Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Should you watch: Testees, Kath and Kim

No, no, no. Don't watch either of these. Sometimes I'll take a bad show and try to get cute with some circumstances in which you should watch it, but other times, I can only warn you away. Pretending otherwise is just too difficult.

OK, maybe you loved the original Australian version of "Kath and Kim" and you feel you simply must see NBC's remake. In that case, go ahead. I didn't laugh one time during the half-hour premiere, and I'm not entirely sure where I was supposed to laugh. The title characters are played by Molly Shannon and Selma Blair, and while I'm sure they're trying, I'm not fond of either performer, and they don't seem to be bringing much to the table here.

I think that we're supposed to see this show as a satire of American culture because the ladies make comments about Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie or stuff like that. Oh, and talented veteran of Chris Guest movies John Michael Higgins is here as Shannon's boyfriend, but he has nothing to do, either. From what I gather, we're supposed to laugh at him because he...really, really loves Shannon's character. Yeah, I don't get it, either.

I didn't see the Aussie edition, but I already like it better after seeing the American copy. In fact, I think more of just about every other TV show on right now after seeing this witless, lame "comedy."

Every show except "Testees" on FX, a sitcom about two guys who work as test subjects for drugs. If you didn't snicker at the title, that's fine--I'm not judging here--but in no way should you watch the actual show. It's rude, crude, and socially unacceptable--not a dealbreaker for me, really, but the problem is what it ISN'T--funny.

I delayed writing this post almost a week to see if I could expunge from my brain some of the images from the first episode. I'm talking about a man lactating, a guy peeing, and a fat dude dressed up (barely) like an infant. I don't even think these were the worst ones.

"Edgy" comedy doesn't scare me away. Before "Testees," I watched an episode of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" which was about poop. Literally, it was about poop. It offered bad language and shady characters, but it made me laugh many times. That's approximately, well, MANY times more than I laughed during the appalling "Testees."

To summarize: No, you should not watch either of these sitcoms.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I thought it was hilarious - you will espcially like testees if you are boy/man under the age of 35. If you are a 65 year old woman (like the person who wrote this article?) then you will not think it is funny.

Rick Brooks said...

What's hilarious is the notion that a 65-year-old woman would be a fan of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," which I praised in the post.

Oh, well. I rarely have time to watch new shows, anyway, what with my DVDs of "Murder, She Wrote," "Matlock," and "Diagnosis Murder." Oh, plus there's my stories I tape every afternoon. And of course I'm usually in bed by 7PM, long before "Testees" is on.

Would you like an oatmeal cookie, sonny?