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Joe Schmo Show (2003) Created by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick Starring Matt Kennedy Gould, Ralph Garman, Angela Dodson, David Hornsby and Lance Krall 1 Hour / SpikeTV / Tuesdays at 9pm by Alex Mestas 9/04/2003 More info: Spike TV |
The Joe Schmo Show satirizes all those stupid elements of the current crop of reality shows: the niche, stereotyped casting, the amazingly stupid contests and ridiculously solemn elimination ceremonies. The creators pull no punches when they start to mock their inspiration. The Survivor "Immunity Idol" is the "Immunity Robe" and the elimination ceremony involves casting a collector's plate into the fireplace. Of course the lynch pin of this show, is the aforementioned Joe Schmo, in this case Matt. Matt is best described, as well...average. He's a little doughy, he's dropped out of law school and he's currently living at home with his parents and delivering pizza on the weekend. In addition to all this, he has the very guy-like tendency to speak out of turn and maybe put his foot in his mouth a little bit. I know this guy, in the very general sense. He is my friend, my drinking buddy, the very demonstration of an Average Joe. He is I. This becomes very apparent in the second hour of the pilot episode when Matt near instantly recognizes porn star Tawny Roberts who is taking part in one of the competitions. This is my kind of guy.
The actors are all top notch and besides a few hiccups, instantly fall into their perspective roles trying to fool poor Matt into believing a whole lot of crazy stuff his going down. This early into the season, not a whole heck of a lot has happened. But I can see it start to fly. Most of the comedy comes courtesy of Kip (Lance Krall), a gay Cuban-American, who in Matt's words, "sounds a little like gay Scarface." Krall himself is neither gay nor does he speak with an accent, but his work here is great and funny without getting too terribly over the top. Also great is the Puck-like "Hutch" (David Hornsby) who's task apparently is to piss everyone off. He's doing a good job so far. You don't realize how many Hutch-like characters you've actually seen on these reality shows until you stop and think about it. One more thing: this being SpikeTV, the girls on the show are all amazingly cute. I know it's not important for a review, but it is important for the creators to pull this thing off. After all, what better way to get an average Joe's attention than by parading beautiful women around him who then try to scheme and flirt with him? For most reality shows, the journey's really the thing. I usually care less who wins at the end. But with The Joe Schmo Show, it's all about seeing that reaction to having your reality ripped apart, much like The Truman Show. It's a light-hearted show with suspense that eludes even the big-budget network shows. After all, there's so much that can go wrong. Will Matt find out that they're actors before the thing is done? Who's going to slip up? The Joe Schmo Show is the perfect recipe for those of us who are sick of reality genre and want to inject some very funny life into it. TV Grade: A |
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