"Robot Chicken" [Green-Senreich, 2005] Season 2 [Apr.- Nov. '06] [TV-MA]

A friend of mine, one Connolly Dietrich, once described this show as "boring." But of course, at the time knowing scarcely anything about it, I would not believe him. How could a show that clearly works so hard at being so offensive and outwardly abrasive possibly fail at it, I wondered? But now, having seen it, I understand what he meant, and feel that this sketch-comedy deserves not to be listed as the origin of Tim and Eric, but the other way around. In a fashion that begs a Musical Genome comparison to Bon Jovi, Seth Green and Matthew Senreich put on in their show an apparent display of offensivenss (and, as distinct from Bon Jovi, bizarreness) while in fact removing the most genuinely offensive elements--this practice leads to an end result that like so many should be best described as inoffensive. That, my friend, is how this show--or any at all, for that matter--manages to be so unbelievably, mind-numbingly dull, in an astonishingly similar way to Bon Jovi. However, it is certainly a much less abject case of the aforementioned inoffensiveness than Bon Jovi are, as there is still some genuine offense-inducing stuff here, by its very nature as an extreme-sketch-comedy--hence the higher grade. However, I should still note that like all of my other comparisons, this one makes sense solely within the context of [Adult Swim]. Grade: B

"South Park" [Stone-Parker, 1997] Season 4 [Apr.- Dec. '00] [TV-MA-L(V)]

One of the most astonishingly unchanging shows in A.C. history, this show's all-too-sparse humorous advantages have always balanced out its--you guessed it--all-too-numerous quasi-transcendent/-intellectual defects, thereby proceeding to settle around a B, with regard to overall quality. This is rather depressing news for the show's fans (and creators), but, unfortunately, is nevertheless true. Once again, as in season 11 and season 6, the best episode appears to be the first one, "Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000," but in this case the one that must be tied with it is surely "Cartman Joins NAMBLA," the latter being definitely in the list of top 10 best SP episodes ever--though one of the show's characteristics that is as unchanging (wha...? huh?), as it is altogether strange, is that, as implied above, many of the "worse" ones slack not too far behind--note "The Tooth Fairy Tats 2000" and "Timmy 2000" as some of the numerous runner-ups, while the rest, including "Probably" and "Things You Can Do With Your Finger," are "just bad," so to speak, in the way unique to the show. Grade: B PLUS

You may have noticed that the Consumer Guide is being published before the Turkey Shoot...

...although that is not usually the case. However, this marks the beginning of a further reformatting of UQGTV, for mutual benefit--or mine, at least.

"The Oblongs" [Oblong, 2001] Season 1 [Apr. 2001] [TV-14-DLSV]

This "transparently pseudo-Simpsonian" A.C. has been described by TV Guide as "crude." That is most likely the case, but I think that that TV Guide writer was missing the point here. For what Angus Oblong hath wrought here is very distinctive, far more so than any other AC popular at the time or today, and, proceeding upward from a base level of about B, it has its moments, by all means. But Angus Oblong, who based this show on the illustrated kiddie-scary stories he previously wrote and from which he developed a sense for the grotesque (the residents of the Valley are all horribly mutated from nuclear waste dumped into their city by the affluent residents of the Hills), is clearly trying to imitate Matt Groening. So, basically, how is this show different from the Simpsons? Well, for one, Oblong is probably even more intelligent, and this show's humor has been, from the Simpsons, simplified and made, although it often resorts to complex, even arcane, verbiage. It is also less acerbically satirical than either the Simpsons or Futurama, dealing far softer blows in that regard. However, the show is by no means a very big victory, and is held back, specifically, because Angus Oblong has clearly missed what Groening has always known-- how to amalgamate knowledgeability in certain technical-scientific areas with comedy. But it gets by on its moments, which are unfortunately portrayed as such. Grade: B PLUS

And now, it is time for the September-October 2009 Consumer Guide!

I am sorry I haven't been able to get back to you, my "beloved" readers, sooner.
I can't promise what will appear these next 2 months, except some more South Park, Simpsons, and Scrubs (lotta S's), as well as many obscure--"indie," if you will-- AC's.