And then, something comes along to prove them wrong. 30 Rock proves that a sitcom can still be very funny, staggeringly popular, and critically acclaimed. And Ghost Town is a movie that proves that the romantic comedy is not dead, and can actually be a lot of fun.
Turns out the key is not in the genre. People still hate stupid sitcoms. People still stay away from stupid romantic comedies.
But if you focus on the characters… interesting characters… and go out of your way to make something actually GOOD, then genre labels don’t matter. You can wind up with an actual good film on your hands.
Sure, we’ve all seen enough of your typical romantic comedy, and Hollywood keeps churning them out every year to understandably diminishing returns. They’re stupid, they’re predictable, they’re forgettable.
But Ghost Town is actually good. Against all odds you care about the misanthropic main character played by Ricky Gervais, at his humanity-hating and hateable best. Against all odds, you actually care about the slimeball played by Greg Kinnear. And against all odds, you can see why a beauty like Tea Leoni could fall for the goofy charms of Gervais’ character because she is dimensional enough for you to understand. It’s all complex enough to dig into, yet it all comes down to a simple three-character comedy, and that’s despite its sci-fi and rom-com labels. And it is admirably well constructed.
You might even shed a tear or two near the end. You care that much about the characters. It’s that good.
I know. Sappy. But true.
“go out of your way to make something actually GOOD, then genre labels don’t matter.”
That says it all. 30 Rock won because it deserved too. I havn’t seen Ghost Town yet, but after what you said… I will.
I believe you once said to me, Steve, that we might be moving away from tired old formulas and genres. I see this is evident, and when it comes to a major network, there is always a gap where they are willing to try new things, just because they cannot measure the size of the unknowable “no one” demographic in their old-school ways.
Gotta look up this show, now…