The simple charm of the original has been lost

astena

Corner Gas, the original show, remains to this day one of my favourite TV shows of all time. I had very high hopes for this animated reboot. And it's...okay. I wish I could be more enthused, but I feel like it's lost a lot of what gave the original show so much charm - the fact that the humour was so deeply rooted in the confines of real people in real situations. It was about finding the funny in the mundane life of a small prairie town.

When I first heard there was going to be an animated reboot, my initial thought was, "I sure hope they don't use the animation to start trying to take the show beyond the bounds of the realistic, because it will lose the genuine personality it worked so hard to create." Unfortunately, it feels like this is exactly what has happened to some degree. Animation allows the stories to take on unrealistic and sometimes ridiculous plots, instead of just relying on the charisma and quirks of the characters to drive the story and jokes. And the cutaways now make it seem like the writers are trying too hard to emulate Family Guy, relying on gimmicks to elicit laughs, which they should be above.

The show isn't terrible, and there are a few genuine laugh-out-loud moments. But there aren't nearly as many as the original show had. I can't help but think that in becoming a cartoon, Corner Gas has lost sight of what made it so genuine and appealing in the first place. I can appreciate the attempt, but it pales in comparison to its predecessor.

score 5/10

astena 1 March 2019

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw4692028/