“Surviving Suburbia” (8:32 p.m. Central Monday, ABC *1/2) is the latest in a long line of ineffectual ABC sitcoms.
When it comes to half-hour comedies, ABC has tried everything: It has developed a show (“In the Motherhood”) that started a Web series, it has tried contrived single-camera sitcoms such as “Better Off Ted,” and now, with “Suburbia,” it is trying the more traditional multi-camera sitcom format.
The network could try developing comedies that are funny. Now there’s an idea.
Maybe because the end is (finally) near for the frustratingly long-lived “According to Jim,” which returns April 14, the network felt the need to create another derivative sitcom in which an Everyman dad squabbles with his sharp-tongued wife while their spunky kid delivers sassy one-liners.
Bob Saget and Cynthia Stevenson star as Steve and Anne, the suburbanites of the title, and though both actors are skilled veterans of the sitcom scene, the characters’ interactions and quips are entirely predictable. Slightly more enjoyable are the scenes between Saget and Jere Burns, who plays Steve’s nosy neighbor on the show.
Most painful are the scenes of Steve and Anne with their daughter, Courtney (G Hannelius). They’re overacted, unfunny and, like much of the rest of the show, full of annoying cliches.
‘Krod’ wows with sci-fi parody
Regular readers of this column will know that I’ve spent many (probably far too many) hours watching science-fiction and fantasy television. When it comes to TV and films, I have a weakness for anything involving swords, wizards, quests, wormholes, alternate universes and actors wearing thick layers of prosthetic makeup.
Other genre fans who have shared a similar journey of elf discovery should get a kick out of “Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire” (9 p.m. Central Thursday, Comedy Central ***), a slight but appealingly silly parody of the sword-and-sorcerers genre.
This show is clearly made by people who have seen the “Harry Potter,” “Star Wars” and “Lord of the Rings” movies too many times (and who hasn’t?). And if not every joke hits home, the show has a sprightly pace and an enjoyably hammy turn by Matt Lucas (“Little Britain”) as petulant evil dictator Chancellor Dongalor.
Krod (Sean Maguire) is the strapping title character; he sports the requisite leather vest, and he and his incompetent band are the would-be rescuers of the simple folk being oppressed by Dongalor. Krod may spend a lot of time attempting to slay bad guys, but he also does his best to be a sensitive boyfriend and write down his feelings in a leather-bound journal.
When the show is making cheap jokes at the expense of its sole female character (a reason is contrived for her to perform a pole dance, sheesh) and its gay characters, it comes off like a tiresome imitation of “Meet the Spartans,” which was itself a juvenile parody of “300” and other pop-culture staples. But a good deal of the humor in “Krod,” which features suitably stentorian narration by “Saturday Night Live” veteran Chris Parnell, is more subtle than that. If nothing else, the cheerfully goofy “Krod” makes it impossible to watch dreck like “Knights of Bloodsteel,” a Sci Fi miniseries that premieres April 19, without laughing uproariously. “Bloodsteel” is the kind of sludgy, jaw-droppingly terrible fantasy fare that’s only good for two things: Giving “Krod” more comedic fodder, and giving genre fans reasons to invent drinking games based on how many times wizards make incantations or speak in riddles.
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