At a New York Comic Con panel on Friday, TBS premiered the pilot episode of their newest sci-fi series, People of Earth . The show, which premieres worldwide on Halloween, features Wyatt Cenac as a reporter who just wants to write a story about a support group for alien abductees. As the plot progresses, we get to learn that these guys and girls who claim to have met extraterrestrials might not just be as crazy as you originally thought.
I had high hopes going into this panel for People of Earth. Wyatt Cenac is one of the funniest comedians I’ve seen, and I’d often laugh uproariously while watching his correspondent segments on Jon Stewart’s Daily Show . For weeks on end I’d visit his weekly stand up show in Brooklyn called Night Train, pouncing at the chance to watch a master of the craft perform.
After watching the pilot episode of People of Earth , I can say it’s an out-of-this-world dud. The jokes fall flat, the characters are unoriginal and it just isn’t everything. Keep in mind that all we got to see was the first episode which sets up the story for future arcs, but the pilot is really not interesting for those who want a little more out of their comedy.
The jokes in the pilot of People of Earth feel like they were rushed. They are peppered in throughout the pilot, completely ruining my ability to engage with the show. For example, the first time Cenac’s character sits down with the support group, Brian Huskey, who I also love unconditionally, delivers this weird speech about how everyone in power is a reptilian shapeshifter, including every president. Cenac rolls his eyes and comedy is created, drum roll please. Later we learn that there are actually reptilians in charge, but the reveal would have been so much more satisfying if it wasn’t teased with humor even Borscht belt comics would scoff at.
Alongside the terrible one-liners are some truly strange sight gags. Cenac’s boss, played by Michael Cassidy from Argo, rides around his office on this desk/ segway hybrid. I have no idea where the laughs are supposed to come from. Is it because he’s a boss who is out of touch with the common man and it’s a rich thing to do, or is it because it’s ridiculous looking? Either way as a viewer it just comes off as hacky and an easy way to try to get a laugh.
Another sight gag involved a couple in a car having sex getting abducted by aliens. During the panel Cenac said that “that sight gag cost over $20,000.” (Correction: the $20,000 sight gag was the moving desk.) To be fair, if I was a writer on a major television show and had money to burn, I’d probably do the same thing. Maybe I’m just expecting too much out of People of Earth, which is on TBS the channel that still airs more Big Bang Theory reruns than original content.
There’s still a lot of potential in People Of Earth . The cast is genius, Oscar Nunez of The Office acclaim shows up as the pastor that owns the church where the support group meets and he’s really funny. The show looks gorgeous, the aliens are believable and I can’t wait to see more deer people. Even with all of that, the show just doesn't click because the jokes just don’t work.
