aramis-112-804880
Warning: the show goes without a laugh track to cue an audienceIn "ARCTU" Richter plays a frustrated writer doing a ho-hum nowhere job.Then there are his coworkers. Byron is the usual nebbish. Keith is remarkably perfect. Jessica is beautiful and empowered. Wendy is lovely and is Richter's unrequited love. Oh, and Richter talks to the "ghost" of the firm's founder who, since he is a product of Richter's imagination, carries every nasty stereotype of 1800s businessmen.The catch about this show is, Richter sees the world through his writer's imagination. So he can reenact any scene any number of times in a way he would prefer, though it always reverts back to reality in the end. Richter's POV stretches to his coworkers. Because Richter believes good looking people get by easier, Keith is never shown doing work.Jessica, however, Richter's beautiful boss, is too picky when it comes to men and will end a relationship on the lightest possible premises (although in "Holy Sheep" Jessica has a sub-plot where she is dating a remarkably talented but monstrously hideous man. She tries to hide her revulsion but Paget Brewster's reactions are wonderful -- and don't let go of "Holy Sheep" until the very end, it has one of the best closing tags ever).It's easy to see why the show didn't last. The lack of a Pavlovian-response laugh track and reenacting scenes again and again so they have different resolutions was probably confusing to the average television viewer (the later was dropped as the show continued).The real problem of "ARCTU" is that it feels obliged to tackle "issues." Oh, it does it in a funny way. For instance, in one episode a black co-worker gets upset when Richter makes a disparaging remark -- about the IRISH. But the POV is always skewed. When the idea of hiring a co-worker of a different race is mooted, everyone accepts without question the premise that it's only right to target minorities; no one raises the irony that this approach is itself racist and may exacerbate race problems. Gimme a C" examines whether a total creep should be admired because he is fighting cancer (jaded as I am, I laughed harder at this episode than anything I ever saw on television,including "Green Acres" and "Monty Python" -- and I was sober).Unfortunately, with issues comes the dreaded MORAL. Rather than every episode being funny for the sake of funniness, the writers absurdly strain to make each episode a learning experience. Ironically, it often isn't, since leftist mindsets are never really challenged or given alternatives, as with the "race" thing mentioned above. But Andy Richter is given some stupid little Aesopean baloney to spout at the end, which generally reflects what he thought all along. So, in a way, the idea of Richter's mind expanding the universe is a lie and Richter never really learns anything he doesn't already know (the sign of a stupid person). But until the soppy little moral tacked on at the end, some of the shows are devastatingly funny in whole or part.Then, after the first eight or so episodes, "ARCTU" falls into the sitcom ruts and patterns. If it had continued it would have jumped the shark quickly (I think it actually did with "Bully the Kid").Overall, a brilliant show, breaking new ground, and worth seeing for anyone who can get into the humor. But it failed on as many levels as it succeeds, by pretending to be mind-expanding but nevertheless never really showing open-mindedness (as it never questions cockeyed, questionable, or even dishonest left-wing dogma). While Richter always has a tacky little moral tacked on, it's never directed so much at Richter, but at the viewer, who has to be carefully instructed -- and here's the catch -- in the correct way to think. Not that we the viewer should expand our minds and learn how to think in wonderfully new ways, but that we should learn to think the way the weekly "ARCTU" lesson teaches us.Brushing the show's hypocrisy aside, I will point out my own close connection to "ARCTU." When it aired I was an aspiring writer in a nowhere job (in government, not the private sector, where the idiocy is even more so). What happened to Richter in the first episode -- finding a new employee he had not been told out in his office -- actually happened to me. (Note: After the pilot, watch the episode called "The Second Episode") I turned up one morning and someone I had never seen before or been warned about was sitting at a desk in my office. Furthermore, when the episode aired I had a bossy female supervisor about as hung up as Jessica (though, curiously, her name was "Wendy" which is the name of the receptionist here). So the whole series had reverberations in my own life that might not ring true for other viewers.Overall: There is not altogether truth in advertising here, but the show is nevertheless one of the funniest ever, when it is allowed to be. But by the end it becomes a pale shadow of itself.
Catherine_Grace_Zeh
"ANDY RICHTER CONTROLS THE UNIVERSE," in my opinion, is an absolute FOX classic! I don't think I've seen every episode, but I still enjoyed it. It's hard to say which episode was my favorite. However, I think it was always funny when a mishap occurred. I always laughed at that. Despite the fact that it was a short-lived series, it was nice that all of the main characters had stayed with the show throughout its entire run. It seems that no one stays with a show throughout its entire run. Everyone always gave a good performance, the production design was spectacular, the costumes were well-designed, and the writing was always very strong. In conclusion, I hope someone brings it back on the air for fans of the show to see.
M. C. Brennan (penelopedanger)
"Andy Richter" was a wonderful, all-too-short-lived TV series that followed the fictional "Andy" through his moribund work days--and, more often, through the frustrated writer's hilariously warped fantasy life--a sort of Walter Mitty on bad acid. Subversive and screamingly funny, "Andy Richter" was brilliantly conceived and sharply written, and the cast--from Richter himself to Paget Brewster, Irene Molloy, Jonathan Slavin and James Patrick Stuart--had tremendous chemistry and perfect comic timing. Like the live-action "The Tick" (another casualty of Fox's early 2000s "create brilliant shows and then slaughter them like rabid dogs" policy), "Andy Richter" was a postmodern delight that was gone too soon. One can only pray to the mighty disc gods for a DVD release.
SMLA11
This is an excellent new show. It has a much different formula than other shows. It goes from the point of view by a man named Andy Richter. It shows what happened, what could've happened, and what thankfully didn't happen. It is a very creative formula and a very funny one. I have never laughed so hard in a long time while watching this. The characters are very cool and the storylines of the episodes are very creative.Overall the show is a very pleasant new show and I hope that it doesn't get the axe. Rating ***1/2 out of ****.
