• bronlund 2 hours ago |
    I lasted maybe 5 minute into this one before I realised it was just another stupid show inventing stupid problems and having stupid people react to them in stupid ways.
    • marcellus23 an hour ago |
      You realize it’s supposed to be comedic, right?
      • bronlund an hour ago |
        I don't really think it's funny when people are presented with choices, they always pick the wrong one. Maybe it's an American thing.
        • add-sub-mul-div 42 minutes ago |
          It's an absurdist deconstruction of the genres it touches. It takes either prior familiarity with Robinson or else more than five minutes to get that.
          • bronlund 30 minutes ago |
            I respect that. I can't claim I know anything about the series, not having watched it really. It was just my gut reaction to the restaurant scene at the start. Maybe I should give it another shot.
    • swatcoder an hour ago |
      Cool. In this case, it's a show that's very conscioisly about that.

      It uses Tim Robinson's uniquely appropriate clownwork to bring a comedic hyperbole to the self-destructive obsessions that come to beguile vaguely dissatisfied middle-aged suburbanties.

      It's a smart satire with kinship to Falling Down or a Mike Judge project, but with the audience-engaging emotionality and physicality of Rowan Atkinson or Sasha Baron cohen.

      The audience can be tickled by the absurd scenes and overwrought performance without needing to think too much about it, but those that do think about it can uncover a very deliberate and communicative piece of art.

      You're not obliged to invest your time into it, but you may not have really picked up on what it's actually doing in the time you did spend so far.

      • bronlund 33 minutes ago |
        I appreciate you taking the time to explain it to me. I think I'm just a little fed up about the whole concept since a lot of series are just like this. Making fun of stupid people is an honest thing I guess, but mostly it just seems kind of forced.

        Me having just seen 5 minutes of it, could be wrong, but the impression I got was that the satire wasn't social criticism or directed towards the powers at be, as I think satire should be, but towards the little guy. Which I just don't think is that funny.

        You mention the movie Falling Down, but at no time during this, did I feel anything but sympathy for the main character. In contrast to The Chair Company, which made me develop a real antipathy for the main character in just the first 5 minutes.