Articles
'The State' & 'Parker Lewis Can't Lose' DVD reviews - Sepinwall on TV
July 02 2009
When you revisit something you loved when you were younger, there's always a danger it won't hold up under more mature eyes -- and that seeing it again could ruin fond memories. So it was with some trepidation that I cracked open a pair of new DVD releases of '90s comedies: "Parker Lewis Can't Lose," which I loved when I was in high school, and "The State," which I was obsessed with in college.
To my great relief, "The State" (which comes out on DVD on July 14) holds up remarkably well, give or take some legal issues. And while "Parker Lewis" (which came out earlier this week) hasn't aged as gracefully, it at least works as a time capsule of a certain era of comedy (and fashion).
With "Parker Lewis Can't Lose," a high school sitcom about a popular, conniving teenager (Corin Nemec), the alums still making an impact in the business are mostly behind the camera, and not always where you'd expect. Co-creator Clyde Phillips is one of the lead producers on Showtime's serial killer drama "Dexter," for instance, and directors Bryan Spicer and Rob Bowman later became institutions at "24" and "The X-Files," respectively.
It's not hard to see why. While the actual jokes on "Parker Lewis" feel fairly dated -- one episode, in a 30-second span, features punchlines about Vice President Quayle and the idea of Tom Petty as the biggest rock star in the world -- as do the wardrobes (Parker Lewis and Vanilla Ice apparently shopped at the same boutiques), the show's stylistic template still feels impressive, particularly compared to other comedies of the time.
Read the rest of this article...
Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites
Subscribe to this comment's feed
LOVE YOU CORIN
Star-ving
