MagneticMediaFed

TBS is launching two new comedies this week. This makes sense because TBS has rebranded itself as the network for comedy. Interestingly enough, these are the first two original programs the network has developed in many years. Its standard fare is comprised of Everybody Loves Raymond and Sex in the City reruns. You might also have noticed that it is the time of the TV season when most shows go on hiatus for a month or two, making it the perfect opportunity for a smaller show to grab some content-starved viewers.

The first of the new shows, 10 Items or Less, premiered last night with My Boys premiering tonight. We’ll get to My Boys later.

10 Items or Less is a generally unimpressive television comedy, but is worth watching for the following reasons: 1) its a comedy, and perhaps you haven’t noticed, but no one seems to be making comedies anymore. 2) The star of the show is John Lehr, who most people will recognize as “the guy in the box at the top of this article” but who savvy comedy will remember from his work in various Noah Baumbach projects of the 90s. He is funny and fun to watch. 3) It’s almost December. What else were you going to watch? Breaking Bonaduce?

For those who checked out last summer’s Lovespring International on Lifetime, 10 Items or Less will seem awfully familiar. It’s basically the same show, but in a grocery store. You’ve got your collection of lovably wacky employees. You have an enthusiastic manager/main character. You have a basic David versus Goliath plotline, mix it all together under the freedom of a scriptless, improv comedy format and shot with the cheapness of hand-held digital video and BAM you got yourself a stew going on! (Since Curb Your Enthusiasm hit, scriptless comedy shows have become the 99¢ Store of the television landscape. Sure, you can find some gems in there, but everything just looks so damn cheap).
Still, there are laughs, and who doesn’t like to laugh. I’ll be checking it out for the next couple weeks at the very least.

Though I do have one concern, the preview for next week’s episode (I don’t usually watch previews, but the show is new and I wanted to see where it was going) suggests that the main plot focus is EXACTLY like an episode of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia from this past summer. THAT, is not cool.

Tags: TBS

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 28th, 2006 at 4:33 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.