being shut down. Rafi emerges and asks if they have seen the video he just posted on the board of him and Dirty Randy having relations with a chicken in Mexico. So, that's why they were shut down. They now have to do all their fantasy stuff offline, like the old days they say. This leaves Kevin, he's the commissioner, with a ton of work. He has to track add/drop players, scores, trades, pretty much anything that you can do with a click of a button now in fantasy sports, he has to do by hand. It's very hard to keep track of it all.

While Kevin is doing all this work, Andre goes to the restaurant to try and put the reservation under his name, but it doesn't work. At another point, Kevin goes to Ruxin's house to try and figure out all the players he wants to add and drop and we get an excellent scene between Ruxin and Rafi arguing while Kevin watches. Rafi shows up with a tank top and an apron, giving them chips and salsa and says that this is part of the grieving. Ruxin has always had someone around to feed him and his friends during games, so that's what Rafi is doing now. They fight and nag, much to the chagrin of Kevin. The fight ends when Rafi throws a pregnancy test at Ruxin and says, "by the way, I' pregnant. I shit on it this morning and it's positive". I was crying laughing. Ruxin even sniffs the test and is immediately repulsed exclaiming, "why would I sniff it!?". So funny.

Near the end of the episode, Rafi tells Ruxin that the last step in the grieving process is for the two of them to sleep together. Did I mention he was wearing Sofia's underwear? No, well he was. He tells Ruxin that he never got one last time to be intimate with his wife, so he would give him that since he and Sofia are blood related. Ruxin wants no part of this, so he lights a vanilla scented candle. The scent of vanilla makes Rafi gag and while he's getting sick, Ruxin actually says that he is through grieving. The process is over and it worked.

The rest of the crew is at the restaurant with Taco(Jon Lajoie) posing as Ruxin. Their plan isn't working, but Ruxin comes in and saves the table and the dinner. At said dinner, they all want to know who made the playoffs. Kevin presents them with scores, but the math is all wrong and nobody is pleased. They decide to let everyone on the playoffs and make it a one week, winner take all for the Shiva. High score wins, low score gets the Sacko, the last place trophy. They all go to the Shiva and give praise one last time and proceed to leave the restaurant. When leaving, Meegan(Leslie Bibb) is there. Meegan was married to Pete in season one, they got divorced and it was revealed this season that her and Andre were dating. They eventually broke up and this is the first they're seeing each other since ending it. Meegan takes off her coat to reveal that she's pregnant and the episode ends there.

I was so happy at how good this episode was. This season has been kind of so so, but "The 13 Stages of Grief" hearkened back to the best of "The League". They have one episode left and if it's half as good as this one, I will be very happy. This was a great first step towards ending the show and let's hope the series finale follows in the same foot steps. I'm more happy and prepared for the series finale today than I have been all season with "The League".

Now end it strong.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. The daily fantasy he participates in is the one about all of his kids sleeping through the night. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Marc Maron's interview of Lorne Michaels was mostly gristle and very little steak

Sometimes a sword, sometimes a surrender flag

Last Monday, Marc Maron finally got his white whale.

He had an interview with Lorne Michaels. Saturday Night Live has been a big obsession for Maron. He has interviewed many SNL cast members. He is always very forward with these people. He wants to know about their audition. He wants to know about fellow cast members. He wants to talk about certain hosts and musical guests. But, most importantly he wants to know about Lorne Michaels. He has so many questions about Lorne Michaels. It can get uncomfortable at times and you can hear in some of the interviewees voices that they're uncomfortable with the barrage of questions about Michaels. Sure, most of them aren't on the show anymore, but they don't want to speak ill of Michaels. In most cases, he gave them their break, and without him, they probably wouldn't have a real career.

I, for one, like when Maron pushes the envelope. I like all the questions, because I want to know too. I'm from Saint Louis and New York and SNL are like mythical beings to me. I have a real love hate relationship with SNL, and I want to know all I can. I like to hear from these people about their experience. I like knowing that SNL is a cutthroat place to work, and you have to stay on your toes if you want to keep your job. But, much like Maron himself, I want to know about Lorne Michaels. He is a mysterious show biz person and he seems to be a real hard ass. He, at least on the surface, doesn't seem like a guy that takes crap from anyone. He's a star maker and may be a career ender, if you cross him.

I've been listening to Maron's podcast since the beginning. I'm a big fan of his and I look forward to listening to his podcast every Monday and Thursday. He's gotten pretty big recently as well, the interview with President Barack Obama putting him on everybody's map. I weirdly looked forward to this interview as much as I did the Presidents. As I stated before, I love SNL and I was very interested to see how hard Maron would come at Lorne Michaels. Maron has had a bone to pick since he wasn't picked to be on the show when he auditioned back in the 90's. He's brought this up a lot, so when I saw that Lorne Michaels was going to be on last Monday, I figured he would press him hard on this, and a lot of other things. The fact he wasn't picked for SNL has always been a big bone of contention for him. I figured, finally, some closure.

Then, I listened to the interview. It was fine. Maron asked some questions and Lorne Michaels answered in kind. But, the questions were softballs in my opinion. He just kind of lobbed some stuff to Michaels and he answered very predictably. It kind of felt like Maron was told by Michaels people that he could only ask certain questions, and to not push him too hard on the tough questions. The interview was like an appetizer. It was good, but not filling. We just got the tip of the iceberg. This was a two hour interview also, so the fact that nothing was pressed on Michaels, in two hours, left me disappointed. When Maron did ask about his audition and the process of not being selected, Michaels gave a very typical answer. He told Maron that "his voice wasn't right for the show". Yeah, no duh Lorne Michaels. Maron is a foul mouthed comedian. He is filthier than Norm Macdonald on his filthiest day. Maron assumed that he would be a Weekend Update guy, and while that fits his identity, his style isn't a good fit at SNL. We all already knew this. This was no revelation.

After they settled Maron being passed over, the rest of the interview was very blasé. It was like a pat on the back session after that. Lorne Michaels praised Maron's comic voice and what he's done with the podcast medium. I say again, we all know what he's done. They talked about doing an internet show before the internet was popular. Not that big a deal. Maron never really asked any really tough questions. When it comes to Lorne Michaels, he couldn't have been more congratulatory of himself. He gave himself the credit for young generations wanting to be on TV and do comedy. He credited himself for making Jimmy Fallon a late night star, something which makes me angry because I cannot stand Jimmy Fallon. He said that he's never forced anyone out of SNL, and that he's still friends with "pretty much everybody". He couldn't have been more pleased with himself. I understand what he's done for late night TV, and how big he made SNL, but show some humility. He claimed that while he wasn't the guy in charge for 5 years, he never watched the show. I believe that, because he comes off as arrogant, so why would he watch something he had nothing to do with?

I guess, overall, I was just disappointed with the interview. It left so much to be desired. And even at the end, when Maron does his usual sign off, he said he got closure. I don't know, because as a listener, I felt like he could've gotten so much more out of this once in a lifetime interview. My excitement was dashed pretty early on in this WTF episode, but not all of them can be winners. I think even Marc Maron would agree with me about this. I should also temper my expectations because, not every interview is going to be President Obama's interview. I love WTF and I'm a big Marc Maron fan, but this episode just left me wanting more.

Oh well, this Monday he has Harry Potter himself, Daniel Radcliffe on. Hopefully, this one will be better.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He figures Lorne Michaels should have more humility after the Donald Trump SNL appearance last week. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Ty is overjoyed about "The Knick" and "Ash vs Evil Dead"

Good tv is on. The couch is calling

Today I'm going to talk about two TV shows on premium cable channels that I absolutely love. One is new and the other is currently in it's second season. One's on Cinemax, the other, Starz. They're both great, but for totally different reasons and I'll tell you why I like them both.

First, we will start with the Cinemax show that's currently in it's second season. The show is called "The Knick". "The Knick" takes place in the early 1900's at the Knickerbocker Hospital in New York. They focus on the earliest days of surgery and the doctors and people involved with the hospital. The way they film the surgery and show how primitive it was back then is astounding. The surgeons don't wear gloves. They hand crank blood through tubes. They always have a group of people watching the procedure while the lead surgeon explains what they're doing, almost teaching a class. Every surgery has the risk of being fatal. They use liquid cocaine and morphine as anesthesia. It's truly incredible and heart racing to watch them perform the procedures. The main character in the show is John Thackery, played eloquently by Clive Owen. Thackery is a surgery genius. He knows more than anyone in the room and he's always finding new and inventive ways to perform surgery. Problem with Thackery, in season one, he's addicted to cocaine and can only do procedures when he's high. Clive Owen plays Thackery as a junkie very convincingly. You can see when he's craving the drug, and you can see how it makes him laser focused and the best surgeon in the world. You also see him at his worst, be it bedding a nurse, taking way too risky chances in surgery or hanging out in an opium den. Spoiler alert, at the end of season one, Thackery is taken to a rehabilitation center and to get him off cocaine, they give him a new drug called heroine. That's where season two picks up, but there's another critical story line, there's a lot of critical story lines, but this is the most important in season one. A young African American surgeon, who's almost as talented as Thackery and just as smart, is brought to the Knick to work with Thackery. Here we meet Dr. Algernon Edwards played fantastically by Andre Holland. As I said, he's just as smart and innovative as Thackery, but he's a hot head that gets into fights on purpose and he's a man of color in the early 1900's, so there's a lot of turmoil surrounding Edwards. He's not accepted at the hospital by Thackery at first, but as season one goes on, Thackery sees that Edwards can help move this hospital into the for front of modern surgery and they begin to work together. There's many other characters, all very good, but these are the main two characters of the show. Back to season two. They're three or four episodes in now and during the season premiere, we see that Edwards is now chief of surgery since Thackery is in rehab. One of the other doctors goes to the rehab facility and saves Thackery from the abuse the doctors there are putting on their patients. Thackery returns to the Knick to see that things have changed with Edwards at the helm and he's miffed. Thackery also cannot perform procedures because he is off cocaine. He eventually gets back to doing cocaine, but he's now snorting heroin as well. In the most recent episode, Thackery saved his old love from dying from syphilis by giving her a fever of 108, and by gosh, it works. This is the Thackery I've been waiting for. We haven't seen a whole lot yet from Edwards, but I know spmething big is coming and I'm giddy at what the rest of this season will bring. Steven Soderbergh is the genius behind "The Knick" and I'm glad they have a show like this on television. "The Knick" is must watch TV.

The other show lands in multiple genres. It's gory, it's horror, but most importantly, it's a comedy. This show is on the Starz network and it's "Ash VS. Evil Dead". This is a reboot of sorts. "Evil Dead" was a very popular B horror movie in the 80's with Bruce Campbell playing the lead role of Ash. Everyone knows that in "Evil Dead", Ash and his friends and girlfriend find a book and the book releases the evil dead on society in search of putting Ash six feet under. The movie was huge for both Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi. It gave them horror and comedy cred. I love "Evil Dead", so when I heard a TV show was in the making, I was very excited. Two episodes in and I absolutely love the show. It's just as gory as the movie. It's just as scary as the movie. But, most importantly, it's funnier than the movie. The show is played to huge laughs coming from Bruce Campbell and his sidekicks, Pablo(Ray Santiago) and Kelly(Dana DeLorenzo), his colleagues at his crappy job. Bruce Campbell as Ash is just as funny and aloof, yet a shockingly good fighter, as he was in the movie. His trademark chainsaw hand is back too. That was awesome when they busted that out in the season premiere. In the premiere, Ash and his book summon the evil dead while he and a prostitute get stoned together. Ash is the only guy who knows how to fight the demons, and he's the best man for the job. As I said before, the gore is still alive and well on "Ash VS. Evil Dead". If you remember the movie, you have to completely remove the demons head to kill them. They do this with gusto on the show. It's so gross and brutal, but Ash has a quirky or stupid catchphrase every time he defeats a demon, it's played to uproarious laughs. They're only two episodes in, but they've already killed a dozen demons. That's a lot of death for two episodes. This show has all the potential in the world and I'm happy to see Bruce Campbell in a starring role that he desperately deserves. He's awesome and "Ash VS. Evil Dead" is awesome.

"The Knick" is on Friday nights on Cinemax and "Ash VS. Evil Dead" is on Saturday nights, so you can watch them during the weekend. "The Knick" is in it's second season, but the first only had ten episodes and they've only aired three or four from season two, so catching up will be easy. "Ash VS. Evil Dead" is only two episodes in, and you can watch both of them On Demand. Do yourselves a favor and watch these shows. They're totally different from each other, but they're both great.

You'll thank me later.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He first thought "The Knick" was about former NBAer and US Senator Bill Bradley solving crime on Capitol Hill with his epic basketball skills. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

"Barefoot Contessa" is one thing you and your mother in law can agree on

Oh the things Ina could do to you

What does one do with a new baby and his working wife on maternity leave?

As I stated yesterday, I've been watching a good amount of day time TV with my wife being home. I've also let it be known that I've been watching a good amount of the Food Network. The Food Network is pretty much the perfect channel to have on in the background if you like ambient noise. During the day, it's pretty much all straight forward cooking shows. The night time is when the competition shows come on. So, during the day, having that ambient noise in the background is nice when I'm blogging or when I'm cleaning or doing something around the house. I do watch pretty much all the competition shows too. With my wife being home, we watch shows like "Pioneer Woman" and "Everyday Italian" and "The Best Thing I Ever Ate". We also enjoy the competition shows like "Chopped", "Cutthroat Kitchen" and any iteration of the "Baking Challenge", be it Halloween, Thanksgiving or Christmas. The only shows we avoid on the Food Network are, anything involving human douchebag Guy Fieri and their awful rip off of "The Chew" called, "The Kitchen". First of all, "The Chew" is terrible, but, "The Kitchen" makes "The Chew" look like "Breaking Bad". "The Kitchen" is awful.

None of these shows compare to what I believe to be the greatest show the Food Network has ever created. I'm talking about "Barefoot Contessa" with Ina Garten of course. This show is absolutely perfect on every level. First of all, Ina Garten is the best host of any cooking show ever and yes, I think she's much better than Julia Child was. She has a very soft, calming way of talking about food. She never raises her voice to show appreciation of food like Fieri does. She doesn't need any catchphrases like "BAM!" or "winner, winner, chicken dinner" or, "that's money", she just talks about food like a normal person. She also seems to get the very best ingredients. She made steak the other day and my mouth was watering when she brought out the cut of meat. It looked so good and it was clearly the best quality her butcher had. Same thing when she made bone in lamb chops on a recent episode. She has an affinity for fruit tarts. The fruit she gets is the freshest fruit I've ever seen. I didn't know strawberries could look that red and fresh. She also hand makes all the crusts for these tarts. When the finished product comes out of the oven, I want to go into my TV and eat this delicious looking food. She also makes all her drinks fresh. Sure, most people do this with alcohol, but how many people go out to their garden and grab the freshest mint leaves I've ever seen? The only person involved with my life that does this is my mother in law. I've never seen anyone else use fresh herbs from their garden to cook besides from mother in law and Ina Garten. Ina also made a fresh hot chocolate for her husband Jeffrey, I'll talk more about him later, and it looked dynamite. She boiled milk and half and half in a big pot, used big hunks of what I'm sure is expensive milk chocolate, put semi sweet chocolate and used vanilla extract and ground decaf coffee. I used to work at a Saint Louis Bread Company and we used real milk and Hershey's syrup to make our hot chocolate and RD, my brother and founder of the website, used to refer to this as "orgasmic" (ed note: yes it is). Ina's hot chocolate puts Bread Company's to shame and I don't need to taste it to know this, I can judge it simply based on seeing it. Simply look at the ingredients I listed.

Now, the food is the main part of her show, as it should be, but she also seems to be the most genuinely happy person I've ever seen. She has the perfect life. She loves her husband Jeffrey and he reciprocates this love ten fold. When he gets home from work or a trip and Ina has a big meal ready for the two of them, he lights up. But, he doesn't just light up at the site of the food, he's happier to see Ina and she's just as happy. Each embrace is different, but they all share the same amount of love. These two are clearly soul mates. When Jeffrey is working, Ina seems to have an endless number of friends involved in many different occupations. She's friend with carpenters, florists, college students, painters and butchers, just to name a few. These people love Ina and she loves them back. It doesn't hurt that she's making them delicious food and has these friends of hers be her "tasters". We all know the food is delicious. I'd love to befriend Ina and become one of her "tasters". Very few things would make me happier in my life. She also has a beautiful home in the Hamptons. Jeffrey and her are clearly well off and the pictures of her home during the show hammer home this point. I don't say this because I'm envious, I say this because Jeffrey and her deserve this. They both work hard and are very accomplished in their fields, so why not live lavishly? Good for them.

One other thing I like about Ina was told to me by my mother in law. She never competes on these competition cooking shows because she feels like 1) cooking shouldn't be a competition, you should cook because you love it and 2) she won't compromise her ingredients, she believes you should use the best ingredients available to you. This makes me like Ina even more, and I'm already a HUGE fan. I wish there were more chefs and personalities on the Food Network like her, but Ina is one of a kind. I don't think her show is on anymore, she's probably happily retired from making a show and doing whatever she wants, as she's want to do, but at least we have reruns. I look forward to these episodes twice a day. I love her show and her whole vibe. Ina Garten is the best thing that the Food Network ever had and I'm glad they still air "Barefoot Contessa".

Ina, you're a national treasure, thanks for everything you do. And thanks for being you, you're the greatest.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. "Cooking a Steak" would be Ty's favorite food show, if only it existed in the real world. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Join Ty while he checks paternity tests with "Maury Povich"

You are NOT the father. Now who is a good boy.

Sometimes the worst television can be the best entertainment.

With my wife on maternity leave, I've been watching some day time television with her that she normally doesn't get to watch since she doesn't get home from work until 4pm. I don't usually watch any day time TV, my son and I are usually out doing stuff, and my newly born daughter will be joining us on these excursions when my wife goes back to work. But, my wife has two months left on her leave, so day time TV will be a staple. One of the shows that she loves is "Maury Povich".

First things first, this show is utterly ridiculous and totally fake. These people know exactly what they're doing on this show, and if they have any questions as to how to act, producers and the behind the scenes crew gives them direction. This, I'm sure of. But, I've grown to not only enjoy "Mo Po", as we call it, but I look forward to watching it everyday at 3pm Saint Louis, Missouri time. It's like a train wreck. It's terrible, just down right awful, but I cannot look away. I love how bizarre and insane and just plain wacky this show is. Nine times out of ten, it's a DNA test to find out who is the father of some infant, or it's a lie detector test to find out if someone is cheating on someone else. In the rare case, we get both of these in one episode. Man, this is exciting when you know, not only is a DNA test coming, but there's a lie detector test as well. Sometimes, very rarely, they do a "where are they now", or a "boot camp" episode and we do not tune in for these, but that barely ever happens as I've already said. "Maury Povich" is the epitome of bad reality television. Like I said, it's completely fabricated, but that doesn't make it any less hilarious.

Now, it is bad, but it's watchable bad. It's a better version of "Sharknado". Readers know how I feel about "Sharknado". "Mo Po" is enjoyable. It's dysfunctional and stupid and a total mess, but I've grown to love it over the past couple of weeks. And Maury Povich seems to have taken this lot in life and run with it. He was, at one time, a true journalist with a moral compass. Go look at some of his older versions of his show, most of the time the topics were legit topics. He was a real journalist tackling real subjects. He was good at it too. He met and married Connie Chung and they're still married to this day. They were both reputable journalist and TV personalities and one day, that all changed. Connie Chung is off TV now, to the best of my knowledge, and look no further for her "breakdown" to the moment she was singing on top of a piano and "dancing". It's a hard watch, but it's also pretty god damn hilarious. And Maury's case, I think one day, when he was reputable, he thought that it would be a good idea to have a lady or ladies on that may not have known who the father of their child was. Sure, at the time, the mid 90's I believe, this was a good and groundbreaking idea. It would give these ladies closure and these fatherless children would at least know who their dad was as they grew up. Then, one day, the DNA test results came back negative and the man on the set was not the father. Holy shit was this a huge deal! The crowd went nuts. People on the stage were either crying, cheering, dancing or doing all three at once. This was the moment when Maury just ran with it, in my opinion. I think, since he's a pretty smart person, he saw an opportunity and he figured, okay , this is what I am now. He decided that he would do only DNA test result shows at first. These gained a lot of steam, but after awhile, they became stale and predictable. That's when he introduced the lie detector tests and the decoys. Boom! A total new thing for his talk show was born and it's been like this ever since. As I said before, it's either a DNA test or a lie detector test, or both, Monday through Friday on "Mo Po", and I love it. These are always met with the same response. The people on stage are always yelling and talking over each other, someone inevitably calls Maury 'Murray" and the tests results always deliver both good and bad news. Sometimes, when the man isn't the father, the guy starts doing a dance and the lady runs off the set screaming and crying. These are my favorite moments. They're hysterical. When the guy is the father, or he's lied during the lie detector test, or he's caught hitting on a decoy, the reaction is always the same. The guy claims he was set up, or that the lie detector was wrong, or he will take care of the child, but he wants nothing to do with the baby's mom. And their reaction to this news is always hilarious. You can tell the guys who know they're going to get caught because they always have a coy smile when the lady is talking about them cheating or not taking care of their baby. During all this, Maury just sits back, let's the fight build to a boil, and just when it's about to get physical, he gets the results folder and they get down to business, it's fantastic.

The real reason for this post today is not only to give love to "Maury Povich" the TV show, but to let everyone know that I will be live tweeting today's episode from the seedsing account. So, read this article and at 3pm Saint Louis time, check in with @seedsingrdk to see my tweets. My wife will be watching with me, of course, and she will chime in with her thoughts too. Join us for the hilarity.

See you all later today.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He does not feel the need to go on Murray's show to get DNA results for his kids, at least not yet. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Treehouse of Horrors is one of the only good things about Halloween

No trick or treating for me. The Simpsons is on.

With Halloween only two days away, FXX has been showing all of the "Treehouse of Horrors" episodes of "The Simpsons".

It's been quite nice.

I wasn't a big fan of the first iterations of these Halloween themed episodes, but since I met my wife, I've grown to enjoy them quite a bit. She has always been a fan and she has turned me into one as well. When they first started to show up, around the second season I believe, they took them too seriously, in my opinion. The first "THOH" was and still is a classic, but the three stories were pretty dark, especially the "Raven" segment. They took Edgar Allan Poe's famous poem , made Homer the main guy from the story and had a raven that had Bart's head super imposed on it. He recited the poem as Homer went crazier and crazier. It was funny in some parts, but for a "Simpsons" episode, it was dark. Homer went insane. This became a tradition after the huge hit that was their first "THOH". They do one every year, usually airing them the week after or a week before Halloween. Today, I'm going to tell you about some of my personal favorites and some of my wife's favorites. I'll pick out mainly segments because sometimes the whole episode isn't great, but of the three segments, one is usually a home run.

I want to start with a recent "THOH". Season 26 had a great second segment with "A Clockwork Yellow". Barney, Homer and Moe played the cronies from "A Clockwork Orange", with Moe playing the Malcolm McDowell character, Alex. This was a fantastic spoof of a classic movie. Moe went through all the same things Alex did, but played it for laughs. For example, when Alex was being reprogrammed, they forced his eyes open and made him watch horrific videos of heinous crimes. In the "Simpsons" "THOH", they did a close up of Moe, eyes pried open like Alex's, but he says, "this is the only way I can sit through terrible Fox programming". It was genius. My favorite part of the segment was when Homer, playing the oafish thug, meets Marge and they play the scene where, in "A Clockwork Orange", it's very sexually graphic and pretty gross, "The Simpsons" played it with Homer eating massive amounts of food, sleeping and totally ignoring Marge. They pulled it off like only "The Simpsons" can.

Season 12 had a great opening segment to their "THOH". It was entitled "G-G-G-Ghost Dad" and it was about Homer's death being for told via a newspaper horoscope. Despite the family's hesitance to let Homer leave, he does anyway, not scared of death, and awaiting a comment from a "handsome" co worker, he presumes it will be Lenny. On his way to work, Homer gets hit by a pick axe, nearly misses being crushed by a metal structure, has an unexplained growth thing and gets bitten by a rattlesnake. He arrives at work and gets his compliment from Lenny, saying," if I may compliment you Homer, that's a mighty nice rattlesnake biting your arm". He arrives home and is fine, but then he eats one single piece of broccoli and immediately dies. He becomes a ghost, eats the broccoli again, dies again and becomes a ghost once more. He has to do one good deed before he can get into heaven, and all his attempts end in failure until he saves a crying baby from going into a busy intersection. Unfortunately, the angel doesn't see this and Homer is banished to hell where Satan gives him noogies and weggies while saying "ha ha" the whole time. It's hilarious.

One of my favorite "THOH" of all time is from season 10, titled "Hell Toupee". In this segment, Homer gets a hair transplant from newly dead convict Snake. At first everything is all peaches and cream and Homer looks great. But, prior to dying, Snake tells the three people that ratted him out that he was going to get them. After the hair transplant, at night, the hair takes over for Homer and controls his actions. He gets revenge on both Apu and Moe, two of the three guys that ratted him out. The third is Bart. This is where the conflict begins. Homer and his new hair do trap Bart is his room, and Bart does everything in his power to convince his dad to not hurt him. Homer finally rips the hair off, thus saving Bart, but the hair comes to life and tries to get him. They get the hair off Bart and while it's trying to escape one of the funniest moments on the "Simpsons" occurs. The hair, that has sideburns, lifts one of the sideburns, a la a fist, and wags it in anger before Chief Wiggum guns it down. It's a classic "THOH" segment.

My personal favorite "THOH" is from season 8 entitled "Citizen Kang". This one is great from top to bottom. We get Bob Dole and Bill Clinton impressions. Kang and Kodos become Dole and Clinton. While dressed like Dole and Clinton, Kang and Kodos hold hands to " give each other protein strains", speak in their typical monotone voice and are together constantly. We get great lines like, "abortions for none, BOO!, ok, abortions for all, BOO!, ok, abortions for some, miniature American flags for all, yeah!" or, " well, I guess I'll just vote for a third party candidate. Go ahead throw your vote away, ha ha ha" and, my favorite coming from Kent Brockman, " Clinton's contributors credited his attitude to an over tight neck tie" when talking about Kang disguised as Clinton saying something very wrong. This is, by far, the best segment of any "THOH" that "The Simpsons" has put out.

I know that my wife loves any "THOH" that has Kang and Kodos involved. She really liked the new one where Sideshow Bob finally gets Bart and keeps killing him over and over again, she's a big Sideshow Bob fan. I know she likes the segment where you find out Maggie is really Kang's daughter and they go on "Jerry Springer". Those three are just off the top of my head. She likes them all, but she talks to me about those more than others.

For all the flack that I give Halloween as a "holiday", I truly despise it, at least we do get a new "THOH" every year. I know that they will always be good because it's part of "The Simpsons" universe and pretty much everything they do is great. "THOH" may be one of the few things I like about Halloween. I still have to deal with the stupid puns and people in their 20's and 30's, with no kids, dressing up like it's a real holiday, but at least I get one thing that I know I'll enjoy and that I look forward to every Halloween.

I guess I'm trying to say, Halloween will always be lame, but "The Simpsons" will always deliver with a great new "Treehouse of Horror".

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He likes people and thinks clown make-up is ok, but people wearing clown make-up are the worst. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

The Excellent and Uncomfortable Humor of "Nathan for You"

We're saving this one for Nathan

Let's all take a minute to soak in the genius that is Comedy Central's "Nathan For You".

The show is in its third season now and it just gets better and better. The first season was a very nice surprise. He put out the basis of the show. He's a business school grad and he wants to help small businesses grow. This is all played for laughs because, his ideas are insane. The two notable ideas from season one were, the poop flavored frozen yogurt and the pig saving another animal from drowning in a lake. The latter idea became a viral sensation. People thought this was a real event and it even made it on national news. To watch Nathan Fielder and his team put this all together was hilarious. I love that it was blown this much out of proportion.

In the poop flavored frozen yogurt episode, I believe it was the series premiere, he convinced a small frozen yogurt place that the only way they could compete with the heavy hitters in town was to have "unique" flavors. He convinced this store owner that poop flavored yogurt would not only drive customers to his store, but it would put this guy on the map. This, of course, didn't work out and the guy nixed the idea after one day. Very, very funny. Season two brought us the infamous Dumb Starbucks. This was genius on so many levels. He used an iconic logo, bringing in tons of customers, and all he had to do was put the word dumb in front of Starbucks. This was, much like the pig story, nationwide news. Everybody talked about this. It was on every news network from MSNBC to my hometown, Saint Louis', local news. Everyone knew of this prank. He also had a running gag throughout all of season two that was great. He kept asking random people how he could be more approachable and cool. These people gave him what they thought was good advice. It was terrible and Fielder did everything they said. He dyed his hair jet black, he wore very skinny jeans and deep, deep V neck shirts. He looked like a total douche. When he met new people and they commented on how bad he looked, he'd confront the people that gave him the advice, and their whole tone changed. They'd claim that they didn't tell him to wear such skinny jeans, or the necks were too deep in his shirts. But, if you go back and watch, he did everything, exactly as these folks told him. Once again, very funny.

So far, we are two episodes into season three, and it's just as good as the first two, if not better. The first episode has Fielder helping an electronics store owner who's losing customers to Best Buy. Fielders theory, Best Buy takes competitors coupons and matches them, so Fielder tells the store owner to have a big store wide sale on TV's, selling them for 1 dollar. There's a whole plethora of hoops to get through to get the cheap TV, but the whole idea was to buy out all the TV's at Best Buy for a dollar using this competitors coupon. Best Buy won't match because this is absurd, but Fielder is so determined, he threatens to take Best Buy to court. He quickly finds out that he can only win if the owner of the small electronics store is determined clinically insane. He takes this man to a psychiatrist, tells the, therapist, confidentially, that his friend is insane, and she agrees. But, they again quickly realize that they won't be able to beat Best Buy, they're too big and powerful. I know this all sounds nuts, but it's so funny and really awkward. It's great TV. Last nights episode had a couple of different ideas. One was a ranch that wouldn't allow anyone over 220lbs to ride a horse. Fielder gets the idea to attach helium balloons to bigger people, thus causing them to feel lighter and get these people horse rides. Good idea, but too pricy and too ridiculous. Nathan even scolds two on lookers for laughing at the gentleman that has three huge helium balloons attached to him while riding a horse. In the second part of the episode, he explains that a company called Tiaga, a jacket maker and a brand he loves, is in bed with a holocaust denier. This upsets him and he comes up with his own line of soft shell jackets with a holocaust education attached. When he pitches this to a store, they let him do a trial run, all done up with holocaust literature, pictures of holocaust victims and even an oven with a fake skeleton in it. Needless to say, it was extremely uncomfortable, wrong and nixed by the owner immediately. All the awkwardness from Fielder, the store owner and even a rabbi was uncomfortable in every possible way, but also extremely hilarious. His final idea in the episode was setting up a "man zone" in a women's clothing store. As he puts it, "a place for bros to hang while the lady shops". His first hang out session doesn't work so well, and Fielder decides that he needs to talk about sex to get the guys to hang out longer. The stuff these men say, on camera, is appalling and hilarious. Fielder delivers the best line of the night. When the guys are first hanging out, he leans back in his chair, trying to be cool, and says, "all I need when hanging with my bros is a mother effin beer". Those exact words. Fielders awkwardness makes this great on so many levels. I love this show. It's fantastic and awkward and goofy and funny. Nathan Fielder is a true comedy genius and this show is a must watch.

I'm so excited for the rest of the season and I hope there's many, many more to come.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He learned all about business from the "Buddy Bands" episode of "Saved by the Bell". Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.