Reviews

Let's first talk about what they did right. At least it looks like an American sitcom as far as technical aspect go. This is actually important, the American sitcom is a proved business model so if you want success start by not trying to reinvent the wheel. When you use cheap sets and bad lighting, sound, shooting (i.e. Satisfaction) it lends itself to being very hackneyed. Where Spun Out fails is in the writing and acting. From what I was able to discern from watching three episodes is that the character Nelson Abrams is playing a gay man. In many respects, this is the most homophobic portrayal of a gay man on TV. My reasoning is the only thing that makes this character gay is he say's "I'm" gay. Either the actor refuses to do anything "gay" on TV or the writers have never actually met a gay man. One episode had his supposed significant other completely obscured by a massive completely unreasonably large Karaoke trophy. In this same episode this gay character is worried about a female co-worker spending too much time with his significant other. Worried the same way a guy would be worried if his gal was spending a lot of time with another man. I don't know if these guys know how it works, but gay guys don't worry if their boyfriend is hanging around chicks. I'm not the first to say this, but who the hell are the people green lighting comedies this year? Do they not realize that there are so many amazing comedy writers that are waiting to hitch a ride south of the border? Stand-up comics are not always good at writing and neither are people who have resumes that feature the number of TV commercials they've been in.

They say in showbusiness "Criticism is a Miracle" and that's true unless you're talking about the Toronto/Canadian TV arena. I understand that a lot of work went into this production, but watching it I kept asking myself "where's the funny?".

To write comedy you must find the "funny in situations, not funny situations". I would ask the writers if they have always been told "they're funny", have people always said "you're funny, you should be a comedian". If not, don't try to be funny.

One last thing. Only in Toronto do they think standup=writer and funnyactor=standup. They don't, and if they stop trying to stick square pegs into round holes they might have something. Also, if you can't write funny then don't.

Break a leg with the rest of the season, hopefully you'll find the funny. :-)