“Channel Zero” – Season Premiere Of “Meet The Browns”
GENERAL By TSSCrew on January 8, 2009 at 2:20 pmWords By Thembi
I’d be a liar if I said I watched Tyler Perry’s Meet The Browns thinking I would enjoy it. I have a pretty low tolerance for mispronounced English, hackneyed jokes, abysmal acting, and an even lower tolerance for black men in drag; a Tyler Perry mainstay. So instead of setting the bar unfairly high, I watched the double feature premiere of Meet The Browns in comparison to Perry’s movies and the “most popular cable television sitcom,” House Of Payne. While House of Payne is just not my cup of tea, Meet The Browns had one of the most offensively poor sitcom premieres I have ever watched, making House of Payne look like reasonable entertainment.
I’m not sure who is loving his stuff, but the audience is huge and — as poor as this show was — shows no signs of slimming. Perry’s shows account for half of the black sitcoms on television today (the other two being The CW’s The Game and Everybody Hates Chris), so they must at least be somewhat representative of the collective black sense of family and humor, right? Tyler Perry churns out feature films like Utz churns out potato chips and grosses an average of $45 million per film, turning the film version of Meet The Browns into a sitcom in ten months flat. Months before the premiere TBS jumped at the chance to order a whopping one hundred episodes of the series. “Tyler Perry is an extraordinary talent who has turned ‘House of Payne’ into a record-breaking hit,” Turner Entertainment Network’s president Steve Koonin said. Yes you read that right. Steve. Koonin. Repeat it out loud to yourself if you don’t yet think that there must be some senseless pro-Perry conspiracy afoot.
The feature film Meet The Browns, based on the stage play of the same name, featured veteran actors like Angela Bassett starring alongside expected clunkers like Rick Fox, and a host of other performances with qualities in between. The Perry demographic, however, isn’t too concerned with the performances or plots. The idea is to present a set of familiar stereotypes that are just true enough not to be offensive, humor that is just clean enough to satisfy the church-going crowd and plots with just enough family/relationship/financial hardship to remain reminiscent of the Black America that we can’t seem to escape (and frankly don’t always want to). Perry’s replication of these themes is a formula and marketing technique, not writing or filmmaking.
In said fashion, the first episode, “Meet Brown Meadows,” opens with an ashy-kneed Leroy Brown (David Mann) installing a ceiling lamp into his newly inherited house while singing the imaginary gospel song “Drop kick me! Drop kick me, Jesus!” Before you know it, the house becomes ‘Brown Meadows,’ a nursing home constantly on the defense from competition, the activities of the neighboring frat house, and residents that are liable to turn the place into a madhouse.
As the title of the show promises, we soon meet the entire Brown clan: Leroy’s daughter Cora (played by David Mann’s real-life wife Tamela Mann), Leroy’s especially attractive nephew Will (Lamman Rucker) and his wife Sasha (Denise Boutte). Throw in a crotchety old man, an amorous old woman, and guest star here and there and you’ve got the disastrous Meet The Browns for ninety-nine more episodes and a formula that has mystically made Tyler Perry a very rich man.
While it’s not the highest form of art, the stage play has its purpose – mild Black family entertainment with a comedic lowest common denominator that doesn’t leave members of any age without at least a chuckle — so I fully understand why these plays get popular support. But that legitimate purpose is almost completely diluted down to a handful of bitter groans when carried over into sitcom form. The first trademark of any Perry sitcom has become a cast that is fresh off of the proverbial stage-play boat — every emotion and action is grossly overdone and characters are all played in an over-the-top, needlessly theatrical style that is especially off-putting on the small screen. After that, each joke, even if initially funny, gets beaten into an uber-corny pulp only to be repeated four or five times and die a dry, painful death lost in the laugh track. This level of entertainment doesn’t really belong in our homes. Forget going for a bike ride as a family, we’re better off playing XBox 360 or Wii together than settling down on a sofa to watch this type of coonin’. Meet The Browns knows it’s intended audience: its commercial breaks advertise the DVD release of The Family That Preys and next month’s Madea Goes To Jail, so if you’re already a fan of these movies The Browns just may be for you.
Otherwise, as Perry’s worst outing yet, my advice is to skip this one and hope that the coming television seasons bring us more legitimate programming.
Posted in GENERAL, SMOKE BREAK, TV/Movies — Tags: House Of Payne, Meet The Browns, TV/Movies, Tyler Perry
34 Comments
First up
Whaddup yall…
Tyler Perry huh…did like portions of “the angry black woman” movie and dug a few scenes of “daddy’s little girls”..nuff said
Kareem
RESPECT MY FRESH!!!
aka i’m having a BOY.
House Of Payne grew on me
Meet The Browns won’t have that opportunity.
Formulaic to a fault.
an ashy-kneed Leroy Brown
=====================
I thought I was the only one that peeped that. Looked like he’d been kneeling in flour lol.
Never have, never will…
I respect his paper though.
Fuck Tyler Perry! Cross-dressing-minstrel-show-ass-ninja!!! What amazes me more is how Black people support this shit. Wake the fuck up or get woke the fuck up, word to KillArmy.
Word. Tyler Perry sucks!
Got a laugh for that Killarmy reference.
Dude is making money; but I am not a watcher of his programs. How ironic the gentlemen’s name is Koonin. lol
Flea:
You are going to be really pissed when WTK and LAD are the guest stars on the MLK episode. LOL
LMAO @ Flea
Can’t mess with it. If I watch I
can ‘t get those moments back… lol!
Although I will co-sign Kareem on liking parts of some of TP’s previous works. I’m for family values and all…
These shows are put out at an assembly line pace thus taking away from the creativity and value they could have.
Just my 2 cents.
Perry makes quality entertainment for black folk, for the most part. It’s when he slips into cliche subject matter that he loses me.
can’t lie, i like house of payne still…
the uncle kills me.
thembi? from wwtd?
isnt tyler perry skipping out on child support? and isnt he a domestic abuser?
congrats to Kareem for the boy on the way. 100 episodes is instant syndication, meaning we’ll be suffering for a long time.
Thank you MZ
Greatly appreciated fam…
Kareem
RESPECT MY FRESH!!!
aka i’m having a BOY.
LOL@Mmmichele, thats low, in a good way, lol….
Yea, one of my older friends (yea i love my old heads/m.i.l.f’s) put me on to ‘house of pain’ and I enjoy watching the re-runs that come on….
But this ‘meet the browns’ fuckery makes me wanna, ughz, i dont have an imagination, nor adjectives, large enough to describe the way i feel about this….
All I remember is my brother telling me he wanted to see the movie so we went but it wasnt no one in the theater, after 6 days in the box office mind you, i didnt care cause he had a bottle (soco 100 proof) and I had a L. So not even half way into the movie this nigga knocked out, I spark up the L cause it aint no one in there and he wakes up looks at me and leaves the theater. So i keep smoking, than he comes back like 10 minutes later snapping on me cause i wanted to stay to finish the movie….
*afroman voice* ’cause I was high, cause I was highhh
LMAO @ MZ
Yeah congrats Reem.
#8 right?
@ Bigga: Never that!!! GUN-RULE!!!
Naw TC…never that.
I’m not loose with the juice..lol
Makes #2 for me
Kareem aka Saul Goode.
RESPECT MY FRESH!!!
aka i’m having a BOY.
Weeeeeeeeeak.
Congrats on the BOY, Reem. This is Chris, Gooty hooked me up with coming thru to your hurricane chris remix video shoot over a year ago. Next time you are here shooting in LA, holla at cha folk.
As a writer and a grown Black man with common sense all I can say is “Fuck Tyler Perry”.
One.
LMAO @ Dart
Whaddup Chris
I may be out in LA within the next two weeks to do GLC/Kanye video for “Big Screen”
Holla at da kid.
Kareem aka Saul Goode.
RESPECT MY FRESH!!!
aka i’m having a BOY.
The Luck Cage Gravtar fit Dart’s statement perfectly.
Flea:
Please you know your Gun Rule boys ain’t turning down no Tyler Perry Money! Watch Madea be the main video girl in their next video. LOL
@ Bigga: I rebuke thee and thy false hater doctrine!!! lol!!!
Lol@ you rebuking common sense
@ Flea…i’m cometh for thee if ye keeps stealing thine old eng slang.
i kiddeth.
Flea:
Don’t worry Ghostdini will only come after you if you steal his Ole English Beer. lol
I didn’t watch but I expectecd it to be worst than “House of Payne.”
@ bigga…what did u thinketh was in my red cup. ye cheery hops & mead!
Congrats on the lil one, Reem.
lol i thought steve koonin was a joke name.damn it must suck for him XD
Considering all my known blood relatives enjoy any and all things Tyler Perry I am often left like one of the last normal humans left from Invasion of the Body Snatchers in my complete disdain and lack of respect for any and all things Tyler Perry.