Description
From the producers of “The Simpsons”! Jon Lovitz is the animated Jay Sherman, a TV movie critic who is forced to review the most pathetic films which he always rates as “It stinks.” In addition to the film parodies, the show also deals with his personal life: working for a tyrannical media mogul boss, his lovelife and his family. Three-disc release includes all 23 episodes from the entire first and second seasons!Amazon.com
To quote New York movie critic Jay Sherm… More >>
The Critic – The Complete Series
Tags: amazon, Complete, Critic, disc release, film parodies, jay sherman, jon lovitz, media mogul, Series, sherm, tv movie critic
#1 by D. Wetzel on April 22, 2010 - 3:55 pm
What is perhaps most amazing is that this product states, right on the front cover, “It Stinks!”. And it does, take the marketing folks word for it (how did they ever conceive of doing that even if it were a major tagline used in the series?!).
Regardless, the show itself is laborious to watch. The animation is mediocre, the humor is virtually absent, the plotlines are uninteresting and tiresome and the show repeats begging want of something much-much more, episode after episode.
Seriously, when I first got the series I could hardly make it through the first disc–it was that gnawingly difficult to watch. Several months later I decided to pick it up and blow the dust off, offering it just another chance to see if could rattle my attention. It failed once again.
There is just something about the show that never grabs you. Let’s not forget that it is supposed to be funny. It isn’t. A friend who stumbled into watching the show remarked that they literally kept forgetting to laugh when the punchlines were delivered–it is hard not to have your mind wander elsewhere while watching the show.
Overall, the series simply didn’t make the cut. The quality all around was never delivered though the one thing that is perhaps decent enough was the voice acting. Decent mind you, not fantastic.
Should you buy this against my recommendation and the glowing five star reviews that fill the pages surrounding this one? Yes–if you suffer from insomnia or do not have a funny bone in your body in the first place, this may be an appropriate purchase for you. Otherwise, PLEASE spend your money on something more worthwhile. With so many other good animated series available these days, this is one that is not deserving of your attention.
Rating: 1 / 5
#2 by Anonymous on April 22, 2010 - 5:47 pm
I’m surprised at all the high ratings; the show is just not that funny. Jon Lovitz becomes annoying fairly quickly, and the characters have no depth.
Rating: 2 / 5
#3 by Red on April 22, 2010 - 7:34 pm
The first episode of this show is the funniest one. I haven’t seen it in 6-8 years. I think it premiered after the Super Bowl. Jay Sherman is the classic pessimist. His boss is annoying as all hell though. It’s somewhat worth the money, I guess.
Rating: 3 / 5
#4 by Cookies on April 22, 2010 - 8:56 pm
You don’t remember the Critic? Not a heck of lot of people do.
Well, fans of the show do. All six of them. The show came and went at a time when every network was trying to emulate the success of the Simpsons.
So how does a show made in 1994 hold up? It’s as good as it was in 1994. That not really saying all that much.
The show was not funny when it fist came out and it’s not getting any funnier. The writing is labored and the jokes are few. It is shocking because the writers and creators were for the most part pooled from the Simpsons.
The great waste of the show that it had all of Hollywood as a target but it spent way too much time with the hopelessly unlikable cast and it’s looser star than taking shots at movies.
The DVD allows the few fans of the show to see the show in all it’s “glory”. Actually the animation is not all that good and the transfer looks very muddy/blurry.
The commentary is the saving grace of the DVD set. It’s good as the creators are honest about how the show failed, giant boxes of hate mail and the mistakes they made. Refreshing.
I think this show has always been overrated by a few vocal fans. It’s boring and not very funny and I gave up after the first DVD to be honest.
Go buy a family guy or the Simpsons DVD set. You will thank me.
Rating: 2 / 5
#5 by PH-50-NC on April 22, 2010 - 11:24 pm
Obviously many people loved this show (it’s premature demise making them cling all the more dearly to it). If you’ve aleady seen the show land like it (or love it), skip this review. There are plenty of glowing reviews that will confirm you opinions.
I came to the how as a fan of the Simpsons and it’s many offspring. Reading all the above-mentioned positive reviews made me–a sucker for anything touted as a lost classic–think I’d missed something great in the 1990s.
The one positive thing I can say about the show is that the animation backgrounds are done with a unique and impressionistic flair. I can’t say the same about the character designs or the fluidity of motion, but the backgrounds are nice and worth noticing.
But the writing…it’s mediocre. I found the humor less subtle than South Park and Beavis and Butthead, to say nothing of the Simpsons and Family Guy. It’s not that this is a crude show (‘Beavis’ and ‘Southpark’ are more than simply crude), it’s just that the jokes are obvious most of the time. And they are never followed up with additional twists they way that can happen with the Simpsons.
The supporting characters (including Doris the makeup lady; the redneck boss guy; the Crocodile Dundee-esqe Australian pretty-boy actor) almost collapse under the weight of the stereotypical behavior, accents and punchlines they labor under. (I’ll make an exception for Jay’s uber-WASP father, who kind of foreshadows Lois of the Family Guy’s parents.)
The best moments are the send-ups of Hollywood flicks that Jay critiques, but these are much too few and far between. I made it through disc one, and when on the first episode of disc two they couldn’t even make Los Angeles seem funny, I gave up. Sitting through these things with half a smile on your face hoping for just one or two funny moments isn’t worth your time. Some episodes, the funny moments never came. Maybe it got better later on. But it seemed too much like work to me to keep watching this stuff.
Rating: 2 / 5