Barbershop - TV Review

The word "spin-off" (the network approved term is "adaptation") usually breeds fear in the hearts of critics. Although there have been some uber successful movie to TV ventures, such as the eternally popular, catchy, cult-phenomenon-that-ran-for-seven-seasons, Buffy The Vampire Slayer (based on the 1992 film), usually those accomplishments are overshadowed by freak accidents like the short lived, and terribly awkward, My Big Fat Greek Life starring Nia Vardalos, whose hugely successful film My Big Fat Greek Wedding took everyone by surprise. So when Showtime announced that Barbershop would open for business Sunday August 14th at 10 pm et/pt, I waited for my copy with nervous anticipation. And although the pilot proved to be an above average, laugh inducing, comedy routine, I couldn't help but wonder if there was enough substance to cover its 10 episode run.

Starting where the movies left off, the series plays it close to the vest. The TV show is also set in a non-descript, eclectic, happy go lucky, urban neighborhood in Chicago. It also boasts the same group of fast-talking, opinionated, raucous stylists (as well as some new neighborhood characters for added flavor). And for starters, these similarities are enough to garner an audience. Calvin's (the very charming Omar Gooding) Bernie Mac style narration sets the show up perfectly however, so don't feel you have to rent the movies to catch yourself up. Still, the success of a spin-off is determined by whether or not a writer (or director) manages to infuse the new entity with a life of its own and here is where Barbershop the series runs into some trouble.

Under writer/director John Ridley (whose novel Stray Dogs became the movie U-Turn and who has written screenplays for Undercover Brother and Three Kings) Barbershop still maintains the Eddie Murphy-Arsenio Hall Coming to America banter that made the movie a hit. The stylists still ramble on about African-American celebrities, "pull up a chair" to discuss their personal s**t, and dive head first into exploiting stereotypes. However, Ridley also succumbs to some of the film's problematic plotting.

For a comedy that milks it's liberal cable network in a scene where Calvin explicitly, albeit unsuccessfully, teaches the illegal immigrant Yinka (Gbenga Akinnagbe) how to talk dirty to a woman, the abortion debate that Terri (Toni Trucks in her television debut) is unwittingly thrown into after her identity is stolen, seems awkwardly out of place. Barbershop is great when it's making snappy jokes at the expense of its cast or pop culture icons, but misses the mark when it tries to throw "issues" in to the mix. The amazingly bright, and unrealistic Chicago back-drop of quiet city streets, lined with red and yellow shop doors, gives the show a theatrical element that is only heightened when characters are placed in "we're always happy" outfits of bright green or hot pink. Such a set up works well for the quasi slap stick aesthetic that Ridley seems to strive for, but is a jarring and uncomfortable backdrop for monologues about the freedom of choice.

Ultimately, Barbershop is not the type of show to get dragged down by serious topics and the rest of the story lines are light-hearted enough to merit laughs. Still, by the end of the half-hour pilot, all of Ridley's cheeky one-liners seem played out. With no hook for the next episode, Barbershop comes off as more of a catch-it-when-you-can sketch comedy than a not-to-be-missed sitcom. Sure it's funny when cops mistake Terri's emotional hand gesturing as the freaky episode of a mentally distressed person, but how long can that last? Can Terri get wrongfully arrested in each episode and is Calvin going to almost lose the shop every season? As each character settles in to his or her niche and develops their signature catch phrase or facial expression, it becomes evident that Barbershop is going to have to chose what kind of show it wants to be and either embrace its situational, absurdist comedy or revamp the plot to make it more dramatically plausible, because the laurels provided by the movie franchise are a shallow platform for the series to rest on.