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.

Words cannot capture just how bad this show really is. It probably sets black culture back 50 years. Horrible writing, impossibly predictable stereotypical characters, and actors that look to be mailing it in make me wonder who at TBS could have possibly thought this was a good idea.

I won't try to summarize any particular plot, since some may view that as a type of validation. Simply put, there is nothing redeeming about this atrocity. Even the laugh track doesn't find this show funny.

TBS advertises the Paynes as "the Huxtables meets the Bunkers." They are neither. They are neither funny nor socially relevant. If I were Bill Cosby, I'd sue TBS for defamation.

Memo to TBS:

(1) Cancel this show IMMEDIATELY; (2) Fire the executive that green-lighted this debacle and ensure that he or she never works in entertainment again; and (3) Destroy all evidence, scripts, recordings, etc. proving that this show existed.

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.

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 watched this show a couple times, and each time I thought the punchline was the show itself, not actually any of the jokes in the show. The show plays like a "MAD-TV" sketch that is a parody of bad sitcoms, but as you watch this further, you realize that what your watching is an actual sitcom meant to be funny on its own merits. Normally, humor of this level is on Nickelodeon or Disney Channel and for children, but I think this show is actually meant for adults and sober ones at that. This show reminds me of "Kenan & Kel" or another show meant for kids with cheesy jokes and lame humor that only children would laugh at. The only way you can tell something is supposed to be funny is when the laugh track plays, otherwise I wouldn't even know this was meant to be a comedy.

I haven't seen any of Tyler Perry's movies, but they've done well at the box office and have gotten pretty good reviews. Has he seen this show? Does he realize they're using his name to promote it? If you enjoy this show, have you ever watched a sitcom before? Those of you who say this is a well-written show, have you ever read anything beyond the "Dick & Jane" books? This show must be seen to be believed. I hesitate to even call it awful, because I haven't gotten to the point where I even comprehend what I've seen yet. If this show is for real, Tyler Perry needs to sit down in quiet room somewhere and contemplate his career and what he hopes to accomplish, because if this is the kind of work he is proud of, he needs to consider a career change.