Review of SitcomD&D - Good Premise and Has Promise with a Few

Good Premise and Has Promise with a Few Adjustments

☆

“First of all, let’s be clear. I came here for the Erin Kief, who is a comedic being of pure light and joy. I stayed for the dice. Erin was excellent as anticipated. She lets jokes breathe and is always willing to prod others to shine. Her moment of personification, when she really seemed to live in her character was her cooking up grits with unearned self confidence. Genuine character arc and organic development. Top marks. I found the DM Sean to be quite good as well and liked the sitcom theme woven throughout. He had me at “Thatso Raven.” Well done sir. Content wise, the players hit some really strong comedic beats. I am still learning who everyone is so forgive the lack of names. Yelling after a customer that the waffle machine is broken… *chef’s kiss* right on brand for sitcom comedy. I also need to share some honest feedback that I hope will be received as constructive. I agree with the other reviews that say the laugh track needs to be decreased significantly in frequency and volume. It cannot underlie almost every joke or quip. The cast is funny enough and this is a detractor. I also found it a little forward to have a Patreon with paid bonus content in Episode 1. This makes it feel like your listeners are only getting half of your best work from the git go. More free episodes is a better chance to get traction right away. It’s too soon for a paywall. It suggests that the show has fully matured and come into its own before anyone has heard it, which is a little offputting. Finally, and I do not intend this to hurt feelings, but the Beef character needs reworking. He (she) had one of the funniest lines “Wait a minute…what did you say?” Pure gold. Great sitcom stuff. (I know it doesn’t translate in text but trust me. Fantastic.) However, I found Beef in general to be way too much. And far too many of his jokes did not land for this reason: just being weird or inappropriate is not automatically funny. Low hanging fruit is fine for a while but not for long. I think there is some risk when friends put themselves out there as a podcast. You all get one another’s vibe, but we don’t know you all yet and it takes time to learn who you are. However, if listeners find one of the characters to be grating, it’s hard to take that feedback because so much is invested in the friendship as well as the podcast. Beef’s actor is very over the top in a “Come on we all agree I am hilarious and brash and we all love it right?” sort of way. It’s a rowdy confidence that seems to work great in the friendship dynamic they share but from my perspective as a listener, I just don’t get it. I am struggling with Beef. It feels like Beef was going for a Beth May sort of character from Dungeons and Daddies, sort of an oddball loveable dude. But Beth May is a playwright and constructed a complex character within that outer goofy shell. Ron is genius but Beef … doesn’t have the same allure. This may be a “new D&D player” issue, where it takes time to settle in and stop chewing the scenery. I hope that’s true. The remainder of the cast was more subtle and reserved, and I found that to be easier to digest. This is solely my opinion, but I like people to say funny things that I need to parcel out and discover on my own. Does that make sense? They plant the joke as a seed and I harvest it by investing in the concept. That’s what the rest of the cast does. It’s subtle and smart and clever. This is at direct odds with Beef’s over the top, *now I am being funny because I am shouting* style. It is dichotomous and creates discordance in the narrative. I want to love this podcast. I will support it as a Hey Riddle Riddle listener and Patreon. But I hope that the cast is open to feedback. I want to love Elizabeth’s character, but right now I find Beef to be difficult terrain.”

ImpactedColon via Apple Podcasts · United States of America · 02/21/22

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