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Thank God You're Here: Episodes 1 & 2 (series premiere)
(S01E01/S01E02) I'm about to give you fair warning. In addition to being a husband, father, writer at TV Squad, and Nobel Prize-winning astrophysicist I have also been in improv for 5 years. So, my review is may be slightly tainted.
That being said, I didn't think Thank God You're Here was an utter disaster. I also didn't think it was a laugh-until-you-pee hit, either. It was interesting to watch and mildly entertaining, even in those scenes where you knew the actors were waaaayyyy out of their element. And there was plenty of that.
In my opinion only three actors really showed what improv acting was all about -- Bryan Cranston, Kevin Nealon, and Edie McClurg. Nealon seemed the most at ease with his role. There was very little hesitation with his answers when the straight actors would push him for lines. Plus, he pulled two of the actors out for a little girl-on-girl CPR. Edie was also extremely confident and I felt her scene (marriage counselor's office) was the best because she was really trying to interact with the other actors (and I'll talk about those 'improv' actors later). It felt like a scene my troupe would do at one of our shows. The one who had the most fun with his scene, and the one that interacted most with the rest of the players, was Bryan Cranston. As soon as he stepped into the scene he was right in the role as a over-pampered rock star.
Wayne Knight was also pretty decent, but I just didn't like the talking-head scene he was in. He did shine though during the slide show presentation. The worst at improv? Well, I'd have to give that to Jennifer Coolidge. She was just not funny and seemed to take a very long time to come up with responses. Mo'nique was also weak and she wasn't listening to any of the suggestions that were given to her. I was surprised that Richard Kind wasn't good in his scene. Out of all of the actors he seemed the most lost with what he was supposed to do.
Now, with that out of the way, let's talk for a moment about the issues I have with this format. First, I don't know if I'd call Thank God You're Here an improv show. I'd probably call it "scriptprov." Sure, the stars were performing without scripts, but the straight actors were definitely working off of something. Everything they said seemed to have been written previously, including the little pushes to get the scriptless actors to come up with something amusing. In addition to that, the straight actors just seemed to be placeholders, rather than really interacting with the stars. To me, it felt very stilted.
Which brings me to my two biggest pet peeves when it comes to improv: questions and denials. There were a ton of these during the two hours that the show was on, and they brought many scenes to a halt. I can think of two scenes where the denials really ticked me off. The first one was with Richard Kind. In the scene, which took place at a morning radio show, the straight actors want to know what Richard's character name is. He yells out 'Steve!' and gets a big laugh. Ten seconds later the straight actors go 'No your name is . . . ' , give him a different name, and ruin the scene for me. The other example was the game show scene with Mo'nique. The host of the game show is askng Mo, who's portraying the Vanna White of the game, what the contestants names are. After she names one contestant the host goes 'No, that person's name is . . .' Aaaarrrggghh!
There was a third scene where the denial was a bit more subtle. It was marriage counselor scene with Edie McClurg. In it the counselor asks Edie if she knew why she was there, and Edie came up with something funny. Then the straight actor playing her husband said something like 'don't you think we're here because of your affair with the gardner?' Now, Edie was able to come back with a quick and funny answer, but it changed the
whole tone of the scene to the one that was probably pre-determined before the show.
As I said at the beginning of this review, I found Thank God You're Here interesting to watch. I'll probably tune in during the upcoming weeks (if it stays on the schedule that long) just to see if the show gets any better or worse. On the scale of 1 to 7 (worst to best) I give this show a 3.
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