Friday, July 15, 2011

Showtime's "The French Guys" Gets Panned

Still looking for ratings information, but the debut of Showtime's MLB docu-drama series, "The Franchise," was critically drubbed even by industry trades:

Showtime premiered "The Franchise: A Season With the San Francisco Giants" on Wednesday night.

After nearly falling asleep during the hour, all I can say is, "When's 'Dexter' coming back?"

Lord knows the Giants have some colorful players and have been involved in some interesting storylines this year, including the controversial injury to catcher Buster Posey and its aftermath.

Still, the first hour of this Major League Baseball production played like a hollowed-out infomercial for the team, stripped of any meat and expunged of anything that might not reflect well on the players or the league.

SF Comical columnist Scott Ostler couldn't even get behind it, nor could the San Jose Mercury News' Cam Inman. If a World Series happens and no one is there to care, did it really crown a champion?

21 comments:

Jason said...

"...[S]tripped of any meat..."

Clearly, Pablo Sandoval got to it first.

Josh S. said...

I watched it out of morbid curiosity. It was as dull as described.

Choppily edited too, since the first hour covered Opening Day (Well, not even, since Dodger Stadium never appeared) to the All-Star Game.

It didn't help that the first ep focused on livewire personalities like Cody Ross ("Surprise! He's not really as good as he was in October!", Ryan Vogelsong ("He's inexplicably good, but still boring!"), and Brandon Belt ("Whoops! He sucks! Back to AAA!").

The bit about Jeremy Affeldt interacting with the Stow family was interesting, but the whole Stow story was kind of shoe-horned into the narrative with no real setup.

Fernie V said...

I can't believe you guys watched it.

Fernie V said...

Dude, you put French in the headline and I thought we were going to see Laure.

Mr. LA Sports Czar said...

It probably tried too hard to be like Hard Knocks. That's just a guess though.

Josh S. said...

It was very much aping Hard Knocks, 24/7, etc. with the voice-overs and music ("I'm Coming Home" playing while the players return from a long road trip. GENIUS!).

The difference between this show and those is that this show has NOTHING interesting to work with. You can't polish a turd, as they say.

Fernie V said...

Hard Knocks was boring as well

MR.F said...

Showtime should make a show called "The French Girls" and have it star Laure.

Fernie V said...

That dr. Oz is pretty creative, but I hated operation the game. My hand shook like the needle, during a Frank McCourt, polygraph test.

Mr. LA Sports Czar said...

I like Hard Knocks when all the Jets got Shake Weights. Rex Ryan's face was priceless.

Well, his face is often priceless.

Mr. LA Sports Czar said...

*liked

Fernie V said...

Shake weights that sounds funny.

Mr. LA Sports Czar said...

I just noticed the Santa Claus in the bottom left corner of my avatar.

Fernie V said...

I just noticed that Justin has on three shirts in Phoenix, on W's avatar.

Josh S. said...

The next episode looks interesting. Timmeh buys weed from Nancy Botwin.

spank said...

Is it any surprise that Josh is watching a show about the Giants?

#Gnatfan

Anonymous said...

fans of a team that is bankrupt and only appeals to the gangsters in los angeles, should not be bagging on the giants or the show

Kyle Baker said...

@Asswipe troll

Given that the folks who post on this site are not "gangsters," and that we are all Dodger fans, your juvenile logic falls apart fairly quickly. Thanks for playing, though! Little bitch.

Mr. LA Sports Czar said...

If the Dodgers only appealed to gangsters, then how do you explain Larry King?

Oh, snap!

Josh S. said...

Mary Hart is a thug.

Fernie V said...

Come on bocci, you don't see me on giant blogs talking trash about gays. Now get out of here before two hoods hear you and beat you up while two of your friends stand there watching.