Strangers With Candy

If you're gonna reach for a star, reach for the lowest one you can.

How did I miss this? In 1999 Comedy Central began airing Strangers With Candy, a very dark comedy set within the framework of an after-school special. The series was created and written by Mitch Rouse, Paul Dinello (who played the art teacher), Stephen Colbert (who played the history teacher), and Amy Sedaris (who played central character Jerri Blank). I had vaguely known about it earlier, but it wasn't until I heard an interview with Colbert (whose work on The Daily Show is brilliant), where he talked about Strangers With Candy, that I wanted to see it. The way that he described it was that it was an after-school special where all of the characters consistently make the wrong decision.
It falls within the genre of cringe comedy and in some ways could be seen as a precursor for Curb Your Enthusiasm or The Office (at least in terms of preparing people for it). As with both of those later shows, it took me a while to understand the show and figure out the rhythms of it. My initial reaction with all of those shows was not to really like it, but after I figured it out they became some of my favourite shows. Within all of the shows a common thread in the central characters is a lack of self-awareness combined with a selfishness. Strangers With Candy has an absurd level that takes it beyond the documentary styles of the other shows.
The central conceit of Strangers With Candy is that Jerri Blank, a self-described "boozer, user and loser" who returns to complete high-school at age 46 after running away and having a life of drug abuse, crime and prostitution. Nobody notices or mentions that she's nearly 30 years older than her classmates as she deals with typical high-school after-school special problems every week. Jerri Blank's years of experience haven't changed her much and she still has an odd innocence and lack of social skills. Jerri has no filters and she interacts with her classmates, teachers and family (all stereotypes) and learns all of the wrong lessons.
The framework of the show follows the tried-and-true after-school special delivering valuable messages, but sprinkled throughout the series are great sight gags and characters. Principal Onxy Blackman (played by Greg Holliman, is an authoritarian principal who has his image scattered throughout the school and speaks in bizarre metaphors and has secret doorways in his office. At one point he says, "I'm an obtuse man, so I'll try to be oblique." The strange non-sequiturs extend to the end credits, which consist of cast members dancing to different songs as the credits roll.
I've watched the first two of three seasons and the second season really clicked for me. In the first season it felt a bit uneven and Jerri Blank is a difficult character to warm up to. Amy Sedaris is remarkable as Blank. Her face distorts in ways that don't seem humanly possible and with odd physical and verbal tics, she creates a singular character who is somewhat repulsive, but still strangely interesting. tags: dvd, review, strangerswithcandy
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Six Feet Under Season 2

Finally! After far too long, the second season of Six Feet Under has been released on DVD. I don't understand how HBO releases DVDs... things like The Sopranos come out quite quickly, but stuff that I really, really want to see such as Six Feet Under or Mr. Show show up years later. While I wish that I could have seen it sooner, one of the great things about having a DVD of a series is that you can watch it all closer together instead of parcelling it out over four months. I've tried to avoid finding out a lot about how the show has progressed, but that's not really the point, as what makes the show interesting isn't the surprises, but the amazing cast combined with the quirky writing and directing.
I've only watched the first episode of the second season, but I really liked it and I can't wait to wade through the other episodes. It's awkward at first, but everyone seems to know that. The characters are reestablished slowly and the whole thing feels like someone you've known and loved for a long time that you finally see again. They've changed a bit, but they're still the same person and you've forgotten a few things about them which can be a bit awkward. The big difference on the other side of the camera was that the show became popular which can change things. Luckily in the hands of Alan Ball and the cast and crew it still works.
I love the show and I love the cast. Peter Krause is one of my favourite actors. Maybe it's because he's not overexposed and that he's got a knack for portraying a character in a subtle way that makes you forget that he's an actor. Years ago when I saw the pilot for Six Feet Under I stayed up far too late because I saw Krause and couldn't stop watching. Krause, along with the whole cast is trying to figure out who he is and what he is supposed to do. How do you fit in with your family? What is the right choice? There are no easy answers and we watch a group of people that we care about struggling with their lives. In the vast wasteland that is television today with the channels filling up with less original material and more "reality" it's good to see something well-crafted that has respect for the craft of drama and respect for the audience.
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Fishing With John

John Lurie is a very cool guy. He's a talented composer and jazz musician who also happens to act and hangs out with cool people. Lurie made a tv show a few years ago called "Fishing With John" where he went out fishing with Jim Jarmusch, Tom Waits, Matt Dillon, Willem Defoe, and Dennis Hopper. There were 6 episodes produced (the Dennis Hopper one has two parts) and it's not so much about fishing as it is about Lurie and his guests. Each episode follows the usual fishing show format, but things are a bit off. The narrator delivers tidbits of information and sometimes loses track of things and talks about sandwiches and just starts rambling. Highlights for me were the Tom Waits episode in Jamaica and the very odd ice fishing in Maine with Willem Defoe (where the narrator claims that they died). The show was written and directed by Lurie and some of episodes veer wildly around. They are entertaining and interesting to watch with an original soundtrack from Lurie. I'd like to see his latest show which is called "Are You Comfortable?" but I don't know where to find it yet.
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The Office Series 2

I've watched a bit of the second series of The Office and I'm still impressed with it. It's brilliantly written and performed and it is perched on a knife edge between comedy and pathos. It's almost a bit painful to watch and it's interesting to see how the popularity of the show may have altered how the actors and writers approached it. The second series kicks off with a funny little bit to let you know that things are back, but then it throws a few curves as David Brent's new boss shows up and things just don't go well for Brent with jokes going awry. What's great is that any sympathy for Brent is undermined by his telling of a racist joke and how he tries to explain it. The Office is part of an increasingly growing subgenre of comedy that is painful at times to watch as you become invested in the characters. Curb Your Enthusiasm works in the same space as well as Ken Finkleman's The Newsroom and his much more biting More Tears. What they seem to have in common is strong writing and casts that pull off the documentary feel which heightens drama as well as the comedy. I've only watched the first episode of the second series, but I looked at the amazing video diary by co-writer/directors Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais as well as the outtakes. One thing that I think always shows on the screen is how good a time people are having working on a show. The best shows are fun to work on. It looks as if working on The Office would have been great fun. I'm looking forward to more from Gervais and Merchant.
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Mr. Show Season 3 DVD

I really like Mr. Show and when it was aired in Canada on The Comedy Network I taped as many as I could. But there were some gaps, but now in the age of DVD it is getting easier to get an entire series in a boxed set. The show had a tough time as the fans who were able to find the show loved it, but the people higher up in the production chain didn't understand it so it was bumped around time slots on HBO and then was cancelled after 4 seasons. I finally got around to buying the third season DVDs since I read on Bob and David's site that they just recorded the commentary tracks for the fourth season DVDs which could be out any time in the next year. HBO has an odd pattern of releasing DVDs of series. Some things come out fairly regularly, but other things take a long, long time. The third season of Mr. Show continues the sketch comedy series that linked all the sketches together (as Monty Python did). It's biting and relatively timeless in how the comedy grows out of characters and situations and not directly from the news of the day.
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The Office

I've watched the first season of the BBC series, The Office and I love it. I'd read about it and saw most of an episode and took the plunge and bought the 2 DVD set. It's a 6 episode series set in the offices of Wernham-Hogg paper and it is shot in the style of a single-camera reality tv documentary. Cowritten and directed by Ricky Gervais (who plays David Brent, the boss from Hell) and Stephen Merchant it walks a fine line between comedy and pathos. The style works very well with the content and the actors. While on the surface it's a very dark comedy, there is a fascinating and touching level of identification that I feel with the characters. I actually work in a great office now, but what is fascinating about the show is the recognition of the absurdity of office life combined with the reality effect of the documentary camera. When I first watched it I felt uneasy as the show was so delicately balanced that some things were creepy...but that was the point and after watching more the sensibility of the show clicked in and it worked. Kind of like unfocusing your eyes to see one of those 3-D images...
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Sports Night

Last week I was able to get the full series of "Sports Night" on DVD. It's a 6 DVD set with the pilot, first and second seasons on it. I remember watching it when it was airing normally and becoming completely sucked in to it. It wasn't a comedy and it wasn't a drama. Unfortunately many of the episodes had a laugh track that ruins some of the pacing and subtlety of the writing and later episodes were thankfully free of the canned laughter.
"Sports Night" was a series created by Aaron Sorkin before "The West Wing." It was odd in that it was a half-hour "dramadey" which had elements of a sitcom and drama in the shorter slot. With a great ensemble cast and rapid-fire dialogue, it is clear that CBS didn't really know what to do with it. The show was a critical hit, but I remember that it was hard to find it with a time slot that changed and a sporadic airing and a slow decision not to renew the show. The DVD falls into the category of corporate tolerance in that it crams 45 episodes onto 6 discs, which means that the are fairly highly compressed with a bit of a loss of the visual quality. There are also no special features, but the episodes themselves are great. I'd put it in the same category as "Monkeybone", "Ghost World", "The Guru", and "Mr. Show" in that they stretch beyond easy categories and you have to look around to find them. Now I have to find the time to dip in and keep watching all of the episodes... all 22 1/2 hours of them!
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Six Feet Under

Some time last year, late one night during a free trial or when I was somewhere that had a cable channel that I don't subscribe to, I saw a chunk of the pilot of the series "Six Feet Under." What caught my attention was seeing Peter Krause who starred in the excellent "Sports Night" series... I thought that it was an episode of "Sports Night" that I hadn't seen, but I realized that it wasn't. The first season is out on DVD now and I watched the first 3 episodes. The series was created by Alan Ball who made "American Beauty" and they share some elements. The drama is built around a family-owned funeral home and part of what I liked is the way that the family history and tensions emerge in the early episodes...it looks great and has a great ensemble cast who all seem to have deep roots in theatre... The family chemistry is great with a neat dynamic between mother, brothers and sister with a somewhat wacky employee thrown in. I want to see the rest of the episodes and I'm looking forward to checking out the second season as well.
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Mr. Show

I'm the proud owner of the new DVD of the first and second seasons of Mr. Show. Pretty much impossible to describe, Mr. Show is the brainchild of Bob Odenkirk and David Cross. If I'd arrange my favourite sketch comedy shows it would go like this: Monty Python's Flying Circus, The Kids in the Hall, and Mr. Show. What links them together and makes them all last is that they don't necessarily parody specific celebrities or movies, but work on a broader level by poking fun at attitudes or genres. Or maybe they just all make me laugh. Mr. Show never pulled a punch and has a great structure similar to Python where all of the sketches are linked together. Bob and David tried to get the shows released on tape and dvd for years, and finally HBO figured that they could make some money and brought out the first two seasons... I hope that more will follow. They regularly contribute to their own Bob and David site with writing that can give you an idea of the sensibility of Mr. Show. The other thing to look for from the guys is "Run Ronnie Run" which is the Mr. Show movie that was completed a while ago and premiered at Sundance, but has yet to have a release date scheduled...it's not about convincing Mr. Reagan to enter politics (someone else has to make that comedy)... but it's about the most arrested man do people make deals with Bob and David to make sure that they're stuff doesn't get seen?
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