It's an uncomfortable feeling, watching talented actors (the awesome Barry Shabaka and others) and writers (John Ridley, the man who wrote the awesome Three Kings) strain and strain for a joke and never entirely land one. Dismayingly two-dimensional characters, tired routines (guy coaching guy about how to talk sexy to a girl, somebody walks in and thinks it's a romantic/sexual moment between the guys, ha ha ha), strained plotting--something about a woman being hounded by a broadly drawn completely non-real anti-abortion activist and a broadly drawn completely non-real pro-choice activist--an old fashioned nudge-nudge wink-wink attitude to sex--a ridiculously caricatured would-be politician with a fake expensive watch--all adding up to a mish-mosh of wannabe. Where will it all go? Will the innate talent of all these players make it work as the series progresses? Will this be the old quality-challenged Showtime or the new?
Review of Barbershop
