TRAFFIC LIGHT “Kiss Me Kate” Review

TRAFFIC LIGHT “Kiss Me Kate” Episode 8 – As with most new shows I follow (especially with BRAND NEW shows), I will go with a rundown of the premise and primaries:

Traffic Light centers around the friendship of three men who have been friends since college and are now in their 30′s. It’s a “romantic comedy” if we’re trying to be specific, though I’ve seen little in the way of actual romance on the show. Traffic Light was adapted from a like-minded show from across the pond (what show isn’t these days?) called Ramzor. Adir Miller is the responsible entity. It’s sort of in the How I Met Your Mother / Rules of Engagement mindset in that each couple (and the one single dude) are basically in different stages of their lives.

I wish it was half as good as either of those shows. Each character feels like a lesser version of other characters we’ve seen many times before. This show had pretty good buzz for a short bit, so I was hopeful going into it. “Kiss Me Kate” was the first Traffic Light episode I’ve ever seen, so bear with me. Here are the players:

Mike (Dave Denman) is purported to be the series lead, but I’m not really sure. Mike is slothful and insolent, some sort of amalgamation of Danny McBride’s Kenny Powers character (from HBO’s Eastbound and Down) and every role Vince Vaughn has ever played. And maybe this sort of character appeals to people who like Vince Vaughn. I, however, hate Vince Vaughn. Kenny Powers I can deal with, so that makes Mike halfway tolerable. The Traffic Light website states that Mike is “trying to carve out a little space for himself,” and I’m not even sure what that means. Maybe that’s just license for neanderthal behavior. But he’s not the least likable character on the show.

Lisa (Liza Lapira) is … well, here we go: she’s the token Competitive Asian (because we haven’t seen that before). In “Kiss Me Kate” she gets bumped in the pool by a woman swimming laps and decides to literally go after her—she hands her son off to slovenly Mike and charges into the pool. It’s not even funny that she whiffs and rams her head into the wall. It’s a setup for XXX to save her life (I guess), and that’s basically her entire role. According to her bio, Lisa is “an advertising executive, enjoys bragging about her son, drinking off-dry Riesling, and arguing with her sisters.” I haven’t seen any of that so I can’t say.

Adam (Nelson Franklin) is probably the funniest dude on the show; sort of a mix between Diedrich Bader and John Krasinski, maybe with a smattering of That Dude on Mad Men with the Glasses. Adam is a writer for a magazine called BLOKE (I kid you not). According to his bio he likes large spectacles and small women, ones like his significant other Callie…

Callie (Aya Cash) is loved by Adam, and probably only Adam, because she’s literally the worst female character on the show. Her sister Kate (Katheryn Hahn) is much more charismatic and (more importantly) funnier. According to her bio, Callie is a “free spirit,” who’s goal is to live to one hundred years old and have her birthday party on a hovercraft in Anchorage, Alaska.

Exciting.

From what I’ve seen—and granted this is only from one show—Callie just like to whine and get foot rubs. If the show is in jeopardy (and what FOX show isn’t?) I would jettison her post haste and follow Adam as a struggling single dude. Because…

Ethan (Kris Marshall) is the most ridiculous and useless character on the show. He wants to be the British version of HIMYM’s Barney and fails spectacularly. Well, not spectacularly; he doesn’t do anything spectacularly. He just mopes around with a hangdog look and limp hair that, quite frankly, could use a good wash. If dude is in his 30′s, it looks like he’s bypassing his 40′s and moving straight on to 50. He just looks like he doesn’t take care of himself, which I guess is par for course if you’re a late-30′s single slacker (maybe he couldn’t let go of the 1990′s), but at that age you’d think a little hygiene wouldn’t be out of the question.

(And no, don’t throw any “unwashed Euro” jokes my way, please. Brits bathe, I swear to god.)

Useless. I don’t see where this show is going. Someone who recommended Traffic Light to me compared it to It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. No, it’s not. Not by a long shot. I still don’t even know why it’s called “Traffic Light.” Metaphor for something, I suppose. One is going, one is stopping, one is … either hesitating or speeding up? Your guess is as good as mine.

Maybe next week won’t make me want to reach through the television and slap the cast.

Follow me on Twitter @Axechucker

By Tobias J. "Axechucker" McGuffin | March 30, 2011 | 3 Comments

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http://twitter.com/avawark …

I’ve been sort of forcing myself to watch each episode of this show in hopes of it getting better and I still just find every character to be dull and unlikable. I feel no chemistry between the actors. Dave Denman had better chemistry as the mildly abusive Roy interacting with Pam in “The Office”.
As for Kris Marshall, I’ve been repulsed by that guy since “Love Actually”.
I gotta just wash my hands and give up on “Traffic Light”.
Anonymous

I saw the Israeli (original) version of the show. It really was a completely different show all together. Connection between the original and the Fox version is utterly coincedental. The original show was hilarious, Fox show is just not funny. Fox just butchered a good witty show and turned into something bland and boring. The creator should have sold his show to HBO or Showtime, then it would have been well done.
Dude

You really should watch more episodes before reviewing an entire show, and making assumptions like “she’s the token Competitive Asian”. Really, you should watch all the shows, as there aren’t that many to watch at this point. The storylines for each character are bigger and smaller depending on the episode, and you’re not going to get the entire sense of a character from one episode. For instance with Lisa, we’ve seen a lot more to her in different episodes and she’s very likable and certainly not just the ‘token Competitive Asian’. Making assumptions on an entire character’s point on the show from one episode is short-sighted and in a way, kind of insulting to asian americans who are finally getting a non-token representative with a fairly substatial role in other episodes. I’m just focusing on this one point because I found it the worst of your many assumptions.

One more – if you had watched more episodes than this one, you’d also see much more to callie, a rather sweet and cute character that does more than “like to whine and get foot rubs” and certainly not prefer her sister – last episode was quite unbearable. Seriously, are you unfamiliar with tv shows where you can’t figure out an entire character from ONE episode? I usually love reading reviews of shows afterward… I have no problem with negative reviews, but this review really irked me with the masses of assumptions based on one 20 minute episode, knowing nothing else about the characters yet attempting to already have them and their roles completely figured out.

I’m not in love with this show, but I do think it’s funny enough to watch – because I’ve watched from the beginning and am getting to know the characters. It’s fine not to like it, but you should watch more before assuming you have the whole show and all its characters figured out.