Post by Vits on Sept 29, 2020 20:26:49 GMT
It's not one of the worst shows I've ever seen, but it's one of the most misguided ones. I honestly have no idea what they were trying to do.
The pilot begins as a spoof of multi-cam sitcoms about the daily life of George W. Bush and his wife Laura. Like most parodies of this kind, the characters are in a permanent state of happiness no matter how many bad things they say or do. The title sequence lists the characters' names instead of the actors' names, something you'd normally see on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE. But wait. This isn't a sketch; it's a 20-25 minute episode. How are they going to fill the rest? Well, it doesn't take long for the characters to lose the aforementioned happiness and start acting like characters in a regular comedy. But the issues don't end there. A certain cartoony element is introduced around the halfway point. It seems to be an unused SOUTH PARK idea, because it feels completely out of place in live action. I'm sure that Trey Parker and Matt Stone will claim that's the point, but it doesn't work if you only use 1 element like that in the whole episode. While there's cheesy dialogue and overused tropes, the plot is still told in a way like the viewer is meant to get invested in it, and it's eventually wrapped up in a traditional way. The other 7 episodes? Pretty much the same thing. How do you repeat a format on a weekly basis without realizing how inconsistent it is?
To be fair, I can't imagine a show like this working in the first place. You want to make fun of the president while he's still in the White House? And start doing so not long after the election? It's a risk, because you don't have all the information about him. If he does something worse in the future, it'll make your current jokes sound tame by comparison. Not to mention that a big portion of the world will do the same (no matter how beloved this president is), because it's one of the easiest targets. A figure everyone knows. At the very least, use it as part of your material; not the central focus.
Timothy Bottoms looks and sounds nothing like the real Bush, but he has a likable presence. Kurt Fuller, Marcia Wallace and Kristen Miller bring enough energy and they're believable in their roles, even though they don't have that much to work with. I mean, the jokes are never painful, but most of them are very uninspired.
The pilot begins as a spoof of multi-cam sitcoms about the daily life of George W. Bush and his wife Laura. Like most parodies of this kind, the characters are in a permanent state of happiness no matter how many bad things they say or do. The title sequence lists the characters' names instead of the actors' names, something you'd normally see on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE. But wait. This isn't a sketch; it's a 20-25 minute episode. How are they going to fill the rest? Well, it doesn't take long for the characters to lose the aforementioned happiness and start acting like characters in a regular comedy. But the issues don't end there. A certain cartoony element is introduced around the halfway point. It seems to be an unused SOUTH PARK idea, because it feels completely out of place in live action. I'm sure that Trey Parker and Matt Stone will claim that's the point, but it doesn't work if you only use 1 element like that in the whole episode. While there's cheesy dialogue and overused tropes, the plot is still told in a way like the viewer is meant to get invested in it, and it's eventually wrapped up in a traditional way. The other 7 episodes? Pretty much the same thing. How do you repeat a format on a weekly basis without realizing how inconsistent it is?
To be fair, I can't imagine a show like this working in the first place. You want to make fun of the president while he's still in the White House? And start doing so not long after the election? It's a risk, because you don't have all the information about him. If he does something worse in the future, it'll make your current jokes sound tame by comparison. Not to mention that a big portion of the world will do the same (no matter how beloved this president is), because it's one of the easiest targets. A figure everyone knows. At the very least, use it as part of your material; not the central focus.
Timothy Bottoms looks and sounds nothing like the real Bush, but he has a likable presence. Kurt Fuller, Marcia Wallace and Kristen Miller bring enough energy and they're believable in their roles, even though they don't have that much to work with. I mean, the jokes are never painful, but most of them are very uninspired.