Ashley Spurgeon is a lifelong TV fan — nay, expert — and with her recurring television and pop-culture column "And Another Thing," she'll tell you what to watch, what to skip, and what's worth thinking more about.
You heard it here first — TV is back, baby! Fall primetime feels kind of actually real for the first time in a long time (2020 shows talking nonstop about COVID don’t count), because I have so many returning favorites: the loving, hideous family of Bob’s Burgers; the hateful, attractive family in Succession; and even a new season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, a show about a dickhead worth so much money — like literally half a billion dollars — that everyone in Los Angeles has to kind of just put up with him. Two HBO comedies, one Fox cartoon. If I ever assert that my viewing preferences have changed at all over the past 25 years, please remind me that they definitely haven’t.
Millie and Louise
Bob’s Burgers low-key trucking along for 12 seasons now is extremely impressive, and it’s long maintained its position as one of the few adult cartoons that manages to have a little heart inside every episode. There’s also lots and lots of fart jokes, more than I ever imagined existed — heart and farts, that’s the Bob’s Burgers way. The fall 2021 return is a Louise (Kristen Schaal) episode, who is paired off with school weirdo Millie (Molly Shannon) to go undercover on a fairy princess adventure.
Bob’s Burgers has done an exceptional job over the years of growing their world, and tweenage Millie is one of the best tertiary characters. Molly Shannon is a longtime fave (again, my preferences haven’t changed for, like, a quarter-century). She’s always been able to bring uneasy intensity and a dangerous, exciting edge to characters, even if they’re 2-D. Louise is a hardcore, intense kid, and that Millie is capable of going that much harder — while at the same time being the sort of girly-girl princess type that Louise turns her nose up at — means their teaming up makes for some of the best BB episodes.
Speaking of uneasy intensity! Sunday’s premiere of Succession was the one I most looked forward to, because we left the Roy family in such an explosive state last season. Son Kendall (Jeremy Strong) threw a very public bomb about the assorted violent criminal goings-on within his family conglomerate’s cruise line division, explicitly naming his father Logan (Brian Cox) as a wrongdoer — well, really evildoer. Lo, how shall this dynasty of morons cover itself from the blast? The answer? Not terribly well!
Logan busies himself in the premiere trying to — at long last — choose a successor to his company. But of course, he has to play his little fuck fuck games with all his assorted children and underlings. What if they forget, for a second, who’s boss? Can’t have that! No spoilerino, but “fleeing to whichever non-extradition country sounds nicest” doesn’t sound like things are going to go super-great for paterfamilias Logan.
But let us not forget: His rival here is Kendall, a world-class fuck-up amongst world-class fuck-ups. Remember how he (much like the Waystar Royco cruise line shenanigans!) recently disappeared, Ted Kennedy-style, a non-Real Person? Turns out that getting away with kinda-sorta murder has gotten to the lad’s head. “Juice is loose!” he coos as his chauffeured SUV creeps through NYC. And that’s not even close to the most humiliating line he’ll utter. I can handle my cringe comedy, truly, but hearing Kendall’s plans for his post-whistleblower life made me cover my eyes and pray for it to be over soon.
I swear on a stack of TV Guide back issues, Kendall Roy is cringier than David Brent, Selina Meyer and Hank Kingsley combined. The only person Kendall could maybe share space on the No. 1 Loser podium is, of course, Larry David. On Sunday, HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm returns for its 11th season, and as a bigtime fan of assholes, I couldn’t be happier. Surely we all have that friend (selfish, annoying) with a true talent for ruining perfectly nice gatherings with their offensive and asinine thoughts. (If you don’t think have that friend, guess what — it’s actually you. Everyone who loves you secretly hates you.)
Curb’s use of Gilbert and Sullivan arrangements as incidental music is maybe one of the best creative choices a sitcom has ever used. No matter what Larry is ruining — a wedding, a funeral, lunch, a nice walk in the park — the music turns the tragedy into high farce. It’s by far the most theatrical of my returning favorites, and lord knows ya girl loves some board-treaders and proscenium playtime. This deliberate, next-level heightening of cringe (plus the HBO benefit of having cuss words) has meant that Curb Your Enthusiasm has totally overshadowed any need at all to watch Seinfeld. Anything good about Seinfeld, Curb can do 50 times better. No need to waste your time with reruns of, ironically, the thing that made Larry David so freakishly wealthy he’s allowed to make any kind of comedy he wants. Can’t wait till Sunday to see what he’s going to ruin next.
