My Own Little World

In the past 25 years, there has not been another show like Friends . No show has been more universally well-liked throughout its run and inserted itself into culture as much. No show has been as popular as it has been after its run has ended (no thanks to Netflix). No show has as much hype on the "let's make a reunion" train as this one. Friends  is a really good show, don't get me wrong. It deserves most, if not all, of that acclaim. That being said, there is a certain level of polish to the show that makes  Friends  feel very tailored to be a popular show. This level of polish does make the show good and even great for a majority of its run, but there's also part of me that feels it could have taken more risks later on in the show's run to make it feel a bit fresher rather than rely on its established formula. The one thing that definitely was perfect about Friends  was the casting. David Schwimmer, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matthew Perry, Lisa ...

I feel like I need to clear the air with my opinion on comedy. Many of you probably think that I find comedy insulting to my intelligence and that slapstick can never be good. So, I'm going to take a look at one of my favorite comedies to prove you all wrong. Bruce Almighty  is not my favorite comedy or my favorite slapstick. It's not even my favorite Jim Carrey movie (that would be The Truman Show ). However, I feel that it demonstrates what a good slapstick comedy can be more so than almost any other film I've seen. Many of you are probably familiar with Bruce Almighty 's premise: down-on-his-luck reporter Bruce Nolan is given God's powers for a week of his life. Most comedies would use this in an extremely trivial way, making Bruce use God's powers for his own advantage and using physical comedy as the primary tool for getting laughs. And at first, that is exactly what happens: we get to see what Bruce would do with God's powers if...