A Painfully Bad Sitcom On Etv

Ok I think we have established that South African "welfare" television is the dumping ground for American rejects so I do not need to get into that rant once more. Lo and behold Etv has bought rights to another show that is so bad it makes Generations look splendid. Tyler Perry's House of Payne is a torture to watch to say the least.

For the past couple of weeks the free-to-air channel has been running the show on its 20h30 slot on Tuesday.

Tyler Perry has made millions of dollars tapping into a desire among black audience to see old-fashioned, preachy and morality driven plays and films such as Diary of a Mad Black Woman. The formula has worked well for him.

To his credit, this daring endeavour has provided black performers with a chance to have material that can be enjoyed by mainstream audiences on a larger scale. Simply put; he has given black actors jobs. 

Still, whatever charm Madea may have brought to those productions of his seem to have failed when it comes to this horendus comedy -- even with Madea's cameo appearances.

The thing about the Madea movies is that you can watch them at your convenience. They are not on your screen every week so you are able to overlook the mediocrity because you only see it once in a while when you really want to or maybe need a comic relief. 

Unfortunately with a weekly show one is forced to see Perry's characters in different phases of their lives as they tackle each episode's storyline. And boy do the cracks creep in after just 10 minutes of watching this show!

Inevitably when you see this show you automatically compare it to other black American family benchmark shows like Cosby, Family Matters or even Moesha and it fails dismally to measure up.

With SABC 1 running repeats of Martin and Living Single, one can not help but feel that House of Payne is just an insult to the genre of black comedy on television.

This show should have never even lasted for a season in the states since their television channels do not tolerate such nonsense like we do. Shows like Ugly Betty have been axed, though popular as they were, simply because they were not performing well ratings wise. 

According to Wiki, it premiered nationally in the US with 5.9 million viewers on June 2007--at the time, basic cable’s biggest sitcom audience ever. The show remained basic cable’s number 1 sitcom until TBS’s August 2008 premiere of Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns. 

Even though it was lambasted by critics the show and Meet the Browns ranked among television’s Top 5 prime time sitcoms with African-American adults 18-34 and 18-49 for the first quarter of 2011,

Some critics have attributed the success of the show even with its flaws to the loyalty that Tyler Perry enjoys from his fans. One even pointed out how Perry was ready to put his name on every show that he produces. 

You need to know that this is a Tyler Perry show, so whether you approve or not you will support it because you like him. It is true that Tyler Perry is seen by many among the African American audiences and performers as the big brother who is looking out for them in an industry that has ignored them. 

Personally, I saw this show and wondered why anyone could watch it and not see how bad it is then I though of the success of Nollywood movies and it all made sense to me.

I ca not even give you a proper episode review and point out the flaws because the one thing that will irritate you before you even try and follow the story and the characters is the laugh-track. 

Here's the thing; the laugh-track does not even find this show funny. The laughs are injected in situations where they should not be. Just when you think it could not get worse you realise that they are actually playing the same laugh-track on all jokes.

Even the crowd noise are used inappropriately. Just when you expecting an "Ahhhh" you get a laughter and the other was round.

Everything the little girl and the father does is considered funny so even when the moment does not call for a laugh -- it's there. Do not even get me started on the drug addict mother!

The woman acts strung-out all the time and yet nobody seems to notice until the script calls for it. It is stupid. She is constantly doing some silly things that nobody seems to cal her on as they would in a real situation.

There was a scene where she was confessing to burning a house and she started blowing on the couch. No-one seemed to find that strange.

Simply put, there is nothing redeemable about this show. It is crap. Period. This was a waste of money for Etv. 

PS: I have also noticed that Etv has been playing some rather dodgy D-rate "black" movies lately. Wassup with that?