Studio: Drs. Gourley, Carter, McConville & Tompkins
Category: Comedy
What It Is
Four comedians, along with a variety of guests, improvise character based sketches.
Technical Details
The show has been sporadic since its inception way back with season one happening in 2007. The iTunes archive is kind of neat; it features a couple of episodes that are best ofs for the first two seasons, then a handful of episodes from season three and then starts from the beginning with season four, the current season. It’s a selection rather than a straight chronology; first show I’ve seen to do that. If you want more, you’ll have to hit up the website but you won’t find any more free episodes there. To get deeper into the archive, you’ll have to shell out. Episodes run thirty minutes or so.
What About It
I’m a big fan of two of the comedians that are regulars on this show, Paul F. Tompkins (who you may know from his Comedy Bang Bang appearances) and Matt Gourley (of the silly James Bonding and the surprisingly serious I Was There Too, both excellent podcasts). I’m less familiar with the other two. The guest roster is usually solid; Andy Daly, Patton Oswalt, Gillian Jacobs, Dan Harmon, etc. The show isn’t as consistent as I might wish. Occasionally, you’ll run across an episode that’s just kind of a misfire from start to finish, but other episodes are quite good and packed with laughs. The show is pretty fast-paced, even frenetic at times, which makes the sketches kind of hard to follow. Somehow, this isn’t a problem on, say, Comedy Bang Bang; I’m not sure what the difference is. This is a good show, not a great one, but it’s plenty enjoyable to get into my rotation.
3 stars
Essential If
Your OBAMACARE co-pay is affordable.
Avoid Like the Plague if
White-coat blood pressure spike.
Best Entry Point
I like the third episode of season four quite a bit. Anytime Matt Gourley gets to break out his H.R. Giger impression is a great time and the PumpTV sketch is pretty great. Do not, I repeat do not, start season four with episode one, because it is pretty terrible.