Review
Forrest McNeil is not a bad man. That being said, viewers couldn’t help but take great delight in watching his life become an absolute train wreck over the course of Review’s first season. A critic of life itself, Forrest’s theoretically noble, but more often ridiculous passion for reviewing worldly experiences, both big (going into space, running from the law) and small (having a best friend, getting revenge), was the engine powering 2014’s most underappreciated comedy. As the host of the show-within-a-show, Review with Forrest McNeil, Forrest would subject himself to audience requests with a zeal only matched by our excitement to watch each task careen towards guest star-filled calamity (Fred Willard shows up early in the season for the sole purpose of setting up 2014’s single funniest gag).
As Forrest’s dogged commitment to each review spun his real life further out into oblivion, Review itself uncovered a surprising depth to its leading schmuck. A man of boundless enthusiasm and indomitable conviction, Forrest grew to become one of TV’s most loveable characters. Sure, his willingness to try anything would backfire on him at almost every turn, leading to a cocaine addiction, a divorce, and way, way too many ingested pancakes. But his inability to stay down in the face of so much (self-inflicted) adversity gave Review an inspirational quality that offset how gleefully it took to abusing Forrest for the sake of a joke.
None of the show’s success would have been possible without star and writer Andy Daly, who plays Forrest as a whirligig of manic energy barely contained within a tan suit and dorky glasses. A deep bench of supporting “that guys” and “that gals” from the comedy scene helped round out the cast, including Jessica St. Clair, Jason Mantzoukas, and James Urbaniak. While dismal ratings put the show’s future in jeopardy (it will be coming back for at least one more season), Review could have ended after its brief 9-episode run in 2014, and gone out knowing it offered the most complete comedy experience of the year.
