Strangers with Candy

Stranger's With Candy has such a funny premise, and a highly un-believable one that you just have see it to believe it. I loved this series, bravo for Comedy Central to show it. In some respects it was like a very warped after school special but mixed in were themes of older adults trying to attend 'school', to compete against youngsters, and re-live a hey-day they never had in the first place.

Jeri is a character that is trying to get her life back ontrack, and at her age, she went right back to the beginning, the high school she dropped out of. Oh -- gosh-- how funny it would be to see ANY of the high school drop outs decide to go back after 15, 20, 25 years of leaving and to RE-LIVE that horror all over again!!!

This series was funny, bittersweet, and yes, more like a warped after school special but the question "Strangers With Candy" asked that we all should be asking is:

"Do I set my work aspirations higher or do I chose to work at the plastic flower plant plant like everyone else?"

Amy Sederis is brilliant as Jerri Blank amid a cast of other excellent comic writer/actors, including Paul Dinello and "The Daily Show's" Stephen Colbert. It had me consistently on the floor with it's inventiveness, audacity and vicious wit (i.e., the prayer at the Families of Alcoholics meeting: "Dear God, please give me the strength to blame those who did this to me, to accuse those who didn't, and the wisdom to know the difference.") It's long since disappeared from Comedy Central, but DVDs of Seasons One and Two are out, and a movie version by the same team is on its way for 2005. BTW, whoever suggested that the writers were "white supremists," I sincerely hope you are joking. It's called satire, in the vein of Swift and Voltaire.

This new show from Comedy Central is completely loopy! Give it a few minutes of your time and you too will succomb! Amy Sedaris is outrageously funny as Jerry Blank, a 47 year old reprehensible ex-convict trying to graduate Flashpoint High "right where she left off." Her catatonic senior citizen father and alcoholic and abusive step-mother are both superb!

Jerry always struggles to do the right thing. She rarely succeeds. Every episode Jerry has a new pet. A lobster (that is boiled accidentally). A turtle (who is shot out the living room sliding glass doors after a serious one-on-one with a golf club, and is later cremated and commingled with Jerry's mother's ashes). And a constrictor (nothing untoward it seems happens to this pet). Poor Jerry, as she struggles to gain weight to play Ma in Raisin in the Sun and spy on a nice classmate who the teachers feel is retarded!

At the end of each episode I feel gratified that Jerry never does the right thing, but that is ok. In fact the episodes end happily because Jerry gave someone an overdose of home brewed drugs or she snitched on her retarded friend who stood up for her. The list of Jerry's misdeeds is long, but as her teacher, Mr. Jellinek, advises her, "...stick with what you know!"

When I saw the commercials for this show, I thought it looked stupid and annoying. But I gave it a chance, and loved it. I think this show, although a bit strange and sometimes extreme, is very very funny. I find myself still laughing at some of the jokes days after I watch it. It's very different from most sitcoms, and most of the timing and originality of the jokes are pulled off terrifically. Amy Sedaris is incredible as the strange (and really ugly) Jerri Blank. Steven Colbert is also really funny. Give this show a chance, you will not regret it.

Words cannot explain Strangers with Candy. You need to see it to believe it and even then you'll be scratching your head in disbelief (while laughing your ass off of course).

The premise is that of a sick and twisted after school special from hell where all of the wrong lessons are learned. (Great one from Jellineck – `if you're going to smoke marijuana you have to be prepared to spend a lot of time laughing with your friends').

It is one of the smartest, subversive and exhilaratingly un-pc shows ever. It a makes fun of authority figures, the handicapped, minorities and that's just for starters. Each episode is crammed with one-liners and sight gags so numerous they'll make your head spin.

It's all in the delivery, folks. Principal Blackman (Gregory Hollimon), Noblet (Steven Colbert) and Jellineck (Paul Dinello) are all pitch perfect. In the hands of lesser talents these jokes would fall flat. The show has huge laughs. The entire Hit & Run episode comes to mind, as does the scene in The Virgin Jerri when Drake removes Jerri's toe separator from her filthy feet and sniffs it lustily or when Jerri recites the poem Packing a Musket to the class.

I could go on and on but just trust me - you HAVE to watch this show.