Way too much pseudo-intellectual and pompous (and political) explaining--by the last 2 or 3 episodes you would hardly know it was about comedy at all. As someone said at the end, if you have to explain comedy, there's something wrong.
Host Billy Crystal does his best to keep the focus on humor, but he's swimming against the tide.
The second episode, on family sitcoms, is the best because it shows a lot of reasonably-long clips. Gracie Allen is the funniest in the whole series.
The good news is that lots of current comics are on the record speaking passionately about the need for free speech, making people (especially those with power) uncomfortable, offending people, and mocking the establishment. These folks are desperately needed in our era of "speech is violence."
5 stars for the bits (sadly, too small a portion of the content) that are hilarious.
Host Billy Crystal does his best to keep the focus on humor, but he's swimming against the tide.
The second episode, on family sitcoms, is the best because it shows a lot of reasonably-long clips. Gracie Allen is the funniest in the whole series.
The good news is that lots of current comics are on the record speaking passionately about the need for free speech, making people (especially those with power) uncomfortable, offending people, and mocking the establishment. These folks are desperately needed in our era of "speech is violence."
5 stars for the bits (sadly, too small a portion of the content) that are hilarious.