A Man. And His Blog.

After a very disappointing NECESSARY ROUGHNESS, it seems like almost my whole Wednesday is not really that interesting, when it comes to current TV shows. but I kinda expected that, since it’s almost all cable summer television, and I don’t really dig the genres the TV shows are in. STATE OF GEORGIA is pretty much exhibit A for this case: It wants to be a funny comedy, but it doesn’t try to make me laugh. All the humor goes through the dialog, and I am one of those who say that the dialog of this show is bad.

The stories were crappy. Again, the writers let Georgia (Raven-Symoné) and Jo (Majandra Delfino) flirt with guys, again they let them fail. Again, Georgia is the one, who goes into flirt-mode aggressively, but ends up being the hurt one, after her date of the week is revealed to be a liar; and Jo is again not able to see that a guy has the hots for her, just for somebody to spell it out for her that she can have a guy too. Well, it’s the cookie-cutter approach for the writers, and there is absolutely no variety in storylines. That makes the show simply boring. And it’s not funny too.

So, Georgia flirted with Brian (Sterling Sulieman), who lied his ass off (almost literally, after he told his ass-face story); and Jo flirted with Mikey (Henry Monfries), who wasn’t interested in her. Somehow I counted numerous twists, which made it harder for the girls to get their men, and somehow it seemed like the writers hoped that the episode is funny because of it. Okay, I smiled when Brian started to talk in Russian, after the girls precluded that Brian couldn’t be a spy, because he doesn’t speak Russian, but the rest was just meh. No stakes, no character moments, and I could repeat it all the time: The humor is delivered through the dialog, but as long as the dialog is just meh, the show isn’t funny. Why not making the story more like a real sitcom and starting to make things awkward for the two girls, instead of pushing one oneliner after another?

At least the averageness of this show has one advantage: I don’t have to write a lot about it. 4.5/10

Jo is looking nerdy

Georgia is looking normal

Not that I’m surprised or so, but the episode was good for what it was. STATE OF GEORGIA is not the uber-comedy in television, and it is not really that funny, but I’m starting to like it. Of course the stories are boring and so on, but the friendship between Georgia (Raven-Symoné) and Jo (Majandra Delfino) is starting to get interesting and is already entertaining. I just want to have some seriousness in the show now, which comes with a bit of character development.

Bringing the friendship between the two girls into the focus of the episode was nice. I loved how they were thinking that their “new” life was starting to bring them apart, and how it reflected on Honey’s (Loretta Devine) former relationship with her best friend Patrice (Jenifer Lewis). Though the episode could have been even better, when Honey was in the center of all attention (since she doesn’t get enough screentime or even a storyline worthy to talk about), I accept that the writers tried to bring her into the episode. But when Honey and Patrice were eye to eye, I was expecting for the hate to flame between the two women. It was just so damn predictable.

I loved the scenes between Jo and Georgia. First the scene with Jo in the theater, when she was hugging a stranger (that just showed, how awesomely awkward Jo is most of the times – I love those type of characters), then the improv exercises. The rat-and-cheese scene, which started the discussion of their friendship in character of the improvisation, was almost hilarious, when Georgia started to play the rat, and I actually loved the writing here. It’s nice, when the episode went from funny to serious for a couple of moments, and took the time to at least show the troubles of Jo and Georgia being friends with each other. Now there needs to be a bit of development, and I would be totally excited. Well, not really, but it would be a start.

All in all, it was a solid episode. That doesn’t make me a friend to this show though. It’s still completely forgettable, and people wouldn’t miss anything, when they would never hear of this show. 6/10

Jo hugs a stranger, because... that's what she does

Georgia transforms into a rat for educational purposes

WILFRED is getting competition of the comedy series, who can’t crack me up at all. While the pilot was somewhat amusing, because of the craziness, this episode made it all boring and ridiculous. No sense of characters in this show, all the time the humor is pushed directly into the face of the audience, and there isn’t even a moral to take from the story. Not that I was expecting this show to be ridiculously funny like it was in the pilot, but how come that the jump from being entertaining to boring happened so fast?

I don’t even know what to write. Brad (Justin Bruening) as Georgia’s (Raven-Symoné) boyfriend of the week (that’s how the episode should have been titled) was boring, and the nerd story with Jo (Majandra Delfino) and her nerd friends was boring too. Some moments were alright, trying to make me laugh and almost succeeded, but there could be done much more with this show, if the writers actually know how to make this show funny and how not to write the jokes around 90s-sitcom clichés. Those have not survived the millennium, and those feel like I would watch a sitcom on TVLand. Beginning with the fact that Brad was nothing but a toy for Georgia, and therefore didn’t get one single chance to shine as a character (I don’t want to say it, but Bruening had a much better character in KNIGHT RIDER, as well as better acting chops – this was nothing). Continuing with the fist bump being ridiculous – I would have thought that Georgia is breaking up with him, after Brad delivered the first fist bump. Ending with the side plot of Jo getting worried about her favorite yogurt, because of Georgia’s love life.

Though I have to say that Jo’s connection with the three nerds was alright. Yet, like anything else, a collected bunch of clichés. Here she tries to convince them to get the recipe for the yogurt, and the winner gets a kiss – a lame-ass one, as is right and proper amongst nerds, who seem to be in their late teens, early twenties, but look like in their mid-thirties. But I have to say, Jo’s side plot was the one, where I almost cracked up, when the three guys were shown to be socially awkward without one single chance of meeting a hot girl besides Jo, who doesn’t even see herself as the hot girl.

At the end, the episode was pretty much forgettable. I wonder how long this show will survive in my memory banks… And how often I have to rate episodes under the 5-point-limit. It surely happens often lately. 4.5/10

The boyfriend of the episode is hidden under Raven's cleavage

It's a kiss between nerds

I shouldn’t expect anything from sitcoms anymore. I still try to accept the fact that FRIENDS is actually the last, besides being the only, sitcom I actually liked, and there will be no other sitcom like it in television anymore. I didn’t expect that STATE OF GEORGIA will totally entertain me, and I don’t expect it will be my new favorite sitcom at the time – though it could easily be my new favorite sitcom at the time, since I only watch two this summer, and STATE OF GEORGIA clearly seems to be the best. Well, almost…

But not without completely annoying me throughout the 21 minutes, and making me hate Raven-Symoné. When I first saw the poster for the series, I was believing to see Maya Rudolph and was therefore totally excited about a comedy series with Maya Rudolph. But damn, my eyes were obviously bad that time, and that chick on the poster with that overbearing and over-the-top smile was not even close to an interesting actress, or even an interesting character in her show. Even though I believe the series was just written for her and her big boobs, the unstoppable over-the-topness of it annoyed me through the episode and kinda made me hate it.

But here’s the thing: It was fucking amusing. I was goddamn entertained. I laughed a couple of times. I believe Georgia and Jo (Majandra Delfino) couldn’t be the most perfect stupid BFF characters for a show like this. I think that Georgia’s craziness in her behavior is the only reason why this show was even created. And I especially believe that Raven is the same in real life. Which is not going to make me her friend at all. I hate people like her, I hate those ridiculous happiness, I hate persons who smile over nothing and only show their side of life. But damn, as long as I’m just freakishly annoyed about a TV show, I have more fun with it, because of its awesome ridiculousness. But there’s another thing: Judging from a wannabe-writer’s point of view, this episode was so not a pilot. All the elements were missing and made the pilot look like a usual episode in the middle of the season.

There’ isn’t even character exposition. In a span of like five seconds, the audience gets to hear that Georgia is new in New York and looking for her big break as an actress. And that’s it. No words of how Georgia and Jo became best friends; no words of Georgia’s past and why she loves to be an actress; no words on both girls’ background at all. Bradley Cooper once said that an actor, who wants to be a really good actor, needs to create a background story for his character to make the portrait of said character more believable. Even though the writer didn’t develop a background story, and even though the production doesn’t actually need the background story. Anyway, a background story for a character is necessary to make the character in the TV show or in a movie more believable than on paper (aka script). And boy, was Bradley Cooper right. In the case of Georgia and Jo, I could not get their characters at all, because I could not believe their actions, their reasons and what they were actually saying. No background at all, no reason for starting to like the characters.

But then again: It was still fucking amusing, and I was still laughing. Though I came to realize the only reason why I was laughing was the ridiculousness of it all. I mean, just look at the audition story. Georgia becomes the fake whore, and the director (Amir Arison) becomes the crazy character, who can’t stop thinking about the sweets Georgia is holding in front of his eyes. And you’re asking why I don’t seem to find a new likable sitcom anymore? STATE OF GEORGIA literally defines today’s sitcom: Nothing is real, nothing is believable, everything is written to be funny. No story, no development, only the punchline has to be delivered. But hey, STATE OF GEORGIA was so damn ridiculous in delivering its punch lines, it was funny. There I said it. It was funny. Sue me.

Am I going to watch the whole season? There is a slight chance of that, but don’t expect me to. Am I ever going to like this show? No fucking way. I wouldn’t recommend this show to friends of television, and I would only recommend this show to people, who like the 80s sitcom of one TV Land. Maybe STATE OF GEORGIA would be a good companion to HAPPILY DIVORCED? 5/10

Does this look like an audition to you?

Does this woman look like Majandra Delfino to you?