************** SPOILERS!! **********
The initial premise--a horny heterosexual lowlife impersonating a dead gay pastor--was funny. But I wondered how it could sustain an entire show. Fortunately, the other characters have been rounded out since the cartoony first episode. They have also been given their own subplots, most of which work. And the actors have settled down since the first two episodes, after trying way too hard.
The humor is much darker than I expected, which makes me very happy! Michael Rosenbaum's Buddy is a fantastic scumbag. All of his choices are bad ones. He doesn't care about anyone but himself. Except for Dora, his overly sweet/inwardly raging assistant, none of the characters care much about anything except themselves. It's bracingly unsympathetic and doesn't try to make you care about the characters. Surprisingly, you do.
The best laughs come from the most outrageous gags. Such as Buddy's internal monologue as he slips his hand into a corpse's cleavage when her necklace drops into it. (long story) Narration: "Nip...old nip...old dead nip..." (Although Buddy's narration tends to hammer home the comedy too hard. )
In the same episode, to get his gullible assistant Dora to give up the necklace after Buddy accidentally presented it to her, he has his hooker accomplice impersonate a dying cancer patient in a wheelchair. With an oxygen mask, no less. The woman incoherently pleads with Dora for the necklace, as a dying wish. The brazen inhumanity of the joke is brilliant.
I'm only sorry this comedy is on TVLand. It deserves so much better than that.
The initial premise--a horny heterosexual lowlife impersonating a dead gay pastor--was funny. But I wondered how it could sustain an entire show. Fortunately, the other characters have been rounded out since the cartoony first episode. They have also been given their own subplots, most of which work. And the actors have settled down since the first two episodes, after trying way too hard.
The humor is much darker than I expected, which makes me very happy! Michael Rosenbaum's Buddy is a fantastic scumbag. All of his choices are bad ones. He doesn't care about anyone but himself. Except for Dora, his overly sweet/inwardly raging assistant, none of the characters care much about anything except themselves. It's bracingly unsympathetic and doesn't try to make you care about the characters. Surprisingly, you do.
The best laughs come from the most outrageous gags. Such as Buddy's internal monologue as he slips his hand into a corpse's cleavage when her necklace drops into it. (long story) Narration: "Nip...old nip...old dead nip..." (Although Buddy's narration tends to hammer home the comedy too hard. )
In the same episode, to get his gullible assistant Dora to give up the necklace after Buddy accidentally presented it to her, he has his hooker accomplice impersonate a dying cancer patient in a wheelchair. With an oxygen mask, no less. The woman incoherently pleads with Dora for the necklace, as a dying wish. The brazen inhumanity of the joke is brilliant.
I'm only sorry this comedy is on TVLand. It deserves so much better than that.