Like all devotees of Arrested Development, I remember quite clearly the series of feelings that passed through me as I encountered that much-loved show for the first time. It went like this: (1) "What the hell is this?" (2) "Huh, okay, weird…but kind of funny." (3) "No, hold on, this is actually insanely funny!" (4) "More. Now."
Last night, sitting down for the premiere of Fox’s Sit Down, Shut Up, the new animated series from AD creator Mitchell Hurwitz, I naturally couldn’t help but hope to recapture that first flush of comedy love. But alas, this time I can’t say I got past No. 2. I certainly can’t report (as AD fans would say) that I blue myself.
Some might say it’s unfair to measure Sit Down, Shut Up against AD, but the new sitcom — which centers on the goofy staff of Knob Haven High School — invites the comparison from the get-go. Not only does it share obvious strands of comedic DNA with Arrested Development — fourth-wall-breaking meta-jokes, 78-rpm banter, surreal non sequiturs, punny character names — it reunites some of AD‘s key cast members as well, with Will Arnett voicing a vain English teacher, Jason Bateman as a mopey P.E. teacher, and Henry Winkler as a German teacher named Deutschebog (get it?). Yet, for all of its pedigree, the show comes across as forced and underdeveloped. The punchlines feel telegraphed, the characters (like a ditzy science teacher, a crabby librarian, and a swishy drama teacher) too one-note. The blend of animated characters with live-action backgrounds distracts from the comedy instead of enhancing it. The magic of Arrested Development emerged not just from the snap-crackle-huh? writing but from the subtlety of the performances — those miniature deadpan gestures of Bateman, Arnett, and the brilliant Michael Cera. Much of that is lost when this cast of gifted comic actors is hidden behind crudely drawn cartoon faces.
Reviews for the show have been mixed at best and harsh at worst. Then again, AD was a show that grew better with repeated exposure, and, given the talent involved, it’s possible that SDSU will do the same. I might give it another chance. What about you? Did you tune in? Did you see seeds of greatness or feel a nagging sense of disappointment? Will you come back for more? Share your thoughts below.
TLC’s latest foray into the reality TV world — known as Cake Boss — sounds like it should be a cooking show focused on baking and sugary confections and anything coveredin frosting. Yum! And it is — sort of. But don’t expect to find a recipe in the show — at least not in the sneak preview pilot, which aired last night. Aww, not so sweet. 
It happened almost invisibly, without the overheated hype, the aren’t-you shocked/aren’t-you-titillated?
I walked into the Zac Efron high school comedy/squealfest 17 Again thinking that, as a 37-year-old man, I was pretty much as far from the target audience as you could be, an assumption cemented by the shrieks of "Zac!" from the teenage girls around me that started up even before the trailers. But just five seconds into the movie, there’s a shirtless Efron (cue squeals) as 17-year-old high school senior Mike O’Donnell, standing on a basketball court in what we’re told is 1989 and… Hey! I was a 17-year-old senior in 1989! Then we flash-forward to the present, and there’s Matthew Perry as a 37-year-old O’Donnell, married with two kids, looking tired and beaten down by his responsibilities. Hey! I’m a 37-year-old father of two who sometimes feels tired and beaten down by my responsibilities! Am I exactly the target audience of this movie? Is 17 Again my story?
Oh, Susan Boyle, you little minx; why can’t I get enough of you? Unsatisfied with the avalanche of coverage this Scottish phenom has already received, I turned to the sultan of softball questions Friday to see if he could possibly unearth any new tidbits about the 47-year-old woman who brought down the roof last week on Britain’s Got Talent. 
After starting off the week with a couple of real downers — Simon Cowell’s possible departure from American Idol, Friday’s season finale of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles — the second half of this week provided a slew of uplifting stories. From Susan Boyle’s unlikely stardom (watch her Early Show appearance below) to Matt Giraud’s elimination save on Idol, there was a lot to feel good about, too.
Tomorrow night, you must watch HBO’s Grey Gardens, if for no other reason than to see the divine Drew Barrymore (pictured with the equally divine Jessica Lange) 
