Welcome to the second edition of Lydia’s Channel 101 Reviews! I am so grateful to all of you for the frankly terrifying amount of attention and feedback on my first set of reviews!

Since last screening, Adult Swim put out a 21-minute special called Art Prison. It’s full of Channel 101 people throughout the cast and crew – written by New York Stories duo Tom Kauffman and Paul Isakson, directed by Danny Jelinek, and featuring performances from Randall Park, LeJon, and the guy who played Rico in the first episode of Baby Mentalist. Dan Harmon has a small role on screen in addition to his role as executive producer, and I think I even spotted Spencer Strauss in a guard tower even though I didn’t see his name in the credits. It’s hilarious, it’s a lot of fun, and I’m definitely not nervous that people I critique in this blog wrote a story about an art critic getting harassed and abused by a prison gang made up of artists.

Three new shows made the top five at the July Channel 101 screening, and two shows bade us farewell with a self-cancelling finale episode. Without further delay, let’s do like they do at the Beyond Yacht Rock podcast and count ’em down!

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Retired – Lil’ Stevie Wanders, Ep. 3 [Created by Austin Stock]

Fan favourite Lil’ Stevie said goodbye to Channel 101 with more of the kind of sci-fi action sequences that brought Austin Stock a second place finish with the audience in May, but this time we’re also presented with a lot more exposition and narration. I was lukewarm on the first two episodes of Lil’ Stevie precisely because we had no idea what was going on, with little to elevate it beyond bizarre randomness. The Lil’ Stevie Facebook page explains, ‘Every lover he has encountered has been murdered by the United States Government.’ That’s an intriguing fact to drop on the audience, and I wish we had learned it during the show! Now in the third episode we finally start to learn more of Stevie’s origin, his purpose, and his powers, but unfortunately it all comes during the last time we’ll get to see him at Channel 101.

Grade: B+

Retired – Making Partner, Ep. 7 [Created by Ted Marsden, Monica Loomba, and KP Parker]

It’s the series finale of Making Partner, which means one thing: it’s the last chance for Frechette and Castellano to do that thing that’s the title of the show! And they have 27 minutes to do it – gosh this is a long episode! So: one of the old white dudes who started the law firm is retiring, and some diversity initiative says his replacement can’t be a white dude. What an opportunity for our two legal heroines, right? Well, for one of them, at least. Calloway (the boss) says the firm is only looking for one candidate to be promoted to partner, although Frechette and Castellano never seem to acknowledge that they are competing with each other. That’s a shame, because it would have been a great opportunity to explore the differences between the two characters, which I feel was never explored enough throughout the run of the show. Instead, they work together on a charity fundraiser – it’s not the strongest plot the series has presented, and the strengths of the show were maybe diluted by the extended running time. But that’s compensated for by some excellent guest appearances, especially from Kate Freund and Davey Johnson as a pair of divorced divorce lawyers, and a closing song from Bryan Rainstein, whose performance as the sympathetic jerk Calloway has been a highlight since the start of the series.

Grade: B



8th place – Beak of the Week [created by Travis Rust and Douglas Freedman]

As a musician, songwriter, and producer (whose services are available for hire! get at me, yo!) I always like hearing original theme songs in Channel 101 shows, and Beak of the Week has a pretty great one! This pilot starts off like a nature show: our host, Doug, gets an email question about a bird, and then heads outside to investigate. But it’s not long before we are very much off the rails that were set up at the beginning, and by the end I wasn’t quite sure what I was watching anymore. Was it just a day in the life of Doug? Was this his real life, with his real friends and co-workers, presented in full honest view for the audience? Was it just one big advertisement for that bar he works at? Is this parody or is it exactly what it is on the surface? It has its share of entertaining moments, but I wish it had stayed true to the bird concept. He gives up on the bird search so quickly! Finally: clear out your email drafts box, Doug! You have 145 messages you almost sent but never will, break with the past and set yourself free!

Grade: C+

7th place – Earl the Gay Polar Bear, Ep. 5 [Created by Willy Laszlo]

Channel 101 has never been a den of political satire. The most political shows of Channel 101 history were usually at their heart something else: Pretty President was mostly a character drama, Quicksand was an absurdist parody of political drama, Chandler Duke 4 Prez was more of a reality show, and Not Without My Fucking Country was, um… a one-of-a-kind cinematic event. Earl the Gay Polar Bear did the opposite, starting off as a comedy based in social issues and turning more political as it went on. So what got Earl cancelled? Did the audience decide that politics just doesn’t belong at Channel 101? Was it that Earl wasn’t present in this episode enough, and the scenes with the political operatives just weren’t that funny or interesting? Did we miss the opening theme song, and wonder why it was replaced with a recap that took up 45 seconds out of a 281-second show? Earl the Gay Polar Bear was a landmark of innovative storytelling, and although I wish we got to see where Laszlo was taking the story at the end, there’s only space for five shows in Prime Time. Thanks for the memories, Earl.

Grade: B-



6th place – Cunt Hunters [Created by Tara McGorry]

Sometimes the title of a show can say a lot. Well, this show is called Cunt Hunters (“We’re cunts who hunt!”) but it’s hunting in the sense of hunting for adventure, or hunting for answers: like Dora the Explorer, or Blue’s Clues – they’re even wearing striped shirts like Steve. And I’m not making comparisons to educational children’s shows for nothing – Cunt Hunters is edited like one, complete with songs, cutaway explanations, and silly sound effects. The catch is that they cover decidedly adult content, like if Reading Rainbow did an episode on The Vagina Monologues. That three-foot long vulva pillow makes its second appearance – I guess when you own one of those, you want to make the most of it. Like that dog head mask that used to make its way around various Channel 101 shows like ten years ago. You know what I’m talking about? The dog head? Anyway, in this pilot, Hunters McGorry and Bateman travel to… well, according to that map, somewhere near the ghost town of Padlei in Nunavut, Canada, where they talk to a child who thinks there is a monster under the bed. It’s a genuinely cute premise, and it’s actually far more sincere than you might expect, but like the children’s shows they’re taking after, it’s also kind of annoying.

Grade: B-

5th place: Alex Kavutskiy’s Guide to Filmmaking, Ep. 3 [Created by Alex Kavutskiy]

It only took me three episodes to realize that the man in front of the camera saying ‘I’m Channel 101 legend Alex Kavutskiy’ isn’t actually Channel 101 legend Alex Kavutskiy. My bad. Anyway, this episode is about editing, so, true to the Guide’s contrary form, we are treated to some hilariously lazy post-production effects – and a two-word Wade Randolph cameo. Kelsy Abbott gives a great performance as an editor who uses her film editing techniques to address real-life problems. It’s the same sort of blurring between fiction and reality within the world of the Guide to Filmmaking that made the first two episodes so vibrant. So, why didn’t I like episode three as much? It’s still very good – especially the last scene between Abbott and Kavutskiy Millstein – but maybe some of the jokes didn’t land as well this time around. I want to say the story didn’t feel as real this time, but do I mean that it was more realistic when actors literally wouldn’t move until they heard the word ‘action’? The camera seemed shakier than average in this episode, but it’s always been shot in a shaky handheld style. Maybe it’s not as tightly edited this time. Is the episode about editing not edited as well as previous episodes? Was that on purpose? Did I fall for some kind of multi-level trolling? I’m overthinking this – I should visit one of those establishments that sells food and beverages.

Grade: B+

4th place: Treefeelers, Ep. 1 [Created by Robbie Bruens]

What is a Treefeeler? A Treefeeler is someone who feels trees. Why? For the trees’ physical pleasure, apparently. Also, humans and trees can communicate by some kind of telepathy now. Here in the first episode, we meet two Treefeelers – one who isn’t very good at feeling trees. The other is better at his… I’m going to say job(?), but he is also trying to work up the courage to ask his less-talented co-worker on a date. Okay, so that’s the plot, and with that out of the way, gosh do I have some questions about the Treefeelers universe. Can all humans in this universe communicate with trees, or just the Treefeelers? If trees can use language, what about grass, or mushrooms, or dogs? Are the Treefeelers like physical therapists for trees? Are their services necessary for the trees’ health, or is it a luxury that only wealthy trees indulge in? Do they make money at this? The boss character says something about ‘green’ but given the circumstances, that could mean either money or tree leaves. The Treefeelers pilot is not a perfect episode – some of the dialogue is repetitive, we could afford to get to know our characters more before sending them on a date, and the indoor scene could have been lit better – but I admire the originality of the concept, and I look forward to every single one of my super important questions about the Treefeelers universe being addressed in the second episode.

Grade: B

3rd place: Wednesday Morning Cartoons, Ep. 1 [Created by Tyler March and Eric Paperth]

Here we have our second show about trees, and the fourth show with a nice original theme song to go with it! Just Two Trees is an animated show about two kids who have been turned into trees, with a writing and visual style that kind of resembles a Seth McFarlane show (or the closest 101 comparison might be Commuters from earlier this year). It’s fine for what it is, but it’s a little mainstream versus what I’ve come to expect from Channel 101. When Channel 101 gives us trees, for example, I expect those trees to be stroked lovingly by human hands. So okay, now for problem number two: Just Two Trees ended on a punchline that pretty much makes it impossible to continue. In fact, the series is called Wednesday Morning Cartoons, which all but guarantees that there’s going to be no continuity between episodes whatsoever. That makes it feel more like the audience voted for the creators rather than voting for the show, and if Channel 101 was about voting for the creators, you bet I’d be looking for a way to rig the election for Paul Isakson every time. I’m still working out this grading system as I go, but a major factor so far has been, if I were at the screening, would I vote for it to come back next month. Wednesday Morning Cartoons did exactly what it set out to do, but it’s a little short on ambition, and just not a great fit for Channel 101, in my opinion.

Grade: C+

2nd place: The Credits, Ep. 1 [Created by Paul Isakson and Brad Gage]

So I just said that what I look for in a Channel 101 show is something that wants to be extended into a series, and given the title of this one and the description on the website (“Cap’n Crunch’s Oops! All Berries“) I thought maybe we were in for another random sketch show in the vein of 2012’s Commercial Break. But in fact, The Credits does some incredibly creative storytelling within its self-imposed limits, in addition to having a great, polished cinematic visual style, and some of the best jokes of the whole screening. By showing us the final five minutes of a fictional movie (‘Heisters’) – including, you guessed it, the credits – we get to piece together not only the story of the fictional movie, but the story of the actors and crew who made it. Throw in some footage from God’s Not Dead 2, and you bet I’d rather watch this than a whole 90-minute Heisters movie.

Grade: A

1st place: Blake & Blake, Ep. 2 [Created by Curt Neill and Chelsea Morgan]

It’s Episode Two and the Blakes are now roommates. Curt-Blake’s girlfriend comes to visit, and she and Chelsea-Blake clash until they find some common ground to bond over. Chelsea-Blake is a little more Spencer-ish in this episode than she was in the first episode, and it’s possible this living situation might cause her to regress. Curt-Blake acknowledges the presence of the cameras, and says ‘we’re making a documentary’, leaving me to wonder if a future episode will reveal more about the origin or the plans for this documentary. Also, there’s probably some backstory to Curt-Blake greeting his girlfriend at the door with ‘What are you doing here?’ In all, it’s a fun show that’s fun to speculate about, and after watching Morgan dance around her new pad, I think I’ll be incorporating some morning rage time into my life too.

Grade: A-

My ranking:

1st: The Credits, Ep. 1 (A)

2nd: Blake & Blake, Ep. 2 (A-)

3rd: Alex Kavutskiy’s Guide to Filmmaking, Ep. 3 (B+)

4th: Lil’ Stevie Wanders, Ep. 3 (B+)

5th: Treefeelers, Ep. 1 (B)

6th: Making Partner, Ep. 7 (B)

7th: Earl the Gay Polar Bear, Ep. 5 (B-)

8th: Cunt Hunters (B-)

9th: Beak of the Week (C+)

10th: Wednesday Morning Cartoons, Ep. 1 (C+)

Screening date: 28 July 2018

This review published: 5 August 2018