Not Quite the CHOZEN Series

Article published as CHOZEN Review on Seat42F.

FX’s newest animated series, originally announced for FXX, but reassigned to FX, is CHOZEN. CHOZEN follows the titular character (Bobby Moynihan, Saturday Night Live), a gay, white rapper just coming off of a ten-year prison stint he didn’t deserve. Now, Chozen is living with his sister, Tracy (Kathryn Hahn, Parks and Recreation), and determined to rebuild his musical career.

Chozen defies just about every stereotype rap music has to offer. He isn’t a minority, didn’t have a hard life, and isn’t into illegal activities, at least, not before he ended up behind bars. He’s a sweet boy who cares about people and loves men, something one does not expect to see in this world.

The question is, how long will that premise remain funny? Initial reactions will likely be of laughter because of the bizarre set up, but after several weeks of the show, that won’t be enough to maintain viewers. There must be a compelling story or characters that viewers want to spend time with. After watching only a single episode, I didn’t see that, but I’ll give it another chance before dismissing it, mostly because the voice cast, which also includes Hannibal Buress, Paul Iacono, Michael Pena, Nick Swardson, Gary Anthony Williams, and Danny McBride, is pretty good.

Part of the challenge CHOZEN faces is attracting fans that aren’t into rap music. I myself don’t appreciate the style for the most part, and the “Pilot” featured several interludes that I did not enjoy. CHOZEN doesn’t defy its source material enough to appeal outside of it from the start. The lyrics are amusing enough, and that helps some, but in order for the series to succeed, it needs a broad-ish base, or a way for its target audience to find it. I’m not sure FX provides that automatically, with Archer being the lead in, but I could be wrong.

I did enjoy several parts of the story that didn’t involve rapping. Chozen and Tracy have an interesting relationship that bears further exploration. Chozen is admirable for not being angry all the time. Jail has given him a taste for weed, made him care less about what others think, and he curses more, but at heart, he’s still a good guy. This is evidenced by the fact that he’s not obsessed with revenge, as many would be. He can grow up and move on, and that’s laudable.

Chozen is the type of guy you want to see do well, but while he does have talent for rapping, I’m not sure he has the personality to make it in such a public business. He has confidence, but lacks the ability to play the politics, so it would be unrealistic for him to go too far.

But it also makes a little bit of a pushover, when taken with the fact that he just quietly served his jail sentence and never appealed to the media or anyone to help him. Or maybe he did and that bit just isn’t included in the “Pilot.” If so, it really should have been. It’s frustrating that Chozen doesn’t just tell the truth. Surely, his body could be drug tested, and his friends and family could testify to his character. Is our justice system so broken we just have to accept that he served a long time for no good reason?

Perhaps I’m overthinking CHOZEN. It’s a comedy, and the most important thing is that it should make people laugh. Had I been laughing, I probably wouldn’t be asking so many questions. Humor is subjective, and I won’t say CHOZEN is a bad series, it’s just not my cup of tea. It is by the producers of Archer and Eastbound and Down, and while I love the former, the latter I can’t stand. Fans of that show, however, who enjoy that sensibility might like this one, too.

CHOZEN airs Mondays at 10:30 p.m. ET on FX.

Allow The Benson Interruption to interrupt your night

     Or morning, if you TiVo it like me.  It's on at midnight, after all!  But regardless of when you watch Comedy Central's newest show, The Benson Interruption, prepare to be amused.

     Doug Benson is that way-too-cheesy, unfunny comedian from VH1's canceled show, Best Week Ever.  However, turns out that when he's on stage and not doing a really stupid voice, he's pretty watchable.  Apparently Benson would sit in the front row while comedians performed and hilariously interrupted them (I assume this was planned and he didn't just show up at random people's sets), and Comedy Central through, why not put that on tv?  Instead of being in the front row, Doug gets more visible with a chair on stage, which he sits in and patiently holds up his microphone, waiting for the right moment to jump into the jokes being performed.  Which is often.  Really, it seems more like a duo on stage than one man butting into another one's time.  But no matter.  It works.

     This weekend, the first episode premiered with Nick Swardson (Nick Swardson's Pretend Time, Reno 9-1-1), Nick Kroll (The League) and G4's Chris Hardwick.  Each was pretty funny.  The comedy definitely leaned towards the raunchy, with masturbation, pee, AIDs nurse, and birthing jokes.  The best runs were when Doug and the current performer went back and forth at each other, with the performer improvising retorts to what Doug said, instead of just trying to carry on with their set
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     I'm not sure how I feel about the 'Twitter-off' bits, which Doug did with Nick K. and Chris.  Basically, they each just read some of their own twitter posts, and then the other made a funny comment.  Sure, the one-liners were funny, but I felt the show was at it's best when it was a followable thread, rather than random jokes out of nowhere.

     The Benson Interruption airs Friday nights at 12am according to the Comedy Central website, although technically that is Saturday morning.

For frequent mini-reviews and occasional tv news, follow Jerome on Twitter.

Nick Swardson's Pretend Time less than satisfying

     I am a fan of Nick Swardson.  I enjoyed his character Terry on Reno 9-1-1 very much.  But I was concerned when I heard he was getting his own comedy central sketch show.  Many great comedians have tried and failed to develop their work into a weekly half hour.  I assumed Swardson would soon join the likes of Louis Black and Jeff Dunham.  But I hoped he would be like Demetri Martin and somehow pull it off.

     Sadly, Nick Swardson's Pretend Time falls into the failure category.  It isn't Swardson himself.  He effortlessly portrays some very different characters, and proves he can handle a variety of scenes.  In fact, he was better than I had dared hope.  My problem is with the writing.  The sketches were just not funny.  From a car that runs on pee, to a botched proposal during a hockey game, where no less than four pucks hit the couple, each bit failed to elicit even a smile from me.

     Three of the segments should have been amusing.  The toddler bucket list, Lady Gaga's cop brother, and the wheelchair cat seemed like good ideas.  I kept wanting to laugh, I truly did.  I can't pinpoint exactly what was lacking in either one of them, but again, it just wasn't good enough.

     I hope Swardson succeeds, I really do.  I will watch again next week in the hopes that perhaps the pilot was just an off episode.  That happens in some shows, though I don't think that would really apply to this one.

     If you'd like to give Swardson a chance, Nick Swardson's Pretend Time airs on Comedy Central Tuesday nights at 10.

For frequent mini-reviews and occasional tv news, follow Jerome on Twitter.