TV reviews: ‘Cavemen,’ ‘Carpoolers’
“Cavemen” (Tuesdays, ABC): This laugh-track-free sitcom about a race of cavemen who live in modern society isn’t the televisiopacolypse we thought it would be … but it’s not particularly good, either. The pilot episode was screened earlier this year and immediately excoriated by everyone who saw it as stupid, unfunny, and racist: Apparently, every time they said something about “cavemen,” you could just replace it with “black guys.” So ABC sent the show back for “retooling” and came up with this largely inoffensive version. The premise is that cavemen are just another race of people living among us … a race that, yep, still kind of resembles stereotypes about black people. Some homo sapiens women have a “thing” for cavemen, who are wilder, better lovers; the cavemen’s Texas-accented landlady thinks they all look alike; some cavemen are opposed to intermarrying with homo sapiens; etc. I got a few chuckles out of it, which is a few more than I was anticipating. But still. TiVo verdict: I’m even a Geico customer and I’m not gonna watch this.
“Carpoolers” (Tuesdays, ABC): Now HERE’S your awful sitcom! It’s about four guys who carpool to and from work every day. They kind of socialize outside those 90 minutes a day, too, and we’re privy to their unoriginal domestic travails, which do not appear to be very funny, if the pilot is any indication. And what’s with the names? The four guys are called Laird, Dougie, Gracen, and Aubrey, and one has a son named Marmaduke. What? TiVo verdict: Begone, evil one!
October 3rd, 2007 at 3:51 pm
I agree that Cavemen was terrible, but I thought Carpoolers was pretty good. That guy from “Sons and Daughters” ( very good short lived ABC show) is very funny. I will definitely give it another shot.
October 4th, 2007 at 1:13 am
I’m with you Eric. Carpoolers was a disaster. Begone evil one indeed! I couldn’t even make it through the whole episode on 2x fast forward…
I agree that Cavemen was mediocre but not as bad as the other one. (Still not worth a second episode though)
October 4th, 2007 at 12:07 pm
My friend’s kid’s name is Grayson. Not so bad, actually.
October 4th, 2007 at 10:56 pm
The commercials were already grating on my last nerve…..I don’t even know why I bothered tuning in for the premiere of this DOG.
It sucked so badly I actually started to feel sorry for the whole premise.
Cavemen would be appalled.
I hope it becomes extinct soon.
October 6th, 2007 at 9:48 am
Re Turkey’s comment….
“Grayson” itself does not bother me, because it’s a last name coopted as a first name. My own name “Craig” originated the same way. But “Gracen” appears to be the sitcom writers attempt to force another surname to undergo the same change, when there’s no evidence that anyone is using it as one yet.
(Incidentally, in my dialect, the two names “Grayson” and “Gracen” would not be pronounced the same, because we differentiate our schwas.)
As an aside, the names I can’t stand are current “aden” juggernaut. In 2006, 37 of the top 1000 baby names in the US rhymed with “aden”:
Adan (302), Aden (244), Aedan (760), Aidan (44), Aiden (30), Aidyn (910), Aydan (576), Ayden (119), Aydin (731), Braden (141), Bradyn (675), Braeden (331), Braedon (744), Braiden (602), Brayden (79), Braydon (396), Caden (91), Caiden (312), Cayden (213), Haden (858), Haiden (872), Hayden (73), Jaden (88), Jadon (398), Jadyn (757), Jaeden (666), Jaiden (214), Jayden (50), Jaydin (971), Jaydon (416), Kaden (92), Kadin (636), Kadyn (920), Kaeden (746), Kaiden (242), Kayden (230), Zayden (871)
Someone stop the madness!
(Oh and yeah, they can pool the plug on Cavemen and Carpoolers too. I made it begrudgingly through the first and couldn’t finish the second.)
October 6th, 2007 at 11:34 am
Adan is pronounced differently than Aiden or the others. It’s originally Spanish, being pronounced Ah-DON. Just FYI. But I agree, the trend with all of these rhyming names is going crazy.
October 6th, 2007 at 11:31 pm
I watched “Cavemen” for about 30 seconds before i switched over to “pushing daisies”. now there’s a brilliant show! it pushed all my emotional buttons. all of em. i’ll be tuning in to this show every week for sure.
October 9th, 2007 at 3:21 am
I expect a HUGE ratings drop for “Cavemen” this week. It got like 11 million viewers last week out of curiousity. It should be interesting to see if it even gets 8 million.