Camp is mid season filler set in the summer season at a "family camp" where parents and kids spend months away from work and school communing with nature- which I'm not sure actually exists outside of TV land. It takes place in a John Hughes-like world where even the nerds are hot. There are a lot of teens that look like seniors in college pushing a lot of angst around and starting to discover themselves through sex, while the adults are discovering themselves too- with a lot of anger sex. The plot is extremely thin and incredibly cliché- the owner of "Little Otter" needs money, the guy who owns the camp across the lake where all the rich kids go wants to buy her out, the main nerd is going to win the heart of the outcast girl, the talent show has to be "saved", etc. Rachel Griffiths from Six Feet Under anchors a cast of young unknowns that all seem likable enough. She and the young man who plays her son were easily the most watchable and real part of the show.
There's nothing offensive here, nothing that made me cringe- but there's nothing interesting here either, except maybe the soundtrack of popular music that comes blasting in at the beginning and end of each act, and sometimes in between. The title tells you how much imagination is present. I thought maybe it would be awesomely kitschy and make the title have more than one meaning, but my hopes were set too high. There's a few WTF moments too- like when a raid on the rival camp that supposedly serves the same type of family clientèle reveals they serve beer on ice at an awesome buffet attended to by uniformed waiters. For the most part the pilot seemed to be suffering an identity crisis, even for something advertised as a "dramedy". Within the first five minutes someone got a fishhook to the nose and another person took a kiddie punch to the crotch, and then the story evolved to include a failed Olympic swimmer, a failed marriage, and even touched on modern homophobia. It was scattered and was definitely trying too hard. The gay couple was black and Latino, with an Asian and Indian(?) child, just so no one can accuse NBC of not being diverse. This feels like a show that belongs on ABC Family. I'm not sure what the future or time structure of this show is going to be either, as it has an automatic limit in that even summers that seem to last forever eventually end.
Speaking of nationalities, this brings me to a bit of an off topic rant. This show was shot in Australia. Rachel Griffiths is Australian, though here she puts on an American accent. What's so confusing about this is the owner of the rival camp (whom she winds up sleeping with as well as competing with, by the way) is played by Rodger Corser, who is also Australian, and gets to speak in his actual accent. Why can't Rachel Griffiths speak in her natural accent too? Are we not smart enough to figure out it's all supposed to take place in the USA if there's different accents? Or are Australian accents the new politically acceptable "evil" accent now that the Cold War is over? Granted, Brits and Aussies usually can do American accents flawlessly- like the three Brits currently in the main cast of the incomparable Walking Dead- but when they don't have to, why make them? There wasn't enough here for me to continue to watch this show. If they had just been a little braver, a little darker, a little funnier it would have tipped the scales. It needed originality thrown in there somewhere, and considering the preview for next week showed a scene ripped directly out of The Parent Trap, I'm confident in my decision not to watch.
There's nothing offensive here, nothing that made me cringe- but there's nothing interesting here either, except maybe the soundtrack of popular music that comes blasting in at the beginning and end of each act, and sometimes in between. The title tells you how much imagination is present. I thought maybe it would be awesomely kitschy and make the title have more than one meaning, but my hopes were set too high. There's a few WTF moments too- like when a raid on the rival camp that supposedly serves the same type of family clientèle reveals they serve beer on ice at an awesome buffet attended to by uniformed waiters. For the most part the pilot seemed to be suffering an identity crisis, even for something advertised as a "dramedy". Within the first five minutes someone got a fishhook to the nose and another person took a kiddie punch to the crotch, and then the story evolved to include a failed Olympic swimmer, a failed marriage, and even touched on modern homophobia. It was scattered and was definitely trying too hard. The gay couple was black and Latino, with an Asian and Indian(?) child, just so no one can accuse NBC of not being diverse. This feels like a show that belongs on ABC Family. I'm not sure what the future or time structure of this show is going to be either, as it has an automatic limit in that even summers that seem to last forever eventually end.
Speaking of nationalities, this brings me to a bit of an off topic rant. This show was shot in Australia. Rachel Griffiths is Australian, though here she puts on an American accent. What's so confusing about this is the owner of the rival camp (whom she winds up sleeping with as well as competing with, by the way) is played by Rodger Corser, who is also Australian, and gets to speak in his actual accent. Why can't Rachel Griffiths speak in her natural accent too? Are we not smart enough to figure out it's all supposed to take place in the USA if there's different accents? Or are Australian accents the new politically acceptable "evil" accent now that the Cold War is over? Granted, Brits and Aussies usually can do American accents flawlessly- like the three Brits currently in the main cast of the incomparable Walking Dead- but when they don't have to, why make them? There wasn't enough here for me to continue to watch this show. If they had just been a little braver, a little darker, a little funnier it would have tipped the scales. It needed originality thrown in there somewhere, and considering the preview for next week showed a scene ripped directly out of The Parent Trap, I'm confident in my decision not to watch.