Phonearl
Good start, but then it gets ruined
Tyreece Hulme
One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.
Staci Frederick
Blistering performances.
tinafey-93194
Weirdly enough, you'll probably like episodes based on how much you like the documentary they are spoofing in it. If you don't care about the original doc, you just won't be invested in the jokes. But the War Room episode is absolute genius, Hader has never been better. Armisen is a talented, genius creep. Still a creep tho!
Erin Harrington
It baffles me that a show this funny can remain so underground, with less than a "cult classic" following. However I understand why many have looked over this show. The concept is not only very "out there" but the writing is very smart. In a similar way that the UK version of "The Office" is often overlooked by US fans for being "too smart", this show is closer to dry, British humor than classic American humor. But, through and through, this show is brilliant. The attention to detail is astounding to the point where the original documentaries look worse than their versions. Mulany, Meyers, Hader and Armisen pour so much passion into this show. This is not a cash grab, it's not a money maker, it's a passion project shared by 4 brilliant comedians and that can be seen in every episode. Please support this show, brilliant direction, writing and acting such as this should be rewarded and unfortunately this show is being overlooked.
Scott-101
Documentaries are generally a pretty esoteric cinematic experience and co-creator Fred Armisen's comedy is also pretty esoteric. As a result putting those together is going to lead to something that's not easy to appreciate or particularly funny every time out of the gate.While the premise's novelty-- re-imagining popular documentaries with a comic bent -- was enough to get it through the first season, the show usually sinks or swims based on how funny the episode is.With the exception of Michael Moore, Spike Lee, Morgan Spurlock, or Werner Herzog, very few documentaries have ever surfaced to the national consciousness. As a result, many viewers (including myself) are not going to go to know of the original source either, so the comedy often has to stand on its own in a way that most direct parodies don't. I'm not sure if this airs on the IFC TV channel, but the website has a featurette airing the two versions side-by-side which is certainly helpful."The Town, A Gangster, a Festival" approaches the brilliance of Christopher Guest's films (what I'm sure is an influence on these guys) in terms of attention to detail. A whole world is colored in by oodles and oodles of funny characters. This should cater to the wheelhouse of a writing staff-- all SNL alumni (if I'm not mistaken) where creating characters who can display a memorable quirk within a minute or two of screen time is a prerequisite.Without the advantage of the large ensemble format, the show faces a harder challenge with generally only two people front and center. The show can sometimes work brilliance here but some episodes have also fallen flat. Among the most brilliant entries are "Kunuk Now" and "Globesman" as both are hilarious based on stand-alone comic characters and broad reference(the primitive Eskimo in the former, the 1950s image of masculinity and the corporate salesman in the latter) rather than a specific cinematic style. "Kunuk Now" tells the story of a kooky producer who jumps production in Alaska and an intellectually-challenged Eskimo who single-handedly creates all our modern ideas of cinematography. "Globesman" takes the squeaky clean image of the 1950's and turns it into a portrait of sheer obnoxiousness.Among the other episodes that work somewhat well, "The Blue Jean Committee" is an exaggerated character portrait of two men whose lives have gone in opposite directions since fame. It distinguishes itself by being perhaps the only episode in the series with sentimental value (the final hug between the two tugged at my heart strings at least). Armisen is a music obsessive and his effort falls flat in the similarly themed second season episode "Test Pattern" which feels derivative: It mines similar nuances of "Blue Jean Committee" in mining similar nuances of concert culture without giving us a reason to care."Dronez" also roughly works without any source material as it provides a never-ending supply of dumb people and juxtaposes them with an incredibly dangerous situation.Others like "Juan Likes Rice and Beans" and "The War Room" are middling: They work based on the hyper-specific which will vary. In the case of the former, I saw "Jiro Likes Sushi" which helped me enjoy it at a fuller level.The rest of the episodes, including the series premiere, fall painfully flat based on hyper-specificity..
JeromeArlettaz
I love this sense of humour based on characters having a great consideration for themselves, looking ridiculous from the viewer's perspective, with a pinch of cruelty and tons of nonsense. In short: the character doesn't know he's in a comedy. It isn't common in US comedy, more frequent in GB. This sense of humour requires a perfect execution in the filming and acting and I think that this series has brilliantly achieved it. I'm not an easy laugher and I'm usually the guy with the poker face in the cinema when everyone is exulting. But watching this show, I think I've disturbed my neighbours with my unpracticed heavy laugh. I particularly appreciate the introductions.