Showing posts with label sarah silverman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sarah silverman. Show all posts

1/14/2012

Greg the Bunny - The Complete Series (2002) Review

Greg the Bunny - The Complete Series (2002)
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Greg The Bunny.
A show thats sadly remembered for flaming out on Fox TV in the summer of 2002. In reality, it wasn't so much that it wasn't up to par as was the network didn't set it up for success. Fox TV put it after Bernie Mac on Wednesday nights at first. Bernie Mac's demo was not going to stick around and watch GTB. Secondly, only after three weeks of reasonable promotion FOX seemed to write the show off jerking it off for sweeps then finally bringing it back for two weeks to disappear again lastly in "burn off" mode on Sundays at 7:30p for August of 2002.
Its a story of a show that screams it wasn't given a proper shot.
The show itself was brillant in a offkilter way. If you bought into the premise that puppets and people in some strange universe could share the world - it worked. If you couldn't buy into the premise - you hated the show.
Everything revolved around Greg a rabbit handpuppet with button eyes (later creepy glass eyes - FOX exec "suggestion") and his quest to find employment. On a visit to his roomates father's job - a director for fictional kids show "Sweetknuckle Junction" Greg mistakenly ends up auditioning for the program. Insanity and hilariousness ensue. Greg gets the job and the whole premise is set up. The sweetknuckle junction cast is much more jaded and prone to outrageousness than one would've expected.
The show parodied TV itself, TV execs, Childrens TV, actors, puppet love and even dared to spoof some of the sacred cows of our culture - race relations etc.
My personal favorite episode was "Surprise!" Where the cast has to lead a TV Guide reporter around trying to impress her to make Sara Silverman's character happy. Naturally, the cast are being artifical and just plain sucking up to sell the wholesome image they were told to sell. It all leads to Junction Jack's house after its found out it was his birthday and the cast throw a improptu, again to look good for the TV Guide reporter, surprise party at his house. Only it turns out, that Jack the rugged train conductor character prefers a dress and heels occasionally! Jimmy and Greg fighting over who can shmooze the TV Guide reporter thats actually a Lesbian that takes Sarah Silverman home is hilarious too!
In the final analysis, this show wasn't for everyone As a previous reviewer articulated. FOX targeted GTB to teens and to be honest this was not a teen show. There was alot of subtle and adult humor to be had that honestly a teen wouldn't get. It was more matched for its wicked satire to be a heir to the Simpsons throne.
Only if FOX had been smarter in the show's execution and patient they could've had a long running hit. You could've seen stuffed Gregs and Tardys on suction cups looking out car windows.
Alas, though - FOX didn't have the patience for that vision to bare fruit.

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Uncut, uncensored and unrelenting, Greg the Bunny stars Seth Green and Eugene Levy and is rude, crude, and stuffed with attitude. TV wasn’t ready for him. Are you? The complete series on DVD includes two never aired episodes and much more. Puppets are people too!

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4/10/2011

The Sarah Silverman Program - Season One (2007) Review

The Sarah Silverman Program - Season One (2007)
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It is impossible to watch this show without some kind of strong reaction. There were times watching this show that I laughed as hard as I have laughed at anything I've seen in recent years. But there were also times when I was simply appalled at how unfunny and in bad taste some parts were, as if the point had ceased being to make us laugh and had become to shock and dismay us. There are many moments when I am simply blown away by the brilliance and originality of Silverman's comic vision and times when I wonder if she has any conception of what is funny and what is not.
This is definitely not a show for everyone and it has nothing to do with how well one's sense of humor is developed. There are simply a lot of absolutely terrible moments in these episodes to go along with some hysterically funny ones. If you can filter out or ignore the bad and merely focus on the good, this is a show you will either partially enjoy or consider a masterpiece. But if you can't filter out the bad or if you obsess over the bad to a degree where you can't appreciate the genuinely funny bits, then you could well consider this to be one of worst shows ever concocted.
I especially loved the initial episode, where Sarah buys some cough syrup that has a decided effect on her perception of reality. That episode -- and especially Sarah's self-absorption that is so extreme that she almost obtains a childlike innocence -- reminds me very much of the balance that Paul Reubens was able to strike in PEE WEE'S PLAYHOUSE. Unfortunately, she is not able to maintain that balance through the rest of the series. I did not enjoy any subsequent episode as much as that one, though the one in which she thought she was dying of AIDS came close. Here is a bit that presents the show at its best. Sarah is feeling a bit down so she decides to go get an AIDS test so that she'll feel better when it comes up negative. As part of the exam she is asked to respond to a questionnaire that tracks her lifestyle choices. Here is a bit of that dialogue:
Nurs: Did you ever have a blood transfusion in the 80s?
Sarah: Yeah.
Nurse: (alarmed) You did? You had a transfusion in the 80s?
Sarah: (bemused) Oh! Ha! No--I thought you said in Haiti.
Nurse: (even more alarmed) How long were you in Haiti?
Sarah: Oh that's hard to say; I was doing a lot of heroin at the time.
On the other hand, there are the truly awful moments, most of which cannot be repeated on a board like this. It wasn't merely that they were off color or excessive or extreme. They were simply not funny. And being extreme simply for the sake of being extreme is not funny. Andy Kaufman could pull that off, but few others.
So, this is a show that can only receive a limited recommendation. More perhaps than any other comedian today, Sarah Silverman invites extreme reactions. There have been many moments where I have found her to be as funny as anyone alive and times when I can't tolerate her. I suspect that this is pretty much what you will always get with her. But I will say this: there isn't anyone else out there quite like her.

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Sarah Silverman says what’s on her mind. And no one else’s. In this first season of the critically acclaimed The Sarah Silverman Program, Sarah gets hepped up on cough syrup, takes in a homeless man and poops her pants. With her unique perspective on life and her ability to turn just about everything into a song, find out why Sarah Silverman is an American treasure. An offensive, filthy-mouthed treasure.

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