NBC’s new summer comedy, The Downer Channel (premiering 8:30 p.m. Tuesday EST), may seem a bit reminiscent of MTV’s early ’90s gem The State–edgy, with an unknown cast possessing a tremendous range of talent–but Downer plays it far more safe than its predecessors.
Now, the term “safe” should not be considered synonymous with “bland” or “conventional.” That’s not the case. Downer, produced by comedic legend Steve Martin, is a nonstop barrage of humor that’s tongue-in-cheek at one moment, mass appeal the next. True, the show is funny, but it’s this mass-appeal element that ends up hurting the material.
Case in point: Flashes of brilliance–such as one skit called Cat Lassie (click here to watch a clip), in which a confused cat is instructed to get help when a young boy is trapped by a fallen tree–insure you that you’re indeed in good hands. Then, a skit called Why is Mary Lynn Screaming? (a cheesy spoof on 1950s instructional films, targeting older audiences) takes place and ruins the momentum. A shame.
As mentioned, the four cast members are quite unfamiliar to most viewers. There’s Jeff B. Davis (Whose Line Is It Anyway?), Mary Lynn Rajskub (The Larry Sanders Show, Wanda Sykes (The Chris Rock Show) and Lance Krall. The foursome does a good a job as they can with the sometimes lame material, and strive for the sort of campiness that made HBO’s Mr. Show so unique. Davis, in particular, shines as the most versatile of the bunch.
The main flaw here is that The Downer Channel isn’t sure what kind of comedy it wants to be. Some sketches are hip and fluid; some dwell on Dateline: NBC topics like the usage of cell phones in automobiles. Once these bumps are smoothed out, Downer will certainly cease to be, well, a downer.
