Grid Effect

This is what happens when you bring a man widely responsible for Daddy Day Camp to direct two of your episodes. Not to say these episodes were terrible or tame (anything but), but the jokes and situations seemed to resonate less than they have in the past.

For those who don’t know, the director of Daddy Day Camp is Fred Savage. Better known as Kevin Arnold from The Wonder Years. After these two projects, jumping into a series as explicit as IASIP seems very Bob Saget-esque. And these episodes were anything other than straight and narrow. One did a satire on sweatshop labor and in the other Charlie befriended and got engaged to a twelve year-old, whom he assumed was twenty-one because her father (a woman dressed like Kim Jong-Il) had her tending bar.

This is the downside to this series, because at its ceiling, there is seldom anything funnier on television (see the “dumpster baby” and “Hostage” episodes from this season). But when it bombs, it tends to look like tonights first episode, “The Aluminum Monster vs. Fatty McGoo”.

It had its moments with the steam whistle, Charlie stealing mounds of clothing from a store while pretending to listen to Dee when she was feeling inadequate that her friend from high school owned the store they were shopping in, Dennis’ reaction to Dee claiming he had peaked, his description of himself to Judy Greer, Charlie Day’s physical comedy when Mac offered him a piece of jerky. But it wasn’t consistently laugh out loud funny like the four preceding it were. Still, I’m not going to complain too much, anytime an episode revolves around a series of lies and deceit its generally a half-hour well spent, despite how many dry spells the episode had where I felt more uncomfortable than humored.

The second episode, “The Gang Solves The North Korea Problem”, was an improvement, but still seemed like it was lacking something. I think when all five characters pair off, or are preoccupied with different things, the episode suffers. Certainly they all have their own agendas, but when those agendas are in different arenas, it seems almost like the writing gets too disjointed and they don’t know what to focus they’re efforts on.

They look innocent enough, but they’ll rip your heart out for a 5-spot.

There was still plenty to enjoy about this episode. Including the American Idol parody, Dee’s constant failure and discouragement (she took it on the chin this hour and I almost started to feel bad for someone on this show, she needs some girl friends), Charlie’s thoughts on kissing, the “enriched beer”, the duster jacket, Charlie and Dennis trying to knock down the “Private” (not pirate) door, followed by Dennis letting out a boastful “Nice” when he spin-kicked it and Charlie subsequently threw his entire upper-torso into it. But again, one too many dry spells where bits seemed to either fall flat or drone on for too long. When something drones on this series, it only lasts around a minute and a half, but they talk at such rampant speeds it seems never ending.

Really, while I wouldn’t completely write these episodes off, I wouldn’t recommend anyone unfamiliar with the series to start with them, nor would I expect anyone who watched the series for the first time last night to continue to watch. Just a (very small) bump in the road, I am fully confident we get back to the constant funny next Thursday. I’m not sure how I’m going to adjust to only one new episode in three weeks.