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like, a real downer
So much talent, so little wit. This show stinks.
By Andrew Wallenstein
There is such a thing as too much talent after all, as NBC’s new sketch comedy series “The Downer Channel” (Tuesdays, 8:30-9 p.m. ET, began July 24th) confirms.
Despite having all the right people on both sides of the camera, “Downer” is a laughless bore that aims for the wacky ways of cable fare like MTV’s “Jackass” and Comedy Central’s “The Man Show” and misses by a country mile.
The series boasts a bunch of smart creators–comedy legend Steve Martin, former “Late Night with David Letterman” producer Robert Morton, production company Carsey-Warner-Mandabach (“That ‘70s Show,” “Roseanne”)–who must have conducted meetings on static-filled cell phones.
Gross miscommunication can only explain how such a weak premise was successfully pitched.
In the showbiz shorthand known as “high concept,” this is how “Downer” has been summarized: a program that turns life’s annoyances into amusements. But this alchemy fails to yield any comic gold.
Rapid-fire skits skewer modern bugbears like diets, crazy bosses and highway gridlock.
For instance, one film short features a voiceover of a driver talking to someone via cell phone along with footage of a car veering off a highway and crashing down a hillside.
Playing off the blissful ignorance that phone-addicted drivers display for their safety, he pulls himself out of the wreckage and calmly continues his conversation as if nothing happened.
Hardy-har-har-har.
In another scene spoofing the self-absorption of cats, “Cat Lassie” naps contentedly as he ignores the cries for help from his young owner, who lays trapped under a fallen tree.
My knee hurts from all that slapping.
Also in the “Downer” mix are snippets of man-on-the-street interviews with people whose complaints are used as the inspiration for each sketch that follows them.
A man who sounds off on loud leaf-blowers, for example, will precede a clip of a “Downer” cast member blaring a blower in public, intentionally irritating everyone around him.
That includes this viewer.
Why “Downer” relies on these snippets is inexplicable. They’re reminiscent of how improvisational comedy works, where the audience makes suggestions that spur spontaneous riffs from the performers. But “Downer” is obviously taped, which makes its format an ill-conceived paradox: planned improvisation.
The series also wastes a talented cast who don’t even seem to enjoy themselves on camera.
Among the four main players are Mary Lynn Rajskub, a promising actress who was hysterical as a dim-bulb secretary on HBO’s “The Larry Sanders Show,” and Wanda Sykes, the sassy spitfire on HBO’s “The Chris Rock Show.”
Improv comedy vets Lance Krall and Jeff Davis round out the cast, and “Downer” probably won’t appear on any of their résumés by next year.
For young comics to sell out in order to cash big network checks is understandable. But other more established comedians who make forgettable cameos in the first episode need a better excuse.
Teri Garr, Fred Willard and Steven Wright should be ashamed of themselves.
The biggest question mark here is the involvement of Martin, who seemed to indicate a knack for network humor when he hosted the last edition of the Academy Awards. But “Downer” may be yet another example of the comedian’s increasing penchant for the inscrutably dry wit he injects into his ridiculously overestimated New Yorker pieces.
The problem with “Downer” is how badly it wants to appear to be like edgy cable programs such as “Jackass.” The series lifts the MTV show’s raw style: bite-sized skits that purposely look as if they were edited by a drunk hack.
But “Downer” substitutes politeness for political incorrectness; humor doesn’t get any safer than poking fun at appliances like leaf blowers and cell phones.
After a terrific summer of new hits like “Fear Factor” and “Spy TV,” NBC finds itself with a real stinker.
July 26, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
-Andrew Wallenstein is the television critic for Media Life.
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