Mike Myers comedy The Pentaverate is the perfect example of Netflix bloat - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

TMC · 05-07-2022, 02:23 AM

https://variety.com/2022/tv/reviews/...ow-1235259293/

The Pentaverate is "Netflix’s newest comedy starring a comedian whose most relevant and lucrative days are long behind him," says Caroline Framke, who points out that even the show winks at the fact that it acts "as a symbol of Netflix’s commitment to giving Myers as much time, money and creative freedom as he wants." Framke adds: "At first glance, it’s kind of interesting that The Pentaverate is a limited series. Upon watching it, however, it’s clear that this television show is actually just an overlong movie chopped into six pieces. It’s tempting to say that this series, with its lack of editorial eye and surprisingly expensive production value, is emblematic of what Netflix has become now. But the truth is that The Pentaverate is exactly in line with what the streaming giant has been doing for years, as it collects aging comedians like Pokémon, writes giant checks to anyone who might bring in more viewers, and lets them make shows and movies with bafflingly long runtimes. In other words: this show is a feature, not a bug."

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The Pentaverate is a profoundly unfunny series of sex and poop jokes: "Even with the Second City alum creating a myriad of prosthetics-laden comedic characters who are intermittently amusing, even with a few fairly clever Easter Eggs and meta jokes and callbacks to previous Mike Myers projects and some high-profile cameos, this is a decidedly flat and excessively juvenile series that wallows in a nonstop barrage of scatological humor and cheap, sexual-innuendo puns, e.g., a Toronto news station has the call letters CACA, as in ‘ca-ca’ as in poop, and a hotel is called 'Big Dick’s Half Way Inn,' get it? Got it. Eeesh," says Richard Roeper, adding that "presented with first-rate production values indicating a sizable budget, The Pentaverate nevertheless feels forced and often profoundly unfunny. (It’s almost never a good sign when characters laugh at their own jokes or the one-liners delivered by others.)"
The Pentaverate is a sweet, silly, charmingly harmless thing – and funny, if you like that sort of thing: "You could do better; you could do worse," says Lucy Mangan. "But for between 25 and 28 minutes at a time, it should take you out of yourself and into a world of mustard-robed elders, bum jokes and general daftness. Scrabble and ye shall find."
Mike Myers manages to dodge calamity with The Pentaverate: "Resurrecting a megapopular comic sensibility years later is a scenario primed for disaster. And yet, for the most part, The Pentaverate manages to dodge calamity," says Kathryn VanArendonk, adding: "More than anything else, The Pentaverate is a more anxious TV-show version of Austin Powers — not the franchise but the character. Its core lies close to Austin’s sweeter, softer sides, those moments when the Myers voice truly seems to feel bad about making someone uncomfortable. Even at his most thoughtless and misogynistic, Austin’s central impulse is never ill will. In a similar way, the Pentaverate may be a secret cabal, but its members are also nice. As you watch Myers play a whole host of goofuses and gallants, each of them padded, rounded, stretched, or shrunk into a not-quite-unrecognizable new shape, his comedy DNA comes into focus — a persona and ideology trapped in amber, then reanimated decades in the future. His sense of humor and methodology are so little changed that the series itself seems pleased but perplexed to be here."
Comedy is about pacing and timing, and these elongated Netflix projects most often falter in that department: "Every time The Pentaverate develops a rhythm, it goes on a tangent to fill space—typically one that shows off the fact that this show is allowed to be very R-rated on Netflix," says Brian Tallerico. "It’s like a stand-up set that has some good material surrounded by 45 minutes of filler. And Myers’ filler is more aggressive than some other comedian’s, built on silly accents and wordplay that goes on forever. The repetition is often the joke, which works in quick hits in a film or sketch but not so much over three hours."
Mike Myers' journalist character is a tribute to the profession: “I really wanted to dedicate this show to local journalists,” Myers said of the series in which he plays a character loosely based on a beloved Canadian journalist, the late Glenn Cochrane. “Right now, in the global war between fascism and democracy, the first casualty of war is truth. Getting rid of local news is just the beginning of a slippery slope of all unfalsifiable fact.”

05-07-2022, 02:23 AM	#1
TMC Member Forum Idol Join Date: Jan 09, 2001 Posts: 124,676	Mike Myers comedy The Pentaverate is the perfect example of Netflix bloat https://variety.com/2022/tv/reviews/...ow-1235259293/ The Pentaverate is "Netflix’s newest comedy starring a comedian whose most relevant and lucrative days are long behind him," says Caroline Framke, who points out that even the show winks at the fact that it acts "as a symbol of Netflix’s commitment to giving Myers as much time, money and creative freedom as he wants." Framke adds: "At first glance, it’s kind of interesting that The Pentaverate is a limited series. Upon watching it, however, it’s clear that this television show is actually just an overlong movie chopped into six pieces. It’s tempting to say that this series, with its lack of editorial eye and surprisingly expensive production value, is emblematic of what Netflix has become now. But the truth is that The Pentaverate is exactly in line with what the streaming giant has been doing for years, as it collects aging comedians like Pokémon, writes giant checks to anyone who might bring in more viewers, and lets them make shows and movies with bafflingly long runtimes. In other words: this show is a feature, not a bug." ALSO: The Pentaverate is a profoundly unfunny series of sex and poop jokes: "Even with the Second City alum creating a myriad of prosthetics-laden comedic characters who are intermittently amusing, even with a few fairly clever Easter Eggs and meta jokes and callbacks to previous Mike Myers projects and some high-profile cameos, this is a decidedly flat and excessively juvenile series that wallows in a nonstop barrage of scatological humor and cheap, sexual-innuendo puns, e.g., a Toronto news station has the call letters CACA, as in ‘ca-ca’ as in poop, and a hotel is called 'Big Dick’s Half Way Inn,' get it? Got it. Eeesh," says Richard Roeper, adding that "presented with first-rate production values indicating a sizable budget, The Pentaverate nevertheless feels forced and often profoundly unfunny. (It’s almost never a good sign when characters laugh at their own jokes or the one-liners delivered by others.)" The Pentaverate is a sweet, silly, charmingly harmless thing – and funny, if you like that sort of thing: "You could do better; you could do worse," says Lucy Mangan. "But for between 25 and 28 minutes at a time, it should take you out of yourself and into a world of mustard-robed elders, bum jokes and general daftness. Scrabble and ye shall find." Mike Myers manages to dodge calamity with The Pentaverate: "Resurrecting a megapopular comic sensibility years later is a scenario primed for disaster. And yet, for the most part, The Pentaverate manages to dodge calamity," says Kathryn VanArendonk, adding: "More than anything else, The Pentaverate is a more anxious TV-show version of Austin Powers — not the franchise but the character. Its core lies close to Austin’s sweeter, softer sides, those moments when the Myers voice truly seems to feel bad about making someone uncomfortable. Even at his most thoughtless and misogynistic, Austin’s central impulse is never ill will. In a similar way, the Pentaverate may be a secret cabal, but its members are also nice. As you watch Myers play a whole host of goofuses and gallants, each of them padded, rounded, stretched, or shrunk into a not-quite-unrecognizable new shape, his comedy DNA comes into focus — a persona and ideology trapped in amber, then reanimated decades in the future. His sense of humor and methodology are so little changed that the series itself seems pleased but perplexed to be here." Comedy is about pacing and timing, and these elongated Netflix projects most often falter in that department: "Every time The Pentaverate develops a rhythm, it goes on a tangent to fill space—typically one that shows off the fact that this show is allowed to be very R-rated on Netflix," says Brian Tallerico. "It’s like a stand-up set that has some good material surrounded by 45 minutes of filler. And Myers’ filler is more aggressive than some other comedian’s, built on silly accents and wordplay that goes on forever. The repetition is often the joke, which works in quick hits in a film or sketch but not so much over three hours." Mike Myers' journalist character is a tribute to the profession: “I really wanted to dedicate this show to local journalists,” Myers said of the series in which he plays a character loosely based on a beloved Canadian journalist, the late Glenn Cochrane. “Right now, in the global war between fascism and democracy, the first casualty of war is truth. Getting rid of local news is just the beginning of a slippery slope of all unfalsifiable fact.”