Saturday, March 03, 2007

TV That Makes You Feel Uncomfortable

Some of the best TV shows in recent years have been ones with characters acting so embarrassingly irrational that it makes for uncomfortable watching. The characters in these shows have no sense of how ridiculous they are, and are usually immersed in a world where people say wildly inappropriate things out loud, things that in real life are usually left unspoken. It's funny because we all know people who act at least a little like these self-centered characters, even if they don't approach the same level of rudeness or cluelessness or outright stupidity.

It sort of started with Seinfeld, and in more recent years has found success on Curb Your Enthusiasm, Extras and both the British and American versions The Office.

I'm now four episodes into watching The Comeback, which only lasted one season (13 episodes) on HBO. It is absolutely cringe-inducing in satirizing show business, television, the nature of celebrity, Hollywood phonies and one extremely insecure former TV star.

This show is bulding to something, to some moment, in the last episode. And I can't wait to find out.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Now we know why you didn't make it to a contest on Saturday night.

Joey P said...

wally and i were at home watching The Departed again, eating pizza, drinking beer and falling asleep before the movie ended.

Michael said...

The Comeback is absolutely brilliant! Lisa Kudrow is so good she does make you think she's for real. Her character is constantly trying to control how she comes across to her "reality show" cameras but we (the viewers) see thru it. It's uncomfortable to watch because we've all been in embarassing situations we've tried to make better or hope that no one's noticed and it never works. I loved this show and can't believe it got cancelled.

Joey P said...

Michael, Amen. I'm up to episode six. When I get time I'm going to write something on episode 5. All I can say is WOW at how good it was.