Ricky Gervais’ new show is all about his comedy podcast that enjoyed an enormous following. Sitting down with his good friend and colleague Stephen Merchant and the absent-minded Karl Pilkington, they basically talk about nothing. The show has a unorganized format because Gervais and Merchant react to the idiotic ramblings of Pilkington. His ideas are random and absurd, but provide perfect opportunities for the quick witted Gervais and Merchant to make hilarious, if sometimes mean, comments.

In the first episode of HBO’s new show, Pilkington begins to talk about how humans should reproduce. He believes that when a woman turns 78 she should die, but that a small baby should be born from her body when she dies, so that it would be a “good-bad situation”. Immediately, Gervais cracks up at the idiotic premise. The worst part about it is that Pilkington believes that this system will be the next stage of evolution. Gervais and Merchant try to convince him of the ridiculousness of the idea, but it does little to persuade him.

The other funny segment was “Monkey News” in which the men discuss a story having to do with monkeys. Pilkington begins to speak about how angry he would be if he was a monkey because humans get all the credit–particularly for space travel. He eloquently points out that a monkey went into space before man. Although it is a somewhat legitimate point, it devolves into babble after he says that the monkeys were taught to fly the spaceships using buttons and a banana dispenser.

With such ridiculous segments, Gervais and Merchant, among comedies brightest talents, are in a great setting. The show itself is done in an animated style reminiscent of the Flintstones (which, oddly enough, they reference in the show) and show their animated persons sitting at a table discussing with occasional cutaways describing certain elements of the story.

The problem is that I can’t really figure out why this needs to be a television show. Yes, the segments become more ludicrous when you actually see what Pilkington is describing, but it isn’t a constant which warrants watching the screen the entire time. The animated style is not impressive and much of the time is just showing the animated men sitting in a studio. Thus, I kept getting the feeling that this show, although funny, doesn’t necessarily mean that it is better than the podcast. It has the feeling of a simple video podcast, but one that you don’t need to be watching constantly in order to enjoy.

Nevertheless, both Gervais and Merchant are funny enough to make the show deserving of a large audience. Although it is very likely that you will find yourself doing other activities while watching it.

Entertainium’s best of the decade series continues with television-in-review.

• “The tribe has spoken”: In May 2000, an American version of the Swedish game show Expedition Robinson premiered on CBS. The show’s first season attracted 28.3 million viewers and was a summer hit. The show’s second season premiered after the Baltimore Ravens decimated the New York Giants in Super Bowl XXXV and was the most-watched show on television during that 2000-01 television year. That show, of course, was Survivor and launched the phenomenon known as reality-competition television.
  • Ironically, the show that popularized the format never won an Emmy for Outstanding Reality-Competition Program. Another show on the Tiffany Network, The Amazing Race, has won the Emmy each year since it was first awarded in 2003.

• “Come on down”: Bob Barker retired from The Price is Right in 2007 after fifty years in television and thirty-five years hosting. Comedian Drew Carey replaced him as host of the popular game show.
• The UK kills the traditional sitcom: In 2001, comedians Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant created the BBC mockumentary The Office, a comedy series shot in the documentary style. In 2003, BBC America began broadcasting the show and it became a popular hit. Around the same time, both Friends and Everybody Loves Raymond left the airwaves as NBC, looking for a sitcom hit after the Americanized version of Coupling was a failure. NBC remade The Office with Steve Carell occupying the main role as a bumbling office manager. The series was a great success and has prompted most every new comedy series to shoot in a single-camera, no laugh track, and interstitial-based format.
  • Coincidentally, the original episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm was a 1999 mockumentary that detailed Larry David performing an HBO special. The show adopted its current format in 2000. This information has no real relevance other than the fact that it got me to talk about Curb Your Enthusiamsm, a show of which I’m particularly fond.
• Wardrobe Malfunction: Janet Jackson revealed her nipple during a halftime performance with Justin Timberlake on Super Bowl XXXVIII. This incident sparked a review of live television policies that led to the institution of tape delay for most major live performances. Furthermore, this incident prompted a wave of re-editing violent or sexually suggestive television programming.
• “Tell me where the bomb is!”: 24 premiered in 2001, giving new life to the careers of men previously known for the roles of a KKK leader in A Time to Kill (he became the counter-terror hero) and Pedro Cerrano (he became the president).

• “You think that’s bad…”: Fox cancelled Family Guy in 2002, only to bring it back to air in 2005 after a series of fan petitions and strong DVD sales. Seth McFarlane launched a comedy empire with spin-offs American Dad and The Cleveland Show. However, much like the fact that the Holy Roman Empire wasn’t holy, wasn’t Roman, and wasn’t an empire, McFarlane’s empire lost its humor with dumb cutaway gags (Family Guy) or were never funny to begin with (American Dad and The Cleveland Show)
• All good shows go to cable: HBO cements itself as the place to watch great serial dramas and comedies with the success of The Sopranos, Rome, Deadwood, John Adams, Entourage, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Six Feet Under, and True Blood among many others. Additionally, Michael Chiklis finds success on The Shield on FX, Bryan Cranston with Breaking Bad on AMC, and of course, Mad Men on AMC.
• Science fiction finds its way into the mainstream again: Battlestar Galactica and Stargate SG-1 pick up a strong cult following over the decade while Lost premieres to much success on ABC.
• The success of game shows: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? continued to build on its momentum from its 1999 premiere and spawned a host of competitors (including shows hosted by Maury Povich, Dick Clark, and Anne Robinson). Ken Jennings won over $3 million on Jeopardy! in 2004.
• Hard science goes primetime: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, which detailed forensic science investigations, premiered in 2000. The show spawned two other spin-offs and led to the success of other science-based television shows such as Numbers.

…and Law and Order is still on the air.

Join hosts Doug Buffone and Matt La Magna on the first installment of the tri-weekly podcast forever known as The Byline. Today’s episode is all about the new fall television season–anticipated arrivals, promising premieres and definite duds. [Download] | [iTunes]

Larry David’s life is far from perfect. Although he is wealthy and retired, he has so many social hang-ups and quirks that his basic interactions with friends almost always put him into hilariously bad situations. The show rarely disappoints and luckily for all fans, David decided to bring the show back for a seventh season after a brief hiatus.

The HBO comedy’s season premiere was my most anticipated of the fall.  There was hype surrounding the season unseen in previous years. After watching the first episode of the season, I believe that this season is shaping up to be very promising, largely because Larry’s life is constantly getting more absurd.

Larry is no longer with his wife. Instead he is dating Loretta, a black refugee from the Hurricane Katrina.  Unfortunately, she is also sick and waiting to hear the results of a biopsy. Larry is time pressed at the moment because he really wants to end the relationship with Loretta, but has to do it before she becomes a cancer patient.

Hosting a refugee family from New Orleans was entertaining for a while, but they have overstayed their welcome and Larry is longing for change. He has feelings for his ex-wife Cheryl (as evidenced by last season’s plot to win her back through the manipulation of her therapist) but doesn’t currently have a plan to win her back. In the meantime, Larry spends most of his time with his manager and best friend Jeff and doing the odd task for others (but in regular Larry fashion, not by his own will).

Such is the case when Larry gives an empty gesture to Marty Funkhouser saying that he will do “anything” to help his mentally ill sister Bam-Bam.  Funkhouser asks him to go visit her and Larry is guilt-tripped into doing so but can’t believe his friend would act on an empty gesture.

Jeff travels with Larry to the Funkhouser residence and sits with Bam-Bam and talks about Hollywood’s most versatile actresses (who Larry believes is Hannah Montana). The conversation gets more uncomfortable until Larry makes an excuse to go to the bathroom and make a sandwich. Upon returning, he hears noises from the upstairs, including the “Fuck me fat boy!” coming from the slightly impeded speech of Bam-Bam.

Needless to say Jeff slept with a mentally ill woman. What’s worse is that they all get together at Jeff’s house that results in further drama.

I have come to expect ridiculous plots from Curb Your Enthusiasm and the season premiere did not disappoint. The show keeps the basic elements that has made it a success in the past but its still very difficult to see the plot twists coming even if you are a longtime viewer.  “Funkhouser’s Crazy Sister” is one of the funnier episodes in recent memory and starts the new season off on a great note.

Curb Your Enthusiasm airs on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM on HBO.