Back At It

Okay, TigerBlog will tell you about his most recent television watching in a second.

First, he wants to say that the men's basketball game against Yale will be starting at 6 Friday night, not at 7, as it was originally scheduled. Once again, that's Friday at 6.

Okay. Got that? Good. Where was he? Oh yeah.

TigerBlog knows a lot of people who liked the show "Friends."

He also knows pretty much the same number of people who now say "how did I ever think that was funny?"

TigerBlog falls into that camp. He watched the show when it was on from 1994-2004, and he liked it. Now, if he sees a rerun, he can't imagine why.

Ah, but now he's stumbled onto something that is absolutely perfect for anyone who liked "Friends." It's a Showtime show called "Episodes," which is also on Netflix.

How best to describe it? Well, it's just hilarious.

It stars Matt LeBlanc,who played Joey in "Friends." In "Episodes," he's playing Matt LeBlanc, and he's really good at it.

The plot is that LeBlanc is the lead in a new American TV comedy, one that the head of the studio wants to produce after it has won several awards in Britain. The basic premise is that head of the studio is an awful guy with no scruples who lures this idealistic English husband and wife team who created the show and then bullies them into almost completely overhauling everything about it.

In the meantime, there's LeBlanc. He's a big kid who just does whatever he wants, having fun along the way and constantly reminding others or being reminded that he was Joey.

The whole thing works perfectly. It's hysterical stuff.

It has a great ensemble cast in which each character brings something unique to the show that makes it better. Even his ex-wife, who has a small part, is hilarious each time she's on.

It mostly works, though, because of LeBlanc, who is willing to make fun of himself pretty much non-stop. And the references to "Friends" are great - there aren't too many of them, but there are enough to reinforce why it is that LeBlanc can live the way that he does. He's no special talent, but he'll always be Joey.

It's one of three shows that TB has watched lately. Another was "Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," an Amazon show that would have been unwatchable without the title character, who is a New York City Jewish housewife who turns into a stand-up comedienne in the 1950s.

Rachel Brosnahan plays Mrs. Maisel, and she is extraordinary. She's also the one from "House of Cards" who was the prostitute that Doug falls in love with, something that doesn't seem possible when you compare the two roles.

The third show is "Outlander," a Starz show. This one is a drama, a really, really serious one. It's about a nurse from World War II who ends up in Scotland 200 years earlier. If it seems silly, it isn't. It was actually really good.

"Outlander" has some great performances, and what TB likes about it most is the way it makes the viewer think about the concept of "can you alter the future by changing the past."

All three shows are well worth watching. TB is only on Season 2 of "Episodes," which has already had five of them. His main question is how did he knot know about these shows until recently?

There was plenty of TV time for the last few weeks, what with Princeton Athletics at a standstill for first semester exams. This past weekend marked the return from those exams across several sports, and then, as TB said Friday, with an avalanche of games this coming week and weekend.

The men's basketball team defeated Rowan 86-50 yesterday afternoon in its first games since a sweep over Columbia and Cornell more than two weeks earlier. Usually, when a basketball team hasn't played in that long, it takes a few minutes for the players to get their legs and their shooting touch back.

In the case of Princeton, neither seemed to be a problem.

Princeton had energy from the start. And the shots were falling early. Like seven of the first nine threes.

It was 12-0 and 25-4 in a blink, and the rest of it was just about getting enough minutes for the starters and the rest of the rotation to shake the rust and then as many minutes for everyone else as possible.

And with that, it was time to look ahead.

Princeton hosts Yale Friday night - remember it's at 6 - and that's the start of a stretch that will see the Tigers play their final 11 Ivy League games in a 29-day stretch. The first three of those will be in five days, with Yale Friday, Brown Saturday and Penn Tuesday, all at Jadwin Gym.

After that, it'll be six of the final eight on the road.

Right now, Princeton is 2-1 in the Ivy League. Harvard is 4-0. Penn is 3-0. Brown and Yale are both 2-2.

Each weekend will be huge.

The Ivy champion will be the one that wins the regular season. The top four teams will meet at the Palestra March 10-11 for the league tournament and the automatic NCAA tournament bid.

Princeton won both last year. It won't be long until the Tigers will see if they can repeat.

In the meantime, TB will still try to keep his TV pace going. That means, you know, more episodes of "Episodes."