"Life. It's literally all we have. But is it any good? I'm a reviewer, but I don't review food, books, or movies. I review life itself. Welcome to Review, I'm Forrest MacNeil."
Review (sometimes known as Review with Forrest MacNeil) was an American television mockumentary series that ran for three seasons (2014–17) on Comedy Central, adapted from the Australian series Review with Myles Barlow and starring Andy Daly (who'd previously appeared in Eastbound & Down, Comedy Bang! Bang!, Delocated, and other shows). The show is ostensibly a parody of Reality Television, with the host, Forrest MacNeil, rating various life experiences suggested by "viewers." Experiences rated by Forrest include quitting a job, going into space, getting addicted to drugs, and being a racist
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Despite the comical and absurd nature of the activities, Forrest takes his job very seriously, going to great lengths in order to properly rate the experiences. Forrest's total commitment to his job takes a toll on his family and co-workers, particularly his wife. The show features a great deal of callbacks and brick jokes, and much of the plot and humor derive from Forrest's life outside of the show.
The show received positive reviews from outlets such as the Onion AV Club and Uproxx (formerly Hitfix).
For the RedLetterMedia show, go to Review. Not to be confused with the trope Review.
This series contains examples of:
- Accidental Pervert: One of Forrest's reviews requires him to make all his decisions based on a magic 8 ball's suggestions. He goes about this by hiding the magic 8 ball in a fanny pack near his crotch, oblivious that every time he shakes the ball for advice he appears to be masturbating.
- Amusing Injuries: Once per Episode.
- Apologetic Attacker: A.J. Gibbs, when she twice kicks Forrest in the crotch for the sake of an evaluation.
- Arc Words: "Monster", usually in regards to what Forrest has become.
- Artistic License – Physics: Three poles are tied together and then loosely tied to Forrest, and they are able to hold perfectly together rising 75 feet vertically in extreme wind conditions. When the pole is struck by lighting it falls over and hits Josh, and when Tina tries to help him up, she is somehow electrocuted.
- Bank Robbery: The culmination of Forrest's first review.
- Battleaxe Nurse: Forrest meets one while reviewing "There all is aching". She works at the mental asylum where he is sent after being deemed a danger to himself or others, and she smiles gleefully while performing electroshock therapy on Forrest.
- Beware the Nice Ones: A.J. Gibbs gets revenge on Randy Romer by setting off a feces bomb in his car, an event that traumatizes him so much that he is institutionalized, and gives the experience five stars.
- Bigger Is Better in Bed: Forrest gets a massive penis thanks to implants while trying to achieve the perfect body. Subverted, though, in that Suzanne just finds it disgusting.
- Bitter Wedding Speech: What starts as I Want My Beloved to Be Happy eventually becomes this.
- Blackmail: One of Forrest's first reviews in the second season.
- Black Comedy: Most evident at the climax of the "Cult/Perfect Body" episode, in which several characters, including Forrest's father, are either wounded or killed by the police.
- Blessed with Suck: Forrest's surgically altered, massive penis is so large that he passes out whenever he gets an erection due to a lack of blood flow to his brain.
- Blind Mistake: Repeatedly occurs while reviewing "Being Helen Keller".
- Brick Joke: Forrest frequently picks up habits during his rating of life experiences that become relevant in later segments on the show. In the first episode, Forrest reviews stealing, leading him to continue to steal things throughout the episode during seemingly-unrelated segments.
- A.J. Gibbs asks who Willy Nilly is when Forrest uses the expression "willy nilly". Later in the episode, a review is suggested by William Nilly.
- Broke the Rating Scale: Played with throughout the series; Forrest rigidly sticks within the rating system no matter what, with the single exception of Divorce, about which he's too distraught to give a rating. A.J. on the other hand doesn't mind giving something six stars, or just choosing not to review it at all.
- Buried Alive: Forrest gives the experience half a star.
- Butt-Monkey: Forrest starts out as one, always either doing awful things or having awful things happen to him through the circumstances of the review and his own misunderstandings. As the show goes on, however, it's pointed out more and more how he's ultimately to blame for his actions.
- Call-Back: The show has a surprisingly strong continuity, with numerous callbacks to previous events both within the episode and in prior episodes. Perhaps most pervasive is the cocaine addiction Forrest developed after a review of what it's like to get addicted to something.
- Forrest sits between the color copier and the colored copier while reviewing "Catfishing".
- Forrest wears his "Being the Life of the Party" suit to his son's birthday again in the second season.
- Celeb Crush: Forrest has his eye on Ashley Tisdale.
- Comically Missing the Point: Forrest does this very frequently. When asked to review "what's it like to sleep with your teacher?", Forrest instead reviews what it is like to sleep with that viewer's teacher. Later, Forrest is asked what it is like to make your dreams come true. Instead of pursuing any of his ambitions, Forrest attempts to recreate the bizarre happenings in his dreams each night.
- Cosmic Plaything: The universe is pretty hellbent on making Forrest miserable. Although there are plenty of times where he brought it on himself.
- Crazy Consumption: Forrest struggles to eat 15 pancakes but manages to wolf down 30 effortlessly in a daze after losing his wife.
- Cringe Comedy: Forrest's dedication often drives him to do things that are seriously embarrassing to watch.
- Cruel Twist Ending: Suzanne submits a review ("What is it like to never review anything every again?") that offers Forrest a chance to escape the show and return to his old life. With a little manipulation from Grant, Forrest vetoes the review, causing Suzanne and Eric to leave town, never to be found by Forrest again. As if this weren't bad enough, Forrest's show is cancelled immediately after the decision. Forrest is deluded into thinking the cancellation is a prank perpetrated by his coworkers, and even after they all leave and the studio is stripped bare, he refuses to believe otherwise.
- The Cuckoolander Was Right: Josh accurately predicts that Grant is not choosing the dangerous reviews to kill Forrest, but is choosing them because they are "cool" and what the audience wants to see.
- Cure Your Gays: The subject of one review. Forrest states that he's morally opposed to doing so, but tries to go through with it for the review anyway; it doesn't work at all, of course, and the gay man in question ends up in a happy relationship with a boyfriend, but Forrest doesn't seem to realize this.
- A Day in the Limelight: The "Co-Host" review is supposed to be this for A.J., who takes over Forrest's job as the host. However, Forrest repeatedly focuses attention back onto him, to the point of talking over A.J.'s review with his own.
- Death Glare: While reviewing "Forgiveness," Forrest eventually approaches his producer Grant, who he paralyzed at the end of the second season. Grant assures Forrest that he forgave him immediately after the incident happened… Then, when Forrest looks away, levels a cold, murderous stare at him.
- The Determinator: To Forrest's credit he endures the reviews, no matter how humiliating, frustrating and agonizing they are.
- Disproportionate Retribution: In an attempt to start a bare-knuckle brawl, Forrest punches a man who cuts in line. The man responds by shooting him repeatedly.
- The Ditz: A.J. Gibbs comes off as this at times, but when given A Day in the Limelight in season 3 it's made clear that she's actually quite competent.
- Forrest himself is often not the brightest star in the night sky.
- Downer Ending: Forrest vetoes a review that Suzanne submitted in an attempt to logic bomb Forrest into quitting the show, leading her and Eric to disappear forever. The show is cancelled immediately afterwards, with Forrest believing the cancellation is a prank and claiming he would commit suicide if it wasn't. The show ends with him on an empty set, still confident in his delusion.
- Averted for his crew members. Despite the cancellation, Grant earned a promotion, Forrest's secretary became an author who wrote a series of romantic novels, that became best sellers, and A.J. Gibbs got a travel series with Josh and Tina, who will actually be paid for working on.
- Bit of a Bittersweet Ending for Suzanne and Eric. Forrest's show cost Suzanne her marriage and Eric's relationship with his father but it's safe to say their lives could end up being better off with Forrest out of them.
- Averted for his crew members. Despite the cancellation, Grant earned a promotion, Forrest's secretary became an author who wrote a series of romantic novels, that became best sellers, and A.J. Gibbs got a travel series with Josh and Tina, who will actually be paid for working on.
- Driven to Suicide: When Forrest learns that Review is being cancelled, he says he'll do this in response. After this, he believes that the whole thing is a prank, but the implication remains that this is what he'll do when he realizes it's for real.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Forrest after his divorce and much, much worse when he breaks into the house he used to live in.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: While characters like Forrest, Suzanne and Eric are put through hell and are lucky just to survive the show, Josh (and Tina) manages to earn a paid gig with A.J. Gibbs' new travel series. All he had to go through was living unpaid in the Review offices at night and getting shot, arrested at a whorehouse, and crushed by a gigantic lightning rod.
- Eating Contest: Forrest must eat 15 pancakes at once and then divorce his wife and then eat 30 more pancakes.
- Establishing Series Moment: Divorce.
- Fighting Irish: Forrest, while pretending to be Irish in his final review for the first season.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: Forrest believes he is one after a brief skin treatment he believed was cryogenic freezing. This is due mainly to his unique attire not matching modern trends and his inability to use modern technology.
- The Food Poisoning Incident: The obvious result of eating an expired locorito.
- Foreshadowing: While recovering from several gunshot wounds Forrest is presented with flashcards in the Season 2 premiere, where he sees a picture of a bridge and calls it a "conspiracy". In the Season 2 finale "Conspiracy Theory", Forrest hurls himself and Grant from a bridge, believing the entire show has been a conspiracy to kill him.
- From Bad to Worse: To the point that it might as well be the show's tagline.
- Gone Horribly Wrong: Some reviews were destined to be bad from the start like divorce, but many that could have been enjoyable wind up being a terrible disaster. Let's see, there's Going to Prom, Sleeping With a Celebrity, Having a Best Friend, Going to Space, Joining the Mile High Club, Granting a Wish, Spending Time Alone on a Rowboat, Pillow Fights, and
Having an Imaginary Friend. - Good News, Bad News: The bad news is that Jack is dead. The good news is that space was amazing.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: Forrest's first review in Season 2 is to start a bare-knuckle brawl.
- Groin Attack: A.J. Gibbs to Forrest.
- Happily Married: Forrest and Suzanne. Until the divorce.
- Happy Ending Override: Each season finale was written as if it might be the last. Season 1 ends on an optimistic note. The other seasons? Not so much.
- Heel Realization: To the point that, after realizing how much his job cost him, Forrest punched out his own boss. His boss's amoral approach to Forrest's family crisis just added more fuel to it.
- High-School Dance: Forrest gives "Going to the Prom" half a star.
- Home Porn Movie: Forrest plans to make one with his wife for a review and settles for making one with a sex doll.
- Hookers and Blow: How Forrest spends the first half of his "last day on earth".
- Hope Spot: While reviewing Going into Space, he brings his former father-in-law with him. Right before the ship takes off, Suzanne's father promises to try and talk his daughter into getting back together with Forrest. He fails to fasten his seatbelt and dies when the ship takes off. When the ship returns, Forrest's ex wife hates him and blames Forrest for killing her father.
- The end of season one, when considering what comes after; see also Happy Ending Override.
- At the finale, Suzanne makes a review request that has Forrest never review anything again. Forrest at first, prepares to leave the show forever and to go ahead and live, maybe with Suzanne. Unfortunately, he vetoes it after Grant convinces him that there is more reviews to be done. Worse, at the being pranked review, Grant reveals that Review has been cancelled and at the end of the prank review, Forrest is alone, nobody is at the studio and Suzanne has moved.
- Hopeless with Tech: A Running Gag with Forrest.
- Human Popsicle: Forrest is tasked with becoming one, but he is only frozen for under an hour, for skin treatment purposes.
- House Fire: A very easily preventable one burns down Forrest's dad's house, simply because of Forrest's commitment to his current review.
- Hypocritical Humor: Forrest frequently blames the show for things he could have prevented himself."What kind of a monster would make my dad homeless for a television show?"
- Idiot Hero: Played with. Forrest isn't nearly as intelligent and well informed as he fancies himself to be, but can still serve as an Only Sane Man in the right circumstances.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Forrest's speech at Suzanne's rehearsal dinner. At first.
- The Illuminati: According to a conspiracy theorist Forrest encounters, they are setting off underwater nukes to cause tsunamis.
- Imaginary Friend: Forrest creates one named Clovers for a review while in prison. The twist is that the other inmates play along to the point of claiming Clovers as their own, much to Forrest's chagrin.
- Implied Death Threat: Forrest convinces his father to shoot an apple off of his head with an arrow because if he doesn't, Forrest will attempt the feat with Eric.
- Incapable of Disobeying: Forrest tries to present himself this way: he has no choice but to review whatever viewers request, so he's not responsible for anything he does while carrying out a review. Any attempts to point out that of course he has a choice, that he could simply choose not to do a review, or that he could quit the show altogether, are roundly ignored.
- Insistent Terminology: Forrest always refers to Mrs. Greenfield as "Mrs. Greenfield", never revealing her first name even after she leaves her husband to live with Forrest.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Forrest. While he can be a self centered, insensitive idiot Manchild at times he's nonetheless a decent person at heart.
- Kavorka Man: Forrest, in the second season.
- Kick the Dog: The people who ask Forrest to review things like divorce, addiction, theft, murder, getting kicked in the nuts, being struck by lightning, eating 30 pancakes, and other things that appear to serve no other purpose than to put Forrest through misery.
- When Forrest started a cult, he included a ritual confessing. The woman who admitted to running over a homeless man and leaving him to die counts as this, as does Forrest when he later blackmailed her into surrendering her life savings to him.
- Killed Mid-Sentence: Jack T. Walthall.
- Killed Off for Real: Jack T. Walthall, Mrs. Greenfield, Clovers.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Lucille refuses to call an ambulance for as long as possible after Forrest is shot by two arrows, only to be shot by an arrow herself as a direct consequence of waiting too long to phone for help.
- Lighter and Softer: While neither light nor soft, Forrest is considerably more sympathetic than Myles. Forrest, unlike Myles, actually tried his best to avoid divorcing his wife, within the rules of the show.
- Limited Wardrobe: Forrest almost always wears a beige jacket over a light blue shirt. Even when he is institutionalized, his mental hospital attire is still beige over blue.
- Literal-Minded: When a student asks what it is like sleeping with your teacher, Forrest interprets it as seducing and then sleeping with the teacher that particular student wanted to sleep with.
- When someone wanted a review of "make your dreams come true" in an attempt to provide Forrest with a positive experience for a change, Forrest interpreted it as recording his dreams at night and attempting to recreate them.
- Logic Bomb: Forrest uses a precious veto on reviewing "Procrastination", since if you put off procrastinating, you are procrastinating, and if you procrastinate right away, you aren't doing it.
- Look on My Works, Ye Mighty, and Despair: Said almost word for word by Forrest... in regards to his enhanced penis.
- Lost at Sea: Forrest, while reviewing "Rowboats", for three months.
- Madness Mantra: "There All Is Aching".
- Magic 8-Ball: One review requires Forrest to make every life decision based off of a magic 8 ball's answers.
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Forrest's second wife. Deconstructed as it's taken to its logical conclusion. Turns out someone who is willing to marry someone they just met is inclined to impulsively do it again. And again.
- Married to the Job: Forrest. Eventually deconstructed as his commitment to reviewing life experiences all but destroys his own life.
- Mentor Archetype: The King of The Orgy, who teaches Forrest to let go of his inhibitions when Forrest reviews Orgies.
- Mile-High Club: Forrest gives the experience three stars.
- Mistaken for Racist: Inverted in Forrest's review of racism, where his attempts to be genuinely racist are taken as a harmless joke. Until he tries to invoke N-Word Privileges, that is.
- Mountain of Food: Mountain of pancakes.
- My God, What Have I Done?: When Clovers dies Forrest finally breaks down crying and laments "the utter pointlessness and cruelty [his] life has become".
- Off the Wagon: Forrest in the season 1 finale.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Forrest, who has a serious conversation with his ex-wife while reviewing "being Irish." His Irish accent slips slightly at points in the conversation.
- Poor Communication Kills: Grant doesn't reveal to Forrest that the assassin he has hired to hunt him down is using a paintball gun until it is too late, leading to Forrest almost killing Grant and himself.
- Prison Riot: Forrest accidentally causes one when he suggests a fun Prisoners vs. Guards pillow fight behind bars. While the guards see it as a good activity to deal with aggression in a harmless way, the inmates see it as the perfect opportunity to fill their pillow cases with weights and assault the prison staff.
- The Problem with Pen Island: Forrest is driven mad and ultimately institutionalized trying to figure out twitter user @bubblebaths's cryptic request to review "There all is aching." This was due to a computer mix-up; the actual request was from @TheRealLisaChing asking Forrest to review bubble baths.
- Really Gets Around: Clovers, Forrest's imaginary friend. All the prisoners pretend they're having sex with Clovers when they masturbate.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Forrest gives this speech during an episode in which he experiences quitting his job. Each speech is set in vastly different contexts.
- Forrest is on the receiving end of one from Suzanne near the end of the show.
- The Rival: Joe Dale, Jr.
- Selective Obliviousness: Despite many clues to the contrary, Forrest steadfastly believes that the person on the other side of the glory hole was a beautiful woman.
- Senseless Sacrifice: Forrest vetoes his last chance at happiness to continue the show, which is cancelled immediately afterwards.
- Serious Business: Forrest and some of his co-worker's attitudes towards reviewing various activities.
- Sex for Solace: How Forrest finally manages to sleep with a celebrity.
- Shout-Out: Forrest regrets not having a safe word during "Falsely Accused". He desperately shouts "pineapple".
- Mrs. Greenfield's last words, "Die, monster, die!" could be a reference to the 1965 film Die, Monster, Die!, a movie about a man whose experiments have a profound negative effect on everyone close to him.
- Show Within a Show: Review is the name of both the show and the show within a show. However, the content is synonymous; even the behind-the-scenes parts of the show are clips that Forrest has chosen to show the public in the show within a show.
- In order to maintain the integrity of the five star system, Forrest creates the TV shows "Assess" and "Evaluate" for the sole purpose of giving a six star review.
- Significant Anagram: Ace Shrift, an anagram for Catfisher.
- Sinister Shiv: As Forrest is leaving prison, he is forced to witness his imaginary friend Clovers being killed by a prison gang with imaginary shivs.
- Spoiler Title: "Pancakes, Divorce, Pancakes", which tips the episode's hand that Forrest will be forced to eat an upsetting number of pancakes a second time in the same episode.
- Start of Darkness: Forrest's first taste of cocaine. While stealing certainly had negative consequences, this was the first review that would massively impact his home life.
- Sticky Fingers: Forrest's first review, which turns him into a master pickpocket.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: The bread and butter behind the show's comedy.
- Taking You with Me: Forrest to Grant, when he mistakenly believes he is about to be assassinated.
- Those Two Guys: Every time the show has police, it's the same two cops (in non-speaking roles). Eventually this changes when Forrest and his new wife kidnap one in order to run from the law.
- Teacher/Student Romance: One of Forrest's reviews. Five stars.
- Training Montage: Forrest preparing to do a William Tell.
- Trans-Pacific Equivalent: Of Review with Myles Barlow.
- Unsettling Gender-Reveal: Forrest at one point believes to have "discovered" that Grant is actually Gretchen, a woman who was in love with Suzanne. Gretchen got a sex change to hide her identity and created the show "Review" to kill Forrest. Of course, he's completely wrong.
- Unstoppable Rage: Forrest, as Batman, after a disastrous court appearance.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Any viewers who request seemingly innocuous reviews, such as Spending Time Alone in a Rowboat, Pillow Fights and Bubble Baths.
- Vanity Plate: The logo for Andy Daly Productions is an Affectionate Parody of Paramount Television's late 60s "Closet Killer" logo.
- Vengeful Vending Machine: Forrest rails against one while dressed as Batman.
- Vigilante Man: Forrest, while reviewing "Being Batman".
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Whenever pancakes are involved. Or Forrest getting very drunk in his old home. Or the locorito...
- Way Past the Expiration Date: The locorito.
- Whammy Bid: Forrest bids $70,000 dollars to secure a dinner date with Ashley Tisdale.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Forrest's dad delivers a crushing one when he finds Forrest in prison."Through it all, I told myself, ‘Forrest is a good boy, and he always has been.’ But now a man is dead and you’re charged with killing him. What are your values, son? Did I raise you to have values where it’s okay to kill somebody? I hope not."
- William Telling: Forrest is asked to "do a William Tell".
