Boy, has the American half-hour comedy come a long way since I was a kid. With the exception of MASH, most shows used to be safe, safe, safe. Now, you can watch a speculative explanation of the 1987 Wall Street crash as a broad comedy.
That’s the pitch behind Black Monday (STAN), which unfortunately doesn’t live up to its promise – and what promise! Don Cheadle, Regina Hall, Andrew Rannells, Paul Scheer and a directing team that includes Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen – what could’ve gone wrong?
My guess is they had too much fun on set. This is a loud show about loud people (Wall Street traders in the 1980s, usually on cocaine) and everyone is acting just too damn loud. Don Cheadle is a great, and very funny, actor, but the writers seem to think that just giving him long speeches and letting him off the leash will result in comic gold, and it doesn’t. He’s too much, the writing isn’t funny enough, and I found myself in the awful position of wishing he would shut up. He didn’t, and doesn’t. This is his show, and it’s indulgent of an actor’s worst impulses.
Much funnier is Corporate (FOXTEL), entering its second season. This is a truly subversive and edgy comedy that doesn’t need to yell; indeed, it’s as deadpan as it gets, and all the better for it. Creators Matt Ingebretson and Jake Weisman play sad office drones at a fictional massive corporation, Hampton Deville, that has its hands in everything; the underlying source company seems to be Halliburton. The sheer scope of the conglomerate allows the show to pierce many targets – Hampton Deville can make and sell anything – while gunning at all manner of workplace situations, especially the simple daily art of not getting shafted, shivved or shoved out. It’s not as brilliant as the original The Office, but it’s a workplace comedy with plenty of bite.
