I've grown a liking to Dax Shepard since his podcast, but I haven't liked him in that much, other than Parenthood, and Lake Bell is kind of an indie gal, so, I thought this would be a stinker. Correction, CHIPs was amusing. Not great, but, it's based on a '70s show for kids with a man named Poncherello, so, not like I was expecting art. Anyway, I only gave it a chance because of my new fondness for Dax, and I liked Bell in Wet Hot Summer. I found it surprisingly funny. It's basically Money Pit meets Funny Farm with Chevy Chase, and I figured the writer must be a big fun of '80s B movies like Overboard, Baby Boom, Doc Hollywood, etc., all dealing with city folk ending up in the country.
For the people complaining about mocking people from the fly over states, you're missing the point. The main characters are by far the most bumbling and inept. This, like Money Pit and the other '80s schtick, is more of a screwball comedy, and not a realistic portrayal. Every character is dialed up a bit, including Bell's Kavetching mother, which was pretty funny. And points were made along the way, like Bell saying this was the first time she got to meet her neighbors, and in the end, everyone comes to help them with their roof problem. The takeaway was, that people from fly over states are good people. It was showing the juxtapose between their two lives. And speaking as someone who left the Big City, and moved to a small Southern town for a year, it is a weird adjustment and people do seem like characters, in a way, because you're not used to it. So, in that sense I think they did a nice portrayal, especially with the amount of people that are actually leaving NYC to start up farms. There's a documentary coming out about city folk moving to a farm and bumbling their way to making a living, so, this is actually a thing.
Pam Grier was my favorite in the show. I don't think I've seen her since the L Word, and I didn't know she could do comedy, but she did a great job. I liked Ed Beagley's weird, quirky character and his awkward flirtation with Grier. I also like David Koechner as the rancher type. In general, I thought it was cute and kind of funny. Not Modern Family or The Goldbergs kind of funny, but something I would watch. And really, it gets tiring seeing things based in Los Angeles or NYC, like nowhere else exists. I was happy to see Roseanne come back to see other parts of America, but then they canceled it and the Connors replaced it, which was basically, dressed down Los Angeles and didn't reflect middle America in anyway. And I'm fascinated with that part of the country after seeing Godless, and have tried pretty much anything that comes up that has that kind of setting. That part of the country really hasn't been explored since City Slickers and it's a shame to put so much focus on only 2 cities in the country (LA & NYC) when there is so much out there.
