{"id":286676,"date":"2024-03-01T00:00:13","date_gmt":"2024-03-01T05:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tvobsessive.com\/?p=286676"},"modified":"2024-02-29T22:33:47","modified_gmt":"2024-03-01T03:33:47","slug":"larks-recs-review-mother-mother-poor-things-and-past-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tvobsessive.com\/2024\/03\/01\/larks-recs-review-mother-mother-poor-things-and-past-lives\/","title":{"rendered":"Larks & Recs: Review, Mother Mother, Poor Things and Past Lives"},"content":{"rendered":"
Welcome back for another edition of Larks & Recs! Each week, members of the TVObs staff use this space to recommend things that we’ve been enjoying, or sometimes to go on a bit of a lark. This week, Caemeron Crain revisits Comedy Central’s Review<\/em>, Robin Moon has been listening to Mother Mother, and Clay Dockery continues to preview the Oscars with looks at Poor Things<\/em> and Past Lives<\/em>.<\/p>\n Caemeron<\/strong><\/a>: Despite the fact that the series was critically acclaimed, it seems like virtually no one has seen (or perhaps even heard of) Review<\/em><\/a>, which aired on Comedy Central from 2014-2017. That\u2019s a shame, because the show is hilarious!<\/p>\n Review<\/em> features Andy Daly in the lead role of Forrest MacNeil, who hosts a fictional show within the show that is also titled Review<\/em>. The basic premise is that he reviews life experiences based on viewer requests, rating them on a scale of five stars. There is an element of this that feels like it is lampooning the creeping tendency in our world to be asked to rate everything from car rides to retail shopping trips, but the real humor of Review<\/em> stems from Forrest\u2019s willingness to take up almost any request, and to take it seriously, no matter what effect it has on his actual life.<\/p>\n Indeed, his co-host, A.J. Gibbs (Megan Stevenson), often encourages Forrest to turn requests down. But he views himself as a professional, and this job as what he signed up for. His producer, Grant (James Urbaniak<\/a>), in contrast, will tell Forrest not to do things in a way that makes clear he actually wants him to do them, which is a nice commentary on corporate relations in and of itself, and Urbaniak is hilarious in the role.<\/p>\n I originally watched the first two seasons of Review<\/em> as they were airing, in 2014 and 2015, respectively, and was left with the impression that it got increasingly dark as it went along. On a rewatch, I\u2019d still say that this is true, but I guess I\u2019d forgotten that the reviews actually get pretty dark pretty quickly. It\u2019s black humor from the beginning, and I love it.<\/p>\n I missed Season 3 when it aired in 2017, for a variety of reasons, and that was the big impetus for me to return to the show now, using my Paramount+ subscription. It\u2019s only three episodes, but I\u2019d have to say the series ends perfectly. Five stars.<\/p>\nReview<\/em><\/h2>\n