The early days of the pandemic now seem like a long time ago. We cloroxed our groceries, avoided touching our faces, searched high and low for rolls of toilet paper, and were told that weeks of lockdown would “flatten the curve.” As a comedy setting about a newly released prisoner, are you ready to laugh at all of it... If anyone could make us do that, it's Greg Garcia.
Welling: Stream or skip.
Opening Shot: Inmates walking around the prison. "Based on true events. Spring 2020".
Summary: As an inmate named Jack (Garrett Dillahunt) prepares to speak to his "girlfriend" on the toilet phone in his cell, he and his Cellmate Rooster (Philip Garcia), as it is now, receives word that they are being released. why. Because of something called coronavirus. Prisons have been ordered to release non-violent inmates to reduce crowding.
For Jack, who fell victim to a bare bones lifestyle in the 1990s and has been working with weeds since 1994, this is great. But like all those who have been freed, they have nowhere to go and don't know the rest of the world is on lockdown. Hitchhiking a ride with his mother Barb (Martha Plimpton). Also joining Barb's Pacer is Gloria (Shakira Barrera), who happens to be Jack's toilet-phone girlfriend. Needless to say, he wasn't the tied up young man he told her.The picture of the dick he sent her wasn't his. It was the rooster's that Barb immediately recognized.
Barb is also a bit of a criminal, stealing packages from porches as more people shop online. She wants to rob Melvin (James Earl), a local toilet paper official who has been raking in cash for her early pandemic shortages. At first Jack does not want to participate. He's a pot-dealer, not a thief.
But now that the world is shut down, they discover that only Barb is willing to provide food (a heart-attack-inducing thing called John Wayne's casserole) and a place to live. So he uses all the knowledge he learned in prison to make his plans more solid.
What reminds me. Wrote, wrote and directed 107}Sprungand also produced My Name Is Earl and Raising Hope. (The latter also starred Dillahunt and Plimpton), and this series is very much in the same vein.works for two reasons. First, Garcia's formula of telling funny stories about down-on-his-luck people, mixed in with heartfelt moments that show Garcia's characters have human emotions, and scraping it off to manage to pull it off. continues. But another reason it works is because it's the first show to really point out the absurdity of the pandemic's first days, weeks, and months. maybe it was necessary. —or maybe they wanted a show that wasn't made via Zoom or where people wore masks until they recited the dialogue. But Garcia tells us in the first episode, from the “flattening of the curve” to the shortage of toilet paper, the newscasters reporting about the pandemic from their living rooms, to the fact that we were told otherwise, the biggest early days of the pandemic. It seems to be jam-packed with the hits of touching our faces. Usually it can feel forced. But more often than not those gags land. Probably because I'm tired of realizing how panicked we all were at the time.
Will the gag continue? Garcia thinks to soften them up, as the group coalesces and plans to rob local MP Paula Tackleberry (Kate Walsh). But a lot of what Barb and her new crew are doing stems from all the crazy things that happened in 2020, especially when the country started to get terribly divided over issues like masking and government lockdown orders. Even if Garcia took his foot off the gas pedal of the pandemic gag, it would still be a factor in this first season.
But like Garcia's example cited above, Earl and Hopeare another factor that draws us to .Sprung is that it somehow gives characters like Jack a conscience that feels organic rather than just a ruse. In the first episode, Jack sees reports of his COVID ward nurse sleeping in his car to avoid infecting his mother and children, but having to read to his son and daughter on the phone. to He decided to take advantage of his acquired criminal skills and use them for good. Jack isn't actually a criminal, so we know he has a heart. I think Gloria does, and maybe Rooster, who hates the fact that ex-Wiggles (Claire Gillies) is dating Melvin. I know it's bad news for Barb, but Plimpton is so good at playing her that he doesn't care. and Hope 's long-running series.
Sex and Skin: Barb talks about messing with "my beans" and keeps giving Gloria a rooster penis Polaroid, but that's it.
} Farewell shot: After robbing Melvin and getting clean, Jack lies on the trampoline and enjoys Fruit Stripes gum while looking at the stars. In the end credits, we see him bouncing on that trampoline.
Sleeper Star: Shakira Barrera has multiple roles as Gloria. She may or may not be Jack's lover. But she's also an ambitious mouthpiece of reason, seeking to elevate the group beyond mere short-term work.
Most of the pilot's lines: Some of the gags, "The man who was in prison for decades now knows no world," said Jack After looking at various trash cans for composting, I thought, "The trash can has become fashionable."
Our call: Stream it. We believe Greg Garcia won't beat the dead horse in the Pandemic gag in Sprung, but in the first episode Jack and the rest of the characters
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) is a good way to introduce the story of the series. , writes about food, entertainment, parenting, and technology, but rather than kidding myself, I'm a TV addict. His writings have appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon,RollingStone.com,VanityFair.comand Fast Company. It has been.
