Film+TV
LA EventsTop PicksSubmit an EventEvents NewsletterGet MobileEntertainment AdsTicketsArtopiaTacolandia
LA MusicMusic BlogHenry RollinsConcert CalendarLA NightlifeSubmit an EventMusic NewsletterGet MobileMusic Ads
Saving the Laugh Track
Is the sitcom drought coming to an end? The new contenders: Jake in Progress, The Office and Life on a Stick
 |
| Photo by Paul Drinkwater |
But where’s the new Seinfeld?It’s when we realize that there’s nothing to replace the crack timing of the Friendscast, the tart farce of Frasieror even the slow-burn mastery that is the lifeblood of EverybodyLovesRaymond,now in its ninth and final season, that it becomes obvious that classic sitcoms are curious alchemic mixtures that are harder to master than the umpteenth forensics mystery, medical drama or Law&Orderspinoff. We’ll accept six new procedural dramas a season as time fillers, but viewers routinely ignored every Friendsripoff the networks threw up, because who wants to endure even 22 minutes that don’t make you laugh?
So now we’re in a sitcom drought. What’s fascinating is that all you hear is how the sitcom is dying, but what’s really going on is that discerning audiences are waiting for something to wow them again. In the early ’80s, eight of the top 10 Nielsen shows were one-hour dramas. By 1988, eight were sitcoms, thanks to TheCosbyShow,Cheersand TheGoldenGirls.And then ER,Law&Orderand CSIswung the pendulum back. It’ll happen again, and this month, three networks debut new comedies they hope will do the trick.
Right now, the big debate is whether the cure-all for the half-hour comedy series lies in the single-camera format: removing the soundtrack laughter, going on location and indulging in the freedom that comes with not being stuck setting everything on one or two sets in front of an audience (known as the three-camera setup). The argument goes that the award-winning single-camera shows CurbYourEnthusiasmand ArrestedDevelopment,with their satirically edgy attitude, are the water-cooler comedies right now, though together their viewership doesn’t approach even that of a processed studio-audience yawner like TwoandaHalfMen.
Created by Austin Winsberg, JakeinProgressis a show with its own image problem: It wants to be as fast-paced and observationally wacky as Seinfeld,but also as cutesily attuned to modern dating woes as SexandtheCity.Too often it winds up neither, just broad and overstuffed. The show seems to be operating under the idea that not having canned yuks means that made-up joke reaction time can be filled with even more 100-mile-an-hour dialogue and zany incident. One begins to wonder if Winsberg’s original concept for the series, a 24-styleseason-long look at one bad date night in Jake’s life, might have yielded something more pleasurably focused and nuanced than another comedy built around girl-of-the-week romantic chaos.
But there are joys to be had, mostly from the cast. Stamos is a sympathetic reformed rake, a combination of puppy-dog affability and a catlike prowl. And he’s flanked by a TV-friendly support group in Wendie Malick as his pregnant boss, Ian Gomez as his kvetching dentist friend and Rick Hoffman as a bitter illusionist. This may not be as magic a foursome as Seinfeldor SexandtheCityoffered, but hey, this is a show with “in progress” in the title. I’m sure everyone involved would like to be given the chance to see where things lead, and it’s a fair assessment at this point.
I’m loath to say anything negative, on the other hand, about a series that will give us the seriously funny and fabulously inventive DailyShowalumnus Steve Carell week after week. But it isn’t exactly surprising to learn that NBC’s TheOfficecan’t compare to Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s lauded, mold-crushing, brilliant BBC original. (Gervais and Merchant are executive producers on this one, too, with KingoftheHillvet Greg Daniels, who developed it for our airwaves.)
That said, it’s still a funny show, with Carell handily wringing wince-inducing laughs out of the American doppelgänger of Gervais’ David Brent, an energetic paper-company boss with a horrifically misguided notion of what’s funny, what’s tactless, when he should lead and when he should simply go away. For Carell’s Michael Scott, a daylong diversity seminar — sparked, of course, by his own inappropriate recitation of a Chris Rock routine — is a gold mine of opportunities to seem colorblind cool at the same time he comes off as ridiculously insensitive. When the African-American seminar leader introduces himself as Mr. Brown, Carell chortles, boasting, “First test, I won’t call you that!”
And it’s good that the mock documentary framing device — yes, single-camera — was kept, which eschews “laugh now!” music cues and instead treasures awkward silences. What’s missing, though, is the weirdly soulful pathos of the British program, the painful sting that accompanied each wrong word Gervais said and that turned the entire series into an exquisite character study of 21st-century insecurity. There are people who can’t watch the original TheOfficebecause for them such a realistic dramatization of a train-wreck personality isn’t funny, whereas for those who have been hankering for comedy to make a scarier leap, its mere 12-episode run (and a Christmas special) has been revisited over and over in the manner of MontyPythonworship. Is it a criticism, then, that this new incarnation won’t have that going-too-far feeling, that it won’t bring out the accident gawker in the viewer, that it will just be a better-than-average comedy about kooky workplace types?
Now ShowingFind capsule reviews, showtimes & tickets for all films in town. 
Join My Voice Nation for free stuff, film info & more! 
Now Trending
Movie Trailers
Browse Voice Nation
 Join
Log In
|
