Life’s too short and there’s too much good television out there for anyone to ever justify watching Meet the Browns. Whereas Tyler Perry’s House of Payne showed slight signs of maturing a few seasons in, Meet the Browns has no such indicators thus far. It might even be getting worse. If you can believe it, David Mann’s comic timing feels more off than ever before and the episodic directors seem to have lost touch with how to stage a joke so the punchline actually pays off. For yet another season, Meet the Browns has hit one sitcom staple after another and reminded you why every other show out there was good by comparison. This is no longer just bad television. It’s also embarrassing.
To claim that Meet the Browns caters to a neglected television audience is like saying that an empty void caters to the lack of matter required for it to exist. Simply put, Meet the Browns is for an audience that isn’t an audience at all; a section of society that would be content watching just about anything: clothes spinning in a dryer, a cat flicking its tale, or grass growing. No one is meant to watch those things for any meaningful period of time, and to do so for 22 minutes just might be indicative of that person having checked out mentally. Meet the Browns can’t even be accused of pandering, because there’s no one this show is smart enough to talk down to. The character stereotypes are exaggerated to an extent that you can’t help but wince when watching because you have the sneaking suspicion your discs were accidentally filled with skits from an old minstrel show.
How long can Meet the Browns run on the premise of an ignorant, loud black man running a retirement home of sassy old folks? Three seasons too long, so far.
DVD Bonus Features
None.
"Meet the Browns: Season 3" is on sale November 22, 2011 and is not rated. Comedy. Directed by Kim Fields, Tyler Perry. Written by Tyler Perry, Anthony C. Hill, Joseph Hampton. Starring David Mann, Denise Boutte, Lamann Rucker.
