So we haven't been getting much on Netflix lately that I would consider to be very good so at this point I will try almost anything. When "The Crew" popped up on my feed I figured I would give it a go since it has Kevin James in it and sometimes he can be pretty good. I liked him a lot in King of Queens anyway.
Well, let's just say that any sort of magic that existed in KoQ does not exist in this series that I had to put down after halfway watching 3 episodes.
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The story here is that this is a Nascar racing team and they are struggling to rebuild after having a change of leadership and a less than stellar season. Kevin James plays the role of crew chief Kevin Gibson (couldn't give him a name that isn't his own?) and they have a bunch of other people you have probably never heard of (I haven't) that all have their jobs in "the crew" and of course they are supposed to be a quirky bunch with very different personalities that one would think would clash and result in some level of humor.
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Their driver, Jake, for example is a pretty boy who is an idiot that just happens to have a penchant for racing. He is terrible at everything else and well, I guess if you are 8 or have minor brain damage this might seem a bit humorous to you. For me, I prefer when Jake isn't talking.
The chief engineer is some nerdy type that really struggles with interpersonal skills and communication and I can only guess they were going for some sort of Big Bang Theory type appeal here but once again, it isn't funny and it doesn't work.
The thing that really gets me is the canned laughter. There couldn't have been a live studio audience for this so the laughter is completely fake and well, it shows because the roaring laughter happens even when things aren't even remotely funny. This is not the only sitcom that is guilty of this sin though and hopefully the whole idea behind it will be phased out before too long. Think about The Office or Modern Family or even Scrubs and how funny those shows manage to be without giving you cues as to when there was meant to be a joke - they don't have to do that because those shows are genuinely funny.
The Crew on the other hand is not. In 3 forty-minute episodes I think the show got a smile (at best) out of me a couple of times. The rest of the jokes were just dumb.
Should I watch it?
Trailers are supposed to showcase the best moments of something while still getting the overall point of a show across. Even the trailer isn't funny and that should be a pretty good indicator that I am not just being negative when I say that this show is yet another flop that isn't going to go anywhere.
All the episodes were released on the same day, which was yesterday. I think if you paid me $10 an hour to watch the rest of the 10 episodes I might do so, but I am not going to spend my leisure time on a comedy that isn't funny.... and that is precisely what this sitcom is.
