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Elite
Oct 30, 2010

quote:

More articulate people than me have called it "indescribable", and it's true. It fits into no genre neatly, aside from possibly the overly nebulous "mumblecore" style. It's so much more than that, though - heavily serialized, almost every episode is showing you flashbacks from different POVs, or flash-forwards, that slowly reveal this is far from a simple story. As things go on, things get more hosed, and by mid-season I genuinely had no clue how any of it would wrap up.

I guess I'd describe it as : Character-driven drama comedy where serious characters try to claw themselves free from a farcical problem.

Maybe character driven is debateable there, but it is a point that I'd argue for.

The characters feel consistent and reasonable (with one or two silly personality quirks) and they're always trying to advance their own goals, but for comparison the main plot doesn't necessarily change much from episode to episode.

I also think the characters do a good job of setting up comedy:

Leslie getting super psyched about breakfast is made funnier by him being so serious and such a hardass everywhere else in the show.
John's desperate need to keep his job for the greater good make his various sabotages of Stephen (ranging from petty to horrific) become funny, but they'd horrible if done for a selfish motive.

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