Sunday, February 17, 2008
(10:19 AM) | Adam Kotsko:
Mr. Show, season 3
Out of a misguided desire for consistency, I am continuing to watch Mr. Show via Netflix. Season 3 seems to me to be much better than either of the first two seasons, but still really uneven. I think part of that stems from their fascination with mocking the customary ways of acting on television: in sitcoms, on the news, etc. There's only so far that can take you -- at a certain point, perfectly "nailing" lameness collapses back into being directly lame. (It's similar to the evolution of the racial humor on Family Guy: at first, it was ironically referring to racism, but now it's just plain racist.)I wonder if part of the problem is simply the inherent limitation of the genre of sketch comedy. Many of us revere Kids in the Hall, for instance, but I recently watched a few episodes and found it to be pretty uneven -- in places, even more plodding than a bad Mr. Show sketch. Perhaps Monty Python's Flying Circus is the exception to this general rule, but I may only think that because it's been a while since I've actually watched any episodes.
At the very least, though, Mr. Show doesn't fall into the SNL trap of actors breaking character to laugh (or suppress laughter).
