Studio C (BYU TV)-Can child-friendly sketch comedy be edgy?

 Studio C (BYU TV)-From what I can gather, there’s a sketch comedy group on campus at BYU in Provo, Utah. Some kids from this sketch group decided “hey, let’s be professional sketch comedians.” I’m sure there are lots of other capable college kids in college sketch groups who have had those same thoughts before reality and student debt hit them. But these kids had two advantages: 1) The college owns a successful TV station with a base that pulls on the Mormon community which includes half the state of Utah and 2) These kids have a distinctive brand of comedy.

BYU, and Mormon culture in general, is watchful of things that are PG-13 rated entertainment-wise. As a result, all of BYU’s content is family friendly which means no swearing and limited talking about sexy stuff. There might also be other stuff they’re not allowed to do on TV- like portray demon worship, express enjoyment towards the Red Hot Chili Peppers, or show people drinking hot tea* — but I have absolutely no idea as I don’t have a copy of the standards and practices in front of me.

*They did a pretty clever sketch with a couple going on a romantic dinner and milk was used a stand-in for wine. Maybe that’s poking fun at a restriction the writers have on using alcohol in sketches?

The end result is a sketch comedy that goes out of its way to be family friendly. The show might be less edgy in terms of blue content but one can admire the way they work with less punchline options to produce more.

Another great thing is that, regardless of your religious affiliation, most parents wouldn’t let their kids skip straight from Sesame Street to Saturday Night Live. This show has the potential to get kids involved in sketch comedy before they’re old enough to watch Saturday Night Live.

The show’s cast was originally comprised of students transitioned from college to the show. They deserve credit for taking the idea and launching it successfully but it was clear that this was a college sketch troupe.

At some point, the old cast went to form a patreon-funded sketch troupe independent of the TV station and there was a nationwide casting call that drew in professional actors to the show. The show now has a new level of polish and a universality (the original cast relied on inside jokes) that takes the concept to a new level.

The cast is assorted with improv theater trained actors, university theater majors (Matt Galvan and Garet Allenn), musical comedians (Jetta Juriansz), and stand-up comedians (Arvin Mitchell).

Juriansz, for example, was on America’s Got Talent where she sang this song.

She brings her ukelele song-writing talents here directly to the show. The above number is performed with larger production values

The BYU TV station is entirely for free where individual episodes can be shown

What I'm Watching November Edition: Ghosts (CBS), B Positive (CBS), Locke and Key (Netflix), Inside Job (Netflix), La Brea (NBC)

Ghosts (CBS) Season 1-Utkarsh Ambudkar and Rose McIver star as a yuppie couple from the Big Apple who inherit a mansion that’s inhabited by eight ghosts of different eras. There’s a Viking who grunts a lot; a Native American; an effeminate Revolutionary War captain; a 19^th Century schoolmarm with aristocratic roots; a sassy flapper from the Prohibition Era; a flower child who is permanently tripping through the afterlife; a square scout leader from the 80s; and a Wall Street playboy from the 90s. The octet makes for a brilliantly strange found family of people whose only commonality is that they died in the the same spot -- seemingly all of them in comic ways.

Before the arrival of Sam, the ghosts simply had little choice but to entertain each other and passively experience the house’s occupants. However, when Sam has a near death experience, the ghosts are suddenly able to communicate with her and suddenly the living and dead residents of the house have to renegotiate a living arrangement between them.

While there might not be a clear stand-out character among the ghost crew,  the contrasts and dynamics between them add up to making them more than the sum of their parts. This a clever premise that’s executed with just the right light-hearted tone. There’s a certain urgency stemming from the couple’s financial uncertainty regarding their plan that adds some stakes but mostly it’s a lot of fun. 

 

B Positive (CBS) Season 2- Starring the underrated Annaleigh Ashford and token schlub Thomas Middleditch, B Positive is a multi-cam laugh track sitcom that’s a good reminder that sitcoms have evolved for the better nowadays.

The hook is that Thomas's character had an organ donated to him by Ashford's character. At least I think so. There isn't much of the premise's DNA by season 2. It's mostly just a guy fawning over a girl who works in a nursing home.

Annaleigh Ashford’s character is remarkably similar to his other female protagonist creations from “Mom” (Anna Farris) and “Big Bang Theory” (Kaley Cuoco) who wear their hearts on their sleeve and have low filters. I’ve been a fan of Ashford since the days of “Masters of Sex” so here’s hoping her career can take off like theirs.

Similarly, there’s a will-they-won’t-they between the leads that already feels strained by the third episode I saw. I’m taking a pass on the rest. 

Inside Job (Netflix) Season 1: An animated cartoon about a federal government department that does damage control in a world where most conspiracy theories are true. Although it has some of the cynicism of “Rick and Morty”, it’s co-created and executive produced by Alex Hirsch (along with Shion Takeuchi)  who’s most famous for the imaginative yet child-appropriate “Gravity Galls.” It’s a dark turn for sure from the creator and the complexity of the subject matter is heightened by giving the central protagonist (Lizzie Caplan) the Aesperger’s label.

Like “Ghosts”, the show’s premise is a winner and there are memorable moments. The first episode begins with protagonist Raegan Ridley (Caplan) trying to stop her dad from making a fool of himself  in front of the White House as he shouts crazy dribble through a megaphone. It’s immediately established that this is a routine task for Reagan through the fact that this is simply part of her daily commute. It’s smart, economic storytelling and funny in a relatable sense (especially considering I’m a DC native who has seen this kind of activity at the White House often).

The episode involving Valentine’s Day and the nostalgia trip through the 80s are both pretty funny despite following conventional tropes (how many Valentine’s Day episodes have you seen before?). However, the rest of the season was a bit uneven and I’m worried about how high the upper ceiling is on this show. It’s still mildly watchable. 

Locke and Key (Netflix) Season 2-The YA fantasy series is set in an idyllic New England town where a widowed mom of three, Nina Locke (Darby Stanchfield of “Scandal”), moves into her husband’s old home and the family unwittingly enters into a battle of good and evil. As the title indicates the weapons of choice are a set of magical keys that have various functions (one allows you to see into another’s psyche, one allows you to control someone else’s movements, one traps you into a mirror, etc.) and the protagonist family is the Lockes. Get it? Yeah, it’s cute.

In the second season, the show upped the stakes significantly as the big bad, Gabe, used a shape-shifting power to disguise himself as Kinsey’s boyfriend. The show appears to be made for teenage viewers whose hearts are set aflutter with shipping possibilities among various high schoolers. With that caveat, if a show has to cram in superfluous teenage romance storylines, it’s best if the relationship drama ties into the plot. That’s why Kinsey’s love triangle between Gabe and her ex Scott was a nicely performed tightrope act that raised the stakes this season.

Speaking of love interests, apparently Uncle Duncan is gay and engaged? The former’s not a problem (although he’s non-stereotypical which isn’t a good or bad thing but I wonder if his sexuality was changed in adaptation to give the show a token gay character) but isn’t he a reclusive amnesiac? Additionally, Mommy Locke gets a hunky boyfriend this season whose motivations are a welcome enigma.

The show gets a little overly sentimental at points but the essence of the relationships work and the serialization is engaging throughout the entire 10-episode run. Pretty highly recommend. 

La Brea (NBC)-A cross-section of LA denizens fall through a groundswell in Los Angeles that takes them to the stone age and prompts the question “how is this different from a normal day in Los Angeles?” Seriously, I don’t know. It seems like an LA thing though from so many films and TV shows I’ve seen.  

The show cross-cuts between two different scenes.

The dad and husband of two of the victims has paranormal premonitions about what’s happening and gets the attention of a shadow government agency that is determined to suppress the truth and conduct a rescue mission.

Getting the lion’s share of the action is the group of displaced people as they try to figure out what is happening in a loose rip-off of “Lost.” The crew includes a wide variety of professionals such that many are the deus-ex-machinas for each other’s ailments. There’s a kid with life-threatening injuries but fortunately there’s a doctor among the stranded to rescue him. Ditto with a stunted child who’s been trained to pretend she’s mute and a child psychologist who needs to get information from her without traumatizing. Similarly, there’s a paleontologist who can decipher the tea leaves and a cop who can keep order.

The coincidental nature of each person’s abilities isn’t so bad but there’s a clunkiness to the dialogue and the character development that’s par for the course for standard broadcast procedurals rather than the middle brow serial this show aspires to be. This certainly slows down the show but it’s marginally watchable and has enough potential that it’s worth finishing the season.

Reverse Engineering "Little Mosque on the Prairie" Show Bible

 If you have watched the show "Little Mosque on the Prairie" (which can now be watched for free on YouTube), this post will be a really great read. If not, I understand it's not your cup of tea. I definitely recommend watching this show in the interim.

Running from 2007 to 2012, “Little Mosque on the Prairie” was a Canadian-produced TV show that caught a small audience in the US through Hulu. The show centers around a community of Muslims in a small town on the Canadian Prairie. Despite having characters as morally despicable as a shock jock and a fundamentalist Muslim who bashes Western decadence. Still, the show boasts a gooey small-town vibe like Andy Griffith or (sister show) Schitt’s Creek.

But how does such dissonance work? The show is filled with life events as serious as divorces, a major character quitting his jobs over unrequieted love, hateful characters being kept in check, a major character being put on a bus 

In trying to analyze how the show is successful, I tried considering what a character bible might look like.

For example, animator Chuck Jones of Loony Tunes and his team were said to follow these simple rules when creating the Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner cartoons

1. The Road Runner cannot harm the Coyote except by going “meep, meep.”
2. No outside force can harm the Coyote — only his own ineptitude or the failure of Acme products. Trains and trucks were the exception from time to time.
3. The Coyote could stop anytime — if he were not a fanatic.
4. No dialogue ever, except “meep, meep” and yowling in pain.
5. The Road Runner must stay on the road — for no other reason than that he’s a roadrunner.
6. All action must be confined to the natural environment of the two characters — the southwest American desert.
7. All tools, weapons, or mechanical conveniences must be obtained from the Acme Corporation.
8. Whenever possible, make gravity the Coyote’s greatest enemy.
9. The Coyote is always more humiliated than harmed by his failures.
10. The audience’s sympathy must remain with the Coyote.
11. The Coyote is not allowed to catch or eat the Road Runner.

So what might be the "Little Mosque on the Prairie" rules?
My take:
1. Even though some of the characters (particularly Fred, Joe, Baber, and later Reverend Thorne) are tactless, willfully ignorant and even malicious, the recipients of their spite are never emotionally affected. This keeps any negative vibes from dominating the tone of the show.*
2. The ordeals of the show's main protagonist,  Amaar, are largely secular concerns (people not taking him seriously with no beard, annoyances with Fred or Baber, working around Yasser's sloth, etc.) rather than existential religious struggles. This is to keep the show's tone in the realm of a light sitcom....
3. At the same time, Amaar's faith is constant. In fact, the issue of faith is such a non-issue, that it's not a source of meaningful enough drama to build an episode around. In one episode, for example, Amaar is lured into a double date which he endures to be socially polite. A show about a wavering cleric would have Amaar wrestle with his attraction for his date. Instead, Amaar never allows himself to consider the event a date, and the episode's comic inertia revolves around Amaar's insecurity that his non-date didn't have a good time.
4. The show's Muslim Characters fall along a dichotomy of taking faith too seriously or not seriously enough with Amaar and McGee at the center.
Sarah, Yasser, and Layla fall in the below axis whereas Baber and Joe are too religious. Rayyan falls roughly in the middle which is why there is so much foreshadowing that she is Amaar's other half.
5. The idyllic small-town feel is partially created by unlikely loving family units whether Baber/Layla, Sarah/Yassir/Rayyan and to a lesser extent Fatima/Jamal or the makeshift family of McGee/Amaar. Baber and Layla shouldn't get along since her father is such a tyrannical idiot but the show seems to make it work with the eyeroll and occasional temper tantrum. Similarly, Rayyan seems to do her fair amount of eye rolling but rarely do you see an adult child and her parents get along so well. The lack of family conflicts (at the nuclear level) is also a hallmark of 1950s and 1960s shows like Leave it to Beaver, Andy Griffith, and the Donna Reed Show and it was roundly mocked in the 1998 film Pleasantville.
6. Characters are inherently good but none of the secular characters are above cutting corners in life. Whether Yasser's sloth, the Mayor's vanity, or even Amaar's ego, there are areas within every character for self-improvement.
7. Characters are inter-connected. Fred and Baber, for example, are both dislikeable characters, but they both are able to carve out a healthy and affirming relationship with Fatima. Joe and later Reverend Thorne have good connections to the Muslim community with time.

*I've read a number of viewer reviews that were turned off of the show when Thorne entered in Season 4. This could be because his presence broke this cardinal rule. His threats of eviction of his Muslim tenants had definite consequences to the status quo.