The explanation for Meet the Browns is quite simple: people said Tyler Perry’s House of Payne was the lowest point in the spectrum of television sitcoms, and he wanted to prove them wrong. To start, he replaced a loud but competent man with a loud high school dropout, and then filled out the cast with any caricature he could think of so he could milk them for cheap jokes. It might seem impossible, but Tyler Perry has actually made a worse TV program than his first. While you’d like to believe that he’d have learned and what doesn’t now that he’s heading into the 8th season of House of Payne, it’s clear he just doesn’t know how to write or direct quality episodic comedy.
If there’s any promise to be had here it’s in the form of Denise Boutte and Lamman Rucker, the two straight players to the crazy antics of the other cast members. There are signs that they can actually act (unlike the lead David Mann) and they’re perhaps the only two in the bunch that rise above the material. Mann stumbles about as the oafish lead whose biggest gag is his small vocabulary that leads him to butcher (even the simplest) words. The characters here are so inane that it’s as if a band of idiots assembled and decided they were going to back the word “stupid” using a poorly crafted sitcom. I guess it’s working considering this is the first of four seasons (and counting), but you have to wonder who’s watching as this is a show that seems intent on encouraging a lack of education.
Tyler Perry needs to be barred from television.
DVD Bonus Features
There are none. Mercifully.
"Meet the Browns: Season 1" is on sale August 30, 2011 and is not rated. Comedy. Directed by Kim Fields, Tyler Perry. Written by Tyler Perry, Anthony C. Hill. Starring David Mann, Denise Boutte, Lamman Rucker, Tamela J Mann.
