January 2, 2020

Odd.

My husband and I just had the oddest television viewing experience. With the New Year Earl is encouraging me to venture outside of my viewing comfort zone. Instead of watching the handful of series we follow on network television, let’s look at the streaming services and watch things we wouldn’t usually watch.

Netflix suggested “John Mulaney & The Sack Lunch Bunch”.

Now, we’ve been to see John Mulaney before. He’s a funny guy. We’ve seen him live, we’ve watched his stand up specials, I think we even watched one episode of his self-named series so we were familiar with his comedic style.

There were moments in “The Sack Lunch Bunch” where I wasn’t sure if I was suppose to laugh or cringe or applaud or whatever. And that was perfectly OK.

Pre-teens singing about their father, a drag queen, or grandma’s boyfriend Paul, well, was interesting. It was funny but I felt a little odd laughing. I was constantly wondering if the kids knew what they were singing about.

The production value of the special was spot on 1970s and 80s “Children’s Television Workshop”. All that was missing was Rita Moreno’s “Hey You Guys” and Morgan Freeman looking young and hip in a leisure suit.

Overall a catchy show with catchy music and catchy graphics and production values. I suggest watching it, even if you do it ironically.