Very bad

lpokeefe

A show where nothing ever goes right for the main character is a sitting duck. The plots are guaranteed to be thin and repetitive; the acting is guaranteed to be bad; the writing is guaranteed to be flat; and the characters are guaranteed to be mean. Shows where things don't work out for the main character rarely succeed. "Married... with Children" fell flat on its face because of this, and this show falls just as badly.

Ray Romano was never funny at all. Gearing a series around him was a bad idea, but then the producers/writers/whatever inserted the notion of nothing ever going right. As if this wasn't clichéd enough, the writers gave him a vicious wife, cutesy twins, mean parents and a somewhat stupid brother. Then they hired television standbys to "act", put in plots where everybody blames Ray for everything, and skipping down the path they went, not realizing that the path was the Hellbound road.

I am typically not of the sort to laugh about somebody else's misfortunes. Many comedies have been based around this idea, but the best of them- "Sanford and Son," "NewsRadio," "Seinfeld"- have always provided some sort of comedic foil to offset the misfortunes of the main character. In "Sanford and Son", typically either Fred or Lamont would be in trouble, and the other one would make fun of him. Thin, but it worked. "NewsRadio" gave you the powerhouse quartet of Bill, Jimmy, Matthew and Beth to provide comedic relief whenever Dave was in a tight spot. "Seinfeld" gave you the insanely out-of-luck George on one hand, and Kramer, Newman and Uncle Leo on the other. Balance and equilibrium.

"Raymond" doesn't do this. It gives you one guy who does everything wrong, and a bunch of snotty, selfish, intensely self-assured people to totally hate. And yet you're supposed to sympathize with Raymond, despite every force telling you otherwise. Any series that does something like this puts itself in a bad spot. Because of all the negative elements about it, I'm willing to call "Everybody Loves Raymond" one of the worst series of all time.

score 1/10

lpokeefe 27 August 2006

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1459702/