re: Wet Hot American Summer (Netflix original)

Really like how they expanded on some of the characters and in doing so added a level of depth to the movie.

Examples:

-In the movie, Showalter's character seems like a good guy who should get the girl, but just doesn't because Marguerite Moreau's character is a bitch.
-With the background elaborated on in the series we see that Showalter is kind of a neurotic loser who falls for girls who are just nice to him.


-In the movie Paul Rudd and Moreau's characters' relationship seems like a terrible, shallow tryst.
-In the show, we see that there is more there than just a shallow physical attraction and they have a nice little half-day courtship culminating in that great scene during Electro-City.


-Obviiously we get to see how the Michael Ian-Black/Bradley Cooper relationship developed, I thought their "creative" discussion was hysterical.

-I also really like the parallel between the young kids' little crush triangle and the Showalter/Rudd/Moreau triangle from the first movie.

-The scene where Abby becomes a woman is hilarious, and even more so if you watched the movie. Also idk why exactly, but I thought the nurse was/still is sexy.


So I thought the show did a good job expanding/elaborating in these areas nicely.

Then there were the things that were totally just concocted for the show. These things kind of just made me go WTF? But I think they worked alright, the writers wanted to give everyone a compelling storyline and in some of these cases they definitely had to do some reaching.

-Elizabeth Banks' character being an undercover journalist.

-Chris Meloni/Molly Shannon's relationship was just kind of weird, although I loved that the guy who played Asian Jim showed up. Meloni might have the funniest parts of the whole series between his skip-chasing Ken Marino and growing a beard in like half a second.

-The whole thing with the toxic sludge seemed forced, but I can overlook all of it just because we got one episode with Jon H Benjamin.



Other thoughts:

-I've never been a fan of Jason Schwartzman so I could have done without him altogether.

-Thought they could have done more with Kevin Sussman's character. Same for AD Miles and Zack Orth, although neither of those guys were major players in the movie either.

-Ken Marino and Jo Lo Truglio are hilarious, as always.

-David Hyde Pierce looks like he hasn't aged a day since the movie came out.

-Amy Pohler and the guy from Mad Men- that whole storyline was out of place.

-Wain's character, Yaron, was hilarious, but also really frustrating.

just watched the movie. i cannot believe i never knew about this until the show came out. christopher maloni's character is fantastic

I enjoyed the mini Mad Men reunion