Greg The Bunny episode reviews

Episode 1. "Welcome to Sweetknuckle Junction" I've seen various episodes of Greg The Bunny over the years, but never all of them and never in the right order. I've always liked it, but found it to be uneven. Despite it's inspired concept (puppets are real) there are a few unfunny episodes. There are also some hysterical ones. The first episode falls somewhere in the middle. We meet Greg (an out of work puppet looking for an office job who accidentally winds up starring in a TV show) and his friend Jimmy, a loser pool-boy who follows Greg into show business (acting as his agent). At heart, it's basically an old-fashioned ensemble situation comedy series, about a mis-matched group who produce a kids TV series. Half of them just happen to be puppets, that's all. Greg's funny, but it's especially worth watching for Warren's one-liners and Sarah Silverman's short skirts!

Episode 2. "Sock Like Me" definitely falls into the "why isn't this funnier?" category. The central idea (puppet sensitivity training) is inspired but there are no gags most of the time. Any laughs that occur tend to be generated by Warren's one-liners. Everything else is just characters talking. Maybe the producers were hoping we'd be amused by the fact that we're looking at puppets and that that would be enough. Guess what? It's not!

Episode 3. "Dottie Heat" It may have a plot from the Big Book Of Standard Sitcom Plots but this one is a winner from start to finish. Unlike the previous episode which seemed to hope we'd be amused because, you know, half the cast are puppets and that should be enough, this one is full of great one-liners and lots of laughs.

Both Jimmy and Greg have romance on their minds at the start of the story and, while Jimmy has no chance with woman of his dreams, Greg winds up (by accident) having a date with the object of his desire: Dottie. Their date is hilarious and so is the aftermath (where Greg lies to the guys at work about having had sex with Dottie). Sure, it's a bit lame that he has to learn a lesson about friendship and respect and all that jazz, but - every step of the way - the laughs flow freely. Particularly when Warren is on-screen. His running gag of Christmas innuendo is particular funny.

Great fun.

Episode 4. "SK-2.0" What a schizophrenic show! This episode kinda sucked. It was all about revamping the television show that the regulars work on. The revamp was extreme and none of them liked it. But, I'm not sure what exactly was supposed to be funny. Maybe we were supposed to be amused because the revamped version of their show looked so different, but - in fact - it actually looked like kids show's I've seen. Maybe that was the point. I don't know. Thing is, I wouldn't be wondering about this kind of stuff if there were actual gags to make me laugh.

I also hated the b-plot. Where Jimmy and his dad "learned a lesson" and bonded a bit at the end. What the frak?! Did FOX make the producers do episodes like this, or were the writers deliberately using lame plots to make us laugh. I don't know. I know I didn't laugh.

Episode 5. "Piddler on the Roof" is a middle-of-the-road episode. Not hilarious, but not awful either. Warren (the show's best character) takes a leak inside Alison's car! The sub-plot (about Alison's feelings being hurt) is a real yawner, but there are few good laughs to found elsewhere.

Episode 6. "Rabbit Redux" Wow. This is one of the episodes I missed first time round. Wow, again. A great episode. Funny, and with surprising depth. Wow. Who'd a thunk it? Rochester returns. The rabbit who was fired, thus giving Greg his big break on TV. Rochester has fallen on hard times. So Greg, feeling guilty, gets him back on the show. Then Rochester has a heart-attack and dies. And the final half is about how everyone deals with it. And it's really well-written. Warren (so my favourite character at this stage) gives a great eulogy and I really feel like I've seen something rather great. Wow.

Episode 7. "Father & Son Reunion" has always been my favourite episode of Greg The Bunny. I haven't seen them all, of course, and I now realise that Episode 6 is brilliant also, but I still think this is aces. Greg, Jimmy and Gil get high on hash brownies and go throw eggs at the house of someone they all hate. Or, at least, try and throw eggs at the house. Their shots go wildly askew and the whole attack degenerates into a very odd conversation over a hedge. Hilarious.

I normally don't like the serious elements of Greg The Bunny episodes. When the show tries to teach lessons about being nice or some such crap. Usually the 'heartfelt stories leave me cold, and seem like added-on network interference. But Rochester's death (in the previous episode) and the father-son stuff (in this episode) really work. Even if the rest of the episode wasn't very, very funny I would still enjoy these stories. But, as it happens, the rest of the episode is very, very funny.

Susan The Monster, Tardy Turtle and Snookums have hilarious small scenes. Jack and Dottie have a funny sub-plot about random meetings outside of work and Warren (my favourite character) gets to give a great monologue and get into a fight with his audience.

Episode 8. "Jimmy Drives Gil Crazy" I had totally forgotten about this episode. It's hilarious. Man, I had better re-think my views on this show. Sure, it had some lame episodes early on, but once it got rolling, it really got rolling. This is an inspired episode. Warren (who still gets all the best lines) sends Jimmy and Greg round to his house on a errand. Greg waits in the car, while Jimmy runs in. Inside he finds a naked girl swimming in Warren's pool. She explains that she has snuck in to skinny dip on her way from school. Turns out that she's an 18-year-old catholic schoolgirl (complete with uniform) who is feeling a bit naughty and wants to experiment with video cameras. Watching Jimmy react to each of these wonderful revelations (eventually he cries tears of pure joy) is some of the funniest work Seth Green has ever done. Meanwhile, Greg has woken up to find that Warren's car has been stolen by Warren's neighbour Corey Feldman who has gotten into a prank war with Warren. Thing is, the police don't understand and they find themselves in a high-speed police chase. A televised police chase. Which, of course, is seen by everybody at work. Who assume that Jimmy has flipped out and is still driving Warren's car. Each of them in turn feels guilty for stuff they have said to Jimmy (while Alison just gets incredibly turned by the revelation that he is a bad boy) and Gil eventually runs off to join the chase and save his son. The same son who, at that exact moment, has been tied up by the Catholic School Girl and is being 'forced' to make various animal sounds while she films him.

As the episodes switches from location to location it just keeps getting funnier and the climax where Gil unwittingly declares his boundless love for Corey Feldman is a real classic. Funny because Feldman leaps from the car to reciprocate the love!

Episode 8. "Jimmy Drives Gil Crazy" Decided to give this classic episode a second watch. It takes a heck of a long time to get going, but when it does it sure provides the laughs. Greg being held hostage in a speeding car: Funny! Jimmy tied up and filmed by a scantily-clad schoolgirl: Funny! The gang watching the police chase on TV: Funny! And Gil declaring his love for Corey Feldman: Funny! Definitely on a par with the egg-throwing episode.

Episode 9. "Greg Gets Puppish" Another so-so episode. When this show is funny, it's very funny. And when it's not funny, it delivers episodes like this one: in which Greg embraces his puppet heritage. There are few gags floating around, yes, but a lot of the dialogue is just to drive the (boring) story and it leaves you unsure what to make of it all. Is it meant to be comedy with a message? Or are they just bad are doing satire? The ending is another one of those soft and fuzzy ones they sometimes do on this show: where friendship wins out over differences. An odd episode. I don't watch Greg The Bunny for touchy-feely crap.

Episode 10. "Surprise!" Middle-of-the-road episode. Not the funniest that the show has done, but it has several classic (and very funny) moments. Sasha Alexander guests as TV Guide reporter who is assigned to profile the entire cast and, since she has to interview all of them, she basically appears in every scene and carries the whole episode. Works for me! All of the regular cast (human and puppet) get a chance to shine in this one. Sarah Silverman has never been funnier on the show, but it is still Warren who gets all the best lines. He's my favourite character, with Tardy Turtle (also superb in this episode) now coming a close second.

What brings the episode down (IMHO) is the soft-and-fuzzy side of the story. When the story opens the gang are (inexplicably) bickering more than usual while Greg's voice-over makes observations about... family. Anyway, as the reporter goes from person to person we learn that most of them are unhappy with someone else in the cast. Then, in the birthday party at the end, when the reporter is about to unveil a scandal that might damage the show, they all pull together and stand up for one another. Cue a sickening voice-over from Greg about... family. Awful.

Never mind. This time out the comedy rises above schmaltz. Many, many scenes are laugh-out-loud funny. My favourite? Jimmy finds Sarah Silverman and Sasha Alexander (both looking supremely hot) in some girl-on-girl action and declares: "Considering that we only had three hours to plan, I would say this is a pretty damn good party!"

Episode 11. "The Jewel Heist" Superb. Although dragged down somewhat by having to be "about something", in this case "the friendship between Greg and Jimmy", this is still an episode filled to the brim with laugh-out-loud moments. While the girls get obsessed with a paintball game, most of the guys skip out on it and head over to Greg's to help him deal with a dangerous dog (belonging to Jimmy's new girlfriend). The solution? Junction Jack performs surgery, replacing a vital part of the dog's anatomy with novelty eyeballs that make a tune when banged together.

Episode 12. "The Singing Mailman" A pretty good episode. Some genuine laughs as Dottie is blackmailed into getting a really bad actor onto the show. When he's bad (on camera) it's very funny, and the episode continues to amuse as we see how everyone reacts. First of all when they all openly hate him and later when Dottie has sweet-talked them all into helping her help the guy keep his job. At one point Alison is told the guy is "clearly ahead of his time". When she points out that this makes him no use to the show, the compliment is amended to: "He's only about three weeks ahead of his time, so by the time the show airs he'll be perfect!" Man, I laughed at that.

Episode 13. "Blah Bawls" Flawed it may have been but this show managed some great episodes. A few were dreadful, yes, but most were pretty okay. This is one of those. It's funny and makes great use of the characters. Blah takes centre-stage and it's wonderful. He's a rich and interesting character: Pining for his dead wife and being dragged to a singles club against his will. Lots of funny stuff in all of that, but also a bit of depth and meaning. Things go awry when he ends up sleeping with Warren's ex-wife. The ex-wife that Warren is still very much in love with.

This being a sit-com the amorous couple accidentally switch phones which brings everyone to the same place at the same time and allows for lots of comedy mis-understandings. Warren (my favourite character on the show) is priceless in all his scenes and - as well as being funny - the script does a great job of making both regulars into even more interesting characters than they previously were.

Not the best episode but a funny, clever outing nonetheless. This show should have survived.