If you know one thing about The Neighbors 2015, it's these two words. Tommy Wiseau. Director, Producer, Writer and Lead Actor in The Room, one of the most incredible unintentional comedies ever seen by man. I've had the pleasure of viewing it live at a showing in London where we all threw plastic spoons at the screen and shouted 'Meanwhile, in San Francisco!' at the beginning of every other screen transition. To keep up with Netflix and Amazon TV, Hulu decided to give Tommy Wiseau his own sitcom. And it's somehow much, much worse than you would expect.
Following the success of The Room, there are two possibilities here; both equally likely. 1) Tommy genuinely thinks that everyone loves his movie unironically and that he is therefore the best actor/director in the world. 2) Tommy realises that he made something So Bad, It's Good by accident and is trying to repeat this intentionally, but he doesn't know how to be 'so bad it's good', so instead it's just 'so bad... full stop'. One positive thing I can say; after viewing this, I gained a whole new appreciation of The Room.
That's not sarcastic or ironic. The Room had microphones, sound editing, a director of photography (three, even) sets that weren't just empty corridors, characters who weren't constantly advertising Tommy's Squicktacular range of underwear, and conversations that occasionally went somewhere. This show has nothing. No budget, no microphones, screen transitions are just the same stock image of a building with horrible one-note techno music that plays every time, and - please, I know I'm just making this sound worse, and therefore better, but it's not. It's really not.
I guess there are few horribly funny moments? There's a link on the YMMV page to a clip where Tommy lifts up his shirt and there's some poorly-photoshopped - no, that's an insult to Photoshop - some poorly-MS-Painted abs of a much younger man. At one point, a guy in a Cuban halloween costume walks through the door, a dubbed-in voice says "Ola!" and then he leaves. Then a character says "Was that Fidel Castro?" and Tommy replies "Geez, what a dickhead!" It is never brought up again. Some real biting political commentary - look out Michael Moore, you've got competition!
But overall, even as a dedicated So Bad, It's Good aficionado, I have no choice but to beg you; please, please, please don't read this and think that this is so bad it's good. It's not. It's just plain terrible. Honestly, I've gotten more amusement out of imagining Tommy Wiseau reading this review out loud in his bafflingly indecipherable accent and gradually realising that I'm insulting him than I did watching all 6 episodes of this... thing that I can't even call a train wreck because train wrecks have crashes and explosions.
The Neighbors' greatest - and only - success is making you realise just how much Tommy was being reigned in when he accidentally struck comedy gold. Clearly, lightning will not be striking twice.
Tommy Wiseau Tries Too Hard To Be Tommy Wiseau
If you know one thing about The Neighbors 2015, it's these two words. Tommy Wiseau. Director, Producer, Writer and Lead Actor in The Room, one of the most incredible unintentional comedies ever seen by man. I've had the pleasure of viewing it live at a showing in London where we all threw plastic spoons at the screen and shouted 'Meanwhile, in San Francisco!' at the beginning of every other screen transition. To keep up with Netflix and Amazon TV, Hulu decided to give Tommy Wiseau his own sitcom. And it's somehow much, much worse than you would expect.
Following the success of The Room, there are two possibilities here; both equally likely. 1) Tommy genuinely thinks that everyone loves his movie unironically and that he is therefore the best actor/director in the world. 2) Tommy realises that he made something So Bad, It's Good by accident and is trying to repeat this intentionally, but he doesn't know how to be 'so bad it's good', so instead it's just 'so bad... full stop'. One positive thing I can say; after viewing this, I gained a whole new appreciation of The Room.
That's not sarcastic or ironic. The Room had microphones, sound editing, a director of photography (three, even) sets that weren't just empty corridors, characters who weren't constantly advertising Tommy's Squicktacular range of underwear, and conversations that occasionally went somewhere. This show has nothing. No budget, no microphones, screen transitions are just the same stock image of a building with horrible one-note techno music that plays every time, and - please, I know I'm just making this sound worse, and therefore better, but it's not. It's really not.
I guess there are few horribly funny moments? There's a link on the YMMV page to a clip where Tommy lifts up his shirt and there's some poorly-photoshopped - no, that's an insult to Photoshop - some poorly-MS-Painted abs of a much younger man. At one point, a guy in a Cuban halloween costume walks through the door, a dubbed-in voice says "Ola!" and then he leaves. Then a character says "Was that Fidel Castro?" and Tommy replies "Geez, what a dickhead!" It is never brought up again. Some real biting political commentary - look out Michael Moore, you've got competition!
But overall, even as a dedicated So Bad, It's Good aficionado, I have no choice but to beg you; please, please, please don't read this and think that this is so bad it's good. It's not. It's just plain terrible. Honestly, I've gotten more amusement out of imagining Tommy Wiseau reading this review out loud in his bafflingly indecipherable accent and gradually realising that I'm insulting him than I did watching all 6 episodes of this... thing that I can't even call a train wreck because train wrecks have crashes and explosions.
The Neighbors' greatest - and only - success is making you realise just how much Tommy was being reigned in when he accidentally struck comedy gold. Clearly, lightning will not be striking twice.