"The Winner" Is A Whiny, Boring, Drippy Loser
Thanks to a boot-licking lead-in from The Family Guy and non-stop promos on Fox, I got suckered into watching last night's debut of The Winner on Fox.
I can't believe Rob Corddry is starring in a show this unfunny. I can't believe Seth MacFarlane executive produced a show this unfunny. I can't believe network execs greenlit a show this unfunny.
I don't get it. Corddry has a proven track record of hilarity on The Daily Show. All that savage wit and mock deadpan humor… Who decided it needed to be crushed into a lifeless ball and flushed down the toilet of mainstream network television?
The Winner, which is co-written by MacFarlane and fellow Family Guy writer Ricky Blitt, stars Corddry as Glen Abbott, a coddled man-child (excuse me, late bloomer) who at age 32 still lives with his parents, has never held down a job and has never had sex. If all that isn't cute enough, he's also obsessive-compulsive, a choice that smacks of network decision-making at its worst.
"Character" isn't something you create by glopping kooky mannerisms onto a blank canvas. Character comes from point-of-view, which determines how a person thinks, feels and responds. And (one of) the problem(s) with The Winner is that the main character -- the guy who's supposed to carry the show, the guy we're supposed to care about or at least be interested in -- is a whiny, boring, drip.
"Character" isn't something you create by glopping kooky mannerisms onto a blank canvas. Character comes from point-of-view, which determines how a person thinks, feels and responds. And (one of) the problem(s) with The Winner is that the main character -- the guy who's supposed to carry the show, the guy we're supposed to care about or at least be interested in -- is a whiny, boring, drip.
The ostensible hook is that the show begins with a shot from a mansion and Corddry's voiceover explaining that although he's now the richest guy in Buffalo, it wasn't always thus. Flashback to his parents' house a decade or so prior and we're knee-deep in forced quirkiness and mid-90s references (as though this is a decade that merits cultural references, but I guess that's what happens when you're done post-ironically strip-mining the 1980s). We're supposed to be intrigued enough to find out how Corddry morphs from sad-sack loser to The Winner, but I can't imagine TV viewers will care enough to stick around and find out.
PS-I was glad to see Amir Talai, who plays Abdul on Campus Ladies, in a small role as a video store clerk. But I was dismayed that he was playing a stereotypically limp-wristed gay character. Somebody brainier than me might want to comment on the demeaning caricatures non-white supporting characters in largely white sitcoms and movies are habitually cast in as a way to "neutralize" their threatening ethnic identities.