Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
A Unicorn in Our Current Culture: A Funny Television Show
A few weeks ago I was flipping through shows on Netflix, trying to find something, anything that wasn’t preachy, predictable, or political. Needless to say, this was like fishing in an empty ocean, especially since all I really want to do with my television is to be entertained. Click, click, click…
My husband got hopeful when he noticed he had somehow missed an episode of The Walking Dead, but I quickly added the caveat that any series about zombies is dead to me. I just wanted someone to make me laugh, an even taller order in a culture that has completely lost its sense of humor.
Click.
Then I stumbled upon a possibility as I recognized the guy who got famous by romancing a stone. Michael Douglas is the lead in The Kominsky Method, which also stars Alan Arkin. In fact, there’s an amazing array of famous people who pop up in the cast throughout three seasons, including fellow stoners, Danny DeVito and Kathleen Turner. Many of the faces on screen will look incredibly familiar to anyone who was alive in the eighties, and let me tell you. The show itself is a gem.
Why so?
The script is character-driven, and the show makes fun of everything in Hollywood from Scientology to obsession with identity in a way that is refreshingly honest and relatably human.
For an easy example, an actress in Michael Douglas’s fictional acting class gets a television show with Morgan Freeman, but she describes how there is some pushback on the set per the fact that this legendary actor is known to be a cisgendered man playing a nonbinary surgeon. Sandy Kominsky, Douglas’s pseudo-Stanislavski character, then comments to the blinking Millennial that he understands the offended peoples’ dilemma. After all, Leonard Nimoy got the same sort of blowback on Star Trek when it became clear he was just pretending to be a Vulcan.
Oh, the common sense!
However, there are other, more serious scenes that seemed resonated with me per a doctor trying to explain cancer in a compassionate way after talking to his divorce lawyer. He keeps looking at a gun and a bottle of bourbon each time he is left alone again in his office.
Which actor portrayed this fellow?
Bob Odenkirk from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul.
I tell you what.
The cameos from people who truly know the acting craft are endless.
Now you may ask, is there a poke or two at Trump voters/Republicans?
Sure. The show is set in LA, after all. The characters think what the characters would think in that setting, yet no one of any political persuasion escapes a barb or two in the script. (Everyone is a target, so no one is alienated.)
Regardless, it took my husband a few episodes to engage with the story as much as I did, but by Season Three, we were both really invested. In fact, we were also sad when it all ended, and that is a rarity nowadays. I laughed. I cried. I was entertained.
If you’re fishing for a new series, my review of at least this show contains loud clapping.
Also, if anyone knows of any other great series with a sense of humor, I’d love to hear what’s worth seeing. Until then, I guess it’s back to clicking…
Published in Entertainment
Oh my goodness. I just wanted to say thanks for the Ted Lasso suggestion. I’ve so enjoyed the first season, which we completely binged. It’s been distracting, actually, because I have wanted to turn on TV rather than work. :)
Great show.
I found the first season absolutely delightful. It was just such a welcome change from all the other series and like you I ended up just watching the whole season all the way through. I love a show where I something completely unexpectedly quirky comes out of the character’s mouths. It was almost entirely devoid of cutting sarcasm. Thus far, I do not like the second season but among my friends, I am in the minority on that one. So I look forward to your opinion.
We will watch the first episode tonight. I’ll let you know. I want to still like it.
I hated the one episode that was clearly a nod to BLM and seemed to me to be an implicit swipe at the United States instead of Nigeria. The actor playing Ted was partnered for years with Olivia Wilde who is a very pretty, veeeerrrrryyyy progressive actress, so I assume those are his politics, too. If they had belabored this point, I would have simply stopped watching.
It was also pretty stupid that Sam had been wearing the name of the sponsor on his shirt for his whole career, getting a salary from that evil corporate entity, until suddenly his parents noticed????
The next show went back to what the show does best. It’s character driven. It hits universal themes. It’s highlighting the optimism of American culture. It shows people struggle. It’s funny.
Also, Sam is a lovable guy. It’s honest that he would have probably felt a certain way. I don’t care that he has a certain political stance. Obviously, these people exist in the world.
It would just be nice to not have to deal with politics or to maybe have a conservative presented as a human, too. That was one thing Parks and Rec did right a long time ago…. It was just balance.
Finally someone who felt the same way I did! Of course my progressive friends thought that episode was entirely apolitical when it clearly was not. I’m sure that the writers were all congratulating themselves on being so subtle about their intent. I was also angry that they made Rebecca look like a bumbling idiot next to her assured 13 year old goddaughter. But the best thing about the show was that it had so little politics at all and then they had to go and ruin it. I agree that thus far, it hasn’t come back but I do not like the second season very much regardless. It is too shallow. Everything is wrapped up too easily. One session with a therapist and all problems are solved! It’s like a Brady Bunch with profanity. The first season had more depth. But as long as they steer clear of politics, I will continue watching to give it a chance to improve. I still like the Ted Lasso character.
I love Roy Kent. And the rom-com episode was pretty clever. Granted, I’ve seen a TON of rom-coms, so we laughed a lot at the references. You are definitely not wrong about the BLM episode. Anyone who thought that was apolitical–or not suuuupppper simplistic–is either not very bright, not very engaged with current events, or not very sensitive to other points of view. It was pretty blatant. Glad they just changed the sponsor to Keely’s dating app and moved on.