This new Comedy Central series from Will Ferrell and Adam McKay stars Chris Gethard as Josh Franklin, an investment banker who loses his parents' entire life savings and must now sleep on their couch until he's paid them back in full. Desperate for ways to make money, Josh ropes in his old friend Glenn (a way skinnier Horatio Sanz) and former teacher Mr. Henkel (Chris Parnell), and the trio immediately starts scheming.
I'm not hasty to admit it, but I'm probably part of that emerging group of hip young adults who bristle at the sound of a laugh track in a new sitcom. It just feels so outdated and lame these days. Granted, How I Met Your Mother has one and works just fine, but let's call it the exception. Along with the canned yucks come the blindingly bright studio lighting and, unfortunately, jokes of days of yore. We've seen the characters a million times: the curmudgeony Dad, the space-case Mom, the wacky friend, the precocious younger sibling.
The biggest problem with Big Lake, however, is the lead, Chris Gethard. Whatever strengths he might have as an actor or comedian are rendered completely moot by the stifling format and translucent character with which he is saddled. He is hands down the worst part of the show and a sheer pain to watch. As far as series premieres go, Big Lake is far from promising.
Sum...ology: Puzzlingly inept and mired in dusty tropes.
Big Lake premieres August 17th at 10/9c on Comedy Central.
