But dammit, they nailed that finale.

 [Spoilers from last night’s Series Finale]

The episode took place a year after the Dunder Mifflin documentary aired. Since then, everyone has had the time to let the last nine years of their lives sink in. They reunite to celebrate Dwight and Angela’s wedding festivities, as the film crew returns to shoot bonus footage for the DVD. There’s a bachelor party that only Dwight could enjoy, a kidnapping, a stripper that Dwight mistakes for their waitress, and some other shenanigans with the groom’s freaky-deaky farm friends. The episode is packed with funny insights and assorted hilarity. Aside from all this, the 75-minute-long episode succeeded in two major ways.

First, like any strong finale, the show brought back some familiar faces. Kelly Kapoor and Ryan were reunited at the wedding (I guess true love never dies), and more importantly, Michael returns to be Dwight’s Best Man. Producers were mum on details about whether or not Carell would return, even refuting it at one point, but I was glad to see him and also glad they didn’t make the finale all about him.

Second, it finally showed some much-needed character growth and it did so with so much heart. Andy went from a YouTube sensation/laughing stock to getting a full-time gig at his Alma Mater. Erin finally found her birth parents (Oh, hey Joan Cusack!), and Meredith revealed that she was in college getting her PhD hence her partying.

And then there’s Jim and Pam. These two revisited their budding romance, the Roy days, their courtship, their marriage and parenthood all because of the documentary. Pam’s return sacrifice for Jim was a perfect ending for them, and proved that the couple is finally ready to leave Scranton behind and move on. Pam waxes nostalgic about how the documentary made it difficult to relive all her former mistakes:

“I kept wanting to scream at Pam. It took me so long to do so many important things. It’s hard to accept that I spent so many years being less happy than I could’ve been. Jim was five feet from my desk and it took me four years to get to him. It’d be great if people saw this documentary and learned from my mistakes. Not that I’m a tragic person, I’m really happy now. But it would just make my heart soar if someone out there saw this and she said to herself: ‘Be strong. Trust yourself. Love yourself. Conquer your fears. Just go after what you want and act fast! Because life just isn’t that long!’”

Well said, Beasley.

Jim also has a moment where he thanks the camera crew for capturing his last nine years:

“Imagine going back and watching a tape of your life. You could see yourself change and make mistakes and grow up. You could watch yourself fall in love. Watch yourself become a husband. Become a father. You guys gave that to me and that’s an amazing gift.”

Bravo to John Krasinski and Jenna Fischer for their nuanced performances here, which were simply stellar. Jim and Pam were great characters that I think we all enjoyed rooting for.

The finale pulled at heartstrings in all the right places. Think about the last 9 years of your life. What if you could watch that back, like one long movie? I think almost everyone can relate to how surreal that would be – having a specific time of their lives encapsulated like that, frozen in time. There’s something to it. Life rarely works that way though and as Andy put it: “I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve actually left them.”

So even though I appear to have sipped on chugged The Office Kool-aid, credit where credit is due: Greg Daniels and co. nailed this finale. Despite the last two seasons of suck-dom and the finale’s periodic self-indulgence, these guys and gals finished with a bang.

(That’s what she said!)

Seasons 8-9 Grade: C
Finale Grade: A

Community Has Been Renewed Making Up for the Aforementioned Devastation Lodged In My Gut from Happy Endings Getting Canned

As I’ve already said on Facebook: There is a God.

Losing both HE and Community might’ve been enough to convince me to give up on TV all together. (But maybe that wouldn’t have been such a bad thing.) Either way, it’s joyous, dear readers, to hear that the Greendale Human Beings (and their Dean!) will be back for more timeline-hopping, paintball-fighting insanity. It’s a beautiful thing when a show’s unparalleled creativity and its fans’ loyalty is rewarded.

CBS Picks Up New Robin Williams/Sarah Michelle Gellar Comedy The Crazy Ones

This is clearly one of my most anticipated new shows that made a network’s fall schedule. Sure, having Sarah Michelle Gellar back on TV again is like some National Sports League or whatever announcing that they’re returning from a strike or something. But ladies and gentlemen: Robin Williams on a weekly sitcom. That can only mean good things right? OK, so back to Gellar: She’s proven many times that she can do comedy – her SNL hosting gigs were all well-received! It’ll be great to see what this power-duo can do. Williams plays an unorthodox advertising executive and Gellar stars as his daughter/co-worker. It should be interesting! Oh, and Kelly Clarkson is in the pilot. Win-win-win.

Marvel’s Agents of ‘S.H.I.E.L.D. Finds a Home at ABC

It’s looking like Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is going to be the Next Big Thing on TV. I mean, The Avengers only made 239048239487 billion dollars! If those incredibly factual numbers translate to ratings, this could be the biggest thing ABC has seen since Lost. The show will follow the non-superhero humans of that universe and will star Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson, whose character was actually killed off in Joss Whedon’s The Avengers. According to Gregg, we won’t find out exactly how or why Coulson is alive…at least not right away.

Adds co-star Chloe Bennet: “If you love The Avengers, if you love any of Joss Whedon’s work, you’re going to absolutely love the show. It’s about these people living in a super world dealing with being human. You see these superhero movies and you see the superheroes struggle but you don’t see how humans do in a world like that.”

A little housekeeping: These posts are getting moved to Thursdays. With summer almost here, I’m bound to get lazier on Fridays, and you’re bound to get busier. Good talk.

If you’ve got $55, you can pick up your very own Nightmare on Elm Street toaster over at Urban Collector. Here’s the official word stuffs:

Nightmare On Elm St Toaster is an Urban Collector pre-order. He terrorized your dreams while you slept… and now Freddy Krueger haunts your breakfast when you wake up! But don’t worry — while the Springwood Slasher may have felt the burn, your bread and bagels will only endure the perfect amount of heat, toasting the shape of Freddy’s signature bladed glove into each slice. UL-tested and approved, our collectible toaster includes illuminated function buttons for Cancel, Reheat, and Frozen. The Nightmare on Elm Street logo appears on its stylish, glossy black finish. Watch out – it’s the bastard toast of a thousand loafs!

In all honesty, $55 is a little too steep, in my opinion, for a novelty toaster, but maybe the price will get slashed Freddy-style after its release.

The toaster is currently available to pre-order and is set to be released and shipped in August of this year.

The track was recorded for a special Record Store Day 10-inch that the band released in April. With Screaming Females opening for them at the time, the collaboration seemed to be fated. Shirley Manson’s vocals pair well with Marisa Paternoster’s signature scowl – the perfect crooning ying to Paternoster’s angsty yang.  And that’s not even mentioning the mindfuckingly insane shredding that the Screaming Females frontwoman adds to the track.

Check out the official video for “Because the Night” below:

 
The track is available on iTunes and also on the 10-inch in record stores around the country.

I’ll pause for a moment for your brain to explode.

If the series does make it back to the small screen, sources say it may just be for 12 episodes. Showrunner Howard Gordon (who now serves as an Executive Producer on Homeland) came up with the idea for the return, which will most likely play out like a final season. The film version of the show is most likely dead in the water.

Movie…TV show…I personally don’t care how 24 returns, I just want to see Jack Bauer one last time. Season 8, though very solid and a return to form, just didn’t end the series appropriately. We can’t have Jack just disappear into the night again! We need more finality than that and hopefully this mini-season can satisfy the Bauer craving in us all. (E! Online)

Simon Pegg’s New End of the World Flick

Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright are a dream team of sorts; they’re geeky film fans who make movies based on the genres they loved growing up. Shaun of the Dead explored the zombie-horror genre way before zombies became the new vampires. Hot Fuss took on buddy cop dramas. Next up: an end-of-the-world apocalypse movie! In The World’s End, a group of friends (Pegg, Frost and Martin Freeman from The Office and The Hobbit) set out to repeat a pub crawl that their younger, former selves took on 20 years prior. Over the course of the crawl, it becomes apparent that making it to their final destination, a pub that’s actually called “The World’s End,” becomes the least of their worries. There’s glowing beamy eyes and chasing and apocalyptic bad things! The trailer looks amazing and if you’re a fan of any of the other Pegg/Frost/Wright films, this one is surely right up your alley.

 
Emma Caulfield’s “Essnemma” Vlog

You probably remember Emma Caulfield as ex-vengeance demon Anya Jenkins from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (but since she gets all sorts of cranky when she’s only referred to as Anya, she also played Susan from Beverly Hills, 90210 and Oona in the FANTASTIC indie sci-fi-rom-com TiMER). Her vlog Essnemma is worthy of your radar. Every Thursday, she goes on her Tumblr, Facebook and Twitter and takes your questions for her weekly advice video. Generally, her advice is pretty terrible, but it’s equally hilarious! She’s a riot who doesn’t take herself, her vlogs or your shitty problems too seriously. On Tuesdays she releases her Grab Bag video – she chooses something from fan suggestions and then talks about it or reviews it. Sometimes she draws self portraits blindfolded. Or plays the marry-fuck-kill game. Or stands on her head (literally). She’s also super interactive with fans on Facebook. (Just don’t go calling her Anya.)

‘The IT Crowd’ Finale Special

Fans of the British series The IT Crowd will be pleased to hear that a finale special is now in the works! Creator Graham Linehan wrote the script and tweeted back in 2012 about wanting to wrap up the characters’ stories, but he was waiting for the actors’ schedules to open up. Guess he had to wait awhile since Chris O’Dowd is kind of a big deal now (Bridesmaids, Girls, etc.). The special is going to be 40-ish minutes. O’Dowd, Richard Ayoade, Katherine Parkinson and Matt Berry are all rumored/most likely returning. If you don’t know this series, you can catch up on all four seasons on Netflix Instant. (EW)

YO THAT’S SOME HAPPENING SHIT! I wonder how long I can keep this premise up. 

Producer: I don’t… I-I just don’t think this… the idea of the song can sustain itself for that long because it…it seems a little sweaty now, so…
Tracy: This whole premise is sweaty!

Til next time!

Bacon!

Thanks to Anna for the tip!

The track was released digitally in February and appears on the band’s March 2013 album called Bad Blood (which as of yet, has not hit the U.S. or Spotify.) It’s a semi-dancey track perfect for those still bugging out over Imagine Dragons or Atlas Genius or Walk the Moon. It’s one of those feel-good pop-rock songs that feels big, lyrically and musically. It sort of sweeps you away with its self-aware lyrics about the passing of time and the struggle to remain optimistic in a fast-paced world. It’s quite infectious and I love it. Check it out:

Props to Jamie for sending this over!

Even though I despise gender targeted marketing ploys (I don’t need “Man Scents” or Dude-packaging to make me want my home smelling awesome) I don’t despise this latest release from Yankee Candle: the “Mmm, Bacon” candle.

Because BACON.

I want it. I want it to hard. Who wouldn’t want the smell of bacon permeating throughout the room 24/7? How can this be a bad thing?

This Yankee Candle link says these mandles (see what I did there?) are coming soon, probably to be promoted heavily for Father’s Day. So check back soon, bacon lovers.

Since my darling mother-in-law posted this on Facebook and tagged me, I think she should buy me one. HINT HINT!