TV Review | Kids in the Hall: Death Comes to Town Part One – “Death Checks In”
The commercials for Kids in the Hall: Death Comes to Town (CBC: premiered January 10, 2010, 9:00 PM ET/PT) are uninspiring. This is Kids in the Hall‘s grand return to television, which calls for the blandest commercials ever.
What the hell are you thinking, CBC? You have mainstream North American interest at your fingertips, and you get your bland announcer to blithely promote Kids in the Hall: Death Comes to Town in the same tone as Being Erica and The Rick Mercer Report? It’s times like this that I miss Bob Boving. That man knows how to sell shit.
Death Comes to Town, at least in its first episode, is passable. Even granting that the Kids in the Hall castmembers are in their forties and fifties, they seem at half-ass with Death Comes to Town. Even Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy, KitH‘s oft-maligned 1996 film, is more memorable.
John Doyle’s drive-by shooting of a review condemns Death Comes to Town as “inept.” It isn’t, but there’s something off about the show. Bad segments outweigh the good.
This isn’t unexpected, as it’s been twenty-two years since Kids in the Hall first debuted on CBC Television. The fact Death Comes to Town has a linear plot isn’t the reason why it sucks, at least so far. The comedy material just isn’t that strong. A retarded kid (Rampop, and he’s hilarious) should not be attracting 90% of the funny material.
To be fair, the original Kids in the Hall series had its fair share of shit (those “Steps” sketches, uggh), but Death Comes to Town doesn’t have a killer comedy segment. There’s nothing comparable to “Crushing Your Head” yet. Maybe Death Comes to Town will get the bug out of its ass by the middle of the series, as the first episode is all groundwork.
It’s nice to see Kids in the Hall back in some form. While Death Comes to Town‘s debut episode is disappointing, it’s foolish to expect the comedy troupe to come back as strong as in KitH‘s heyday. If at least three episodes of Death Comes to Town share the same level of suck, then there’s something wrong.
[...] Kids in the Hall: Death Comes to Town Part One – “Death Checks In” “Death Comes to Town, at least in its first episode, is passable. Even granting that the Kids in the Hall castmembers are in their forties and fifties, they seem at half-ass with Death Comes to Town. Even Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy, KitH’s oft-maligned 1996 film, is more memorable.” Read more. [...]
Pingback by TV, eh? » Reviews: Republic of Doyle, Kids in the Hall — January 13, 2010 @ 12:29 pm
You must have been watching a more different channel. Just passable? You hated the old steps sketches? Clearly you ain’t a fan in the first place.
Now I got a job to do…..
Comment by Pamplemousse — January 14, 2010 @ 2:45 pm
Readers beware, this critic is a hack. The first episode was a great introduction to the show. The characters are all depressing and the tone is very dark. Very excited for episode 2.
Comment by Rosebud — January 20, 2010 @ 2:31 pm
KITH Death Comes to Town is awesome!!! As a long time KITH fan I have to say that I was soo excited to see this and it didn’t disappoint! This show kicks serious ass and it’s HILARIOUS! Classic KITH with a contemporary flair!
Loves it!!!!
Comment by YoYo — January 20, 2010 @ 10:58 pm
The fact that you think Rampop is attracting 90% of the funny material tells me that you’re oblivious to the true comedic styling of the show.
I think your attempt at criticism has been influenced by the millions of hours you spend shitting all over yourself watching american “comedy” like scrubs or arrested development. Smelling and eating your own shit.
This is a great Canadian mini-series. It’s Low budget, imperfect, and completely disregards the mainstream. This is in the interest of the artists perception of what is (or should be) funny.
Art is failure and the Kids in the Hall are the only ones that have the guts to do just that.
Comment by th3manwth3hat — January 23, 2010 @ 1:37 pm
I thought the first episode was about 7/10. There are some funny characters here for sure. I was a little dissapointed that they killed off the mayor character right away! HE was a good character.
And by the way…. I alwasy hated the “crush your head” skits and loved the “steps” skits.
I don’t think this reviewer shares tastes with the majority of KITH fans.
Also.. this series has a weird feel but it should have that low budget KIDTH feel. I’b dissapointed if it wasn’t trippy and uncomfortable to watch at times.
Comment by R-bot — January 26, 2010 @ 9:32 pm
The Kids In The Hall have always dabbled with their own unique brand of comedy. Death Comes To Town is no exception. Rather than churning out some lowest common denominator pop culture trite, the KITH remain true to their roots and continue to deliver a dark social commentary woven directly into the characters they portray.
And Brain Candy is one of the funniest movies ever made.
Please don’t stop, Kids–the world needs your humour now more than ever!
Comment by jubjub — February 1, 2010 @ 2:51 pm
The new series is hilarious. Clearly the reviewer is out to lunch and would prefer some off-the-assembly-line, unimaginative sitcom.
Comment by cestmoi — February 3, 2010 @ 8:44 am
Sounds like 7 diehard KitH fans saw your post and attacked!
Comment by James — February 12, 2010 @ 5:07 am
This show goes great with a power shake.
Comment by Heather Weather — March 5, 2010 @ 12:26 am
Your review fucking sucks. You should delete this shit, furthermore don’t fucking review anything anymore. I’m sorry, completely, and utterly sorry I stumbled upon this shitty fucking review.
Comment by DCTT — March 5, 2010 @ 4:46 pm
I agree with almost all of the comments so far – and you shouldn’t be “reviewing” anything. Seriously go do something that you’re good at. You don’t have to be a Kids fan to appreciate the Death Comes to Town – it stands on it’s own. It’s irreverent, dark, daring and original. Great characters that are so bang-on at depicting the most embarrassing, selfish human traits that it makes you squirm. Way to go Kids!
Comment by Kelly — March 9, 2010 @ 10:50 pm
I used to think Kids in the Hall fans were above whiny, bullshit fanboyism. I guess I was wrong.
My review isn’t even that negative. Did anyone even read that John Doyle review? He made it sound like it was the worst thing CBC could mount, and I get negative comments for calling the show mediocre. Oh, right, Death Comes to Town is genius and I’m an idiot for not recognizing that. I forget.
It’s easy for people to say I shouldn’t be “reviewing” anything. That’s the herd mentality talking. Apparently, I like Scrubs because I don’t find Death Comes to Town awesome, never mind that this site mainly reviews Canadian television. The illogic of these comments amuses me.
Comment by C. Archer — March 10, 2010 @ 1:30 am
To the reviewer. Your reply post to the offended KITH fans was quite inapropriate. I found it had a pompus tone and you make it sound like you know all. You shouldn’t be dismissing thier comments, everyone of them has at least one valid point and you should embrace that and learn from it. Now i have no clue who you are or where you are from, but KITH was a big part of Canadian TV when I was a kid and beyond that. Watching this for me brings back great memories of thier show, and I have been really enjoying every episode. I think KITH just takes a certain sense of humor, just like enjoying Monty Python (which I do). Anyways, being a reviewer shouldn’t be about bad mouthing somthing like this, you should embrace it, soak it in, and re-live that awesome KITH character and all over the place humor we as Canadians have grown up with and love. Talking bad about this new mini series is like talking bad about Bob and Doug Mckenzie with their 24 anaverseriy addition, you just don’t do it, becasue it’s a classic.
Sincerly
Comment by DN — March 16, 2010 @ 5:16 pm
I would agree with DN’s assessment, except that the comments are largely refrains of “Death Comes to Town is great, fuck you.”
Comment by C. Archer — March 16, 2010 @ 5:40 pm
Sorry everybody, the series was just terrible. This was slap-dash, overloaded with weak characters and comedically watered down.
This, coming from a die-hard KiTH fan.
The show looked cheap — without the comedy magic to make that OK — (Death’s iPhone, the news-team graphics, etc) compared to what these guys have given us in the past. So much of the Kids’ charm came from comes from the way their shows were filmed. Watch the ‘Lucky Penny’ sketch if you don’t know what I’m talking about. There is no comparison.
Story-wise – there was no story, and if you don’t agree with that then I’ll settle on just calling it plain boring. The comedy was so weak that half the time I felt I was watching Corner Gas. I don’t think I laughed more than three times the entire series.
There was no edge to any of it. Whenever they got close to pushing a boundary they backed off. I would wager that this is a result of the CBC having too much involvement in the series.
I cannot expect that the troupe is overly satisfied with how this all turned out.
Comment by Michael — March 23, 2010 @ 6:37 pm
How can this guy review this show when he has a website that seems to randomly highlight certain words with orange boxes. That says it all, people. Alright ferrets, march right up this guy’s asshole and eat his intestines, stat!
Comment by BigBillyStyle — May 28, 2010 @ 8:39 am
Awful review.
The KIds original t.v show = Incredible.
Death Comes To Town = Genius.
PS: I’m not wearing pants.
Comment by Mike Hunt — June 7, 2010 @ 10:27 pm
Watch for Death Comes to Town, the full series coming to DVD August 2010, preorder today at http://www.cbcshop. Full of killer bonus features and audio commentary with Dave and Bruce
Comment by JOhntario — June 29, 2010 @ 2:36 pm
I am an original fan and viewer of the Kids in the Hall. The new material is awful. I quit watching after about 15 minutes. It is just not funny. Sorry KITH sycophants and fan-boys, I won’t be watching it, and I feel assured I will not be missing anything.
Comment by AaronAustin — September 11, 2010 @ 12:09 pm
Man…”passable”? Okay the guy that wrote this “review” must have never watch an KITH’s episode and sure didn’t watch “Death Comes to Town”. So forget about that asshole and listen here. “…Comes to Town” is a classic. Plain and simple.
Comment by Grimm — September 12, 2010 @ 12:45 pm
AaronAustin is also an asshole.
Comment by Grimm — September 12, 2010 @ 12:47 pm
I have been a KITH fan for years and I was really excited about this new show. Once I watched it I was very disappointed. I will stick with the old episodes for my fix.
Comment by Laura — December 8, 2011 @ 2:06 pm