Groundlings Struggle in Online Debut

The problem with Groundlings, Crackle’s new series by the famously same-named LA-based comedy troupe, isn’t the ideas. They’ve got some great ones: phone conversations interrupted by chatty Homeland Security wiretapping agents, reality food show hosts one-upping each other’s breathlessly smarmy puns, unapologetically aggressive employees who smack sizzling hot coffee into co-workers’ faces, etc. The problem’s the acting and the editing/directing. The former borders on unwatchable, and the latter’s sloppy and distracting.

Take, for example, the first episode, Tapped, which launched today. While chatting on the phone about spring break, two friends are accidentally interrupted by garrulous, silver-tongued NSA wiretapping agents. The agents’ dialogue, delivered in an airplane captain’s relentless monotone, is spot-on funny: “Under the Homeland Security Act we can legally wiretap. President said it was okay. Bush said it was allllriiight.” Whenever the agents speak, the camera cuts to a dimly-lit room with two headset wearing men. The only glimpse we get of their face is when the camera trains on their lips. In the background, a photo of President Bush.

Good stuff so far, but the camerawork falters when switching to the friends. One’s laying on a couch, one’s sitting in a desk chair. The camera’s set low and away, not a flattering position for either. And the acting seems to be conscious of the audience — or at least delivered in a bland, everyman sort of speak that’s notable only for being, well, bland, instead of moving the action forward. The frame’s busy and I’m distracted. And while I’m no connoisseur of sketch comedy, it seems to me this skit’s been written for a live audience.

The real comedy doesn’t come until the third skit, which won’t be released for another two weeks. This time, we’re treated to the taping of a reality show (“Tim and Tina’s Hidden Treasures?” I couldn’t make it out, despite repeat viewings), in which the two hosts tape and re-tape their asinine intros to a restaurant called Osteria de Bocca. This is good, socially observant comedy. The skit pokes fun at the maniacal excitement evinced by hosts whose unfunny one-liners are exacerbated by their obsessive need to feign camaraderie, leading to lines like “there’s a party in my bocca and everyone’s coming!”

All in, Groundlings has some gems. But I couldn’t shake the feeling the actors hadn’t shaken the live sketch ethos. Given the troupe’s pedigrees, look for the show to improve as Groundlings works out its kinks.