10 Items Or Less

"Items" is like NBC's "The Office" on laughing gas - the same kind of poker-faced dysfunction in a crushingly ordinary setting, but faster and funnier.

It's as much miss as hit. [1 Dec 2006, p.75]

The show, in its way, is too slight to be totally fulfilling, tending to collapse into slapstick, but it can get by on moments.

While you have to give them credit for trying something at least a little different, the creators and cast try way too hard to pull laughs out of the situation and the show comes off as forced and unbelievable.

The improvisations are sometimes so forced that I swear you can actually see the actors thinking about what to say next.

"10 Items or Less" labors too hard at being clever and occasionally teeters into shrill mode where a half-dozen characters are all yelling at each other simultaneously.

Yet another doomed and dreadful attempt to bring improv comedy to television.