The New Normal: Part 3

You know it is a network television comedy when there is a pop culture reference in almost every single scene. I'm not sure if I am smart enough to get all of these cool and important references to such scholarly articles like People Magazine.

As The New Normal goes into its eighth episode, one can only question what other controversial topics it will tackle next. This show seems to make it a point to turn any sort of topic questioning homosexuality and make it a focal point for the entire episode. The last two episodes aired touched on the topics of homosexual marriage and Christianity, God and Spirituality. Having every episode touch on topics that should last for multiple episodes, or at least stay in the minds of the characters past the episode, makes the topics they touch on very trivial. The episodes start to feel like a teenage sitcom where the viewer knows they are watching the "very special episode," yet try to cover it up with a bunch of jokes and pop culture references. I'm guessing they figure every viewer of the show watches E! News religiously. Every episode that features Goldie's mother, the crazy right wing racist, is absolutely annoying and could easily disappear. The character lays on her views extremely thick and yet she apparently has the best intentions for everyone, not to mention every time someone argues with her, it is like the writers copied an Aaron Sorkin script. The show could easily replace her with Bryan's Assistant, Rocky, which is what they sort of did in this most recent episode. The newest episode that will air will have Jane, Goldie's mother, in the episode. Let's hope for the best. There is some good to this show, as everything usually involving Shania and Bryan is great. Also, Goldie is somewhat growing on me.

The New Normal airs this Tuesday with their Halloween themed episode at 9:30 pm Eastern/8:30 pm Central.

Here are some links to The New Normal
http://www.nbc.com/the-new-normal/
http://www.imdb.com/TheNewNormal

The New Normal: Part 2

While I'm perfectly fine with looking past NBC's plan of making sure there is a minority in every single scene, I do wonder how much this show is making for having the main couple own a MacBook Pro.

It took the fourth episode to put a terrible signature into the start of the show, but The New Normal is off an running with a solid idea. The plot did move rather quick in the first episode, with Goldie deciding to be a surrogate without any real explanation to why, but the performances by the entire cast are very solid to cover up the incompleteness, especially from Andrew Rannells. The promos for the show were questionable because they refused to show the more obvious homosexual man, but he is hard to miss in the show with his banter between him and Goldie's daughter on the show, played by BeBe Woods. I don't understand the excessiveness of Ellen Barkin's bigotry on the show. They lay it on pretty thick with no real forgiveness or resolution in the end. The first few episodes tackle and feature some topics that weren't really necessary for a show just debuting, such as the Presidential Election and how society views homosexuality and family values, but some of the performances make me look past its pushiness. It's a pretty typical show where no one ever uses the bathroom or pays attention to money, so that's always a plus. I've looked past how quick every bonds on the show so quick and have become an alternative family to decide that this show is definitely worth a watch. I'm not going to compare it to the ABC show Modern Family.

Random Notes
Andrew Rannells always wears green
Goldie doesn't look 24
Goldie's daughter is going for an Abigail Breslin look

The New Normal airs at 9:30 pm Eastern/8:30 pm Central on Tuesdays after the new show Go On.

Here are some more links to The New Normal
http://www.nbc.com/the-new-normal/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2087571/