Aliens, a new sitcom on the CW, has been getting a lot of comparison with Freaks & Geeks. My pal Corey tried to turn me on to that short-lived drama a few years ago. It didn't take, but I know it's on a lot of "brilliant but cancelled" lists. You may also notice that the first-person narration owes a debt to The Wonder Years even if, like me, you failed to be enchanted with that show either.
In any case, I'm sorry, but I'm just not feeling it.
Far be it from me to question the reviewers motivation, but I wonder if it wasn't their social consciences that were tickled far more than their funny bones. See, the idea for Aliens is a standard "fish out of water" story: A white family in Wisconsin takes in a Pakistani foreign exchange student, Raja, who attends high school with the son and daughter.
So by praising it, you're also establishing your pro-multiculturalism cred. This is all very well and good, but I simply didn't laugh that much. I did like a scene where Raja's new teacher shows her well-intentioned ignorance. But this was the kind of joke that Everybody Hates Chris was doing two years ago.
I can't blame the actors-they're uniformly appealing. Adhir Kalayan, who plays Raja, is very sweet and Dan Byrd, as the son in the family, is a perfect double for Chris Makepeace in the early '80s.
Lindsey Shaw, as the daughter, may have a character to play, but in the first show, it's hidden behind her (admittedly, perfectly enjoyable) breasts.
She's just returning to school after sprouting them over the summer as the series begins. So when Raja first sees her, we're treated to a slo-mo shot of her tits bouncing in time to middle eastern music.
2007, we're in, in case you were wondering.
The series is too sitcommy in such places (boob jokes!), but not enough in others (timing is really rough).
Amy Pietz as the mother had the worst-written part in the pilot, which required her to be the voice of unreasonable fear for 27 minutes and then turn on a dime.
She doesn't convince, but it's hard to think of an actress who could.
As for Scott Patterson, playing the father, well, it's not like I was expecting him to show all the wry humor and heart he did on Gilmore Girls for seven years. Not in one episode.
But, I would have liked to have had a hint that the character cared about something other than money (also reminiscent of the dad on Everybody Hates Chris).
As a side note, I wonder how Patterson feels about the fact that a pair of bullying brothers on the series is called "the Palladinos?" (if you don't know, GG was created by Amy Sherman-Palladino and chiefly written by her and her husband Dan)
The problem is that you get the feeling the show really wants to be thought of as "absurdist," and that's so easy to get wrong...
No comments:
Post a Comment