Review – Comic Book Men
Comic Book Men – AMC – 10:00/9:00pm Sunday – USA
From the network that brought you the prestigious Emmy Award winning drama series Mad Men and Breaking Bad comes a reality show about Kevin Smith’s comic book store Jay & Silent Bob’s Secret Stash. How AMC thinks that an obvious Pawn Stars rip-off where customers come in and try to sell their comic books and memorabilia makes for a worthwhile addition to their network is hard to figure out. Other than the obvious notion that reality TV is cheap TV and AMC need to save money there is no reason for them to be screening such a generic reality TV show such as this one.
Comic Book Men follows the staff at Secret Stash as they goof off, barter with customers, go about their daily business and occasionally speak on a podcast when Kevin Smith drops by. The whole show is framed by snippets from this podcast where the guys from the store tell Kevin about their adventures during the week as we get to watch those adventures. Instead of talking directly to camera they talk to each other but it has the same effect – we see things happen and then we are told about those things that happened. The staff of Secret Stash include Walter who is in charge, Brian who doesn’t work there and just hangs around being sardonic, Ming who the others all pick on and Mike who doesn’t do or say anything of any interest at any point in the first hour of the show.
Half of the show involves customers coming into the store saying they want to sell their stuff and Walter talking them down to a lower price, and that’s it. “Hi I want to sell a Thor poster.” “Wow, that’s quite a Thor poster, how much do you want?” “One hundred and fifty.” “How about seventy five?” “I’m not sure. How about one hundred?” “I can do seventy five.” “Okay.” Now sometimes the show throws a twist in there and the customer doesn’t sell. Either way, if you like seeing people haggle than you’ll enjoy this show. We also then get to see the guys taking the piss out of their customers during the podcast. Now, having dealt with customers before I understand that customers really are the worst and that interacting with customers is a pain but there’s just something about watching these guys make fun of these customers that just feels so mean spirited.
Partially it feels mean because the guys aren’t terribly funny, with the exception of Brian Johnson but he’s so unrelentingly down on everything that even he becomes tiring after a while. It doesn’t help that Comic Book Men is over-produced and edited to within an inch of its life thus robbing it of a real personality. Every time any staff member cracks anything even resembling a joke the show cuts to everybody chuckling. This doesn’t happen once or twice this happens all of the time. A scene can only come to an end when the show cuts to footage of everybody laughing. It’s obnoxious and off-putting because the guys just aren’t that funny. Maybe they would be if the show gave their conversations some room to breathe but it’s all chopped up so much that it never works.
You can see where Comic Book Men could work but it requires the show to stop thinking like a reality show. The first episode follows a forced competition between Brian, Ming and the boring guy as they are sent out to a flea market to sell some leftover stock from the store. This just reeks of a producer’s idea for a fun activity to create drama but it rings so false and is so deathly boring that it only ever feels like a forced reality show moment. If Comic Book Men bothered to take a leaf out of the Kevin Smith playbook and just let these guys sit around the store talking shit with each other than MAYBE this would be an interesting show, but the scenes are never left alone long enough for a natural rapport to build up.
The only moment that is remotely interesting in the first episode is when Robert Bruce, a pop culture expert, drops by to do an appraisal of some Dawn Of The Dead material. Bruce is such a captivating figure and as he breaks the reality to the customer that the merchandise isn’t worth as much as he thinks it is the scene is filled with sparks and tension and it’s great. As Bruce leaves after his brief five minutes of screen time you’re left wondering why we don’t get to watch a reality show where he’s the star and instead have to watched a show where pre-prepared ‘customers’ come in and listen to the forced banter of some jerks who we’re only watching because they happen to know Kevin Smith.
Good, Alright, Bad Or Ugly?
Bad
