Review: 'Raising Hope' -'Prodigy': Hard to handle
Season 2 begins with more sweet silliness
Young Jimmy shows off his piano-playing skills in the "Raising Hope" season premiere.
Premiere week has got me swamped, but I had time to watch the "Raising Hope" premiere at lunch today and wanted to at least get up a post about it to acknowledge the strong start Greg Garcia and company got off to for the second season. "Prodigy" was just the right mixture of silly and sweet - and, with the 9/11 joke, impressively hovering on tasteless without quite landing there - Garret Dillahunt continues to make me laugh with almost everything he says and does ("I made that boy with my wang!"), baby Hope remains adorable, and the three adult leads continue to work very well together.
I imagine I'll check back in at a later point in the season, but an excellent beginning. With any luck, "New Girl" will be a hit and, in turn, be a more compatible lead-in for "Raising Hope" than "Glee" turned out to be last spring.
What did everybody else think?
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Login or create a HitFix account Login SignupNathan
September 20, 2011 at 10:27PM EST Reply to CommentWhat's funny is I thought to myself, that happened on Family Guy, didn't it? And then they acknowledge it. And then turn that convention on it's head when it turns out that they were just beer goggiling Jimmy's success. Plus, I love the numerous Sherwood Schwartz references.
Meg I too was not feeling the drunk-talent story because I just recently watched the episode of Happy Endings where Penny only knows Italian when she's drunk, and then they went and acknowledged the similarity, and THEN they went above and beyond by making it about Burt and Virginia being drunk. I usually hate meta-jokes, but that (plus the convo with the doctor about TV shows making up medical conditions to serve the story) were just perfectly self-deprecating and still very true to the characters. Loved it.
September 20, 2011 at 10:44PM ESTAlf
September 21, 2011 at 12:57AM EST Reply to CommentI'm so glad this show is back!
Alf The captcha kept thinking I was a robot, so if my comment eventually shows up a million times, I apologize.
September 21, 2011 at 1:00AM ESTJenny
September 21, 2011 at 2:18AM EST Reply to CommentLol, so hilarious. I love that they totally referenced Happy Endings. This is seriously one of the best comedies currently on right now.
Kenny
September 21, 2011 at 2:49AM EST Reply to CommentBetween this episode and the self-conscious Sunny-inspired dead-tooth backpedal, this show is the most aware of other currently-running comedies of any currently-running comedy. And yet somehow the characters keep it from feeling too arch.
Bob
September 21, 2011 at 4:03AM EST Reply to CommentWhats the name of that dude with the Barbara Walters hair, named after the dog movie?
Jerry
September 21, 2011 at 7:02AM EST Reply to CommentDid anybody else catch Virginia holding the lighter up to the thermostat? To get the temperature to change? To get the heat to turn off?
lgreene
September 21, 2011 at 9:56AM EST Reply to Commenti found the 9/11 comment disgusting and in poor taste
lexi agree
September 21, 2011 at 10:03AM ESTNathan The joke was not in bad taste. It was quite hilarious. They didn't say anything about the tragedy itself and instead referenced the date. Besides, are you really going to take offense from a character who is obviously played as a dullard. I mean, he confused amnesia for anemia. Would it have been any different if Cloris Leachman's character made a reference to the date of Pearl Harbor being the worst day of her life?
September 21, 2011 at 10:24AM ESTlgreene Yes it would have been just as bad. Remember this is a tv show and a "dullard" or semi senile woman did not come up with the line. It was written by what is supposed to be an adult writer who should have more sense then to make any sort of joke where peoples lives were lost or changed forever.
September 21, 2011 at 10:55AM ESTDan More people are negatively (and personally) impacted every year by Parkinson's Disease, yet I don't hear you complaining about that joke from Cloris Leachman... even though it was a direct insult to those with Parkinson's Disease, whereas the 9/11 joke was merely about the date, not the events of that day. Lighten up.
September 21, 2011 at 11:34AM ESTnathan Yes, I realize that the writers are not dullards but they are writing for a character who is clearly not the brightest bulb in the house. If we can't find humor out of the darkest things, then we might as well never laugh. And it's not even about patriotism, it's about comedy. And seriously, speaking of Family Guy...I have heard way more offensive jokes on there about 9/11, than a quick complaint about 9/11. But both are great shows and the people who watch it understand that sometimes for the sake of comedy, you have to go dark. Now, I'll watch my Louis C.K stand-up.
September 21, 2011 at 11:51AM ESTKelli Oliver George I was not offended by the comment -- it rang completely true to the character.
September 25, 2011 at 10:59AM ESTEd G.
September 21, 2011 at 11:09AM EST Reply to CommentI thought Kate Micucci's song at the beginning of the show was the best "Previously on [fill in the show name]" moment I've ever seen.
Dan Agreed. Outstanding way to bring new viewers quickly up to date while conveying the quirky spirit/humor of the show.
September 21, 2011 at 11:35AM ESThmm2 And a nice Sherwood Schwartz tribute
September 23, 2011 at 5:28AM ESTKelli Oliver George
September 25, 2011 at 11:03AM EST Reply to CommentOverall, this was a solid episode - something I've come to expect from Raising Hope.
Also, I loved the Young Jimmy cameo played by Grayson Chance -- I saw him when he performed at the BlogHer Conference last year in NYC. I was happy to see that crazily talented kid getting parts. For me, that casting piece was almost part of the joke itself, because Chance actually IS a music prodigy, not just some random actor.
Samantha chance Oh, how I LOVE Greyson Chance! He's so talented for his age! He tweeted about being on this show, but I missed it :(
April 10, 2012 at 10:58PM EST