The best and the worst have been side by side since the days of loft story in this column. A warm recommendation for the miniseries Irma Vep from HBO, a hollow quote from Amanda in the island of lovethere is nothing embarrassing to navigate between the top-of-the-range TV made with care and that of the “fast mode” type whose seams give way after three fittings.
Posted at 9:30 a.m.
This chronicle does not discriminate according to the socio-economic profile or the origin of a program. Oh no. The best is often found in reality TV trash. The worst is unearthed in ultra-pretentious series that even their creators do not quite understand.
Sometimes the best and the worst come together in the same category. This is the case today in comedy with two titles at both ends of the spectrum. The best: the sitcom Abbott Elementary from the ABC network, all episodes of which have been uploaded – in French and English – to the Disney+ platform. This is The Office in a Philadelphia elementary school and it’s delicious.
The worst: the turnip God’s Favorite Idiot from Netflix, available in English and French (God’s Favorite Idiot), which stars the comically funny Melissa McCarthy. Lord this is bad. Bad from bad.
The magazine variety even ruled it to be the lowest point in Melissa McCarthy’s career (spy, Bridesmaids) and her husband, Ben Falcone, who wrote the texts for the eight half-hour episodes of God’s Favorite Idiotin addition to holding one of the main roles.
I gave up on the fourth episode, without having laughed once. A torture worse than that of the hair shirt. It’s confusing, badly written, simple and “funny”, a neologism that I try very hard to fit into Little Robert 2024.
God’s Favorite Idiot takes place in a computer support office in California. All the employees there share eccentric traits, which however do not make them endearing. The strong head of the group is called Amily (Melissa McCarthy). This assertive woman drinks hard on working hours, sends her boss (who is called Frisbee) for a walk and regularly steals money from his office.
By a less than funny coincidence, Amily discovers that her colleague Clark (Ben Falcone) glows in the dark. Yes, like a Luminou in a child’s room in 1985. And Clark, a man more beige than a chino from Old Navy, also has the power to play the song Sign of the Times by Harry Styles.
Why, how and what is that, cibole? Hello mess. So Clark was chosen to spread the good news of God and stand in the way of Satan, embodied by a woman. Like God, by the way. To paraphrase Ariana Grande: “God is woman”.
Quebec comedian Yanic Truesdale (Guys, Gilmore Girls) arrives in the second episode with the wings of the angel Chamuel (ha!), the special and sarcastic envoy, can it be otherwise, of the almighty. It’s cliché and deja vu.
Honestly, it’s sad and tragic to witness the rout of an actress as gifted as Melissa McCarthy, whose every line falls cruelly flat. What an incoherent mess.
If you are still reading this column, thank you for your perseverance. The reward comes with the best: Abbott Elementarywhich has 13 episodes that I gobbled up in one weekend.
Shot in the form of a mockumentary, this touching, intelligent and captivating series transports us to an elementary school in the heart of an underprivileged neighborhood in Philadelphia. Think of Modern Family and Parks and Recreation who would have had a baby.
The main character, the idealistic Janine, has been teaching for a year at Abbott Public School, attended mostly by black children. Janine has a vocation, in addition to being a real nerd. She believes she can change the lives of students, even though her ambitions constantly come up against the lack of resources in the school system.
But she never gives up, our optimistic Janine, who also comes up against an egocentric director obsessed with the last dance on TikTok. As you can imagine, Janine’s colleagues find her heavy and naive, especially the most experienced teachers like the perfect Barbara and the very direct Melissa, who has acquaintances with the local mafia.
Like Ted Lasso, Janine and her enthusiasm slowly but surely infect the staff of the Abbott School. All of this is obviously done in discomfort, humiliation and a hilarious amount of missteps. The rhythm of the episodes is fast and the text, brilliant. This is an effective sitcom that tackles current issues with biting and benevolent.
This is the kind of show that we watch a second time to catch up on gags that we missed on the first viewing.
To use two worn puns, Abbott Elementary is first in class and in a class of its own, really.