I have very mixed feelings about this episode. I very rarely comment on IMDb, even more rarely on series and almost never on individual episodes. This is one major exception (*salute* "Major Exception").
I never thought a comedy sitcom can (or should) pull this off, but it happened. The thing I call "The Big Dip", on the emotional roller-coaster. Drama series regularly try to pull this off, and fail, because the audience expects it, but you never expect is from a lighthearted comedy sitcom. The only other series that pulled this off at least commendably is Dexter.
The Big Dip: making the audience feel really good, happy and content, when you least expect it (usually at the very end of the episode), it suddenly breaks it with an earth-shattering revelation that suddenly flips the spectrum and makes you so sad you wanna cry. On a graph, it would look the the "happiness" slowly rising, and reach 10 (max) right before the end, and then outta the blue suddenly drop to not 0, but -10. Like the big dip on the roller-coaster. Drama series can't pull this off, because they start from 0 and drop from there, but funny sitcoms go from 10 to -10 in a heartbeat and that is a shock because you never expect it.
I won't spoil what happens, but from the title of the episode (Bad News) you can guess it's pretty sad. I only give it 9 stars, because I think funny sitcoms shouldn't do this, but it was so well executed I can't help but applaud the writers and actors. It's a unique episode I will never forget.
I never thought a comedy sitcom can (or should) pull this off, but it happened. The thing I call "The Big Dip", on the emotional roller-coaster. Drama series regularly try to pull this off, and fail, because the audience expects it, but you never expect is from a lighthearted comedy sitcom. The only other series that pulled this off at least commendably is Dexter.
The Big Dip: making the audience feel really good, happy and content, when you least expect it (usually at the very end of the episode), it suddenly breaks it with an earth-shattering revelation that suddenly flips the spectrum and makes you so sad you wanna cry. On a graph, it would look the the "happiness" slowly rising, and reach 10 (max) right before the end, and then outta the blue suddenly drop to not 0, but -10. Like the big dip on the roller-coaster. Drama series can't pull this off, because they start from 0 and drop from there, but funny sitcoms go from 10 to -10 in a heartbeat and that is a shock because you never expect it.
I won't spoil what happens, but from the title of the episode (Bad News) you can guess it's pretty sad. I only give it 9 stars, because I think funny sitcoms shouldn't do this, but it was so well executed I can't help but applaud the writers and actors. It's a unique episode I will never forget.
