"House of Payne" is Truly Painful...
Sometimes you watch a show just to see if it really is as bad as the critics say…In the case of “Tyler Perry’s House of Payne,” it’s not as bad as the critics say. It’s worse.
“House of Payne” is the brainchild of Tyler Perry who became a star after his movies “Diary of a Mad Black Woman” and “Madea’s Family Reunion” grossed over $100 million. Convinced that network politics wouldn’t work for him, Perry used $5 million of his own money to produce 10 episodes of a TV show. Last summer, those episodes ran on 10 large-market TV stations, generating impressive ratings. TBS then picked up the show and ordered 100 episodes, which they will have exclusively until September 2008 when they go into syndication. The pricetag was reportedly $200 million.
TBS should ask for a refund…
“Payne” is the story of a multigenerational family led by Curtis, a fire chief. Curtis and his wife, Ella, help out their nephew. C.J. and his wife Janine by watching their kids. From what I’ve read about the show, C.J.’s family ends up moving in with Curtis after a drug-using Janine accidentally burns their house down. But I didn’t see that because I could only last 20 minutes…
There were some funny moments, but they were squashed by bad comic timing as the actors did their lines like they were late for another audition. And that laugh track! Not only were the laughs ridiculous sounding, but they fired at all the wrong times. I hate laugh tracks anyway but this is the worst one I have ever heard.
Which leads to a very important question. What was TBS thinking? Did TBS not watch this show before they bought it? As “Variety” put it in their review, “how [Perry] got the cabler to pony up for 100 episodes of such an uncharacteristically unfunny sitcom as ‘House of Payne’ is worthy of a sitcom on its own.” Perry has admitted in interviews that he wrote the first 10 episodes hurriedly, but producing two or three episodes per week is not going to improve that any.
If I may paraphrase a line from another review, “House of Payne” is truly painful to watch…
“Tyler Perry’s House of Payne” airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on TBS…
