Wrecked: Season 1

Here's a mostly stupid TBS show that markets itself as a parody of the first season of Lost - which is exactly what it is. In 2016. No one in the cast is anyone I'm even drawn to, save perhaps for Rhys Darby, so it's not like I'm watching this thing for the names or the talent; rather, I watched it because I haven't been disappointed or let down yet by any of the rebranded TBS's comedy lineup.

This one's... pretty dumb. But I knew it would be. I expected nothing more. Again, this is a Lost parody that debuted twelve years after Lost. And when I say "Lost parody" I don't even mean that it riffs on the deep mythology of the island - it's healing properties, cures for cancer and paralysis, a giant smoke monster, "the others." I just mean it's about a variety of dipshits who survive a plane crash on an island as they go about trying to reestablish or at least pretend to create some semblance of society and civilization.

The jokes aren't often good, and the good ones are repeated to death. One entire episode's B-plot revolves around a DVD player with two hours of battery left. The survivors have found two DVDs. One is Dumb and Dumber To and the other is Selma. One by one, when approached and presented with the decision, everyone lights up at the idea of watching Jim Carey be a doofus for a few hours, but then gets all solemn about Selma with generic platitudes like, "I mean, such an important movie... always meant to see it, just never found the time..." The joke here, in case you need it explained, is that even after a tragedy, everyone still feels the need to pretend to want to watch Selma lest they be accused of being shallow or racist or just un-woke or whatever. This is funny! It is. But is it funny enough to sustain a third to half of a 22-minute episode of television? Eh. Another similar later joke happens when no one can remember the name of the guy who played Kate Winslet's original love interest in Titanic and of course they can't just look it up on Google. Literally dozens of obscure actors of a certain age are named and treated with varying amounts of "that's close!" and "oh come on, you can't be serious!" The payoff comes an episode or two later when, trapped in a much more dire circumstance, someone finally says, out of nowhere "it was Billy Zane!"

So yeah - I'm sitting here describing jokes to bemoan them. Must have been a shitty show, right?

Actually, surprisingly... well, yes. I mean, yes, this is utterly inconsequential TV. But I didn't hate it! It made for a great late night binge, and at ten episodes long, it felt just right. I think I'll actually keep up with it when Season 2 debuts in a few weeks, but it could be just awful in a non-binged capacity.