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TV Show Reviews
"1600
Penn" review by Suzanne
Airs Thursdays 9:30/8:30pm et/pt on NBC
This is a fun little sitcom about a silly
family in the white house. Think of it as "West Wing" with a
laugh track. Bill Pullman, who's always excellent, plays the
president, Mr. Gilchrist. He has played the president
before, most notably in the movie "Independence Day". He is
somewhat wasted here, but he does bring a sort of
weightiness to the show that is needed. Comic actress Jenna
Elfman plays his young wife, who is his new bride. His first
wife died and left him with 4 kids of varying ages.
One of the kids is this big fat oaf named
"Skip", played well by Josh Gad. You have to wonder whether
they dropped him on his head when he was born. I would think
that someone who was preparing for the white house would
make sure that his dopey son would get strict lessons on
comportment, or else be sent far, far, away to boarding
school where he can't embarrass the family. In the first
episode, Skip is at college, in a scene straight out of
"Revenge of the Nerds", but he manages to start a fire in a
rival fraternity. The idea is that Skip is not too bright, I
guess, and manages to get himself into all sorts of trouble.
It might be cute if he were 12, or 16, but he's in his 20's
so it does make you wonder what's wrong with him.
Skip's sister is a seemingly perfect young
women, but she gets pregnant from a one-night-stand. Then
there are two younger children, one of whom is very smart.
It's a weird collection of kids that would never be allowed
in a real white house and don't really seem to be Bill
Pullman's children unless hs and his wife were very bad
parents. But, it's a sitcom, so they all have to be "zany"
because that's what they do now on sitcoms. I guess they
feel if the characters are zany enough, they don't have to
write as many funny jokes for them. Personally, I really
hate this trend.
I'm not saying the show is awful, because
it's not. It has a lot of laughs and heartfelt moments. It's
worth tuning in to every week. I just wish it were a wee bit
funnier. I enjoyed the second episode more than the first.
Sometimes these shows try too hard in the first episode.
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