While I haven't seen every episode of this show yet, I've watched about half of them and think I'm in a position to judge it. Get a Life is a strong contender for the most underrated show of the 90s, for multiple reasons. It's incredibly funny, and a lot of the show is well written. There's some episodes that aren't really that good, but I can't think of any show that doesn't suffer from this problem. What makes this show so funny and original is its premise: it follows a paperboy named Chris Peterson (Chris Elliott) who gets into strange situations on a daily basis and still lives with his parents even at age 30 (a very unusual thing in the 90s). The show has a lot of popular culture references in it and pays tribute to various films that came long before its time. The characters are what makes any good show worth watching, and Get a Life has no shortage of hilarious and (sadly) relatable ones. Chris is the protagonist of the series, and he is, for lack of a better word, a loser. He's shown to be extremely stupid and lacking in the common sense department, such as in one episode where he is basically enslaved by his friend Larry's disdainful wife Sharon (Robin Riker) in order to make up for damage he did to her kitchen. One of my favorite episodes involves Chris attending a family reunion which is hosted in his backyard. All his relatives think he's a loser and are only concerned with the things that Chris' more successful cousin Donald is doing. Donald arrives and says how Chris has always been inferior to him, and Chris tries to prove him wrong by saying he can break a giant block of ice with only his forehead. Knocking himself out in the process, Chris wakes up later to find all his family members applauding and cheering. He thinks his family is celebrating because he's alright, but his father tells him they're actually applauding Donald because he revived Chris. The majority of laughs this show has to offer come from Chris' stupid behavior causing him to misunderstand the situations he's in and suffer because of it. The show is slightly sadistic because as the audience, we get a kick out of seeing Chris get hurt or get into trouble time and time again. Chris' father is played by his real life father, Bob Elliott, and he's a reproachable, irritable old man whom Chris spends a lifetime trying to impress. Even though I think this show is funny, a lot of viewers back then didn't feel the same way. Upon its release, Get a Life was simply considered too strange to have any realistic chance of becoming a mainstream show. Chris himself actually dies in quite a few episodes, and this ensured that David Mirkin, one of the show's creators (and future Simpsons producer) had a very difficult time selling the show to just about any network. Eventually, they did manage to get it on the air, but its ridiculous content meant that the show (even back then) was restricted to a small following. While that may be true, Get a Life's fans are still dedicated. While few in number, none of them will be able to forget a show like this with so many absurd moments in it.
Review of Get a Life
