Spun Out

I give Spun Out a 5 out of 10 which I think is a very fair rating for this show. I would call it an average show so the over all average rating will have to do for it obviously! The thing that really makes this show hurt in the over all enjoyment I have for it is the acting which is really over the top and bizarre for most of the characters. The worst culprit is the actor who plays the office's stupid guy, who takes his pants off for no reason and he makes a jingle that is nothing but him talking about cats or whatever. I get it that he is supposed to be the bizarre guy who is supposed to make us laugh just because he is so stupid and bizarre. But here is something to consider, if the guy is working at a recording board and taping himself and he has headphones plugged in and turned on then why is the music also playing loud in the office around him? Don't these people understand how headphones work?

The bad acting and stupid mistakes like that really ruin this show for me. The only actors I like are the dark haired girlfriend (or ex girlfriend or girl who is just a friend I'm not sure what their deal is yet) and of course Dave Foly who is great in everything. All the other actors are trying way too hard or something especially the stupid guy I mentioned but also the dark haired guy (main character) and the blond girl. If they had people who could be funny maybe I could tell if the show is any good but for now I can't tell for sure.

Let's first talk about what they did right. At least it looks like an American sitcom as far as technical aspect go. This is actually important, the American sitcom is a proved business model so if you want success start by not trying to reinvent the wheel. When you use cheap sets and bad lighting, sound, shooting (i.e. Satisfaction) it lends itself to being very hackneyed. Where Spun Out fails is in the writing and acting. From what I was able to discern from watching three episodes is that the character Nelson Abrams is playing a gay man. In many respects, this is the most homophobic portrayal of a gay man on TV. My reasoning is the only thing that makes this character gay is he say's "I'm" gay. Either the actor refuses to do anything "gay" on TV or the writers have never actually met a gay man. One episode had his supposed significant other completely obscured by a massive completely unreasonably large Karaoke trophy. In this same episode this gay character is worried about a female co-worker spending too much time with his significant other. Worried the same way a guy would be worried if his gal was spending a lot of time with another man. I don't know if these guys know how it works, but gay guys don't worry if their boyfriend is hanging around chicks. I'm not the first to say this, but who the hell are the people green lighting comedies this year? Do they not realize that there are so many amazing comedy writers that are waiting to hitch a ride south of the border? Stand-up comics are not always good at writing and neither are people who have resumes that feature the number of TV commercials they've been in.

Someone said this show is a turkey and that is the perfect word for it. It just seems appropriate to call this show a turkey. Or maybe a lemon. Nothing to see here. Just a terribly written show where the stories and characters are nonsense and none of the jokes even come within a whiff of being funny, even in a "ha ha these dad jokes are so bad it's kind of funny" kind of way. The acting is also terrible by everyone including David Foley. We shouldn't give him a pass in this just because he was in Kids in the Hall. You can see them differently. He was great in other things but this show is garbage, he and everyone else are all garbage in it. Three stars because I have seen worse shows believe it or not.

And... every character is 'the funny one'. The race to a joke is blindingly fast as each character one ups the other to a fragmented mess in the end. Lost track of the individual characters during my only watch so maybe if I give it another try, and let them assert themselves the be a payoff. Humour is there in bales but there is no time to sort it out before another is piled on.

Not good, not great and to put a twist one of the repeated punchlines during my view.

'I WOULDN'T tap that'.

Like the first time though, I think I will expect better results now that I'm braced for the onslaught.

The best thing about this show is that it so incredibly terribly awful, that you know that the reviews on here where it has been rated highly must have been done by publicity people.

In addition, the fact that it got nominated for some awards for the first season also tells you that the whole "award" thing in Canada is totally corrupt and it's just people glad-handing CTV.

I watched one episode of the first season and thought it was appallingly bad (the one with Jason Priestly) and then given that it was renewed I thought it must have improved so I watched the second episode of the second season - no, it's even worse, if such a thing is possible.

The only reason I give it two stars is because the wardrobe is better than average. So they look quite pretty. I find the show is best watched with the sound muted.