Parenthood–Adam and Kristina finally relent this week, letting Haddie date Alex, with some ground rules. Which is what they should have done in the first place. And Crosby and Jasmine had a blowout fight, which makes things look a little murky for their impending marriage. The always enjoyable John Corbett showed up as Drew and Amber’s recovering drug addict dad, Seth, and Sarah was none too pleased. We’re not sure how much he’ll be around, but we like the wrinkle. Julia and Joel were virtually invisible, and no one really missed them.
Portlandia – IFC’s new sketch show gives us Saturday Night Live’s Fred Armisen and Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein in a Portland that never left the 90s. (“In Portland, you can put a bird on something and call it art!”) While the premise sounds like it might be a little too limited, it’s actually pretty hilarious. The recurring sketch where the leads run a feminist bookstore in which it’s very difficult to actually buy anything is a hoot (and has given us special guest customers Steve Buscemi and Audrey Plaza), and the Adult Hide-and-Seek League would have been the best sketch on SNL had it actually aired there. This week, Aimee Mann appeared as Fred and Carrie’s cleaning lady. Who was Aimee Mann. It made for some funny bits, where they were starstruck by their musical hero, but also very demanding of their cleaning lady. They periodically destroyed effigies of other female singer-songwriters to show their support, but then demanded that she clean up the mess. IFC is a great place to go for comedy now – between Portlandia, Onion News Network, The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret, and their repeats of Mr. Show, Freaks and Geeks, and The Larry Sanders Show, there’s something funny just about every night of the week.
