Suburgatory

Having seen the pilot I purchased the Season 1 DVD and have seen most of the episodes. It is great seeing 5 or 6 episodes of short shows like this one in succession without advertisements and the like breaking it all up.

Heck some people over analyse things though. It's just a little TV show.

This is a simple basic comedy with some extreme characters some of which are funny and some not so, some endearing and others much less so. In fact a few of the characters (very few fortunately) are just ridiculous but this is Hollywood fiction so they create the extreme at times.

The writers set out to send up Americans and some aspects of its culture and they obviously had a lot of fun doing so. Why they went too far over the top at times I do not know because the show would work better without some of the occasional stupidity that has been allowed to creep in now and then. Obviously some episodes are better and funnier than others.

Overall this is a cute, second tier, light hearted comedy show which will really make you laugh. After all that is what a comedy is for.(It is not quite up in the same league as some of the very high rated Chuck Lorre comedies though). For the most part it is quite well acted and the 3 principal characters are quite endearing.

If you don't like a good laugh then you probably won't like it that much. Some of it is hilarious but I am sure some of the slick lines they have dropped in there will go right over the heads of some.

As far as ratings go, some of the episodes I have seen from Season 1 are so funny I would give them a 9 or 10 rating.

Give this show a go because when you get into it, for the most part, you will enjoy it. There is nothing like having a good laugh is there?

Single dad George Altman (Jeremy Sisto) is leaving NYC and bringing his daughter Tessa (Jane Levy) to the suburbs. The rebellious teen is not happy with the otherworldly Stepford Wives existence. She becomes friends with loner Lisa Shay (Allie Grant) and Medium obsessed Malik (Maestro Harrell). She also makes an enemy of queen bee Dalia Royce (Carly Chaikin). On the other hand, Dalia's mom Dallas (Cheryl Hines) would become a great friend.

Jane Levy started the show at 21 and that's probably the only minor complaint I have about this show. It's not unexpected for network shows about high school to have older actors play young teens. The cast of characters are a wacky bunch. Tessa has a superiority attitude and it's funny to see the culture clash. I love the hilarious Carly Chaikin and her stone faced delivery. It squeezed out 2 and a half seasons before being canceled.

I like this show -- it's entertaining, interesting, sometimes funny. The premise relates to this hip urban girl who comes to an upper-class suburban area and thinks she's too cool for it all and notices all its flaws. To be sure, she certainly has a point about them being over-privileged and out of touch with the surrounding world's harsher realities, to mention a couple.

Here's what took me longer to notice: the girl herself isn't much better than they are. She's a little smarter, a little more insightful, but she has a lot of the same flaws they do. She acts like the smallest inconveniences are the weight of the world on her -- e.g., a girl pays her a hundred bucks to drive her around the block a few times and she she moans, "I hate my job". She's sort of disrespectful to her father, who she calls George,and lives a lifestyle only slightly less entitled than those around her. In short, we're supposed to side with her against the rich snobs and not notice that she's a lot like they are. Sure, that community thinks they're better than others, but she thinks she's better than they are, so how's that any better? Despite this, I like the show.

Back when this show was current I was a teenager. The premiss is not great at all, but there weren't many shows with weird teenage girls as protagonists just yet - and that's why I liked it so much. It made fun of everyone that made fun of me, the quirky girl, such as the suburban mum with its teenage version for a daughter, or the contradictorily concerned-yet-cool single father. Tessa was very relatable and I was sorry when it got cancelled.

"Suburgatory" is quirky. If you can't get past that statement, then you might not like the show.

But if you can, check it out, because "Suburgatory" is an excellent show featuring lots of talent.

The central theme--as you can tell from the title--is a critical view of suburbia. In the land where consumerism is the primary goal and people are themselves consumed by appearances there lives a high-schooler named Tessa (Jane Levy) who moved from New York to the land of weedless lawns and designer labels with her single father George (Jeremy Sisto). This is no "Who's The Boss". In "Suburgatory" Tessa and George are a complete family in themselves.

Although suburbia is a target of the humor, the show lovingly lampoons all aspects of society, including the central characters, who enter into some questionable relationships. They are far from perfect and the writers allow us to laugh at them and with them.

The rest of the cast is AMAZING. Three or four of them you will probably recognize, but they all rock. Comedy never had a larger cast of funny people.

As for the quirk factor, "The New Girl" wishes it could be "Suburgatory". It is quirky, but it may be too far out there, often substituting silly for insightful. "Glee" revels in the quirkiness of its characters and their actions, but it often feels like it is doing quirk just for its own sake. I only hope that "Suburgatory" keeps its edge. The best episodes have something to say and remind us of the things that are truly valuable, e.g. caring and self-realization.