Beerometer

For those who think our lives are glamorous, well, they usually are. But last night I had to roll up my sleeves and get down to brass tacks. I needed to watch the new ABC show "Sons & Daughters" for the beerometer. For those unfamiliar, the beerometer is a rating based on the number of beers needed to be consumed to make the show watchable.

I tried to go into "Sons & Daughters" with an open mind, getting my drink ready and taking my seat on the couch 5 minutes early. So as my clock turned 8:05 CST (my clock is purposely 5 minutes fast which defeats the purpose I understand but...), "Sons & Daughters" premiered in front of America. Unfortunately, I don't think this is something I'm gonna tell my kids about. In fact, I'll probably deny it if it ever comes up like the fact that I saw "Fair Game" with Cindy Crawford in the theatre.

So the show is similar in style to "Arrested Development", "The Office", or "Curb Your Enthusiasm", meaning their is no laugh track and less cameras than a standard sitcom. Also in the vein of "Curb", the dialogue is apparently mostly improvised. However, the results were not close to the standards set by the aforementioned shows, 3 of the funniest shows on TV right now. I would hesitate to call the show awful, as it definitely isn't in "Veronica's Closet" or "Caroline in the City" territory. But it's a lot closer to that then one of those shows you end up watching after 10 minutes of flipping the channels hoping something better magically appears on another channel.

For me, the biggest problem with the show is it's boring. I didn't connect with any of the characters and to be honest I doubt I would recognize any of the actors if they sat across from me at a coffee shop. Well, except for the guy from "Office Space" ("my oh face" dude). But that was due to "Office Space" and not this show. Not sure if I ever laughed once. In a lot of ways, this show reminded me of most improv I watch live - a bunch of faceless people trying to be clever but never really doing much of anything. It becomes so normal that you forget who the performers were and what they did or said moments after it ends. Here, the framework for the episode was a 25th wedding anniversary. It's enough of a premise for comedy but nothing really happens action-wise or even with the interaction between the characters. Ahhhh, as I write about this show I end up hating it more.

Maybe this show will get better or maybe it's one of those shows like "Arrested Development" or "The Office" where it needs time to develop the characters for the jokes to work. I'll give it another chance or two, but my initial beerometer for the show is a 6 pack on hand as you play drinking games (prefer the show to be the background noise).

UPDATE:
I neglected to point out that Fox was referring to "Free Ride" as the #1 New Comedy in their promos last night. I guess with "Sons & Daughters" and "The Loop", I forget to watch the season premiere (have multiple episodes aired yet?). Well, if I remember I'll watch this week and rate it on the beerometer. Something tells me the #1 New Comedy won't be staying on the air very long.


Sons and Daughters links:
* Technorati * Wikipedia
beer-o-meter links:
* Technorati * Wikipedia * Fox March 12: Free Ride * New Fox Shows