The overall premise of this show is brilliant, and a lot of fun (pitched by Shayne). A live sitcom where the actors get replaced with their double anytime they break character. They follow a script part of the time, and sometimes they're being fed lines right on the spot, and reading those lines for the first time, the material is designed to make them break and make things chaotic. At times they're also forced to improvise because of this, and I think that's where the show was either really strong or really fell off.
The storyline started out funny and interesting, but at times I had no idea what was happening. It started out with each character being a parody of classic sitcom character tropes, very heavily inspired by Friends (loved it), but ended up being nonsense at times. This was mostly due to not everyone on the cast being as good at improv as others. The best ones in this show being; Shayne, Amanda, Courtney and Damien. Some relied too much on the same raunchy jokes throughout the whole show and definitely should stick to a script. The improv should be left to those who are more comfortable and better at it. Some only had the same raunchy jokes to offer or things that I just didn't understand. Though Shayne, Amanda and Courtney miming that "oral sex act" (censored per imdb rules) was pretty hilarious. I just wish some others didn't rely mostly on c*m jokes for most of the show. During a lot of the improvised scenes when something crazy happened, I wish some of the other players reacted to it in a way that added something to the scene more than just laughing or being confused. I wanted more story building than we got. I was also unsure at times what the surprise lines and props were. I made assumptions based on reactions from the cast. I kinda wish the main plot line was a bit more grounded and less chaotic than it was, so it would be more clear when the surprise stuff was actually happening, and so that it would be easier for the cast to improv.
The actual characters were really fun and I wish we got to know some of them a bit more than we did. Krungle was by far the best because Shayne and Amanda always committed to the character even when things went awry, which was much appreciated, and wish everyone had done that. Shayne is also really good at taking someone's joke that didn't land and making it funny. I was surprised that some of the actors really made it known that they were struggling by the end and it seemed some just gave up and wanted to move on. I was disappointed by that. One exception was Keith breaking and giving up because some of his surprise lines were these big clunky words that he couldn't pronounce, and he broke and cursed everyone as he walked off set swapping with Angela. That was hilarious! Angela/Keith's character, Young Sebastian, was a bit much at times though. The yelling could have been dialed back a bit, but to be fair the character is very Urkel coded and on brand. This character fell a little flat in the end, and I was getting more Mr. Pervert vibes from Young Sebastian than the actual Mr. Pervert... Olivia really needs to stick to a script in situations like this cause no one knows how to play off her improv. Olivia is always doing her own thing, we love her for it, and it works in TNTL when she's on her own, but here it sent things off the rails in a bad way.
One of my favorite parts were the interstitials, a delightful surprise. They were all really funny and my favorite was Amanda's Little Lad parody. I died laughing! Amanda is so great at physical comedy and I'm so glad she got to flex her strengths in the show. I'm gonna need to clip that and watch it on a loop daily. Angela really shined in some of the interstitials as well, I think more so than during the show. By the end, it surprised me that Angela was one of the ones that seemed disappointed with how the show was going and seemed a little checked out as well, saying "this is lame" while breaking character is not really what anyone wants to hear... Things went wrong, but they were supposed to. No one should ever give up completely. I may have misread some things, but this is just my perspective as a viewer who has no idea of the BTS situation. This is how it read to me.
The art team executed their job perfectly. The sets were gorgeous, heavily inspired by Friends and other sitcoms which fit perfectly. Beautiful! So many Smosh easter eggs in the background too for longtime fans. They must have had a blast designing it all.
I know I had a lot of criticisms, but I genuinely enjoyed the show as a whole, and it was very apparent how hard the cast and crew worked together on this. They should all feel proud. My abs are still burning from laughing so much. I really hope they do this again with another theme, and know they can make it even better next time.
