is it just to see CTS? Do they think maybe it's actually Melrose Place, Ally McBeal or Day by Day? (I didn't watch MP for long, really. Vanessa Williams was on it when I did. What happened to her?)
I swear, it's possible watch it ironically. I like to pretend it's the mid-eighties, when there were so many brain-dead sitcoms on, and it was hard to know anything about quality when you're an avid tv watcher just entering his teens. Like, I thought The Facts Of Life had heft, back then.
Anyway, it is fun to watch that and Two and A Half Men with my seven-year-old. We balance it off with good stuff, I swear.
Sure, this show is dumb, but it must have an audience to live, thrive, and survive as it has. At least this gives us all an opportunity to pat ourselves on the back for being so hip and sophisticated.
Look, I'm as unhip, unsophisticated and susceptible to corn as anyone ever has been, and According to Jim is simply crap. I can watch Family Matters, Full House and Step by Step reruns all the time, and those three debacles were the gold standard for craptacular sitcom mediocrity.
But According to Jim makes my eyes bleed. It's that awful. I keep trying, mind you, but it doesn't improve over time.
I live in Belgium, and the show comes on at about 730pm on the channel with a lot of english language programming, and that's usually when I get home. So even though I find the show dreadful, it's often on in the background as I settle in the apartment and prepare dinner.
I don't know why I stay on the channel, even when I get BBC, CNN and with other channels also showing english programming at that hour. But I do. Probably because I know I won't be distracted to actually watch it, and nor does it require much of my brain to engage and be mildly entertained as I am doing chores.
okay, having spent a tiny bit of time on the ATJ message board (where college students can't spell - which may explain something) it occurred to me that at least Jim Belushi is making eyes bleed on ABC rather than dead of a drug overdose. That's probably a good thing - at least for all of who have remote controls, right?
oh, and those of us who *have * to review the show...
there are shows that i want to have cancelled, so that i don't have to watch them and can delete them from my DVR. this isn't one of them, but then again -
What's that joke again? The set-up is basically some guy telling a story where he falls off a fifty-storey roof or something and lives to tell the tale. (The set-up's longer than that, but that's the gist.) The second guy says "You must be the luckiest man in the world." First guy says, "Nah, that's Jim Belushi."
In today's column, I marvel at the unkillable nature of "According to Jim," which begins its eighth season tonight.
According to Jim = George W. Bush for eight years... I get it now...
ReplyDeleteSo it's the sitcom equivalent of a cockroach.
ReplyDeleteWow. Very funny article, though the list of sitcoms that couldn't last (like Arrested Development, Undeclared, and Andy Richter CTU) did make me sad.
ReplyDeleteso, does anyone watch this show?
ReplyDeleteis it just to see CTS? Do they think maybe it's actually Melrose Place, Ally McBeal or Day by Day? (I didn't watch MP for long, really. Vanessa Williams was on it when I did. What happened to her?)
Alan, do you need booze? Because I kinda do, after reading that.
ReplyDeleteThat can't possibly be an unretouched photo...or can it? Is Jim Belushi part Oompa Loompa?
ReplyDeleteI swear, it's possible watch it ironically. I like to pretend it's the mid-eighties, when there were so many brain-dead sitcoms on, and it was hard to know anything about quality when you're an avid tv watcher just entering his teens. Like, I thought The Facts Of Life had heft, back then.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, it is fun to watch that and Two and A Half Men with my seven-year-old. We balance it off with good stuff, I swear.
So it's the sitcom equivalent of a cockroach.
ReplyDeleteOr Spam.
When I saw the title of your post, my reaction was "that show is STILL on?" I thought this was canceled years ago.
ReplyDeleteIt's like a horror film: "The Show That Wouldn't Die!" Starring Jim Belushi with the fakest fake bake that ever faked.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the worst sitcom ever? According to Jim or George Lopez Show?
ReplyDeleteSure, this show is dumb, but it must have an audience to live, thrive, and survive as it has. At least this gives us all an opportunity to pat ourselves on the back for being so hip and sophisticated.
ReplyDeleteGreat snark, Alan! I so detest that show...
ReplyDeleteLook, I'm as unhip, unsophisticated and susceptible to corn as anyone ever has been, and According to Jim is simply crap. I can watch Family Matters, Full House and Step by Step reruns all the time, and those three debacles were the gold standard for craptacular sitcom mediocrity.
ReplyDeleteBut According to Jim makes my eyes bleed. It's that awful. I keep trying, mind you, but it doesn't improve over time.
Jim Belushi is my nemesis.
ReplyDeleteI live in Belgium, and the show comes on at about 730pm on the channel with a lot of english language programming, and that's usually when I get home. So even though I find the show dreadful, it's often on in the background as I settle in the apartment and prepare dinner.
ReplyDeleteI don't know why I stay on the channel, even when I get BBC, CNN and with other channels also showing english programming at that hour. But I do. Probably because I know I won't be distracted to actually watch it, and nor does it require much of my brain to engage and be mildly entertained as I am doing chores.
the people in this thread promise it "will be over for good" (eventually)
ReplyDelete(I had to go see if people really watched it)
I always found George Lopez far more smarmy and offensive and unfunny than According to Jim. And sneeringly misogynistic.
ReplyDeleteIt was saying something that when the show was good, it was only in the serious moments where Lopez had to do real acting.
But IMO the most utterly loathsome modern sitcom is, was, and always will be Reba. Or as I like to call it, MCINTIRE ON THE CROSS.
okay, having spent a tiny bit of time on the ATJ message board (where college students can't spell - which may explain something) it occurred to me that at least Jim Belushi is making eyes bleed on ABC rather than dead of a drug overdose. That's probably a good thing - at least for all of who have remote controls, right?
ReplyDeleteoh, and those of us who *have * to review the show...
ReplyDeletethere are shows that i want to have cancelled, so that i don't have to watch them and can delete them from my DVR. this isn't one of them, but then again -
I've never seen a single episode.
In terms of mediocrity times endurance, has it already exceeded the 7 seasons/170 episodes of Empty Nest? 9/215 for Family Matters?
ReplyDeleteThat's nice and all, but when are those new episodes of Wings rolling out?
ReplyDeleteI find myself feeling good for Thorne-Smith, at least. She was the best worst drunk of them all and had no future with that Billy Campbell.
What's that joke again? The set-up is basically some guy telling a story where he falls off a fifty-storey roof or something and lives to tell the tale. (The set-up's longer than that, but that's the gist.) The second guy says "You must be the luckiest man in the world." First guy says, "Nah, that's Jim Belushi."
ReplyDeleteI once watched a show without humor
ReplyDeletethat felt worse than having a tumor
Creatively dim
named According to Jim
ideal for the US consumer
I LOVE mediocre sitcoms!
ReplyDeleteI religiously watch "Gary Unmarried". I think Steven Levitan is a legend. I could even stomach 22 minutes of "Still Standing".
But I have never made it through a single episode of ATJ. I can't even successfully type it out.
Huh. I had no idea that show was still on. Never seen it, don't plan to.
ReplyDelete*sniffle* Knights of Prosperity...
ReplyDeleteEmeraldLiz
But I have never made it through a single episode of ATJ
ReplyDeletei can still say that about Everybody Loves Raymond. One night I helped a friend fix the tub rather than watch it.