The show premiered March 25 on Comedy Central. The premiere episode got just over half a million viewers, according to Nielsen ratings. Although it didn’t get the best rating, the show was a great addition to Comedy Central’s line up, yet still has some things to work on if it wants to stand up to everything else the channel has to offer.
The show is about Jack, played by Alex Anfanger (“Next Time on Lonny”), and Ben, played by Lenny Jacobson (“Nurse Jackie”). The show is about two brothers who want to make movies, but still live at home with their parents.
The two actors work incredibly well off each other. One of the opening scenes has the two of them learning that their parents are kicking them out of the house. The two go and attack the father for being a jerk. The two then go into a diner and act out how to get money from their mother, and they each take turns acting like their mother while the diner patrons look on as if the two are freaks.
Stephen Tobolowsky (“Californication”) and Kathy Baker (“Medium”) play the boys’ parents. They provide a great counterpoint to the ridiculous nature of the boys. The mother is over protective and caring while at the same time incredibly resourceful. She provided a support for her son’s drug addiction, yet lied to her kids and got the Drug Enforcement Administration to take the dealer down. The dad is the goofy lightning rod, taking crap from the sons who tell the mom, “If you divorce dad there’ll be more space for us.”
The episode also features a great appearance by Ben Stiller as an actor they hire to be a drug dealer. Stiller is also an executive producer of the show. He has a great scene where he’s talking about trying to be an actor, a very calm and serious scene that is followed by him going back into character and smacking his “hostage” in the back of the head.
The next episode appears to be a continuation of what happened this week, a refreshing change of pace from what Comedy Central usually does. The commercials for the show didn’t make it look like anything was going to happen, but it would be great if they could keep this story going and see where it takes them.
In addition, it would be great if the show featured more about the two trying to make movies. This episode was focused on how they were trying to extort their parents to get the money to do what they love, but the only movie they worked on was shown in the opening scene. Maybe the show is going to have them only shoot one film a week as they work toward their goal of getting discovered or rich, and not having to deal with their parents forcing them to grow up. If this is the case, it could work, but right now we see nothing more than two guys saying what they want.
Overall, the show can be great, and it did a good job establishing a unique voice in the first episode. As the series continues, hopefully we can see it take their ideas further to make the show great.
