Review - Three comedies you don't know about that you should watch

Hello, today I will be talking about shows that people on SpoilerTV don't talk about, not even a little, they all go under the radar the SpoilerTV community even though they're very good. I hope I convince at least one person to try out one of the following comedies.



Review season 1 (9 episodes, Thursdays at 10 PM on Comedy Central).

First up in my review : Review. If you like smart, original, funny comedy, you need to start watching Review starring Andy Daly as Forrest MacNeil, a reviewer who tries and rates life experiences from one to five stars. Season 1 finishes next Thursday and the first 8 episodes are on Youtube AND on Comedy Central's website : they want you to watch it and why wouldn't they? It's hilarious.

This is clearly one of the best comedies of the year, it's so good I wonder what it's doing on Comedy Central to tell you the truth. Hear me out, The Daily Show and especially The Colbert Report are excellent (though I get tired of the cocain-fueled audiences who seem to be doing a standing ovation every 45 seconds), but Comedy Central's other original programming is often bad / cheap / vulgar / targeting 19-year old frat guys (FOX import Futurama not included in that statement).

But Review is different. It doesn't go for the cheap laughs or crude content for the sake of being edgy. Creator and star Andy Daly (who's one of these actors you'd see in as a supporting role in a comedy and think "hey, he's funny", well he gets the spotlight here) has crafted such an ingenious show. This is only season 1, and I am genuinely laughing out loud watching Forrest destroy his life to accomplish his job. It looks like a show with disconnected stories in each episode: they're not. And if you think that this concept doesn't allow some narrative that ties episodes together: think again, as the events in one particular episode (not to give too much away) have a huge impact on Forrest's actions later on, when other "life experiences" collide with that key turning point (there's a major one, but there are other callbacks to previous experiences).

I like somewhat pathetic but good-natured characters who aren't cool or aren't "winning", but are making terrible decisions, that makes it much better when good things happen to them (usually it doesn't last), and it makes you want to root for them.

It's such a departure from Comedy Central's usual crass style that obviously it has low ratings because doesn't attract the typical Comedy Central viewer, but I'm still hoping they will order a second season based on critical acclaim, the quality of the show and its low production cost (I assume). It's a cool concept that turned into an amazing series, and it's worth a watch.

Watching Review : Four and a half stars!




Legit season 2 (13 episodes, Wednesdays at 10 PM on FXX).

I'm mentionning Legit, but in fact I could mention all of the FX comedies, none of them are very popular here, whether it's Archer, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The League, Louie or Wilfred. SpoilerTV is a big international community, and straight-up live-action comedy doesn't export well in general, unless it's romantic comedies and/or multi-camera, but I wish people would give them a shot. Legit now airs on FXX, which means even less people know about it, but the second season currently on the air (opposite The Americans - yes, FX is crazy to pit those two wonderful shows against one another) lives up to the excellent first season.

Legit stars Jim Jefferies as an exagerated version of himself, an Australian standup comic who lives in Los Angeles with his best friends, Steve and his brother Billy (who has muscular dystrophy). What seems like a boring premise is actually something very witty, with well-constructed scripts, clever lines, and colorful characters.

Jefferies simply writes great stories, whether it's him being wrongly accused of sex addiction, ending up dating a racist, welcoming his very annoying mother (and his father played by James Bond's George Lazenby), going to Afghanistan (much like fellow comedian & FX star Louis CK in Louie), or going to a high school reunion — the end result of that episode is particularly melancholic and sour, which is something the show does well from time to time, there is a good balance of raunchy and sweet in Legit (I recently almost teared up during the final scene of one episode, which is something you don't expect to do watching an FX comedy). Jim isn't exactly a complete loser but he can be the jaded type, often being perceived as an asshole when in fact he's trying his best.

I'm just coming off watching episode 2.09 and its take on Hollywood is hilarious (it features Bob Saget and Carrie Fisher in a very interesting position). Legit is absolutely worth watching, and FX being the home of some of the very best comedies on TV (except Chozen and their 10/90 deals with Charlie Sheen, George Lopez and Martin Lawrence), I have no doubt they'll renew it and give season 3 a proper timeslot.




Rick and Morty season 1 (11 episodes, Mondays at 10:30 PM on [adult swim] - renewed for season 2).

So I'm sort of a Community fan, to put it midly, and I was eager to discover this show conceived after Harmon got fired from Community. I was not disappointed - dare I say I enjoyed Rick and Morty more than some episodes of Community season 5? That's how good it was. Animation and its endless possibilities suits Harmon, his style lends itself to this genre very well.

It's truly a science-fiction animated comedy, which in itself is bound to be awesome, but with Dan Harmon's writing it just takes things to another level. In typical Harmon fashion, each episode just bursts with creativity, wild ideas, weird creatures, social commentary, meta commentary, while playing with sci-fi tropes (alien invasions, clones, genies, Inception, etc., and possibly Back to the Future but I'm not sure).

Watching the first episode, I was worried Rick's frequent burping in the middle of sentences and his somewhat constant state of drunkeness would get old real fast, but as the season went by I didn't notice them anymore, it just became part of the character, and his blasé attitude fits right in. He becomes a very interesting character, always creating chaos but always trying to fix it.

Unlike all the other Adult Swim shows, each episode is 22-minute long. Usually, it starts with a small problem that progressively spirals way out of control. Rick and Morty usually have their own story but the rest of the family (voiced by Chris Parnell, Sarah Chalke and Spencer Grammer) and is never a burden on the show (okay, they're not as interesting but their more 'grounded' stories bring in laughter too).

So many memorable moments, whether it's the intelligent dog, the Meeseeks, the multiple TV shows they flip through, the feminists, Rick's catchphrase, every girl loving Morty to death, etc. It's just a very intelligent show, with 20 ideas/minute and such amazing concepts, going in unexpected and often hilarious directions.

I can't recommand it enough to Community fans, they're both so different in many ways but Harmon's distinctive voice is there for us to marvel at. Oddly enough it's a hit (by Adult Swim's standards), we'll get to have more of that and it's good for television.


=> Other criminally underrated, underwatched/underappreciated comedies I could have written something about include : Enlisted (a military comedy never given a proper chance to succeed), The Spoils of Babylon (a miniseries parodying 1980s family dramas), and shows that will live on to have new seasons such as Maron (much like Louis CK or Jim Jefferies, Marc Maron has a show about his life, and it's funny), Episodes (a well-written satire of the world of TV with Matt LeBlanc as Matt LeBlanc), Comedy Bang Bang (so many ideas crammed into this parody of late-night shows) and hopefully Adult Swim's Childrens Hospital, NTSF:SD:SUV & Eagleheart (yeah, I'm the dick who watches Adult Swim for their live-action shows - and Rick & Morty).