Round One

FRIENDS OF THE PEOPLE

VS

THE MCCARTHYS

See the bracket at http://challonge.com/popfilter

We’ve reached the last bout in round one. We are only five short articles away from determining a winner. Which probably won’t be either one of these shows. Here’s why…

The McCarthys is about a sports loving, Irish-Catholic family living within a block of each other in Boston. The twist? One of the sons is gay. I’m stoked we have reached a place in history where an openly gay character can lead a sitcom and have his sexuality casually interjected into the story without being the butt of every joke. And I suppose the gay community can be proud that a gay character has made it into the pantheon of cheesy, paint-by-numbers, laugh-track overusing, nothing-special sitcoms. Congratulations gays! Welcome to cultural mediocrity. Not so fast, ladies, this congratulations only really extends to gay men. There’s still too much about lesbians that’s confusing and scary for the general public, but that’s rant for another article. It’s 2014. A laugh track? Seriously? I don’t know whether the writers knew ahead of time that there would be a laugh track so they didn’t bother writing jokes, or the jokes they wrote were so god-awful, the editors added canned laughter in post. Either way, it reeks of laziness and and a lack of faith in itself.

One thing I feel compelled to mention: it’s a universally acknowledged fact that Laurie Metcalf, who plays the mother McCarthy, is pretty much the greatest thing ever. Her range is utterly impressive, from her days as Aunt Jackie on Roseanne, to her chilling portrayal of Dr. Jenna James in Getting On. She pops in on Big Bang Theory every once in a while to play Sheldon’s mom and her character is by far the best thing to come out of that show. She is better than The McCarthys. She is the one thing that really works on this show. Well, maybe not really works, but her experience and professionalism shine through in a way that I don’t see reflected in any other aspect of this show. Hers is a beacon of scattered light struggling to stretch across an atmosphere of thick, gray fog. TL;DR This show sucks despite the presence of Laurie Metcalf.

On the other side of today’s bracket we have the comedy sketch show Friends of the People. I had never heard of this comedy troupe before. But after watching the pilot, I can see they are fresh faced, lack a little necessary polish, but get across a crackling New York energy that’s hard not to like (á la  Broad City but, you know, not nearly as skull-fuckingly amazing). It reminded me of a modern day In Living Color, so I wasn’t surprised when I found out that this show rose out of the ashes of an attempted ILC reboot. FotP has a lot work to do (getting some fly-girls aside.) Some of the sketches need to be tighter and they’re going to have to go for some bigger laughs. However, I see some potential in the cast; Jermaine Fowler’s my pick for the breakout star. For these reasons, The McCarthys stays behind while Friends of the People moves on to the second round.

-Stephanie Rose

Coming up Friday:

FRIENDS OF THE PEOPLE VS UNCLE