Spoilers Murphy Brown

[Christopher]

Really liking tonights ep. Pretty good so far.

Huh. I'm not liking it at all. The only time I laughed was at Tyne Daly's comeback about the "married" ketchup bottles, and even that was kind of a corny old gag. The attempts at political humor were just labored and stilted, and the jokes about people lusting after the press secretary were kind of nauseating on a couple of levels. The leads' acting still isn't very good, and I found myself noticing how overused and mechanical the laugh track was -- I'm a bit surprised those are still being used.

I don't think I'll be watching again. If I want political humor, I'll stick to online clips of Colbert, Oliver, and Noah.

 

[Mudd]

I gave 'em one half hour.

 

[Galileo7]

I watched the original series run, but they have not found the "fun"[writing & acting] of the original, yet. I'll keep watching, only because I liked the original. They have an abundance of subject matter to make it work again.

 

[bigdaddy]

I thought this episode was worst than the first, besides adding another cute young guy. Those are always welcomed.

 

[Random_Spock]

Huh. I'm not liking it at all. The only time I laughed was at Tyne Daly's comeback about the "married" ketchup bottles, and even that was kind of a corny old gag. The attempts at political humor were just labored and stilted, and the jokes about people lusting after the press secretary were kind of nauseating on a couple of levels. The leads' acting still isn't very good, and I found myself noticing how overused and mechanical the laugh track was -- I'm a bit surprised those are still being used.

I don't think I'll be watching again. If I want political humor, I'll stick to online clips of Colbert, Oliver, and Noah.

Fair enough.

Thought it fit Miles as a character. Even though I felt nauseated about it as well. Only joke I felt was stilted was the Watergate one at the beginning of the episode.

It's only the second episode. Other shows took time to get back into the groove. (Only show I've seen that couldn't find it reboot wise so far has been the X Files. It was so off and on that it was distracting.)

 

[Christopher]

Only joke I felt was stilted was the Watergate one at the beginning of the episode.

Well, that one was supposed to be stilted -- the meta joke being that the character tried to make a joke that wasn't very funny. On the other hand, I realized years ago that if a show makes too many jokes about its characters telling unfunny jokes, the upshot is that it's still just unfunny. (I realized that watching Family Guy. Which was part of why I stopped watching it.)

It's only the second episode. Other shows took time to get back into the groove.

The second episode was considerably weaker than the first, though. They're moving away from the groove.

 

[Random_Spock]

Well, that one was supposed to be stilted -- the meta joke being that the character tried to make a joke that wasn't very funny. On the other hand, I realized years ago that if a show makes too many jokes about its characters telling unfunny jokes, the upshot is that it's still just unfunny. (I realized that watching Family Guy. Which was part of why I stopped watching it.)

The second episode was considerably weaker than the first, though. They're moving away from the groove.

Fair point on that one.

Maybe a bit. But I'm not giving up on it. It's still early on.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I thought the second episode was funnier than the first, or at least more amusing than the first, but it was just as conceptually flawed as the first.

I realize I have to accept the reality the Wolf Network, which Murphy labeled something like "state-run propaganda," would put a "Pod Save America"-wearing liberal on their coveted morning 7-9 slot to host a show about going in search of the "real America." When the concept of the show was announced and it was said that Avery was going to be working for a conservative network, I was expecting an ideological difference between Murphy and Avery, like between Alex P. Keaton and his parents on Family Ties back in the Reagan years. This part of the show makes no sense to me, but I have to accept it. And I thought their conversation toward the end, that he agrees with her personally but professionally he had a job to do, was effective.

It's just that a lot of what led up to that point didn't work for me. In the fiction of the show Murphy Brown, Murphy can sneak into the White House and lecture Sarah Huckabee Sanders. In the reality of the world we live in, though, that's errant nonsense. I bought the former -- getting onto the White House grounds -- fairly readily, but the latter? Not even. SHS would have shut that shit down hard, interrupting Murphy and then finally ignoring her completely. I've seen enough White House press briefings with SHS to know how they go and know how she behaves. I understood where the show was coming from and why it was doing it -- Murphy was saying all the things to SHS (and, by extension, the administration and its enablers in Congress and the media) that the show's intended audience wants to say, and Murphy was getting someone to listen -- but it kept colliding with reality in my mind, and reality kept obliterating it.

I'm really ambivalent about this series. It has a lot of goodwill from me due to the original run, but if it continues like this, a kind of unrealistic liberal fantasy of the Trump era, I don't see myself sticking with it.

 

[Christopher]

In the fiction of the show Murphy Brown, Murphy can sneak into the White House and lecture Sarah Huckabee Sanders. In the reality of the world we live in, though, that's errant nonsense.

I try to avoid watching her as much as possible, but yeah, it did seem unlikely that any White House press secretary would just stand there passively while a reporter hijacked the whole conference like that. Of course, their choice to use stock footage of a real person and a voice impressionist limited how much "Sanders" could do. I know the show has always poked fun at real political figures, but it might've been better from a plot structure and comedy standpoint to use a fictitious press secretary character, a roman a clef for the real thing like "the Wolf Network," so that they would've had more freedom to let her clash directly with Murphy. (How ironic that this show airs immediately after an Allison Janney vehicle.)

Also, I'm not convinced the situation would've happened at all. I can buy that the Murphy Brown I remember would get so caught up in her determination to defeat a White House press room ban (a situation she was in more than once on the original show, IIRC, so it's sort of her white whale) that she'd forget about her son's opportunity and all that. But it is a bit hard to believe that it all happened so swiftly. It seems more likely that the process of her seething over it, deciding to act, trying to get around the ban legitimately, deciding to break in, convincing everyone else to go along, and making the arrangements to fake credentials would've taken at least a couple of days longer than it did, so that it would've been after Avery's debut and the whole personal conflict would've been avoided.

And come to think of it, if she was only banned from the press room after her Twitter war with Trump last week, why didn't she say these things to Sanders before now?? I guess the idea is that it's because she wasn't active in journalism again until the premiere last week, but still, the fact that she was banned from the press room implies that it's a change in her status and that she was allowed in before. So it doesn't quite fit together.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I enjoyed the episode, but I agree it wasn't much of an improvement on the first one and I particularly agree that the press room briefing scenario was unbelievable considering how we've seen Huckabee-Sanders operate the room in the past.

The show continues to do its best work with the relationship between Murphy and Avery and I hope the show will further build on it. However, I agree with Allyn and I'm also disappointed that the relationship isn't an outright liberal/conservative disparity like Alex P. Keaton. That said, I want to judge the show's characters and direction for what it is (or at least it's striving to do) instead of what we wish it could've been.

 

[Christopher]

Wow, no posts in 2 weeks. I absently realized last night that I'd skipped episode 3 and never thought about it, and now I've skipped 4 as well. Anyone else still watching? Any word on ratings?

 

[Galileo7]

Wow, no posts in 2 weeks. I absently realized last night that I'd skipped episode 3 and never thought about it, and now I've skipped 4 as well. Anyone else still watching? Any word on ratings?

Yes, last night's episode, even with a Breaking Bad actor playing the "villain", was very awkward to watch, i.e., writing and performances.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Wow, no posts in 2 weeks. I absently realized last night that I'd skipped episode 3 and never thought about it, and now I've skipped 4 as well. Anyone else still watching? Any word on ratings?

I forgot to tune in last week, and last night there was baseball, and... well, I guess I've already dropped the series because I don't feel like I'm missing anything.

 

[Guy Gardener]

It seems plastic to me because there's no love story.

 

[Random_Spock]

Wow, no posts in 2 weeks. I absently realized last night that I'd skipped episode 3 and never thought about it, and now I've skipped 4 as well. Anyone else still watching? Any word on ratings?

Still am and I still like it. The performances are fine to me as well. Don't get why so many fans find it to be bad. Saw far, far worse.

It seems plastic to me because there's no love story.

There doesn't need to be one. It's not that kind of show.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I saw episode three late because of baseball but I haven't gotten to episode four yet. Three wasn't all that great unfortunately.

 

[Kerock]

I was so looking forward to it........and so disappointed with it. Another Hollywood political hate affair. It's already ruined late night. Not why I watch TV, I want to be entertained not brainwashed by media morons with political agendas (from either side). But I only saw episode 1, maybe I should give it another chance???

 

[bigdaddy]

I was so looking forward to it........and so disappointed with it. Another Hollywood political hate affair. It's already ruined late night. Not why I watch TV, I want to be entertained not brainwashed by media morons with political agendas (from either side). But I only saw episode 1, maybe I should give it another chance???

You have clearly never watched a single episode of the first 10 seasons have you?

 

[Terok Nor]

Although it should be the perfect time to revive this show it's actually the worst. The reason being we're already over saturated with this type of political humour. There's simply nothing happening in this show that isn't available in a hundred other shows right now. The original is a classic but the revival is irrelevant unfortunately.

 

[Kerock]

It was the Pre-DVR age for the origianl show and alas I worked swing shift for many years so I only saw a few reruns now and again. Pehaps I missed the politics of the first series. I remember a good comedy with good chemistry on par with Taxi and such. I am not into political statements in my comedy shows these days for either side and that includes Last Man Standing. My choice my bad.