Sit Down, Shut Up

Look, I’ll level with you: I’m not going to be fair about this, not in the least.

Not saying that I ever really am, but as I am sure the five of you who regularly read my reviews are aware (and yes, that five is comprised entirely of other Vanguard staffers), I’m not all that forgiving when it comes to garbage television, cinema and so on.

I’m not saying Sit Down, Shut Up is garbage, I’m just saying it’s not exactly on par with what one might expect from executive producer Mitch Hurwitz. I know, you’re probably asking yourself, does he mean the Mitch Hurwitz? Of course, you might also be asking yourself, who the hell is Mitch Hurwitz?

Mitch Hurwitz is the God of television, co-creator of The Ellen Show. Oh, and he may have also had something to do with the creation and production of one of the most brilliantly produced and critically lauded television shows of all time, Arrested Development.

Yes, the triumphant return of Hurwitz to television isn’t a reprisal of his greatest creation; it’s an animated series with live-action backgrounds about incompetent schoolteachers. Frankly, the show looks like it belongs on Nickelodeon, with it’s crudely animated, brightly colored characters.

But you can see that from the opening line of Sit Down, Shut Up that this show is not for children. I’m surprised that a series that had an opening line of “Make way for a teacher with a little nut sack,” was actually green lit. Then again, it is FOX.

But after the brilliant subtlety of a show like Arrested Development, I expected a little more than repeated attention drawn to an English teacher’s balls (I got plenty of that my junior year of high school). In addition, a good amount of the episode is dedicated to German teacher Willard Deutschebog’s choice of porn magazines (one such title being Pacific Rim), Assistant Principal Stuart Proszakian growing a pair of heaving breasts and creationist science teacher Miracle Grohe constantly on the verge of stripping in an attempt to demonstrate that she did not, in fact, come from a monkey.

All that considered, it is still definitely not the filthiest FOX has gotten with its Sunday night programming (see the increasingly disturbing Family Guy).

Sit Down, Shut Up does demonstrate an amusing, fourth-wall-breaking awareness of the fact that it is an animated sitcom. Every time a new character is introduced, a picture of them flashes on screen along with their name, their subject and their catchphrase, my favorite of which goes to Stuart Proszakian for “I need a catchphrase,” the most frequently repeated of the bunch.

As far as the voice cast goes, I’m delighted by the reunion of Arrested Development‘s Will Arnett, as nut-sack-obsessed English teacher (who’s always wearing a helmet) Ennis Hofftard, Jason Bateman as the unfortunately-named gym teacher/most academically competent employee Larry Littlejunk and Henry Winkler as the aforementioned suicidal German instructor Willard Deutschebog.

But at the top of their game are Will Forte (as Proszakian) and Kenan Thompson as acting principal Sue Sezno. Still, when it comes down to it, all the talented voice work on the show (and by talented, I really just mean celebrity) doesn’t make up for the fact that Sit Down, Shut Up really isn’t that great. Considering many of the other reviews I’ve read, I think I’m being generous.

The pilot felt a little lazy, almost like Hurwitz, knowing that he is hot shit, just sort of half-assed his way through the script and threw it at FOX, and expected them to find a timeslot that made it work on the pretense that he was behind Arrested Development.

Granted, I’d much rather have this over King of the Hill, which FOX announced (last October) that it intended to cancel in favor of newer animated programming (Sit Down, Shut Up and the forthcoming Family Guy spinoff The Cleveland Show) on their “Animation Domination” Sunday nights.

Perhaps it was the self-awareness and need to establish the characters early on that resulted in such a lazy story, so I am hopeful that given the straightforwardness of characterization, the next episode will focus a little more on a story and the two-dimensional (don’t say a fucking word) nuances of its characters.

For now, I’m going easy on Sit Down, Shut Up, and I’m going to say give it a chance, but really only because Mitch Hurwitz is involved. I believe he’s got what it takes to make it funny and make it last. But the series needs a more narrow focus on storylines, involving maybe two or three characters an episode, as opposed to trying to get the entire cast in there.

Because if Sit Down, Shut Up is unable to get viewers to do so, then it’ll just be shut down.