If I were to venture a guess, TBS spent most of its budget on My Boys and when the numbers came in lower than expected, they spent the surplus money on this cheap The Office knockoff. I don't know if the producers were drunk or deluded, but contrary to their belief, rewriting The Office in a grocery store and making it louder doesn't make it funny. The failure Leslie is a transparent rewrite of Michael Scott, a failure trying to succeed in a field he is totally unqualified for that grasps for the approval of those around him. The high school crush of his trying to buy out his store is an equally unoriginal Jan Levinson, the scion of "Corporate", coming down to give him a hard time. And is it any surprise that their relationship is a pathetic one-sided affair? The supporting cast is a trashy group of lower-class failures that love to stand around like idiots and live disgusting lives. Not one of them is close to grabbing sympathy from an audience. Every punchline is a blunt, obvious comment void of any comedic value, suggesting the writers had up to a whole hour to finish the episode. Obvious punchlines and despicable characters may work for Adult Swim's collection of poorly drawn and incoherent plot driven cartoons, but fails miserably for this TBS reject.
Review of 10 Items or Less
10 Items or Less
(2006–2009)
My search for a clever title was in vain, just like this show trying to find laughs.
27 November 2006