TVSquad

(S02E11) When I watch shows in order to review them for TV Squad, I try to simply sit back and enjoy them as if I were any other fella sitting down to enjoy a TV show. In other words, I try not to get hung up on every little nuance and line of dialogue because I want to appreciate the show as it's meant to be, not turn it into some kind of archaeological dig where I over-examine every detail and completely suck the enjoyment out of the experience. I like to look for little details, of course, but I don't want to lose the whole package. This is my way. Yes, it is.

However, I can't completely neglect the blogger/writer part of me that knows he's going to be typing out something about the show once it's over, and some things I would normally ignore get stuck in my craw because of it. For instance, I thought this recent episode of Tom Goes to the Mayor was very funny, but there were two moments I felt were somewhat beneath the usual bizarre humor I expect from Tim and Eric. The first was a "Benny Hill" chase sequence, which has already been spoofed a million times, and a Scooby-Doo style "unmasking" at the end, which, to be fair, was pretty damn surreal, but I still felt it was a little too easy. These are minor complaints though, and the rest of the episode was pretty funny, I thought.

Can golf be funny? Well, Caddyshack proved that it could. At least, it proved you could use a golf course as a kind of stage for great comedic performances. In The Sweet Spot, Bill Murray returned to the game that birthed his famous Caddyshack character, this time taking three of his brothers (Brian Doyle-Murray, Joel Murray, and John Murray) along for a faux-reality series in which the siblings compete on different golf courses for bragging rights.

The show could be best be described as really bad, but charming. Bill is clearly the most recognizable of the siblings, but Joel and Brian have had plenty of great roles in both television and movies. John, also a producer for the show, has been in front of the lens before, but not to any significant degree. It's fun to see them all together, but even with the gags, skits, and fantasy segments, it still felt like watching home movies that were more entertaining to the people making them than the people watching. Somewhere in Hollywood someone must have an idea for a really great show that could bring these brothers together, but The Sweet Spot just wasn't it.