summer TV: Men at Work

So I used to sometimes start getting Netflix in the summer, or just rent a bunch of TV shows on DVD or check them out from the library, but the last two summers, it's randomly been all about reruns of Veronica Mars and The Big Bang Theory. However, twice now I have caught Men at Work, which features Danny Masterson, a.k.a. Hyde from That '70s Show and Michael Cassidy, a.k.a. Zach from The O.C. (Remember Zach? Remember when Seth went away to Portland or wherever without saying goodbye Summer, and when he came back, she was dating like a better-looking version of him? And Seth kind of begrudgingly liked him, and they wound up creating a comic book together? And we all kind of begrudgingly liked him, too, even though we wanted Seth and Summer to get back together? Anyway.).

The first episode of Men at Work I saw was kind of stupid; Michael Cassidy's character, Tyler, had a new girlfriend that he really liked, only he found out she'd had a threesome with his friend Gibbs (James Lesure), so he couldn't kiss her without picturing Gibbs. First of all, the threesome thing. Television would have us believe that at least one person in every group of friends has had one, which I don't think is true. Second of all, the whole "imagining your girlfriend as someone you really don't want to be getting intimate with" has been done a bunch of different times, and it's never that funny.

The second episode I saw changed my tune, and in fact had me commenting to people over the course of the next couple of days, "Have you seen that Men at Work show? It's funny, sometimes!" The plot of this episode was that they have all been invited to Neal's (Adam Busch's) girlfriend's dad's fifth wedding, though none of them really know why; Tyler makes some comment like, "The only reason a guy that rich would invite guys like us to do anything is if he was hunting us for sport." Wackiness ensues at the wedding. I found the following things interesting and/or funny:

1) Neal's girlfriend's dad (Neal's girlfriend's name is Amy, BTW) is played by J.K. Simmons, a.k.a. Juno's dad.

2) Amy's dad has flown in Amy's ex-boyfriend, hoping that she will want to get back together with him. The ex-boyfriend is played by Mark-Paul Gosselaar, who we last saw pop up randomly and awesomely as Max's roommate on Happy Endings. Mark-Paul Gosselaar!

3) Milo (Danny Masterson) is seated next to some random dude who offers him moonshine. The following hilarious conversations ensue:

Random Dude: Hi, My name's Darrell, with a D.
Milo: How else would you spell it?
Darrell: Oh, I don't know. I spell mine with a D.

Milo (after drinking some moonshine): Whoa. What is this, paint thinner?
Darrell: Not JUST paint thinner.

Woman Gibbs Tries to Hook Up With (about the moonshine): Is this safe to drink?
Darrell: What are you, a narc?

4) Everyone gets drunk on moonshine and wakes up the next morning very hungover and unable to remember the events of the previous night. However, Milo wakes up with a 3rd place soccer trophy ("Who got first and second?," he wonders), and there is a bottle of champagne at the door of their cabin with a note congratulating the "happy couple" on getting married; apparently, someone other than Amy's dad got married the night before. They initially think it was Neal and Amy, but MPG tells them that it wasn't. They then think it was Gibbs and the woman he met. Amy's dad shows up, however, and reveals that it was...Milo and Tyler (or as Amy's dad calls them, "the hobo and the pretty girl"). "That's weird," Milo says. However, though they're both straight, neither of them gets all, "What?! Why would we get married?! We're not gay!," about the whole thing, which was pleasantly surprising. Later in the episode, their friends catch them setting up an online wedding registry; though they plan to get an annulment, they're enthusiastic about the idea of getting some gifts first, and wonder if they can register for Knicks tickets. And of course, at the end of the wedding revelation scene, in which the characters slowly remember details from the night before, Darrell randomly pops out of a trunk all, "I had a great time this weekend. Oh, someone seems to have thrown up in your trunk."

So...yeah. I laughed out loud several times. I think it'll be a decent summer show.