Package Deal

This show is really unfunny. From what I read it's by a super amazing producer in the U.S. but maybe he just mailed it in for this so he could collect a big bag of money. Typical. I just wrote a review for Satisfaction which is also awful and I am so sad for the state of Canadian TV and films. I am very disappointed by how unfunny these shows are.

Where to begin for Package Deal? The writing just stinks. It is about 10-15 years behind the times. Maybe the producer of this is doing this because he was successful in the U.S. 10 years ago and just can't move with the times. It is like watching someone do a show with the same jokes in a sitcom that would have been maybe a little funny in the 90's.

The premise is a stretch because what guy has two brothers about his same age (all in their freaking 40's) who control his life and get worried about him dating a girl and by the way the girl is hot and successful.... oh obviously they wouldn't want that! What the hell? The actors are bad. The main actor and his girlfriend are very unfunny, not sure why but it's typical and sad that Canadian comedy shows cast OK to look at people to have their own comedy shows but that can't do comedy at all! It's terrible. The other two guys are both comedians, I guess they figured they could lift the show up. Harland Williams is amazing and I love his comedy and he is OK in this but the writing again is so terrible he has nothing to work with. The other guy is a huge nerd of a character and super annoying but I can't tell how much of that is that he sucks and how much of it is that the writing stinks so much.

The other reviewer is right, skip this show because it's 30 minutes you'll just wish you had back and you'll just feel depressed about Canadian TV like me. Ugh this sucks.

I wish I could like this show but I just can't. It looks very good and the quality of the picture, sound and so on is of the level that you would expect of a U.S. based sitcom so that is good. After that I can't exactly put my finger on it but I think it's just the overall combination of things and the overall show that just doesn't work and just isn't funny. I'm sure the actors are good in other things but in this I just don't really identify with any of the characters and I don't think any of them are very funny. The one brother is just a whiny mess which I didn't find very funny in episode one but it just gets more annoying the more you watch it. Harland Williams the other brother has some pretty funny lines and I think about the only funny lines in the show but I think that has more to do with Harland Williams being a very funny person who is just naturally funny. I don't think the leading couple are very funny or interesting. I think the biggest problem is probably bad writing because no matter who the actors are I don't think the lines I'm hearing are very funny and the weekly plots and secondary stories are not very good.

I know that is a terrible pun title and sorry about that but I just couldn't resist!

Package Deal is a decent premise for a show but I think it has a lot of problems.

First outside of Harland Williams I think the cast is totally lacking in the comedy department. I'm sure they have good acting chops otherwise but I think comedy is a different kind of talent and none of them make me laugh. I particularly find the other brother's performance painful. The female star is definitely attractive and doesn't grate on me like the guys (other than Harland Williams) do, but for the most part all of the non-Williams performances rate somewhere between "not funny" and "someone please make it stop!!!"

Second the writing is terrible. Why does this successful 40-ish lawyer allow his loser brothers to wander into his home even before he has his girlfriend move it? If not then certainly after she moves in wouldn't any sane person change the locks?

Things happen in the show that are simply impossible to believe, even in a suspension of disbelief kind of way. Seriously in one episode Harland Williams strips in a court room in front of a judge and bailiffs who do absolutely nothing, then in the very next scene we find out he got arrested on the street for being naked. So if you want us to buy it's okay to get nude in public, okay, but then don't tell us in the very next scene it's suddenly illegal again. Gah!

Also in that same episode Harland Williams pretends to be his successful lawyer brother, brings a girl home, and while he's sleeping she somehow empties the entire apartment... entire apartment as in every single thing down to a safety pin on the floor is gone. He didn't wake up during this? How did she manage to get all that stuff out, even if she brought in help (which she apparently didn't)? Finally WHY would anyone want to steal absolutely everything including dishes, pens, some random dude's clothes and underwear? Making it even more stupid, when the brother comes home (I guess luckily he was out all night) he's angry but not furious and the only thing he cares about is that the gift he bought for his girlfriend has been taken. Super sorry cause that's super sweet and all but don't you think if someone stole absolutely everything he owned he'd maybe be angry about THAT stuff? It's not like the gift was irreplaceable and his TV and stuff alone are worth way more.

Even if you get past the horribly obvious plot holes and poor writing over all, the writing is still terrible on a basic level of "funny vs not funny" with painfully obvious, predictable and just plain bad jokes. Being delivered poorly by a mostly unfunny cast doesn't help either, but the writing is just plain bad, awful, terrible.

Whoever is producing/directing this show is doing a very poor job and I can't figure out who decided to give this show a second season or why.

I imagine it is solely because Harland Williams is in this, because he's the only thing I like about the show and he's the only reason why I'm bumping the rating up from a 1 to a 3 out of 10.

3 out of 10 from me.

I thought this show would be good and it should have been good. Harland Williams is a very funny actor and comedian. His parts in There's Something About Mary and Dumb and Dumber are two of the funniest parts of those movies. Maybe the problem is he is supposed to be more of a one off character who comes in and is hilarious then leaves instead of being a character who has a show built mostly around him. He is still funny but the show is just stupid. I don't like any of the characters including him and none of the story is believable at all. The jokes are all predictable and just plain not funny. I don't think this show has made me laugh even one time. This is a pitiful show and everyone watching it and Harland Williams deserve better.

I'm really not a fan of Package Deal at all, at least not yet. I have watched the entire first season. I think so anyway, I maybe have missed an episode or two without realizing it. The laughs are very forced with the laugh track incredibly overused and obnoxious. They basically use the laugh track after every single line, and not only do they use it but the laughs are always way over the top with how big, loud and long they are. Most shows don't use the canned laughter so often or so loudly, plus it also seems to stick out because frankly the lines are not that funny. This show has some very poor writing in my opinion. Of course let me stress that that's just my opinion, and everyone has to judge for their own self if a show is funny or good. I will tune in again for the beginning of season two but if they lose me I won't force myself to continue watching. One season was enough of a chance to give a show and I have been mostly disappointed so far.