An After-School Special Goes Horrible Wrong: Strangers With Candy Season 1

The Good: Inexpensive Enough, Funny, Well-acted
The Bad: Repetitive, Does not hold up well over multiple viewings, Character
The Basics: Funny and twisted, Strangers With Candy delivers over and over and over again, the same material.


The first time I watched Strangers With Candy was when I sat down with the season 1 set on DVD and watched all ten episodes back to back. This was particularly easy as the episodes are approximately twenty-two minutes in length. I had an afternoon free and this was how I spent it. In retrospect, I'm on the fence as to whether or not that was a constructive use of my time.

Strangers With Candy follows the trials and tribulations of Jerri Blank. Blank is a woman in her mid-40s who has just gotten out of prison for the life of sex and drugs that she led as a youth. Determined to set her life straight, Jerri goes back to school at Flatpoint High. There, she discovers all of the issues of the day and learns nothing from Principal Blackman, Mr. Noblet and Mr. Jellineck, the art teacher.

What this show is is an irreverent parody of after-school specials, you know, the type of movie that plays after school with an obvious lesson or moral message to it. Like those public service movies, Strangers With Candy tackles such important issues as drug use, responsibility of parenting, alcoholism, consequences, ambition, racism, and eating disorders. The twist is that Strangers With Candy satirizes all of those issues through Jerri. Jerri never learns and the conclusions she draws are always contrary to what reason and growth would imply. For example, in "Who Wants Cake?" Jerri is extorted by Principal Blackman to turn in a student who may or may not be mentally retarded. After spending the episode debating and learning the importance of trust and confidence, Jerri snitches on her new friend in order to be able to go on a class trip to Good Time Island.

That is the sort of humor we are talking about in Strangers With Candy, dark, morbidly funny stuff that it takes someone with a sick sense of humor to appreciate it. I enjoyed the sense of humor on the show, though I found myself saying "This is just horrible!" a lot.

The problem with the humor is that each episode is the same. Strangers With Candy utilizes the same reversal, the same negation of the expected moral result, each and every time. The episodes are not surprising and I discovered as I watched the episodes, I was laughing less and less with each episode. The lines would change, but the jokes would essentially be the same. And each episode resulted in Jerri not learning a real lesson. As a result, it is impossible to get emotionally invested in the characters, which is something even comedic characters ought to be able to pull off.

The last real strength of the show is in the actors. Stephen Colbert (now on The Colbert Report) delivers a strong, if repetitive, performance as Mr. Noblet. His use of physical expressions and his ability to convey a consuming air of indifference make him a wonderful actor for the strange and uncaring teacher.

Greg Hollimon is wonderful as Principal Blackman. Hollimon has an air of dignity to him that radiates and he lends a great deal of presence to his character. Hollimon is also forced to deliver some of the most tasteless and volatile lines and he does so without ever breaking character. He is a true professional.

Much of the show hinges on the performance of Amy Sedaris as Jerri Blank. Sedaris is completely convincing as Blank with her crumpled posture and drastic overbite. Sedaris has an ability to make her face utterly clueless or her voice so passionately melodramatic that it is easy to see why she would do well in a parody of After school specials. Her earnest emoting makes some of the most campy moments quite funny.

Unfortunately, in the end, I found I could not recommend this show. Should you watch it? If you can get it out of the library or your local rental store, yeah, it's worth a gander. But to own Strangers With Candy is to invite dust. The episodes are amusing, but they fade faster than most material because the jokes between episodes are so very similar. A decent show to watch, but difficult to justify buying for a permanent collection, even though the price is rather inexpensive.

For other comedy debut seasons, please visit my reviews of:
Weeds - Season 1
Frasier - The Complete First Season
Psych - Season One

5/10

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© 2011, 2005 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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