The Neighbors

I don't have much hope for the future of The Neighbors. Sure, it's wildly funny, Toks Olagundoye (who I've never seen before)is brilliant, and the show's wacky sensibility and great sight gags (like a formation of pie-carrying aliens) make it the season's best new comedy, but way too many people just don't like it. The reviews have been very poor (as opposed to the almost universal praise heaped on the terrible Ben and Kate), and the average rating on IMDb and TV.com is low.

This is Better Off Ted all over again. It's wildly funny but for some reason only a select group of us seems to recognize the fact. I am just bracing itself for its inevitable cancellation, and wish Toks and the equally funny and obscure Simon Templeman better luck with their future careers.

This is a cute series, light hearted and fun. It treats one taken-for- granted subject of our human life per episode and it manages to turn it on all sides in a nice way...does what very well exactly what'the new normal' fails terribly: produces interesting characters that we care about, nice stories, criticize slightly some aspects of daily life that are less than ideal and reframe our daily life, while actually manage to be funny and not fall in an overly judgemental storyline. OK, it might not be the comedy of the century, but its really catching some steam lately and it deserves proper time and attention to develop. I read some awful reviews of the pilot and i totally disagree with most of them. This is a nice series, with nice and funny actors, good story and quite some laughs. Very enjoyable...let's give it some support!

3rd Rock from the Sun is a tough act to follow. The Neighbors does a pretty good job, but uses wit and timing instead of zaniness and slapstick comedy to get its laughs. That makes it consistently funny, just not side-splittingly funny. Naming all of the aliens after sports heroes was an inspired choice-- they'll never run out of funny names (a tot named Dick Butkus?), and the fact that the aliens are dorky doubles down on the running gag. So are all their matching outfits/uniforms that remind us of golf clothes from the 1970s.

Also on the upside, some of the cast members are real gems. I don't know where Toks Olagundoye has been up til now, but she's got real movie star power as the glamorous alien mom. Her rapid fire back and forth with alien husband Simon Templeman, who has perfect comedic timing and never wastes a good line, are my favorite parts of the show. Jami Gertz and Max Charles are good enough as the earthling straight man/woman, but I think maybe too much of the plot compares their unfunny ordinariness to the aliens' backwards/upside down view of what humanity is like. The child actors are pretty good, too, even if the show relies a little too much on alien child Ian Patrick's precociousness. Clara Mamet is exceptional as the brooding, frighteningly calculating and cynical teenager.

I was worried that after a few episodes the running gags would wear thin and they'd run out of ideas. Not so at all! I've just finished the Thanksgiving episode and, if anything, it's getting better and better.

The Weavers (Jami Gertz, Lenny Venito, Clara Mamet, Max Charles, Isabella Cramp) are a Jersey family who moves into a gated community. Then they find out that all the neighbors are aliens from another planet. Every one of them picked a famous sport star name. The leader is Larry Bird (Simon Templeman) with his wife Jackie Joyner-Kersee (Toks Olagundoye) and their kids Dick Butkus (Ian Patrick) and Reggie Jackson (Tim Jo).

I love the aliens and the crazy hijinx they get into. They're ridiculous and loads of fun. It doesn't try to be too serious. The aliens look at the world in a totally different way and every once in awhile, they teach the Weavers lessons of their own. There is also a teenage love story between the grumpy Weaver girl and the wide eyed boy Reggie Jackson. That too is fun. It was canceled after two full seasons. It's too bad since it's one of the funnier shows around.

Where this show is so new I'm inclined to keep this short and sweet: I'm unsure why some are rating this show so low, as it seems to have been quite clearly written and designed for fun. I'd like to suggest more cynical viewers lower their proverbial gun barrels and take pleasure in a show that simply wants to be silly, creative and a little bit cheesy...as opposed to the barrage of deep message-laden pseudo-preachy programs that we're currently bombarded with.

I found the pilot a bit shaky in spots, but I can't recall a pilot of any program where this wasn't the case. The characters were well-portrayed; I found the acting particularly strong given the subject matter. It also had a decent spectrum in relation to how it will relate to adults and younger viewers; hence the steady-fire logic of visual and vocal quips that kept things rolling along nicely.

I'm trying to be as vague as possible as I'd rather entice people to check it out, instead of spoil it by trying to summarize or describe it adequately in text. It's a situational-style sitcom with Sci-Fi overtones. It doesn't take itself too seriously, and clearly has a lot of fun in the production. I found the writing particularly clever in many spots, and laughed out loud on many occasions. I can only hope the humour and writing stays strong throughout the season, because if that starts to weaken, it may deflate the whole concept altogether. Nonetheless, I've found it to be a decent breath of fresh air so far.