This Isn’t Real Life

Cavemen
    I’ve been gearing up for this pilot for at least six months – maybe more. I always enjoyed the “Caveman” Geico ads, and last spring I read that ABC was developing a pilot based on Geico’s Cavemen characters. Right away, I knew that it would either be terrible or brilliant, but either way, I wasn’t going to miss it.     Like the car insurance commercials that spawned the pilot, ABC’s “Cavemen” sitcom centers around a thinly-veiled commentary on racism and prejudice in 21st Century America. Obviously, cavemen don’t really correlate to any real-life group or culture. The audience isn’t bringing in any of their own prejudices into the series or applying any stereotypes to the characters. The novelty of the cavemen makes us want to be on their side. By using fictional race-relations between cavemen and “sapes,” the series could make subtle jabs at all Americans (i.e. humans) – rather than situating actually ethnically diverse characters against each other.
    Unfortunately, these lessons in the pilot episode came off as pretty heavy-handed. But, my biggest issue with “Cavemen” was simply that it had all the same pitfalls of any other mediocre sitcom pilot. The series is basically a buddy-show, centering around three yuppie cavemen living in modern-day San Diego: there’s Joel (the only one of the trio with gainful employment), his best friend and roommate Nick, and younger brother Andy.
    The pilot had some cute moments, and I’ve certainly watched worse sitcom pilots. That being said, the odd chuckle here or there couldn’t sustain the weak story. Joel and Nick’s bickering about Joel’s human girlfriend throughout the episode was about all that propelled the storyline. Predictably, this grew boring by the end of the episode, as bickering does not constitute a storyline – ultimately, there was nothing at stake and no discernable beginning, middle, and end.
    The episode also suffered from another common sitcom pitfall, in that the few female characters present were not so much characters as props, lumped into two categories: Hot or Not Hot. I guess this annoys me less from any sort of feminist perspective, than as a writer – it’s a symptom of bad, or at least lazy, writing. And I really hate lazy writing. (My theory is that this happens because most sitcoms are written by nerds with little experience around women.)
    Anyway, the characters were basically likeable and the acting was solid, but there’s little that can save a series from lazy writing. I’m not completely ready to write it off – I’ve been waiting this long, so I’ll stick around to see where it goes. If the writers step up their game, “Cavemen” could be an intriguing series. But if it remains a clunky sitcom with three guys bickering about girls, it will quickly join the ever-growing list of Dead American Sitcoms.
    “Cavemen” is on ABC Tuesdays at 8 p.m.
    Elizabeth “Liz” Gartley, of Houlton, has a BA in media studies from Emerson College in Boston. She has studied abroad in the Netherlands and Australia, and most recently interned at a production company in Hollywood. She can be reached online at egartley@gmail.com or leave a message for her at your local newspaper office.