I'm with Busey

This is possibly the best reality show in the history of Reality TV. It adds stupid humor with confusing humor and makes Brilliant Television. Gary Busey takes Adam de la Peña on Journeys that end up comedically nowhere. All In all this is an amazing show. Hands down

But if you think the antics of someone who is more than a little crazy can also be more than a little amusing, then you'll find "I'm With Busey" aimlessly, hopelessly, helplessly funny.

Often you won't know whether to laugh or to summon psychiatric help for Busey, but if you don't find this show at least a little bit funny, then you're missing the point. ... Which is that there IS no point.

"I'm With Busey" is a modern-day, unscripted "Two Stooges." The action is madcap, the dialogue mostly mindless improvisation, and the outcome of each episode -- unlike studio series and even many reality shows -- unpredictable.

In an age where viewers invest hour upon hour with reality shows where people stop acting like themselves and simply start acting, "I'm With Busey" is frighteningly genuine. Scary though it might be, Gary Busey's life probably IS this weird.

Now THAT'S entertainment.

I don't know why I was actually expecting this to be a reality show, after Comedy Central had fooled me with their first "reality show" Contest Searchlight, which all turned out to be a hoax, but it wasn't really apparent to me until the end of that show. I was looking forward to the first episode of I'm With Busey, the premise seemed so great. Mr. Tough Guy actor, a little on the odd side, mentoring a young Comedy Central writer, who is a little on the wussie side. The first episode left me wanting something better, and just left me thinking that Gary Busey is either a complete idiot, or a complete psycho. But as I saw a few more episodes it dawned on me that even though Busey may be a bit nuts, he is just acting. It really became apparent that he was acting in the episode where he took Adam to the electronics store and was trying to convince him that all technology were weapons (such as a camera that will blow his mothers face off when she tries to take a picture) Also when he thought that the wax figure of John Wayne was talking to him. The Magic Indian was priceless as well. This show isn't gold, but it is entertaining. It leaves me wanting to ask Gary 2 questions. 1.) Exactly how does one play "Name That Smell?" 2.) Exactly how does a clown on the way to the electric chair behave?

First of all, for those wondering "is this real", let me put an end to the suspense. It is not. The show has writers; it is a scripted work of comedy, not reality TV. The premise and humor runs along the same lines as another show from the same network, "Project Searchlight", that starred Dennis Leary. The idea is to take a reality concept that tv execs all seem to want to duplicate (i.e. reality shows based on the lives of eccentric semi-famous poeople) and parody the concept itself by stretching it to the point of absurdity. The elements of the show are all the same as others of the same genre, but taken to their logical extreme. So in "I'm with Busey", you don't just make Busey eccentric, you make him down right bat-sh*t crazy. Many (most) viewers of the show will find themselves wondering if it's possible that anyone could be that off and not be committed to a mental institution. Do you laugh or feel pitty? And that's the humor of the show. Much like the preferred comedic style of the late great Andy Kaufman, the real laughter of the show is in realizing that the show is laughing at you. Or, more specifically, at the public that eats up the garbage of these types of reality shows. Approaching "I'm with Busey" with this in mind, the show is a well written and acted parody walking that fine line between the ridiculous and the absurd. I don't know about a whole season, but it is definitely worth watching for a few episodes.

After years of producing endless fly-on-the-wall crap, Reality TV has finally produced something worth seeing in the form of I'm With Busey.

The premise is simple : Adam De La Pena is a comedy writer who grew up worshiping Gary Busey. So Busey takes young Adam under his wing and shows him life and the world through the eyes of Busey.

Admittedly the initial appeal of the program hinges largely on well you know Gary Busey. If like me you thought he was the high point of Point Break, then the show simply suckers you in and doesn't let up. On the other hand I initially caught the program with a friend of mine who had no idea whatsoever who Busey was and simply found him entertaining as hell. The truth is that simple - Busey is clinically insane. Not in a threatening-to-humanity sort of way, but in a Doctor-Cox-from-Scrubs sort of a way. The man is not only funny, violent, arrogant, interfering, impulsive, brash, rude and childlike, but he somehow manages to be most of these things at the same time. Don't let this fool you into thinking he's evil or anything, he's not - he's just funny as hell to see going through his motions.

To add more humour to the mix, Adam De La Pena is the polar opposite of Busey. He lives constantly in fear of anything even remotely risky and as such becomes the witless foil for old Busey on many many occasions.

Busey shows Adam a lot of different aspects of life through his eyes - dating ("Adam, tell her 'I like your scent'"), technology ("One day technology's gonna be developed that can kill your mother"), death ("You're not gonna be conscious when you die, so what's to be afraid of?"). From cooking roadkill, to absurd poetry, breaking up childhood friendships, making an enemy of Andy Dick, the show never lets up. The sight of Busey physically assaulting an organic vegetable delivery man is positively the funniest thing you'll see in years.

There is some talk of the show being more scripted than reality-based and although I agree that the final episode of the series (featuring Andy Dick) just screams "set up" the rest of the episodes are simply too insidiously twisted and darkly comical to be scripted. If De La Pena HAD legitimately scripted the show then quite frankly he'd be one of the best comedy writers in the business and he'd be an idiot for not admitting it.

Good show, good "characters" and more importantly good Busey.