This is a truly unique show.
It's a unique show in that it does so many things wrong, and does them wrong in such complex and convoluted ways, that it's interesting to watch just to try and unpack what you're seeing. There are so many meta-levels happening, where the show is being knowingly bad, but simultaneously accidentally bad, that while watching it I sometimes feel like I'm traveling through time.
Structurally, the show is 30 Rock-esque. Crystal and Gad play fictionalized versions of themselves having been cast to play off of one another in a 2 person sketch TV show. The show is them going about their lives, but also staging and executing the sketch show.
The timing is off. the staging is off. Gad, Crystal and the supporting characters aren't just one dimensional, they're unconvincingly one dimensional. No one is likable, but not because they're unlikable, rather, because they're so poorly realized that they may as well be absent.
The Comedians regularly tries to manufacture awkward situations, but those situations are so contrived that the discomfort doesn't come from the situation they're staging, but from your own understanding that you're watching a failed attempt at staging an awkward situation. It's some unintentionally next level stuff.
The show makes jokes that intentionally fall flat, then comments on the fake bad jokes with worse jokes that are supposed to be the real jokes.
The characters are playing fictionalized versions of themselves which are deeply self aware in unintentional ways. Peering through so many levels of characterization like this and, ultimately, hitting the motivations of the real-life actors playing the roles is strangely unnerving.
And let's not leave out the sketch show that everyone is collaborating on that's so... The sketches are intended to be knowingly "wink-wink" bad, but also broadly funny, but they're not, not even a tiny bit. They're bafflingly bad, and that's where, again, this fascinating "meta-muddle" thing comes in.
There's a phenomena that happens when you watch Billy Crystal pretending to be high, improvising a Sammy Davis Jr. Impression that would have been tired 30 years ago, being played for big laughs. Or seeing Gad knowingly make tasteless statements that are then treated like unintentional tasteless statements and, by extension, played as fraudulent commentary on his generation of comedians... It's incredibly surreal. Crystal's improvising. If he drops a couple bombs, it's not on him. He's putting himself out there, trying things out and trying to get a laugh. It's on the directors, editors and producers for keeping it in.
I apologize for using the words intentional and unintentional so often here, but that's what's so fascinating. Much of what we see are intentional layers of irony, but unintentionally, they're all disastrously executed. There's no question that the cast is incredibly talented, so where does the blame lie? I believe it's in the writing, directing and editing. Directors aren't giving performers the feedback they need to make the correct adjustments. Writers aren't work-shopping their jokes enough to see that they won't land, and editors don't have the guts to cut what's not working. Frankly... everyone's probably afraid of pissing off Billy Crystal.
I don't know what more I can say. If you love comedy, watch this show. It's a study on how to do literally everything wrong while maintaining excellent production values. I've never laughed once but I can't stop watching it.
May god have mercy on our souls.
It's a unique show in that it does so many things wrong, and does them wrong in such complex and convoluted ways, that it's interesting to watch just to try and unpack what you're seeing. There are so many meta-levels happening, where the show is being knowingly bad, but simultaneously accidentally bad, that while watching it I sometimes feel like I'm traveling through time.
Structurally, the show is 30 Rock-esque. Crystal and Gad play fictionalized versions of themselves having been cast to play off of one another in a 2 person sketch TV show. The show is them going about their lives, but also staging and executing the sketch show.
The timing is off. the staging is off. Gad, Crystal and the supporting characters aren't just one dimensional, they're unconvincingly one dimensional. No one is likable, but not because they're unlikable, rather, because they're so poorly realized that they may as well be absent.
The Comedians regularly tries to manufacture awkward situations, but those situations are so contrived that the discomfort doesn't come from the situation they're staging, but from your own understanding that you're watching a failed attempt at staging an awkward situation. It's some unintentionally next level stuff.
The show makes jokes that intentionally fall flat, then comments on the fake bad jokes with worse jokes that are supposed to be the real jokes.
The characters are playing fictionalized versions of themselves which are deeply self aware in unintentional ways. Peering through so many levels of characterization like this and, ultimately, hitting the motivations of the real-life actors playing the roles is strangely unnerving.
And let's not leave out the sketch show that everyone is collaborating on that's so... The sketches are intended to be knowingly "wink-wink" bad, but also broadly funny, but they're not, not even a tiny bit. They're bafflingly bad, and that's where, again, this fascinating "meta-muddle" thing comes in.
There's a phenomena that happens when you watch Billy Crystal pretending to be high, improvising a Sammy Davis Jr. Impression that would have been tired 30 years ago, being played for big laughs. Or seeing Gad knowingly make tasteless statements that are then treated like unintentional tasteless statements and, by extension, played as fraudulent commentary on his generation of comedians... It's incredibly surreal. Crystal's improvising. If he drops a couple bombs, it's not on him. He's putting himself out there, trying things out and trying to get a laugh. It's on the directors, editors and producers for keeping it in.
I apologize for using the words intentional and unintentional so often here, but that's what's so fascinating. Much of what we see are intentional layers of irony, but unintentionally, they're all disastrously executed. There's no question that the cast is incredibly talented, so where does the blame lie? I believe it's in the writing, directing and editing. Directors aren't giving performers the feedback they need to make the correct adjustments. Writers aren't work-shopping their jokes enough to see that they won't land, and editors don't have the guts to cut what's not working. Frankly... everyone's probably afraid of pissing off Billy Crystal.
I don't know what more I can say. If you love comedy, watch this show. It's a study on how to do literally everything wrong while maintaining excellent production values. I've never laughed once but I can't stop watching it.
May god have mercy on our souls.