posted by RICK : 7:20 PM
Two weeks ago ABC premiered a new series,
Sons & Daughters, now airing on Tuesday nights. Its the networks first serious foray into neo-comedy (read: single-camera, no laugh-track) post
Sports Night, a genre that finally seems to be cracking through the mainstream (I guess we can thank
My Name Is Earl -- for better or for worse).
Sons & Daughters is
Arrested Development meets
Curb Your Enthusiasm but without the funny parts.
"What? No funny parts? That's madness!" you say.
Hey, easy kid, let me finish.
For whatever reason, people seem to ask a lot out of their televised comedies. If you go to the movies and plop down $10.75 on
Wedding Crashers you expect it to be astronomically funny, and when you walk out you believe that it was-- despite the fact that MOST of
Wedding Crashers is astronomically boring. But the handful of scenes that are legitimately funny (and the rock-solid first 10 minutes) make you think you just sat through comedy gold. Now, compare that to TV. The weakest 20-minute episode of
Arrested Development has more genuine laugh moments that the entirety of
Wedding Crashers or similar theatrical comedy release.
Which raises the following question: "Why is it we expect so much comedy out of our televised comedies?" Even the crappiest show, say
The War at Home, is absolutely jam-packed with jokes ("jokes" here is used quite loosely). But why can't a 30-minute non-drama be funny without being hilarious-- and still be good.
Sports Night comes to mind again, as does
Sex and the City and (*shudder)
Entourage.
What makes
Sons & Daughters such a peculiar show is that its highly improvised, which makes most people think it should be unrelentingly funny. It isn't. It has funny moments. More so, it has funny situations, but this is not a series to turn to for big laughs. It isn't early
Curb. The improvisation works for the show. It creates a kind of breeziness in the structure that's quite refreshing to watch-- kind of like a televised
mojito-- refreshing when consumed in moderation, with mint leaves.
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