Marc And Chris

I've been watching two new comedy series for a few weeks. First there's Maron, a show on IFC starring comedian Marc Maron.  He essentially plays himself, a divorced, middle-aged guy who lives in a small house in L.A. with some cats, picks up women, has issues with his father (played by Judd Hirsch) and hosts a popular podcast.  Not unlike Seinfeld, another show about a professional comedian, he plays a character less successful than he really is.  But that makes sense, since a lot of what makes the real Maron run is the sense of entitlement--former sense anyway--that he should have made it as big as all the comedians he came up with but somehow wasn't given his due.

Each episode centers on how Maron, in his laid-back yet aggressive manner, deals with the aggravations of life, some of his own making.  And generally the joke's on him.  He faces down a nerd who trash talks him on the internet, only to get the worst of it.  He sleeps with a fairly hot woman only to find out she's married and wants him to do a podcast with her teenage kid.  And so on.

Each episode has name guest stars like Dave Foley, Jeff Garlin, Dennis Leary, Gina Gershon and Illeana Douglas, sometimes playing themselves as celebrities doing a podcast, sometimes playing characters who deal with Maron in his regular life.  I've known Maron as a comedian since he hosted Comedy Central's Short Attention Span Theatre about twenty years ago. I thought he wasn't bad but not great.  Sort of how I feel about Maron.

Then there's Family Tree, an HBO comedy by Christopher Guest (along with series regular Jim Piddock) so, of course, it's done in mockumentary style, with the actors improvising.  It stars Chris O'Dowd as Tom Chadwick, a British man investigating his lineage.  It also features his sister Bea, who always has on a hand-puppet monkey that says outrageous things (played by ventriloquist Nina Conti).  There's also Tom's father Keith, played my Michael McKean, who loves old British sitcoms, the DVDs of which he watches incessantly.

In addition to all the improvisation, the show features a lot of fake "found comedy"--old footage and photographs that Tom uncovers, as well as those cliched old sitcoms Keith watches.

I've liked most of Guest's mockumentary films, but he had stronger scenarios there, and generally sharper work from the performers.  Unfortunately, an open-ended search for a guy's ancestors just isn't that compelling. Finding out what Tom's great-grandparents did isn't much of a discovery for the audience.  This is a show builds quirkiness upon quirkiness, but without a stable foundation doesn't have much to work with.