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[Sloane]

First episode was great, second one not so much. Mile High Club was alright but "Curing Homosexuality" felt like a missed opportunity in many ways. Just having it end by him misunderstanding that kid was pretty lame, too. Falsely Accused and Little Person sound promising though!

 

[Cornballer]

Lol, here's a promo picture from tonight's episode.

Also, Sepinwall says:

Has show's funniest moment since Fred Willard went into space.

 

[Cornballer]

- Sneak peek clip from tonight's episode

 

[ramoisdead]

Hahahaha this little person bit is great.

 

[Cornballer]

- Onion A|V Club review

 

[helloresolven]

Holy shit, the ending was amazing.

Spoiler

"Why was the fire extinguisher so high!?!"

 

[Clevinger]

"My glasses had been uneven on one side since I was shot in them."

I love this show so much

 

[the_firewithin]

the ending scene was so Forrest lol. not even giving in when he could be burned alive

 

[JDSN]

I love how Forrest was so offended at his dad thinking he was an arsonist and the asshole ended up burning the house down.

 

[Dan]

I can't wait to see what ultimately prompts Forrest to use one of his vetoes. It's either going to be something utterly benign for weirdly trivial reason, or something horrific, at which point the replacement review will be even worse.

 

[FoneBone]

I can't wait to see what ultimately prompts Forrest to use one of his vetoes. It's either going to be something utterly benign for weirdly trivial reason, or something horrific, at which point the replacement review will be even worse.

It is such a good gun, in the Chekhov sense.

 

[elfinke]

"I'm gonna kill you, with my dick!" from S1 had me laughing so hard for so long. I adore this show so much, maybe even more than the Aussie original.

Over the moon a little bit to hear of a S2!

 

[Cornballer]

New episode tonight:

Cult; Perfect Body

Spoiler

Forrest gathers followers for his new cult; Forrest begins a regimen of bodily enhancements in the pursuit of perfection.

 

[-Deimos]

I think that was a new record of What The Fuck for the show.

 

[Cornballer]

- Onion A|V Club review

 

[barik]

Perfect Body was on another level. Really wondering how far they can take this concept, is Forrest going to die at the end? His dad getting killed seems inevitable already.

 

[Dan]

Forrest's dad: "Just like model airplane club?"
Forrest: "Yeah..."

I love how slyly James Urbaniak's producer manipulates Forrest.

 

[AniHawk]

i think the veto booth will do one of three things:

1. forrest never uses it despite some truly awful things happening
2. forrest uses it on something he personally really doesn't like, but most people would be okay with
3. forrest uses it on something that sounds dangerous, which results in a replacement review being something that doesn't sound dangerous, but winds up being what the first review would have been anyway

 

[Clevinger]

this show, man

RIP Mrs. Greenfield

 

[Cornballer]

- Sneak peek clip from this week's episode

 

[Lambtron]

Look upon my works and despair!

 

[AniHawk]

- Sneak peek clip from this week's episode

this is going to be amazing

 

[Cornballer]

“Don’t shoot the orange hulk! He’s a good boy!”

I always assume they're going in a dark direction, but the way they pulled these two reviews together was something else. Hilarious and appalling. The collateral damage from his show is insane.

 

[Cornballer]

I don't think this was posted a few weeks ago:

- Sean Collins for The Observer: ‘The Walter White of Comedy’: James Urbaniak on ‘Review’ and Rise of Funny Antiheroes

At first glance, Review appears to be comedy in which someone makes a major production of doing basic things in a very stiff, social-anthropology, insider-playing-at-outsider way — Sasha Baron Cohen in khakis. This is indeed the basic approach. But the show’s genius is that instead of treating each review as a separate, self-contained event, mined for jokes then never referred to again, there’s continuity between all of them. The magical comedy reset button you’d expect them to hit after Forrest, say, gets addicted to cocaine, overdoses, and goes to rehab, never gets hit. The experiences build one on top of another.

That’s the angle that stands out to actor James Urbaniak, who plays Forrest’s amoral producer/enabler Grant. “There’s an element of it being a satire of reality TV,” he says. “In reality TV, you make decisions that have an emotional effect on people but are restricted by the parameters of the game or the competition. [Review] is breaking down those parameters, so he’s making very big decisions, like getting divorced, that affect his whole life.”

“Affect” is an understatement. Even though the only time he acknowledges it before the first season finale is in one brief fit of self-pity while eating an enormous stack of pancakes (don’t ask), Review shows Forrest slowly but surely destroying his life and the lives of everyone around him. His marriage ends. Multiple people get killed. All under the rubric of this preposterous high-concept mockumentary show.

In other words, Review is a satire not just of reality shows, but of New Golden Age of Television antihero dramas, hiding in plain sight. It takes the basic “man ruins all he cares about in the name of something that makes him nominally freer and more powerful” structure of the genre and plays it for deliberate laughs. Instead of a meth empire or a mafia family or a double life, he commits his bad acts in the name of the television show that chronicles them. He’s Walter White, but without the sense that there’s anything tragic about him — he’s just an oblivious faux-smart buffoon. It’s a satire of the middle-class middle-aged white-male entitlement and privilege that all the big dramas treat as the stuff of life.

More via the link.

 

[the_firewithin]

finally got around to catching last weeks episode. the perfect body was hilarious espeically the producer guy in the bathroom lol

 

[elfinke]

I don't think this was posted a few weeks ago:

- Sean Collins for The Observer: ‘The Walter White of Comedy’: James Urbaniak on ‘Review’ and Rise of Funny AntiheroesMore via the link.

Like most things Review, I was laughing all the way through that, it was great, thanks. Also, this is why it is among the very best things on TV:

Forrest doesn't teach us shit. No hearts are warmed, no lessons learned, no sins redeemed, no tragic arcs completed.

It's a beautiful counter to the many other comedies I enjoy.

 

[Cornballer]

- Huffington Post Interview: The Most Dangerous Antihero On TV Is ... The Star Of Comedy Central's 'Review'?

 

[Cornballer]

New episode tonight:

Catfish; Haunted House

Spoiler

Forrest reconnects with an ex on his first foray into catfishing; Forrest discovers different kinds of ghosts while sleeping in a haunted house.

 

[Cornballer]

- The New Yorker on Review

But, honestly, I do find the show tragic. And what may speak to me most directly is “Review” ’s dank take on my own profession, criticism itself. Week after week, “Review” delights in poking at a specific brand of professional privilege: the notion that anyone can be an objective judge of anything. Forrest keeps wrestling with massive, destabilizing topics—like sex or rage—but, in the end, he finds himself struggling to reduce them into a single, manageable number, like so many bouillon cubes. He’s stuck in a Hell of Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down choices and March Madness brackets. He’s also happens be living my worst nightmare, the one that comes around every December, when the Top Ten Lists descend like hissing snakes.

And yet he can’t stop: Forrest may be egged on by his sinister producer, played by James Urbaniak (in a devilish relationship that has a faint “Bedazzled” quality to it), but he’s also motivated by a self-destructive impulse to judge everything he sees, cloaked as professionalism. In fact, Forrest actually quit “Review” at the end of the first season—but in the second season, he’s back, with a supposed loophole: he is allowed to “veto” two reviews. He can’t seem to use this power. Challenged to start a “bare-knuckle brawl,” Forrest picks a fight with a guy at an A.T.M. Instead of raising his fists, the guy pulls out a gun and shoots Forrest in the gut. Forrest spends weeks in a coma. He goes through gruelling months of rehabilitation, helped along by a devoted nurse, played by Allison Tolman. The two fall in love. You’d think this would be a happy ending, except that Forrest’s next assignment is “What does it feel like to blackmail someone?”—and he can’t help himself. He blackmails his girlfriend.

 

[Cornballer]

- Onion A|V Club review

 

[Cornballer]

Probably for the best that they scaled things back a bit this week with a little more low-key episode. The google discussion at the beginning was my favorite bit. I wonder where they're going with his dad being alone in the haunted house. Like the veto booth, they've just left it hanging and we'll see if it's relevant later.

 

[the_firewithin]

when Forrest got

Spoiler

stabbed

and then slid down the stairs had me in tears. this show is so dark sometimes and its great

 

[Cornballer]

when Forrest got

Spoiler

stabbed

and then slid down the stairs had me in tears. this show is so dark sometimes and its great

That clip was in the promo for the season, but I still lol'd when it happened last night. Great physical comedy.

 

[kris.]

Holy shit when he

Spoiler

got shot after punching the guy at the ATM.

I died.

 

[killamajig]

Holy shit when he

Spoiler

got shot after punching the guy at the ATM.

I died.

I know. I actually said "oh shit!" out loud when it happened.

My favorite show on TV right now.

 

[Griegite]

Probably for the best that they scaled things back a bit this week with a little more low-key episode.

You're absolutely right and I love how Forest getting stabbed happens in that sort of episode.

 

[barik]

That Google joke was amazing, I'm loving this show.

 

[Cornballer]

- Sneak peek clip from Thursday's episode

 

[vatstep]

Look upon my works and despair!

 

[Rapscallion]

Season 2 not being on Hulu is killing me. I check everyday to see if the first episode has been aded.

Gonna have to rethink my CC watching strategy, especially with Nathan For You season 3 starting soon.

 

[PassiveObserver]

Best show on TV.

 

[vatstep]

Season 2 not being on Hulu is killing me. I check everyday to see if the first episode has been aded.

Gonna have to rethink my CC watching strategy, especially with Nathan For You season 3 starting soon.

You can at least watch the first episode for free on Comedy Central's website; none of that "sign in with your cable provider" bullshit required.

But yeah, I'm surprised that this season isn't on Hulu. I just bought the season through Amazon, fuck it.

 

[Cornballer]

New episode tonight:

William Tell; Grant a Wish; Rowboat

Spoiler

Recreating William Tell's bow and arrow feat; making a son's birthday wishes come true; time in a rowboat.

 

[SuperPac]

I had no idea that Review is an American adaptation of Review with Myles Barlow (which is available on Hulu).

Season 1 trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5zt_vJtWu0

I think I prefer the faster pace of the US version, but the first episode of this is still pretty good.

 

[Cornballer]

- Onion A|V Club review

 

[Dan]

Because of course Forrest could turn the simplest suggestion into an epic disaster. That horrible sunburn he had at the end except for where he'd had his beard, yikes. Also, that was a very clever way to progress time...

The preview for next week looks suitably tragic/hilarious.

 

[Mariolee]

Saw a clip from this show and thought it was kinda funny but knowing there's continuity makes this a million times intesting. Will watch.

 

[Yeef]

Saw a clip from this show and thought it was kinda funny but knowing there's continuity makes this a million times intesting. Will watch.

Are you ready to lead a 5-Star life?

 

[the_firewithin]

the row boat had my dying. the "jesus christ" got me good

 

[mattiewheels]

I really like this show, but I started watching the original Australian version and I think I like it much better, just because the vibe is so much more realistic. The reviewer really sells it like he's an investigative reporter and its fucking brilliant. Really funny to see what happens to the show when it becomes Americanized.