ABC's Fall Comedy CaveMen is PopCorn

The term "popcorn flick” is used to describe a movie that passes the time, and where quite often the popcorn is more interesting than the actual movie. It is used for light entertainment or background noise while the viewer is engrossed in other activities. Popcorn flicks are usually bottom of the barrel time wasters that might be enjoyed, but are rarely appreciated. Unfortunately, television is no exception to this rule, and no example is more glaring than ABC’s new fall comedy, Cavemen.

The show takes place in an urban setting, and follows the adventures of three cavemen. This hairy trio is desperately trying to gain acceptance from a society that shuns them at every turn. The characters are a typical mix of stereotypes. Joel, (Bill English) is your average hard working Joe Cave, Nick (Nick Kroll) is an intelligent metro sexual, and Andy, (Sam Huntington) who is a laid back dude with a touch of sensitivity. The three live in a stylish condo, with Joel working at an IKEA style furniture store complete with a Swedish boss. Kate, (Kaitlin Doubleday) and Thorne (Stephanie Nicole Lemelin) do a nice job in filling up the pop tart quota.

Cavemen applies comedy throughout most of its content. Topics that are discussed have an element of racial discrimination that any ethnic minority group can relate to. For example, in the first episode the cavemen are stopped at the gate of a private country club, while all the "humans” are being allowed to pass without hindrance. The comedy is quite strong at times, but it isn’t strong enough to make Cavemen a good show. For a television show to be based solely on comedy, it needs to be really, really funny. Cavemen is good for laughs, but it’s just not funny enough. But can you really blame the writers? How many caveman jokes are there? How many times can we as a society be asked to laugh at racial discrimination before it becomes old and redundant?

Cavemen lacks innovation, but that’s not surprising when one considers that it is a spin off of a commercial. (Yes, you heard right. GEICO uses a racially abused caveman for its car insurance commercials.) Anybody who thinks that you can spin off a commercial into a TV show without adding a lot more original content deserves to be put through a meat grinder. Cavemen can be compared to Arrested Development, minus the plot, character ingenuity, and everything else good. So before you start watching Cavemen, bring food, a newspaper, magazine, maybe some coloring books for the kids, and anything else you can think of to entertain yourself. Oh, and bring a bag of popcorn. A really big bag of popcorn.