It’s on after American Idol on Wednesdays, and I am LOVING it. I laughed my ass off at the premier show a couple of weeks ago, and I laughed even harder at the third episode last night. It also has Sam from “Reaper,” Lex Luthor from “Smallville,” and Trevor Moore from “The Whitest Kids U Know”. Michael Rosenbaum (Lex) is surprisingly funny. Christian Slater is perfect as the boss who does weird and arbitrary things (and has uncounted hidden rooms in his headquarters).
Get rid of Cash, and this show is pretty good. If you can’t get rid of him because of some sort of contractual obligation or blackmail photos, at least stop making him king of the cliche. The whole show is catch-phrase heavy, but Cash’s character is forced to ramp it up to an obnoxious level.
Tonight, he dies.
Also, toner low.
I’ll allow it.
Cash is - ah, the black guy. I like him - he’s not allowed to fix things!
Watched the first two episodes - wanted to like it, but never quite clicked for me.
I like it enough to keep my TiVo season pass, but it’s borderline. Nothing that happens in any episode surprises me, the “hot/smart chick who can’t see (or just doesn’t care) that her boyfriend has the IQ of a curly fry” bit is really annoying, and the dialogue is generally kind of meh. Frankly, I think Christian Slater might be the only reason I’m still watching it. But apparently that’s good enough for now. 
I am enjoying it, basically because it’s very similar to Reaper, Bret Harrison’s other show. I like the comedy-drama, and the quick cuts seem more like real life to me. And I like how the story doesn’t have to go linearly – they can solve the task mid-episode, then encounter another problem, to be solved in the last 2 minutes – Reaper did that often, as well.
A lot of people didn’t like Reaper however, so I don’t know if this show can endure – besides, it’s on Fox: how will a quirky show like this endure having it’s time slot massacred by football, NASCAR and American Idol running time overruns?
I liked that they brought Dutch into the company - he isn’t the brightest guy, but it’s looking like they’re rounding out his character into less of a caricature. Which is great, because I like Michael Rosenbaum - “Smallville” took a serious dip when he left the show.
I have been, but only on a fluke. I’d “seen” the ads, but hadn’t really been paying attention to them for a few weeks, then one day, one of them was on and someone spoke I realized, based on his voice, it was Brad from Grounded For Life, so I TiVo’d it. I didn’t even know Christian Slater was in it until I started watching it.
I liked the first episode, opening the second episode with “Greetings and Salutations” sealed the deal for me. The third episode was good as well. I really like Dutch, he’s everything I don’t like about Dane Cook, exaggerated, on purpose.
I get the feeling it’s going to burn out after two seasons or so unless they take the focus away from breaking into a new place each week and pay more attention to something else. If they keep doing what they’re doing know, it’s going to be House Lite, and another version of House, without Hugh isn’t going to be able to hold it’s own.
In the mean time, I’m planning to stay on for the ride, it looks like fun.
It’s back, and Cash is still speaking in cliches. I hate your face.
Megan Mulalley has joined the cast, seemed like a cross between her Karen character and Liz Lemon.
Nothing else on…
I really liked it during the first season but I didn’t care for this episode. I’ll say the same thing I see that I said earlier. They need to focus on something other then breaking into a new place every week or it’s going to get really boring really quick. I mentioned upthread that I like the “Greetings and Salutations” thing, but that the reused it kinda tells me they’re at a loss for new material and when I heard “Don’t You Forget About Me” playing in the background my thought process was “Hey he wasn’t..wait was..no he wasn’t in that movie” and then he did the overdub with the essay reading thing. I’m not sure what demographic they’re going after here. Is it supposed to be people my age (30ish) that catch all these references (Breakfast Club, Heathers etc) or people younger that don’t get them at all…but they aren’t going to find them funny…I’m so confused. I think that might be part of the problem. They don’t have any focus. The cliches/jokes are aimed at an older crowed who’s seen a lot of movies yet the show isn’t quite ‘smart’ enough for them and the people it plays down to probably won’t have seen most of the stuff it seems to reference…or maybe I’m way off here.
How many people can watch a show where they spend that much time pranking each other have also seen Heathers?
OTOH, a show like House is ‘smart’ and procedural but still manages to fit in plenty of practical joking. Come to think of it, so does Psych.
I’m rambling, what did everyone else think.
I liked it last season but, Megan Mulalley has kept me away this season.
Update for 3/13 episode.
First off, does it bug anyone else that the outside of the Contra building is also the outside of Paddy’s Pub from It’s Always Sunny? That’s been driving me nuts since the show started. They really couldn’t find another building to take a picture of?
Next, I really like Megan Mulalley…I really don’t care for her in this show. She was great on Will and Grace, I loved her as Tammy 2 on Parks and Rec, but it’s just not clicking for me here.
Tertiary, It kinda bugged me that they kept ragging on the girl for being jealous when they never really ‘explored’ the relationship between her and him (I really don’t remember anyone’s names yet). We know he liked her at the beginning but she was dating Dutch, and I think they touched on her liking him back, but not enough to warrant this, IMHO. It just seems like another show trying to do another Jim and Pam and not getting it right. Hell, the Office can’t even do Jim and Pam 2.0 right (Andy and Erin).
D)Again with the 80’s references. Abe Froman (Internet King). I’m still not sure where they’re going with that. The young kids aren’t going to get it, people older then me probably won’t either and I’m still not quite sure who this show is aimed at.
Having said that, I do actually like the show and I’ll keep watching it. I don’t see them yanking it out before they finish out the rest of the season, but I’d be surprised if they make it through another full season after this one barring some big changes.
Brought to you by (or copied directly from) the people who brought you ‘Leverage’.
Replace aging film heartthrob Hutton for Slater, (who could probably also use the work these days - “fuck you Drama!”). Keep the same bunch of quirky misfit experts (maybe one less female this time, but make the remaining one younger and hotter). Keep one black guy as the techie. Throw in some nice self-references - “we’ve got a Broken Arrow!”. Voila.
It’s back on? I’ll have to go find it.
I don’t know if it’s back on or not. I don’t even know when it started or when it stopped. I’m late to the meeting and just watching a few of the first season episodes now.
Okay, caught the new episode last night - I fully rescind my endorsement of this show. They took nearly all the funny out and replaced it with WTF? Bah.
Yeah, I’m really, really not liking Megan Mulalley here. Every scene she’s in is not only awkward but it seems like the show has gone just as far down hill as their work environment has since she showed up. I almost feel bad for them.
Also, upthread I mentioned that the exterior of Contra Security is the same as the exterior of Paddy’s Pub on It’s Always Sunny (this is the right wall from the first picture). Last night I noticed that it’s also the same building that Jess Day lives in on New Girl…at least I think I did, but the only picture I can find of the building doesn’t confirm that. I’ll have to see if I still have that episode on my TiVo.
It’s not clear how many episodes are left, although I did notice that the opening credits changed recently; now they show each character next to the actor’s name.
Anyway, there’s one more episode on Tuesday 4/3, then there’s a slight break when Glee returns, but the Raising Hope season finale is on 4/17, and The Futon Critic lists Breaking In taking its place on Tuesdays starting 4/24, which would leave episodes on 5/1 and 5/8; that’s four episodes. (There will probably be a 2-hour Glee on 5/15, and 5/22 already has the American Idol Top 2 performance show and the Glee season finale. There might be new episodes airing in the summer, but Fox just announced that Hell’s Kitchen and Masterchef will be on Tuesdays starting 5/29.)