Disjointed Series Premiere Plot Summary:
Ruth (Kathy Bates) is a marijuana activist who is trying to grow her dispensary, Ruth’s Alternate Caring, with the help of her son Travis (Tone Bell). While they both love pot, they have different plans for their business.
Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men are my Number 2 and Number 3 most despised shows (Number 1 is reserved for Sons of Anarchy). Netflix’s newest original release, Disjointed, was practically ordained for the Number 4 spot on my list.
There were a few big problems I wasn’t sure the show could overcome. The sitcom style was very popular for a while and produced some giant hits (Friends, I’m looking at you), but it also lends to very bare bone plots and corny jokes. Another problem was the laugh track. Laugh tracks are the worst. The. Worst. If a show needs a laugh track it’s usually because the audience wouldn’t laugh if they didn’t have a cue. Lastly, and most problematic of the problems, was creator Chuck Lorre. Yeah, you got that right. Creator of shows Number 2 AND 3 on Marley’s Most Despised TV Shows List is one of the creative minds behind Disjointed.
I was excited to watch the show, though. Honestly, I wanted to watch it crash and burn because I was in a mood to eviscerate. Disjointed had so many issues; weed legalization and normalization, culture surrounding cannabis, racism, capitalism and mental health. I mean this both ways. The show dealt with all of these hot button political issues, but they also did a pretty crappy job of it. Similar to Two and a Half Men and Big Bang Theory, the characters are boiled down to bare minimum stereotypes with no room to grow or evolve. The audience is expected to believe and accept these big emotional payoffs with no back history or building to make it mean anything.
They are also tone deaf in dealing with mental health and racism, making them seem like, well, racists. Jenny (Elizabeth Ho) is probably the most poorly drawn character on the show. Everything about her was a punchline with no substance. This could be said about every characters on the show, really, but it shone through Jenny’s character the most to me. It’s a lazy show and I expected nothing less.
And yet, it’s time for me to eat some humble pie. Well, like a super small sliver of it. The slice is so thin it’s practically transparent. I laughed. Not a lot. Not the whole time. But I laughed. There are stoner stereotypes for a reason and what they got right was funny. Not hilarious but chuckle worthy. There was a couple one liners from Ruth and Maria (Nicole Sullivan) a new customer, that were pretty good. Pete (Dougie Baldwin) won the show, which isn’t surprising because he was the only white male (assuming straight) character. Write what you know and what they know is being high as a white male. But whatever, I knew what this was going into it.
Anything related to weed is usually goofy and stupid. It seems impossible to have normal show or movie if pot has any large role in it. But Disjointed, while stupid and goofy, is a different breed of what has come before it in weed entertainment.
A new age is dawning in the world of cannabis. Whatever your stance is on the subject, reefer madness is on it’s way out. Weed is becoming overtly mainstream and Disjointed is a tiny piece of that. I’m not recommending the show to anyone, though, because I can’t have that on my conscience.
Rating: 2 out of 10
DISJOINTED IS STREAMING ON NETFLIX
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ly019ZF0lsk
