Fellow blogger Sweeney got me into Workaholics in the middle of its second season through nothing but constant praise for the show. I gave it a try (thanks, On Demand!), enjoyed what I saw, and added the show to my weekly DVR schedule. I also received the first season for Christmas, and can now claim to have seen most of the episodes the show has made to date. What is Workaholics? I'm glad I asked. It's a surprisingly effective hybrid between a workplace comedy and a stoner comedy. Office hijinks and drunken rambling don't seem like a natural pairing, and yet Adam, Ders, and Blake manage to constantly entertain. Their antics are often treated stylistically in an over-the-top manner, but are ultimately as stupid and low-stakes as anything else a trio of twenty-something slackers would do at work or in their free time. In one stand-out episode, for instance, the group decides to "camp out" at work overnight when their house is being fumigated, and decide to do a lot of shrooms. When a security team enters the building to do some maintenance work, our "heroes" assume the building is being robbed, and quickly fabricate a conspiracy that goes all the way up to the vice president. Stock horror movie jump cuts are used, and effective editing and suspenseful music saves the entire plot from being as stupid as it sounds. In another episode, the guys befriend a pedophile who is a "really cool dude once you get past the kid-diddling." Again, stupid as hell, and yet just edgy and ridiculous enough to entertain for half an hour. The show's got a ceiling, for sure, and I can't imagine it'll ever be appointment viewing for me, but so far it's been funny enough to keep my mind away from concerns about where it ranks in cleverness or timelessness among the many shows I want. Easy and frequent laughs will be had here. What more do you want from Comedy Central live action programming?
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