Tom & Francie (Children’s TV Satire)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: C-     Main Program: C

 

 

It is not easy to send up TV since it has become a spoof of itself, is going HD and has been done so well by a select few.  Patrick Michael Denny’s Tom & Francie tries to be a send-up of low-budget, older-styled children’s television, but is clueless as to what that is and what it was at its peak.  As a result, we get jokes that are not funny and the addition of puppets that further the point that they do not get what is or is not funny about puppets either.

 

Lasting a very, very long 83 minutes, the show does not have the energy of the far better The Uncle Floyd Show (reviewed elsewhere on this site) or the knowing sense that something like Rex The Runt (also on the site) has in dealing with a perceived children’s audience.  Instead of playing it straight to kids, the show is too concerned with a very limited, target audience of passive viewers who find the slightly funny somehow hilarious.  It might work for some of that audience, but it is a big disappointment otherwise.  It at least gets a point for trying to look like these shows, to some extent.

 

The 1.33 X 1 analog NTSC image is similar to what it is trying to spoof, and is passable, as is the Dolby Digital 2.0 with simple stereo sound at best.  Extras are even poorer, including thankfully deleted scenes, a demo that was worse than the final product and some other failed improvisations.  Better luck next time.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo