New ribald comedy "Testees" occasionally funny
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - "Testees" is one of those noble single-camera comedy experiments that FX attempts every once in a while, and it proves to be a mixed bag.
More shocking and sophomoric than funny, it is nonetheless noteworthy for its attempts to push the comedic envelope. For instance: We have never to my knowledge previously seen a man lactate on camera. Of course, it's just special effects (I think), but it takes guts to risk the audience revulsion that implies. Created by former "South Park" writer and reality TV icon Kenny Hotz of "Kenny vs. Spenny" fame, the show is about the misadventures of a couple of best friends and roommates who make their living as human guinea pig test subjects for, um, Testico, the drug and product testing facility that is sadly at the center of their lives. Let the double-entendres begin.
Jeff Kassel and Steve Markle respectively star as hapless heroes Ron and Peter, guys who live from one drug trial and placebo to the next. Their existence is permeated by occupational hazards, side effects and conditions with no known cure.
In the opener co-written by Hotz and Derek Harvie, the boys undergo testing of a radical new miracle pill and find what appears to be a fetus growing inside Peter's tummy. His first instinct is to try to remove it with a coat hanger -- take that, pro-lifers! -- followed by panic, anger, denial and finally acceptance. The situations revolve essentially around how Ron and Peter interact in general, with an odd homoerotic vibe permeating their buddy relationship. And everything seems to go as wrong as possible in their testing lives, which while not terribly believable, does provide the broadest possible canvas from which to mine comedy.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
