House of Payne

For the title of this sitcom,at least its apt. Indeed,if ever there was a show that could cause physical pain,the new family series called "House of Payne" might be the one. And for one,its not even the least bit funny. This glaringly,shamefully,insultingly inept of a new cable company series from playwright and filmmaker Tyler Perry isn't the worst sitcom of the year,its one of the worst shows of the modern era. A degrading sitcom that puts African-American families again in a negative light,and it shows in some of the episodes. Watch it sometime and you see what I mean.

And what's more worse,you have to imagine the people who are behind the scenes of this show especially with some of the writing of some of the material for the show and character development within the actors. However,you'll find out quick enough that this show is indeed terrible and the producers knew this upfront and are proceeding nonetheless. The other option that I have with this show is that the writers and producers of this sitcom really think that this was a sitcom that was going to be the forefront of other successful black oriented family influence shows like "My Wife and Kids","Bernie Mac","The Cosby Show",or "Family Matters" to name a few. But "House of Payne" is definitely not one of them nor it wants to be,but it fails on all levels. The other option-that they really think(the producers of this show)this horrendous mish-mash of old jokes and ugly stereotypes fills some TV void-is too hideous to contemplate. Let's face it,this is a show that is so full of stereotypical features and blanted insults toward others its no wonder that its sucky to the point of letting the audience decide if they what to see what happens or just change the channel. But lets don't blame Tyler Perry for putting it out there since he is trying to bring back the common decency of the family sitcom,but here he is trying to hard,way too hard.

Granted,through such films as "Diary Of A Mad Black Woman","Medea's Family Reunion",and most recently "Daddy's Little Girls"(which all were produced as stage plays before there transition to the big screen),Perry does seem to have tapped into a desire among some parts of the African-American audience to see old-fashioned,church-basement morality plays that were brought to life on the silver screen. Still whatever charms may exist in his movies or in Perry's drag act as Madea,none survives the transition from the movies to television. In fact in the very first episode of "House Of Payne",Madea does make a guest appearance with Perry doing the directorial chores. As far as the characters are concerns,the show seems to be named for Allan Payne,(of "New Jack City",and "Jason's Lyric" fame)the actor who plays CJ Payne;the main character is Uncle Curtis-played by LaVan Davis who gives the character bluster but none of the humor of Archie Bunker nor the intensity of George Jefferson. It goes with the rest of the bunch including some that are so annoying and terribly rude it makes you wonder what in the hell is going on here and way they characters act so damn ghetto is beyond me.

The writing here goes beyond awful to staggering,from the reliance on stale jokes and insults on to just plain ignorance,the feeble that attempts to address some serious issues,to the ugly homophobia that threads its way throughout the show. In "Payne's" world,bigotry counts as a universal family value. Given the quality of the script the actors can almost be forgiven for turning out performances that could lead you to believe the tomfoolery that you are watching was basically performed on a temporary set by the real stars' stand-ins. Speaking of the characters,the ONLY one that was recognizable is Allan Payne while the rest of them(most of them are former stars of Tyler Perry's stage plays and films). It's a pity that if any of these actors is capable of putting a line across the way that seems even remotely real or funny or even incredibly stupid,or that they keeping real talent well hidden from the audience. In getting the show to be marketed,however it was planned for first run syndication until cable giant TBS out of Atlanta,Georgia pick it up for most of its 100 episodes. TBS will find out soon enough how really bad this show is,but they will give it a fighting chance since Tyler Perry's charms are wasted here and it works better for the stage and in the movies,but not on TV.

Don't know why this show is still on? It's not funny at all.

I saw this show last fall...let's put it this way, I'd rather have my eyelids taped open and be forced to sit through a year-long marathon of "Gigli" and "Battlefield Earth" while bamboo shoots are shoved underneath my fingernails than have to endure another season of this mindless dreck. I was afraid the writing would be the worst part of the show, but the "talent" secured to play the various one-dimensional characters actually sinks below the source material. Why TBS picked this up is beyond me. Tyler Perry is somewhat of an enigma to me. I don't care for his plays, but I did like the movie version of "Diary Of A Mad Black Woman." Just when I think he's getting better, he turns around and brings out a show like this. Stick with Everybody Loves Raymond, The Cosby Show, or even My Wife and Kids...anything is better than this.

I've been reading the user comments and threads on the message board for a week even though I hadn't seen the show yet. I just found the posts amusing.

I finally saw the show last night and unfortunately for Tyler Perry and TBS...these posts have been more amusing than the show. It's just not funny. Not only because the jokes aren't any good but the jokes aren't delivered well either. The actor playing Calvin tries the hardest to sell a joke but even then he oversells it. Not even because of his acting, mainly because the jokes are so bad that if you try to sell it you'll easily oversell it.

Literally everything about this show is weak. The writing, the directing, the acting, the blocking, the camera work, the editing.

Throughout the entire show I noticed how something was getting in the way of the storytelling and the jokes. Even the damn laugh track got in the way. The crowd noise was used inappropriately and sometimes the wrong crowd noise was used. They'd use a "Oooooo" when there should've been laughter.

It's a bad Fresh Prince of Bel Air. That was a show that tackled subject matter that the black community could relate to but didn't do it in a tacky, over-dramatic or sometimes over simplistic way like "Tyler Perry's House of Payne" does. AND it was actually funny because the actors could act and the lead had star power.

There was ONE time during either of last night's episode that an actual joke occurred.

In correcting his wife's word usage, Curtis says, "But them weren't panties. Them were big assed draws!" I didn't laugh but at least it was an actual joke.

The moment after a joke like this occurs is the moment a Bill Cosby or a Will Smith would've taken hold of the scene. They'd run with the joke and make the scene funny and in turn, better. In LaVan Davis' incapable hands, however, the scene fell flat.

Another reason for this was poor writing. Punchlines weren't set up well enough. Silly gags were used to get a cheap laugh. They'd look for a joke in the wrong places.

Explain to me why an anger management coach would look like Richard Simmons. That was a cheap sight gag that didn't make sense...and wasn't funny.

That's not the only way the writing got to me last night. I found one episode to be homophobic. When Curtis sees his nephew's son with a tutu around his neck he runs to pray because he thinks the boy is gay. Heaven forbid someone be gay! Spout out any Bible verses you want, it is what it is. And it was homophobic. That's an awfully polarizing thing to have on a show that, according to the show's defenders, is for the community. Stuff like that only serves to break up our communities.

Seriousness like that last point aside, the show is just plain bad. In every way. I'm trying to figure out why on Earth TBS ordered 100 episodes. That's 5 seasons worth! 5 seasons??

I don't see how they'll be able to justify CJ's staying with them for much longer than a season but they have to because it's the whole premise of the show. It's the reason for it's namesake. I know they tried to address that last night when CJ said, "I can't afford a new place. I have a mortgage on a house I don't even live in."

Ummmm, get a second job? Maybe you should've gotten that insurance?

This isn't a good enough reason for CJ and his kids to live with his uncle for 5 years.

And there isn't a good enough reason for me to watch this terrible show again unless I want to see how a show can be this bad.

If you're confused by my title, let me explain. If the unnecessarily drawn-out conversations immediately got to the point, the 25 minute shows would last about 10 minutes. Hence, a 10 minute story told in 25 minutes.

There are a lot more reasons for my 3 stars, but I don't feel like writing a book. Let's just say that there is no comedy in this comedy.