Disjointed and it feels so good…

“The TV Junkie” by Penny Landau **** Netflix new series “Disjointed” has two of my favorite things: Kathy Bates and weed. It was created and written by Chuck Lorre (“Two and a Half Men,” “Mom,” “Big Bang Theory”) so how could it lose? News flash – it didn’t. My cousin Eileen and I sat and watched all ten episodes waiting for Irma to hit and we peed in our pants, which is pretty common for two old broads in Florida. If you went to college in the ‘60’s or ‘70’s and were a big old stoner, this is the show for you.
Cannabis legend Ruth Whitefeather Feldman (Bates) runs a weed dispensary along with her son Travis (Aaron Moten), armed with an MBA and big ideas, plus a group of young “budtenders.” Pete (Dougie Baldwin) grows the stuff with love and care and talks with them sometimes, for unknown reasons, in an Australian accent. He’s joined by Olivia (Elizabeth Alderfer), Travis’ maybe girlfriend, Jenny (Elizabeth Ho), a med-school dropout and weed maven and Carter (Tone Bell), an Iraqi war vet who is the security guy at Ruth’s Alternative Caring. Along for the hilarious ride are a brilliant Nicole Sullivan as Maria, a stressed-out soccer mom ready to embrace some of Ruth’s “alternative caring” and Chris Redd and Betsy Sodaro as “Dank and Dabby,” two uber-stoners with a You-Tube show all about, well, weed. Throw in Michael Trucco (one of my favorite stars of “Battlestar Galactica” as well as “Castle” and “Revenge”) as Tae Kwon Doug, the uptight owner of the martial arts place next door and you have a group of off-the-spool characters that will keep you laughing without inhaling, although it is recommended.

The Diceman Cometh…
After years of watching and sometimes working with Andrew “Dice” Clay, I learned to appreciate his sense of humor. One night at a club, some audience member ragged on him for being abusive to women, to which he replied, “Lady, I love women, I respect women, I treasure women. But if I say that on stage, it ain’t funny. If I say, ‘I love women to suck my d*%k,’ THAT’S funny. IT’S MY ACT!” And that’s when I learned to love The Diceman. His Showtime comedy, “Dice,” gives us the new, improved and older Andrew. He’s living in Vegas, occasionally employed, spending much too much money at the tables and in a relationship with a woman who “gets him,” hilariously played by Natasha Leggero. He’s got his best bud, “Milkshake” and several on-again/off-again agents and managers. It’s Dice in all his glory and well worth the trip.

Bye, Matt…
Although I have written about this show before, I still maintain that Showtime’s “Episodes” is one of the funniest comedies on TV. It stars Emmy-winner Matt LeBlanc as, well…Matt LeBlanc, “Friends” actor and currently a TV star and game show host. Joined by a bunch of crazy LA show folk, the one bit of sanity in “Episodes” is Beverly and Sean Lincoln, a British writing couple who came to the US to create an American version of their hit Brit-com, brilliantly played by Tamsin Greig and Stephen Mangan. From the first episode, shot entirely in London (standing in for LA), until this final season, this show is so wonderfully written and acted, from the three stars and the supporting cast – Kathleen Rose Perkins, John Pankow, Andrea Rosen and my personal fave, Roger Bart as Matt’s slimy agent (is there any other kind?) – that it’s worth the time to binge-watch the entire series before it ends. You’ll be sorry if you don’t!
WHAT??? Just when I get into the series “Dark Matter,” the PTB decide to cancel it. Boo hiss!
Until next time…

“The TV Junkie” was preceded in her family by a large mahogany cabinet that housed a small screen with a large speaker below. Thus began her love affair with the older sibling in the living room. Theirs was a tenuous relationship, prone to mishaps (forgetting to use the special “screen” for “Winky Dink”), joyous events (“Julie & Carol at Carnegie Hall”), sad moments (Clarabelle saying goodbye to the Peanut Gallery) and a wide range of emotions (the funeral of John F. Kennedy and the Inauguration of Barack Obama). From “Captain Video” to “Star Trek” to “Lost;” from “A Brighter Day” to “The Edge of Night” to “General Hoapital;” from “Peyton Place” to “ “Dynasty” to “Desperate Housewives;” there has never been a greater love, than that of “The TVJ” and the best friend a girl could ever have.