THE SPOILS OF BABYLON

**1/2 (out of ****)

So much of the allure of Casa De Mi Padre is how close it resembled the material it parodied. Rarely did the movie follow modern comedy rules, instead getting most of its jokes by being only as ridiculous as other Mexican melodramas are. This created a movie that was lumpy and half-baked, but an impressive experiment none the list. The creators of that movie, along with the movie’s star Will Ferrell, are now focusing on the small screen. Not only is their project a six episode mini-series debuting on IFC, but it targets the epic melodrama mini-series that were popular in the eighties. Essentially soap operas with (slightly) higher production values, these behemoths were huge events back in the day, like ten Super Bowls in a two week period.

Much like Casa De Mi Padre, The Spoils of Babylon’s target audience will probably not know anything about its spoof target. Unlike Casa De Mi Padre, it doesn’t matter. Padre was thrilled by how closely it resembled its source material. No one could confuse Babylon with something from the 80’s, even if they didn’t recognize all of the stars. The source material here is just a thin line to hang jokes from, and that lack of handcuffs makes The Spoils of Babylon’s first two episodes more successful than Casa De Mi Padre. It’s less impressive as an experiment, but experiment’s that are strictly that typically merit less time than they demand.

This isn’t to say that everything in The Spoils of Babylon works. In this way, it’s like another IFC show, Comedy Bang Bang, albeit with a much lower batting average. Like Bang Bang, and even some of the greatest skit shows of all time, Babylon attempts high levels of absurdity, and almost as a rule, some jokes and bits are going to be less successful than others. But the secret to Bang Bang’s success is that it was so great at building a world and a tone that even when something doesn’t work, it still kind of does. Babylon isn’t at Bang Bang’s level yet, but seeing the jump in quality from the first episode to the second, it might just get there by the end of its run.

 – Ryan Haley