Get Ripped, the latest series from Carpet Bros. homebase 60Frames, debuted today with much fanfare two weeks after teasing us with a well-received trailer. Get Ripped has been hotly anticipated for a couple of reasons: a) with an impressive comic pedigree thanks to its writer, How I Met Your Mother scribe Gloria Calderon Kellet, the series had a good chance of being funny, and b) the LA Times reported that each episode cost $20,000 to shoot, and frankly, we all wanted to see what $20,000 of episode looks like. (However, the LA Times got the facts wrong — according to director Fred Schroeder, each episode had a $3,000 budget and 14-person crew. See our story on NewTeeVee for more information.)
So there’s all this hype — does the first episode live up to it? Yes and no.
Get Ripped is the continuing story of Derek, a personal trainer who appears to have some problems with impulse control and oversharing. Rand Holden, as Derek, speaks directly to camera, treating the lens as a client to whom he extols the virtues of keeping fit… when he’s not sharing way too much of his personal life or succumbing to random outbursts of ill-placed, slightly angry enthusiasm.
It’s an amusing enough concept, and Holden commits full-throttle to the character while director Fred Schroeder’s intense camera work ably backs him up. But we’ve seen a lot of this humor before — the awkward, socially dysfunctional character who gets further and further off track as we alternately snicker and cringe. Get Ripped is a top-of-the-line take on the genre and an original spin, but as good as Holden and the material are, there’s still a lot of familiarity here.
The character and series are adapted from a segment of Calderon Kellet’s monologue play Skirts and Flirts, and Derek was probably hilarious in that format, as one piece of a varied comic whole. Carrying his own series… I’m not so sure. The humor here is pretty one note — oversharing and outbursts. It’s funny, but will it be funny week after week? Hard to say. (And on a side note, it’s hard to fathom that Derek the personal trainer would get many repeat clients, what with his somewhat-lacking people skills.)
For this series to fly long-term, something’s gotta get pumped up. (Sorry.)
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