Written by Allison Lips
Review will appeal to fans of The Colbert Report because when comedian Andy Daly is Forrest MacNeil he comes off as an over-the-top person, who still seems plausible. The basic premise is that MacNeil gives real life experiences one to five stars. However, the stars don’t matter because MacNeil randomly assigns experiences ratings.
Before you can thoroughly enjoy Review, you have to realize it’s not a laugh out loud show. In the premiere episode, MacNeil reviews stealing, addiction, and the high school prom. Review has MacNeil and the shows writers act out with funny situations that they pretend are real, while at the same time making jokes about the writing.
Many of the situations are funny only because MacNeil comes off as creepy. He steals from an old lady. He gets addicted to cocaine and does it in front of his son’s Boy Scout troop. During the last segment, MacNeil asks his babysitter to her prom. He then proceeds steal a wallet from the school’s wrestling coach, buy cocaine, and get all the popular kids hooked. The show ends with MacNeil getting sent to the hospital because he’s having a heart attack, which had me wondering what did I just watch.
The show thrives on the ludicrous situations MacNeil puts himself in, mainly because he looks like an accountant. Also, he brought an intern along to help him rob a bank and described the intern’s gun shot wound as a souvenir. The guy is nuts. He doesn’t care that half of what he does isn’t socially acceptable.
Review will haves die hard fans, but it’s not for everyone. Despite having the first four episodes available, I only watched the first episode. Not because the show is bad, (it’s actually quite good) but because it’s best served in small doses. Review is not the kind of show you can binge watch and that’s a refreshing change in a television culture that encourages it.
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