What’s the name of the show? The Comedians.
When does it premiere? Thursday 9 April at 10pm ET on FX.
What is this show? Billy Crystal and Josh Gad play versions of themselves as they star in a sketch comedy show.
Wait, this isn’t Episodes? It’s not a sitcom.
Wait, this isn’t The Larry Sanders Show? No, that was a late-night talk show – and this is a sketch show. Also, Billy and Josh are always getting in complicated social situations and behaving horribly. For instance, Josh does a mean impersonation of Billy’s wife (Dana Delaney) before he knows who she is.
Wait, it’s Curb Your Enthusiasm? No, but it wants to be. Also, the footage is supposed to be from a documentary that Josh is making about the show’s difficulties.
Wait, so this is The Comeback, The Office, Modern Family and every other show that pretends it’s a documentary? No, because most of those are funny.
What’s the show’s pedigree? It is based on a Swedish show. Larry Charles (of Curb Your Enthusiasm, natch) is a writer and director, and also stars as himself. Crystal is an executive producer and writer, along with Ben Wexler (Community) and Matt Nix (Burn Notice).
What happens in the premiere? Crystal pitches a show to the head of FX (Dennis O’Hare) in which he plays each role. Apparently it doesn’t test well because no one under the age of 30 wants to watch a show about Billy Crystal. They tell him that if he and Gad team up, they’ll order the show right to air with 13 episodes (which is coincidentally the deal they got for The Comedians). Crystal and Gad meet for dinner and it’s a disaster, but they both need to do the project, so they sign up anyway. The pilot is horrible and they have to reshoot it.
Is this show any good? As you may be able to tell already, The Comedians takes all the good elements of a bunch of different comedies, puts them in a VitaMix, and comes up with a green sludge that even a macrobiotic vegan wouldn’t touch. The Comedians has no idea what it wants to be other than “edgy”, but instead of actually forging some new ground, it’s just pastiching the past decade’s top comedy trends. The result is like your boss trying to speak to you only in emoji on your Tumblr page.
The worst part, however, is that none of it is funny. The tension between the two stars could be a good source of humour, but instead we get smug in-jokes about the TV industry. People watching TV care far less about the people making TV than the same insiders think they do. Even worse, the sketches on their show aren’t so ludicrously bad that they’re enjoyable (there is humour in a show that is trying hard and failing miserably); they’re just this side of unfunny. There’s a “Lewis is the New Black” bit about comedian Lewis Black being in prison. Say what? At one point, Crystal falls back on his ever-topical Jerry Lewis impersonation. As Gad jokes at one point, the only people that would excite are his grandparents.
This gag, and another about no-one wanting a show about Billy Crystal – only advertises that, well, no one wants a show with Billy Crystal. Or Josh Gad, for that matter. Acknowledging the comedians’ shortcomings (there are two jokes about Gad’s short-lived sitcom 1600 Penn in the first episode alone) doesn’t do anything to lessen their effects: it just reveals to the audience that the show knows that there is a problem and doesn’t want to fix it.
The biggest question is: who is this show for? The people who want Crystal back in the saddle aren’t watching FX. The viewers that want the next generation of comedy are watching FX, but they don’t want a retread like this. Who’s left? Moms who think there wasn’t enough Olaf in Frozen? This is a show with no clear direction.
Which characters will you love? The show actually has an excellent supporting cast. Stephnie Weir plays the guys’ slightly askew and exasperated producer, Matt Oberg plays the show’s charmless head writer, and Megan Ferguson steals every scene she’s in as the production assistant who is the perfect parody of a self-important millennial. I would watch a show about these characters if Crystal and Gad just made cameos.
Which characters will you hate? Do I have to spell it out?
What’s the best thing about it? The show’s third episode is quite good. Josh gets Billy stoned and they spend an evening wandering around a supermarket rather than going to the Kid Critics awards. It’s winsome, funny, and loose, everything that all the other episodes I watched (I could only slog through five) were not.
What’s the worst thing about it? Every episode has one, if not more, jokes about balls. There is an Anthony Bourdain sketch where Billy as Bourdain eats several far-off delicacies, only to learn that each one is cooked testicles. Then he projectile vomits. There is also a running joke about how Billy is uncomfortable about both the word “cock” and a transgender director. Considering Crystal just weathered a controversy over some comments many perceived as homophobic, the sophomoric gay-baiting on the show isn’t helping him look progressive.
Should you watch this show? Please don’t. Doctors haven’t confirmed it, but it is assumed that continued exposure to The Comedians may permanently injure your funny bone.
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