How You Doin?
Wise Words #1… Quit While You’re Ahead
The second and last series of US sitcom, Joey has stared airing on channel five on Sunday evenings and it would seem that they have decided to show it as a series of double headers. This is good news, it means it will all be over more quickly. Having watched far more repeats of Friends than can be generally deemed to be healthy for a chap of my age, I had held out hope that Joey might flourish. Americans have a pretty good record for making these kinds of spin-offs a success and, as I worked my way through the first series (and at times it did feel like work) I maintained a begrudging fondness for it. The finale showed Joey finally getting together with Alex and I had hoped that this would lead to an interesting character development because perhaps we could see Joey embark on a long-term relationship. Instead, he’s back to his promiscuous ways and re-treading the same old situations as we’ve seen him in for last 11 seasons.
Stateside, the show was famously shelved mid-season after some terrible ratings when it was pitted against the behemoth of American Idol, so bad in fact that many of the final episodes have never been shown in the USA. It was always a risky choice as a spin-off from Friends as the character’s exessively dumb persona generally worked okay as part of the ensemble but, as a lead, his foibles are more apparent and inexcusable. It comes to something when the only laugh I got out of the first two episodes was from Kevin Smith making a Ben Afleck gag during his cameo role. It’s a shame but how could anyone imagine a series would be a success when three of the five main characters are deliberately portrayed as being a bit thick.
Tags: Comedy, Five, Friends, Joey, Kevin-Smith, Matt-Le-Blanc, Tribbiani
