Grimsburg

There is so much going on—so many visual gags, puns, obscure pop-cultural citations and pure weirdness for weirdness's sake—that a viewer might not absorb it all until he or she watches it twice. Which I found myself happy to do. And which was much more rewarding than once.

“Grimsburg” jokes fly by at warp speed. Some of them are quite funny, but the show’s unrelenting barrage of one-liners, non-sequiturs and word play does feel familiar.

Grimsburg is guilty if trying too hard. [8 - 28 Jan, p.8]

“Grimsburg” frequently succeeds in getting laughs at the expense of an industrial complex that’s long since jumped the shark. .... But “Grimsburg” runs into the same problem as many spoofs when it comes to cultivating emotional stakes, which are needed for any show’s longevity no matter how silly the premise. We’re never sure how seriously to take any twist.

The jokes it finds therein are … kind of funny. Only a few rise to the level of an out-loud giggle, but even fewer slip into the category of actively annoying; for a pop-culture parody, the batting average could be worse.

Grimsburg is a comedy that suffers from too many jokes, which seems to be impossible, but this show proves that it can happen.