Delocated

High concept shows tend to appeal to a very narrow audience, but this one is so bizarre, it goes way beyond its very specialized formula.

What if a guy testified on behalf of the Federal Government against the Russian Mob? His family and he would get new identities, leave their friends, schools and jobs behind and go into the Witness Protection Program. That's the background story of this group.

But then, some documentary filmmakers decided to take these people out of the nameless and bland suburb they lived in and place them in a New York City loft, to have their lives taped and to watch what happens! Welcome to "Delocated," also referred to as "Delocated New York" (as if they might do other versions of this series in other cities).

"Jon" (played by Jon Glaser) is the man in question. His family: wife "Susan" (Nadia Dajani) and son "David" (Jacob Kogan) are extremely reluctant to leave the safety of their quiet life for the possibility of getting killed on the streets of New York by the Russians (these aren't their "real" names, hence the quotation marks).

In order for the filmmakers to shoot this documentary, for their safety, the family must wear ski masks any time they're on camera, which is basically all the time. And they had microchips implanted on their vocal cords to permanently alter the sound of their voices. But the trouble begins as soon as they arrive in NYC, when they find out that their "loft" was just a studio apartment! "Jon" is angered because he put his family in mortal danger so he could live in a cool loft and got this instead. And "Susan" immediately walks out with "David." Let the mayhem begin!

As noted, this is a high concept comedy, as the idea that someone in the witness protection program would suddenly be a TV star in, of all places, New York, is absolutely absurd. Of course, when his wife left, "Jon" gets suggested by his Fed Agent caretaker to start dating, just to add another layer of insanity to the proceedings!

Every episode has some unexpected twist, just like that, which takes the episode in a new and more cockeyed direction, and typically includes "Jon" having battles with the filmmakers or the network producing the show about some element that didn't go according to plan.

Glaser's constant deadpan reactions to how everything happens and the disasters that occur as a part of that day's filming only adds more laughs to the hilarity. I should also note that episodes run between 11 minutes and 22 minutes, so you can easily binge this in a day.

New York plays a part because where else would people find it perfectly normal for a guy in a ski mask to just be wandering around town, working at a copy shop or going on a date at a public park when it's warm enough to wear shirt sleeves. Oh, and being followed by a camera crew! It's great because there's a lot of location shooting all over town, so the show really feels like you're hanging out all over the city with "Jon" and the situations that he finds himself in are as freaky and as ridiculous as the show's original premise.

This series is a brilliant satire of the entire Reality genre and skewers a lot of the tropes that are commonly associated with shows of that type. It also features some surprising cameos and gets in some smacks on other shows.

But I'll be the first to tell you, this is definitely not for everyone.

This show is coming from the people to blame for Wondershowzen and Xavier: Renegade Angel. If you haven't seen those, maybe you want to check them out before trying to watch this.

The show is about somebody in witness protection on TV, which is obviously ridiculous. Being the only person walking around NYC in a ski mask with a voice-modulator at all times is pretty obvious. The show is goofy and absurd, obviously. I think he's voice sounds funny as hell the way it is, same thing with Xavier's voice, and sometimes that alone is enough to make me laugh.

If you aren't into this kind of stuff, then you're not, and you should stick to some laugh-tracked sitcom on ABC or something. Not as good as Wondershowzen or Xavier, but still a show worth watching.

This is the funniest live action Adult Swim show by far. Watch it.

I went into this unaware of anything except for the title and the basic premise. After watching all 3 seasons (and the epilogue episode) I feel I can give a fair opinion of the show; for the most part, it sucked. Its problem seems to be that it wants to be random but only half tries most of the time. This is perhaps why Season 2 is the best, since it succeeds in gaining a great balance between dialogue, story, and being random but ultimately being cohesive (the best example of this, and the best episode overall, is Season 2 Episode 5 "Jon He Does It" AKA the prank episode). The end of the series is completely underwhelming and makes you question why you even watched this at all; the "reveal" of Jon's face and all of the events that come before it seem like an attempt to clear up as much of the story as possible, when story was never all that important (there are inconsistencies between episodes, whatever allows that week's story). I'm sure most people would have been happy to have left certain threads dangling, since that seemed to be the nature of the show established in the very first season (e.g. the unexplained changing of the characters who hang around Jon). It still gets a 6 out of me (which keeps flickering to a 5) because it does have genuinely funny parts and I feel that if I was more of a fan of reality television I would be laughing even more. It seems to rely on subverting the tropes of that genre as humour in and of itself far too often but the fans of reality shows are too busy watching the new Kardashian's Toddler Shore shows to bother with anything else so who are these jokes actually for?

In an alternate universe, this would be a 7 season NBC classic. in THIS universe, it should be talked about right up there with classics like The Office, Arrested Development, and any other beloved network comedy. however i do understand how a show with a faceless protagonist might throw off the boomer crowd, thus its lumped in with more artistic and surrealist programming on adult swim which led to mixed reception.

regadless of its reception, this show is consistently a hoot and a half. Jon Glaser's semi-anonymous "Jon" is possibly one of the most hysterical protagonists second only to the ever-obnoxious Michael Scott. he is rude, inappropriate, egotistical, delusional, and tries the patience of anyone willing to spend more than two seconds with him. if thats not the makings of a hysterical protagonist, i don't know what is.

the subplot of the Russian mafia eternally tracking him down, while significantly less developed, still manages to keep the show interesting with Eugene of Bob's Burgers fame bringing non-stop laughs in Season One with his assassin-turned-comedian but his brother, the cold-blooded killer really begins to shake up the narrative from Season Two until its closing. he manages to be both genuinely terrifying and absurdly hilarious which makes him a compelling foil to Jon.

the biggest hook of this show though, is always Jon. those familiar with Parks and Recreation's Jeremy Jam will find Jon as the proto-Jam. as funny as many of the situations and other characters are, its often Jon delivering absurd one-liners and catchphrases that will leave you in stitches. i particularly love the Dog Mayor episode where Jon becomes psychedelically entranced by sub sandwiches and waxes spiritual poetry about its ingredients.

its a shame that this only ran for 3 seasons and a finale, though what we have is endlessly watchable and quotable. every episode is available for free on the adult swim app, so theres really no excuse to miss this underappreciated masterpiece of comedy tv. its surely worthy of a full ten star rating.