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ACROSS
1 Fall follower?
5 Ophidian
menace
8 Brightness stats
11 Arts supporters
14 Frat letter
15 Akhenaten’s son
16 On the level
17 Battle of Khafji
conflict
19 “Battle it out”
quintet
20 Plasma particle
21 Loafer’s lack
22 Some
audiobooks
23 Pro shop
supplies
26 Opposite of bids
27 Kool-Aid
alternative
28 “__ Eterno”: 2004
sports
documentary
29 Boorish
30 Detergent with
Oxi Booster
31 Bone: Pref.
32 “Seasons in the
Sun” songwriter
33 Dot on an MTA
map
34 “Love in the Time
of __”: García
Márquez work
36 ICU staffer
39 “Can’t argue with
that!”
41 Former car-
financing org.
42 It may come after
you
43 Court attire
45 Rooting sound
46 Hardly bright
47 “Agreed!”
48 Title girl in a 1965
#1 hit
50 Sushi topper
51 Mall draw
52 Sci-fi suffix
53 Signs of
dissatisfaction
55 Appears ... and
the contents of
this puzzle’s
circles?
57 “Missed your
chance!”
59 Brief facilities?
60 Zing
61 Early Alaskans
62 Memphis-to-
Nashville dir.

63 Year abroad
64 Payroll
deduction,
perhaps

DOWN
1 The Police, most
of the time
2 Bit of deception
3 A, in Argentina
4 ISP option
5 Shoptalk
6 Treats as persona
non grata
7 D.C. figure
8 Realization often
preceded by
“Whew!”
9 Charlatans
10 Hardly gloss over
11 Still-life subject
12 Swallowed one’s
pride
13 Rodgers and
Hart title lyric that
precedes “I get
no dizzy spells”
18 Roadside
warning
20 James Brown
memoir
24 Inclusive pronoun
25 Quartet member
29 One way to
lighten the mood

32 Word before or
after name
35 Key of Dvorák’s
“New World
Symphony”:
Abbr.
37 Before
38 They can’t be
beaten
40 Get Wired again
43 Fight in the sticks
44 Fred Astaire, by
birth

48 President
François
Hollande’s
birthplace
49 Whale relative
54 Bulldog fans
56 Facial spot
57 Brother of Jack
and Bobby
58 College Football
Playoff champion
crowned Jan. 12,
2015

By John Farmer
©2015 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
02/27/15

02/27/15

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

RELEASE DATE– Friday, February 27, 2015

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

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6 — Friday, February 27, 2015
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Bad jokes sink new
comedy ‘Odd Couple’

Multi-camera sitcom

wastes Matthew

Perry’s talent

By ALEX INTNER

Daily Arts Writer

At this point, you can tell if

you’re watching a CBS sitcom.
While
other
networks
have

tried playing with multi-camera
comedies,
CBS

is the only one
to
have
recent

success
in
the

genre. Shows like
“The
Big
Bang

Theory” and “2
Broke Girls” can
be defined as a
“CBS
comedy”

based merely on
their
appearance

and structure. “The
Odd Couple,” the latest sitcom
from the network, fits right into
this mold. The series will be able to
find fans, but the generic jokes and
unenthused actors aren’t really
worth anyone’s time.

“The Odd Couple,” based on

the Neil Simon play from the ’60s
and the television series from the
’70s, tells the story of recently
divorced neat freak Felix Unger
(Thomas Lennon, “Reno 911”)
moving in with the messy, sports-
radio broadcaster Oscar Madison
(Matthew Perry, “Go On”). The
pilot features them on a double
date with Perry’s neighbor Casey
(Leslie Bibb, “GCB”) and her sister
Emily (Lindsay Sloane, “Horrible
Bosses”).

In a multi-camera sitcom, the

jokes must be funny or else the
studio audience laughter will
be awkward, and the attempts
for laughs on the “Odd Couple”
lack any keen sense of humor.
They follow the traditional “line-
punchline” structure that has
defined multi-cam for years, but
they lack any sense of invention or
originality. When Felix comments
on improving Oscar’s beauty,
Oscar exclaims “I’m trying to
be inside a beautiful person.”
Perpetual jokes like that feel lazy,
causing the comedy to be more
boring than entertaining.

It doesn’t help that most of

the “Odd Couple” ’s cast appears
to
be
sleep-walking
through

the episode. Perry is a gifted
performer, but it doesn’t appear
he gives much effort. He reads the
punchlines with about as much
energy as a college student right
after exams. Lennon tries to create
a realistic character, but he doesn’t
have much room to work with such
one-note material. The supporting
cast is also a collection of talented
actors, and the show wastes their
potential as well. Wendell Pierce
(“The Wire”) proves he can carry
both
comedic
and
dramatic

material on “Treme,” and Yvette
Nicole Brown has demonstrated
that she can be hysterically funny
on
“Community.”
However,

they’re barely in the first episode
and are saddled with some of the
dullest material on the show —
making it seem like their presence
is purely to cash the paychecks.

CBS has shown with “Mom” and

“The Big Bang Theory” that they’re
capable of making imaginative
sitcom jokes. However, “The Odd
Couple” doesn’t try to do anything
different with the classic stock
story. It’s fine enough to find an
audience between episodes of “Big
Bang,” but not good enough to be
worth watching.

CBS

“Is that your nubbin?”

C-

The Odd
Couple

Series
Premiere

CBS
Thursdays at
8:30 p.m.

GENDER AND MEDIA COLUMN

‘Knope we can’:

Leslie’s impact on me

T

his column contains spoil-
ers for the series finale of
“Parks and Recreation.”

For my column this week, I

was going to
write
about

the
Oscars.

I was plan-
ning
an

impassioned
but
rational

delibera-
tion on why
“Boyhood”
deserved the
Best Picture
award
more

than “Birdman.” I had estab-
lished
an
elaborate
schema

charting the casual misogyny
and studied misrepresentation
found in “Birdman.” I spent
more time than what is healthy
Googling
Patricia
Arquette,

and I took copious notes on her
much-publicized Best Actress
acceptance speech.

Then I watched the “Parks

and Recreation” series finale
three times in a row, and my pri-
orities changed.

This is not a review of the

“Parks” finale or the final sea-
son. I can’t even begin to col-
lect my feelings about what has
quietly become the best show
on television — funny in the
familiar, giddy way of being
drunk with your best friends
and sharply political, but with a
warmth running thick and sin-
ewy through every scene and
storyline.
Reviewing
“Parks”

would be like sitting down and
giving my mom a letter grade on
her job as a parent. (Though if I
had to do it, Mom, you would get
an A- because of that time you
told me I might be better off dat-
ing gay guys.) But Leslie Knope
was one of the most empow-
ering, endearing and timeless
characters on television, and
while saying goodbye is hard,
her sendoff was pretty goddamn
magical.

Sometimes it’s easy to forget

how revolutionary Leslie had

become over her seven seasons,
because of the goofy awkward-
ness Poehler infused into the
character, her dorky dancing
and almost-sexual attraction to
mac and cheese pizza, distract-
ing from Leslie’s impressive real
mission. She went from being a
lowly, slightly sad government
employee to a beacon of liberal-
ism, a powerful public figure,
a caring friend and balanced
mother.

We watched Leslie run for

office; we watched her lose. We
watched her face sexist cowork-
ers (from Jamm to Councilman
Milton to the sex-negative Lang-
mans.) We watched her fight
the uphill battle for approval
in Pawnee, a place slyly repre-
sentative of all of conservative
America. We watched her find
love in her equal Ben Wyatt,
kindly (but firmly) reject some
weirdos (including Louis C.K. in
one of his most cringe-inducing
roles yet), have children and
make a giant career leap at the
same time. Every shade of Les-
lie blared feminist, a label she
didn’t deny (I have a magnet
with her quote, “Hoes before
bros, uteruses before duderuses,
ovaries before brovaries” on my
fridge), but that never was her
most salient characteristic — her
feminism was tightly connected
with her pluck, tenacity and
kindness.

Leslie and her co-conspir-

ators were some of the most
fleshed-out characters on televi-
sion, especially in comedy, but
Poehler skillfully masked Les-
lie’s complexity in her outright
hilarity. It was only after the
joke that the depth behind Les-
lie’s ideology, and her character,
coalesced. But don’t get con-
fused: Leslie Knope is one of the
strongest and most important
characters on TV ever, because
of these very shades.

In the last few minutes of the

“Parks and Recreation” finale,
we get a glimpse into Leslie’s
future: She is doing something

big, something important, some-
thing very public. Is she the next
Hillary? Quite possible, given her
hairstyle and Poehler’s uncanny
past impressions of Clinton. But
despite her power, Leslie is still
Leslie – warm and supportive
and overzealous. “Parks” did
the incredible by making us fall
in love with a character before
her success or political awaken-
ing, when she was still a humble
government official just trying
to build a park. It makes Leslie’s
path all the more rewarding,
and the ending of the show that
much more bittersweet.

Last month, I had a really

scary job interview in New
York. My flight was leaving
at 9 a.m. and the night before,
the clock turned 1, and then 2,
and still I was awake, mentally
going over my resume yet again
as I took excessive trips to the
bathroom. Finally, I reached
under my bed and pulled out
my copy of “Yes Please,” Amy
Poehler’s autobiography. While
there are a lot of encouraging
chapters I could have turned
to — her triumphant time on
Saturday Night Live, her words
of advice to young girls or her
experiences
volunteering
in

Haiti — I went straight to the
chapter on “Parks.”

I needed comfort, and I

needed strength, and I needed
the knowledge that I could
succeed. Amy, through Leslie,
has given that to me for seven
years, reminding me that other
bumbling, waffle-loving Mid-
western girls can find success
and passion, and that it is OK
for me to have high expecta-
tions for myself. Just like Les-
lie so brightly exclaimed in the
final words of the episode, she’s
ready for whatever happens
next. And because of “Parks,”
I’m ready too.

Gadbois is nailing that job

interview. To offer her words

of encouragement, email

natgadb@umich.edu.

NATALIE
GADBOIS

On breakup albums

By MICHAEL FLYNN

Daily Arts Writer

One of the jobs of a musician

is to convey human emotion, and
on a breakup album, the emotion
comes in droves. Singers and
songwriters have been pouring
their hearts out over this sad
subject for years, taking many
different approaches to their
grief. Some breakup albums were
sad, some incredibly angry, some
brimming with excitement for a
new chapter of life. The best were
all of these at once, which is most
representative of how a breakup
feels as time goes on. Like those
that stem from a relationship, the
emotions of a breakup are varied,
contradictory and always intense.

Many times, breakup albums

have
captivated
audiences

with their emotional honesty,
sometimes even taking the artists
to a new level of success.

Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours is

one of the most famous examples,
recorded when everyone in the
band was breaking up ... with
each other. The album became
the group’s best-selling release,
with over 20 million copies sold.

Bob Dylan has vehemently

denied that his spare mid-’70s
masterpiece Blood on the Tracks
was influenced by his divorce, but
the songs, filled with crushing
sadness and righteous fury, seem
too deeply felt to be pure fiction.
The album is now viewed as
one of his best releases, and to
this day, reviews of Dylan’s new
material include the quote: “It’s
his best album since Blood on the
Tracks!”

Occasionally, a breakup is

enough to make an artist change
his or her style considerably. On
Beck’s 2002 album Sea Change,
he eschewed his traditional hip-
hop influences in favor of a simple
acoustic sound, and traded his
clever wordplay for more sincere
lyrics. Kanye West embraced
Auto-Tune on 2008’s electronica-
influenced 808s and Heartbreak,
using it as a melodic instrument
and an emotional tool — the
effect gives his voice a quavering

sound reminiscent of a person
on the verge of tears. And Taylor
Swift’s smash hit Red completed
her transformation from country
artist to pop sensation, featuring
modern
instrumentation
and

snappy,
sometimes
humorous

lyrics — the opposite of Beck’s
approach.

The genre doesn’t seem to be

going away, and in fact continues
to become more popular as
years go on. In the year 2014,
Coldplay released Ghost Stories,
The Black Keys released Turn
Blue and Robin Thicke released
Paula. They all had one thing
in common: the theme was of a
relationship breakup.

Why are these albums so

popular? In some ways, the
breakup album can be seen
as a window into the things
we feel but can’t necessarily
communicate. With the huge
variety of emotions that come
from such a troubling event,
it can be hard to know how to
handle oneself, or even what to
feel. Listening to albums like this
can help a heartbroken person
realize that he or she isn’t alone,
that there is someone out there
who feels like he or she does.

Picture a young man sitting

in his room. He opens up
his CD player, pops in Bruce
Springsteen’s
divorce
opus

Tunnel of Love and presses the
play button. There is one track
in particular that speaks to him:
“Valentine’s Day,” the album’s
final track. It’s a slow country
dirge that features a man driving
home as fast as he can, aching to
be back with his lover.

The young Springsteen fan

is in the midst of a long, painful
breakup. He knows the breakup
is what he needs, but that doesn’t
make it feel any better. So why is
he drawn to “Valentine’s Day,”
a song about missing a person,
about wanting to be back with a
person?

Perhaps
it’s
because
he

remembers the way he used to feel,
and the song is a reminder that
someday, after the pain subsides,
he will feel that way again.