Stasi Comedy

So I found another watchable television comedy, Workaholics, and of course, a reviewer has to piss all over it.

Enter Steve Heisler, the newest agent from the Stasi Bureau of Meaningful, Purposeful, Decidedly Unfunny Television.

In his first two reviews Agent Heisler flashes his T.V. reviewing credentials by name-dropping other shows he’s seen, like The League, Important Things With Demetri Martin, Michael And Michael Have Issues, and The Life And Times Of Tim. You know what these shows have in common? Your readers aren’t watching them. Waving around your breadth of television knowledge, Agent Heisler, doesn’t do anything for your credibility as someone who knows which end is up when it comes to comedy. If anything, it makes you an even less reliable source.

But after the pilot, Agent Heisler, you saw some promise in the show.

Workaholics is, surprisingly, a lot more charming than it's made out to be, and it contains a few welcome twists on the familiar. It's a comedy that knows its limits and strengths and tries its best to play to them.

I don’t normally look for charming or for “welcome twists on the familiar” in my comedy unless I’m watching a Lawrence Welk variety show, but fine, you liked it, I’ll take it. Or did you?

No matter what I say, though, I can't shake the feeling that Comedy Central is going to cancel this anyway.

Is this how you communicate to the higher-ups, Agent Heisler? “Wink, wink, network execs, it’s kind of an okay show, but let me start a discourse about cancellation that you can step right into when you feel ready?”

I chatted with Michael Schur from Parks & Rec last week, and he told me that comedies typically take a long time to build momentum, especially character-based ones.

Well good for you. Last week Oprah braided my hair.

Until you know who these people are, the jokes simply aren't going to hit as hard. …I'm not saying Workaholics is the greatest, most promising comedy to come through, or that the network will definitely be canceling it.

No, you’re not saying that the network will definitely be cancelling it, but in a review of the pilot of a show, you end by wielding a sickle. Way to redeem TV criticism for writers like Schur.

Let’s see what you have to say after the first season.

Workaholics is now an aimless show about troublemakers who make bad decisions just because they can, and their exploits—fueled by an endless stream of pot and booze—are kind of pathetic, like when that 40-year-old dude shows up at the frat house during alumni week, hoping to score with some freshmen.

Holy shit Agent Heisler, you smacked that sickle down! Also, you just described a show I really want to watch. Troublemakers, bad decisions, “an endless stream of pot and booze”? Sign me up! And I don’t know about you, but when a 40-year-old dude showed up at our sorority house during alumni week it was fucking hilarious, but maybe that’s a girl thing.

The central problem with Workaholics is that its characters, even after an entire season, are entirely disposable.

Yup, yup, there we go, a clear transgression of Stasi code 118.37, the characters we don’t cherish. I want to wub my chawacters and snuggle up wif dem!

They’re all essentially playing the same character, so there’s no little comedic game they can play amongst themselves that might even make them feel more like well-rounded people. The focus of the episode, instead, is the game they’re playing with the rest of the world—one three-headed dumb dude vs. The Man, for no particular reason.

God you would have really hated Waiting for Godot. I can barely tell those two apart! They’re just sitting there on stage, struggling against some undefined “Godot” guy. It’s like the fact that the two of them aren’t “well-rounded people” keeps the focus on this inexplicable force they’re opposing! What crap. How absurd.

But what really gets Agent Heisler, I can tell, is the violation of Stasi TV code #1: The Doing of Things For No Particular Reason. What does it all mean?! Why are these insane adolescent douchebags always fucking with everyone around them? Why can’t we all just get along, for Chrissake?

Because that wouldn’t be funny, that’s why. Nor would it be absurd. Or interesting, at all. I know I’m pushing a new, crazy idea on you, Agent Heisler and your Stasi comrades, but pure mayhem—like I don’t know, “an endless stream of pot and booze”—can be really funny when it’s done well. Admittedly, this concept only goes back to the Greek satyr play, but I get it, that’s still pretty green at 2600 years old. Wouldn’t want to spring things on you too fast, Steve, what with all the new episodes of post-Steve Carrell The Office you have to study up on for your credential to determine what qualifies as funny.

But the guys aren’t speaking from any specific perspective other than, “Work sucks and getting stoned is the best,” so the conversations don’t go anywhere. There’s little reason to continue with Workaholics; the show refuses to dig into its premise beyond surface level, and given the plethora of comedy options on TV today, it’s not worth sticking around.

Ugh, yes, that code of Stasi codes Agent Heisler begrudgingly has to enforce, the show that doesn’t “go anywhere.” It just exists, opposing the man for no particular reason, relishing absurdity and inebriation, and skimming the surface of absolutely everything in order to bring it all together into one joyously comic revel. There’s just a “plethora” of comedy options doing anything that smart or absurd or transgressive anywhere on TV right now. Thanks for being part of the reason why, Agent Heisler.