The Life & Times Of Tim – The
Complete First Season (2008/HBO
DVD)
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C- Episodes: C
There seemed a time for a while that any animated TV
series made with obscenity or mature subject matter for a mature (or immature)
audience would be a show that worked. The Simpsons, Beavis & Butt-Head, South Park
and Family Guy are classics, while Daria should be added to that
list. On the other end of the spectrum
is The Life & Times Of Tim, a
rare miss from HBO that has oversimplified animation and darker situations
presented as funny. However, as this Complete First Season shows, that is
not sufficient for the show to actually be funny.
These 20 episodes are actually half-length stories that
make each episode a double feature, which says something about how thin the
ideas are to begin with. Tim is not all
there, has that slacker thing going for him on some level, is not happy, knows
people who are dysfunctional if not outright toxic, like members of his family,
and is just not very happy about much.
That brings us to our main problem in that we have seen
and heard all of this before. A black
female neighbor who is especially wacky seems more like a racial stereotype
than a real character and creator Steve Dildarian seems too self-amused by all
of this. Someone may find this funny,
but even as some ideas have potential, Tim can seem like his own worse enemy
and all the show lands up doing is wallowing in the apathy it wants to have
humor with. Too bad, because with a
different approach, this could have worked.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is simple and
intentionally two-dimensional, but HBO has done its best to make this look good
and it is as good as it will ever look in this format. Just don’t expect much form the
playback. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is a
little better than the 2.0 Stereo mix also included, but this is a show of
simple soundtracks and much talking. The
only extra is 10 ten outtakes labeled as “Awkward
Moments: A Collection Of 10 Animated Shorts”, which gives you an ideas of
the limits here.
- Nicholas Sheffo
