Oh boy… In the past week, let alone three days, I have consumed so much content, it’s almost concerning how unfunny it is. You see, new shows were coming out left and right, but I was still stuck on trying to just enjoy my time with the Dunpheys and Co in Modern Family. In any case, my work was cut out for me. From Squid Game to Pretty Smart to Venom: Let There Be Carnage, I needed a break from all these things that were coming out in great succession. My solution was to turn to Netflix’s multi-cam sitcoms because they only have one season with a few episodes each. Perfect! Easy, digestible, binge-able – the three elements in a good show, right? This could not be a mistake in any way… nope. In the past two days, I have seen a majority of most of three multi-cam Netflix sitcoms and… humungous oof – not moof, there’s no “mood” here, folks. The shows I had seen were Jamie Foxx’s Dad, Stop Embarrassing Me!, One Day at a Time, and Merry Happy Whatever “starring” Brigit Mendler and Ashley Tinsdale. Listen, I tried to write my thoughts on this, but I don’t want to deal with the misinterpretation of what I am trying to say, so I won’t even try. But I desperately need to say a few things so… instead, here is a quick review for each. Enjoy!
Dad, Stop Embarrassing Me! – Jamie Foxx is a hard-working man who loves to try new things and worry if they are good or bad later… Well, this was bad. It’s so bad. Jamie Foxx just doesn’t have what other physically comedian actors before him like Dick Van Dyke, Amy Poehler, and Raven Simone. Nigh every joke falls flat and I really couldn’t take another reference to TikTok. I had to skip to the end, and even then, Jamie Foxx was simply too embarrassing to endure this show. 0/10
One Day At a Time – Way too political of a show for me. They get in your face about every single issue and truly nobody is happy in this show, especially the viewer. Elena’s character comes across as whiney, rude, and immature. She sets a pretty bad example of how to communicate her feelings in an adult mature reasonable way, but I digress. Apparently, the solution to be heard is to cause online riots on Twitter. At least this show was funny at times, so I will give it that. I also could not finish this show, I could muster a couple of episodes from each season. 2.5/10
Merry Happy Whatever – This is what I wanted to talk about the most, but still briefly. Netflix decided the time for Christmas movies were over and the age was ripe for the world’s first Christmas … sitcom? Yeah, it’s actually an interesting concept. I’m not going to go into what it’s about – you’ve seen it. Trust me, there’s nothing new for a Christmas story about a guy spending the entire time trying to get the dad’s approval. This limited series is 8 episodes long, twenty-five minutes each… take that into account for this series. There are really only so many situational comedy scenarios this family can get themselves into for the exact same thing. By the end of episode 2 I felt the whole series should have come to a close because in a normal family, that’s how it would go! But in this show, a couple confessing their secret motives genuinely doesn’t equate to leading to happiness but rather to more stupid shenanigans. The actors are honestly so great in this, but the show just dragged. I just wanted to get to the meat and potatoes of this show. I skimmed each episode and followed the two storylines I cared about which was Emmy (Bridget Mendler, Good Luck Charlie) and Matt’s (Brent Morin, Undateable) relationship, and Ashley Tinsdale’s Kayla so is in a heterosexual marriage because she was too afraid to come out, and it’s finally affecting her marriage. This show was fun at times to follow, but it just became dragged out and just like horror movies, you’re left asking “why would you be so STUPID?!” at characters who can just easily do one thing and solve every problem before them. Alas, Merry HappY WHatever is a tad too on the political side and paints Christianity in a negative light that does not sit well with me, personally. Thankfully, the father did come around putting CHristianity in a good light, but that wasn’t really focused on as it was just a quick line of acceptance for his family and the credits roll. In any case, this show isn’t classic enough nor does it encapsulate the spirit of Christmas well enough to become a Christmas classic or viewable past almost once. Merry Happy Whatever gets a 5/10 from me.
All in all, Netflix really should cease operations on any multi-cam sitcoms from here on out. They all can tread the line of raunchy that really brings back locked up memories from 90s cheesy and terrible sitcoms, they all have rude characters, and all rush their character development. Netflix, just stick to what you can make well.
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