[The Guide, Sydney Morning Herald, Mon 06/08/2012]
Two Young to Live, Channel Seven, Wednesdays @ 7.30pm
Ho hum. Here we have another premier from the 'creative' team of Andrew & Michael Young. And not a brain cell was lit that day. For the fortunately ignorant, this brotherly duo first appeared on Aussie TV in 2002 when they wrote & produced It's a Bloke's World, a low-brow but occasionally touching comedy about Trev and his search for the perfect Sheila. Since the pair moved to the US in 2005 we have been subjected to canned laughter and plank-to-the-face-obvious 'jokes' on Jimbo's Corner, My Crazy Wife and Where's the Mayo? I laughed, I danced, I hoped I had seen the last of these apes with laptops, when I heard that the last pilot from one of their scripts (ostensibly titled Good Mornin' Dr. Brain) was resoundingly rejected by every studio they foisted it upon. I felt the IQ of my TV set recover by 25 points over their two-year hiatus, during which we can only guess at their activities – lying half-catatonic in matching pizza-stained recliners, watching boxed sets of Friends and Two and a Half Men on repeat, waiting for inspiration. They've come back with the fruits of their labour, and this time they fancy themselves auteurs! The pair are writing, directing, producing and starring (plus shamelessly title-punning) in Two Young to Live. Since I've been given a doubled word limit, I'll describe what I hope you're missing: In the pilot we're introduced to Michael and Andrew Young, an odd couple of twenty-something dudes who share a flat in a generically American city. Mike is a muscle-bound tough guy who loves the ladies but can't keep one; Andrew is an innocently depressive loner who we're asked to believe is a doctor. It's hard to tell where their real and fictional selves intersect, but frankly, I don't care.
[THUMBS DOWN]
JULIE MARROW
[The Guide , Sydney Morning Herald, Mon 20/08/2012]
Two Young to Live, Channel Seven, Wednesdays @ 7.30pm
Two episodes later and no improvement in sight. We have been introduced to Mike's inevitable catchphrase – “What are you gonna do?” – and already it has begun to grate. He uses it at every opportunity and in every conceivable tone & inflection; I picture the brothers patting each other on the back (or more likely fist-bumping over a Pepsi) for thinking of each new way to shoe-horn it into a scene. Equally grating are their American accents; Andrew does a passably unintrusive Hollywood, but Michael's is by turns Valley, Mid-Western, Bronx Jewish and Canadian. Last week the boys went camping and Andrew was bitten by a snake (non-venemous, unfortunately). This week Mike brought a girl home and Andrew scared her off by displaying his slovenliness, after which they had to find her and win her back. I have been disappointed by the only slight drop-off in ratings.
[THUMBS DOWN]
JULIE MARROW
[The Guide , Sydney Morning Herald, Mon 03/09/2012]
Two Young to Live, Channel Seven, Wednesdays @ 7.30pm
Andrew bad-mouths his boss before realising said boss is right behind him. The boss is played by Steven Seagal. A plan is hatched, but Andrew doesn't like it: "Invite him to dinner? I'd have to be a completely insane to invite him to dinner!" Cut to shot of Andrew inviting him to dinner. Michael has been testing new pickup lines: “Hi, My name's Mike. And no, there's no waiting period for these guns.” A white-toothed blonde cocks an eyebrow in interest. Cut to Andrew & Mike in the kitchen. Mike now has two dates and needs Andrew to stall one of them. Andrew can't cook and needs Mike to buy him a cookbook. Steven Seagal is waiting for his appetiser. Mike ends up with two Cosmos in his face. Andrew burns the Turkey and says it's Cajun style. Three members of the studio audience pass out from laughter.
[THUMBS DOWN]
JULIE MARROW
[The Guide , Sydney Morning Herald, Mon 17/09/2012]
Two Young to Live, Channel Seven, Wednesdays @ 7.30pm
We don't ask why sitcom siblings don't look alike, that's part of the deal. Mike is bulky and curly-haired, darkly Italian. Andrew is Germanic, spindly with a ginger-tinged beard. When they stood side-by-side and Mike's latest girl London said, “You look so alike!”, I waited for the audience's laughter, but it never came. Later, Andrew ate the last biscuit, Mike protested that he got none, cue laughter. London stepped into the room in her underwear, cue whooping. She threw her hair back and said, “You guys are so funn—”, only to be cut off by the most uproarious laughter yet. I had to wonder if someone at the SFX buttons was having fun, or if it meant something more. Can a crowd laugh when it's told? Does a saying “this is a joke” count as a joke? I held my head during the credits.
[THUMBS DOWN]
JULIE MARROW
[The Guide , Sydney Morning Herald, Mon 01/10/2012]
Two Young to Live, Channel Seven, Wednesdays @ 7.30pm
This reliably funny buddy comedy, starring real-life brothers Andrew & Michael Young, offers more of its customary pleasures. There's the wonderfully sardonic yet affectionate depiction of two siblings who elsewhere might be narrowly portrayed as layabouts (à la Men Behaving Badly). There's the wacky humour, frequently focussed on Mike's romantic travails and Andrew's general confusion at the big, complicated world. There's also the pair's decidedly dubious habits in relation to food and personal hygiene – the sight of Andrew happily pouring into his mouth the remains of a packet of chips that has been retrieved from under a car seat comes to mind. And, amid it all, there is the well-intentioned yet woefully incompetent neighbour Ralph (Alastair Wells) and his angelic little daughter. This week the boys take a road trip to retrieve their childhood toys before they get thrown away, which comes with both hilarious misadventures and touching moments.
[THUMBS UP]
CLIFF BECKWELL (filling in for Julie Marrow)
[The Guide , Sydney Morning Herald, Mon 15/10/2012]
Two Young to Live, Channel Seven, Wednesdays @ 7.30pm
During my couple of days off I was somehow drawn to this show. It's inane, repetitive and clichèd, and worst of all, it seems oblivious to this fact, but there is still something strangely compelling about it. It is almost a perfect distillation of every crappy sitcom to which it owes its existence, so while it is the most bland and meaningless show on TV that I can name, it is also strangely powerful. It attaches itself to the brain and doesn't let go, arousing neither thoughts nor emotions, but also managing to stave off boredom, despite its complete lack of content. It is like a game of solitaire. It obliterates the mind between 7.30 and 8pm. In the latest episode, Andrew is accidentally trapped in the cupboard with a female coworker when Mike comes home with a girl. (I had to check online in order to remember this correctly.)
[THUMBS DOWN]
JULIE MARROW
[The Guide , Sydney Morning Herald, Mon 29/10/2012]
Two Young to Live, Channel Seven, Wednesdays @ 7.30pm
Another shocker of an episode: the boys' mother is coming to visit, the flat's a mess, and Andrew told her he has a girlfriend! Mike performs the obligatory coaching, divulging secrets and strategies that make sense only in sitcoms, where nothing matters except the gag that must be done and forgotten in the next ten seconds, or else. The mother is played by Barbara Moritz, an unknown who appears to be the brothers' real mother. She looks terrified on stage, and gives her scenes a queasy edge. As predictably bad as the episode is, I was genuinely surprised by a moment near the end, when Andrew explains why he lied about his being perpetually single: “I was a fun kid, but I started holding everything back. Now people don't see anything in me at all . . . I just didn't want you to think you'd made me defective.”
[THUMBS SIDEWAYS]
JULIE MARROW
[The Guide , Sydney Morning Herald, Mon 12/11/2012]
Two Young to Live, Channel Seven, Wednesdays @ 7.30pm
Last week, the flat was invaded by an old school friend, and hijinks ensued. This week it's the inevitable Serious Episode. Andrew tries going to the gym with Mike, where the sweatless buxom blondes smile with amusement at his contrived floundering. In the changeroom he finds steroids in Mike's bag, at which the audience gasped and I blinked. Mike says the catchphrase. Later, Andrew uses an elaborate subterfuge involving itching powder, mushrooms, and one of Mike's ex-girlfriends to convince him that the steroids are causing terrible side-effects. Mike agrees to quit, because the plot must be resolved by 8pm. But there is a moment, after Andrew leaves the room, where we can see in Michael's smile that he knows what Andrew did, and we know that he will be tightening the tourniquet after the fade-out. Another small flash of brilliance. I really don't know how it happened.
[THUMBS SIDEWAYS]
JULIE MARROW
[The Guide , Sydney Morning Herald, Mon 26/11/2012]
Two Young to Live, Channel Seven, Wednesdays @ 7.30pm
A locked-in-the-plot-device episode. Mike and Andrew are trapped in their building's stairwell, and while they argue and reveal pithy, faux-poignant secrets to one another, neighbour Ralph tries to set them free. For a few minutes at a time throughout the episode, until his necessary success, we see Ralph earnestly trying to get help from landlords, firemen and rescue workers, struggling to be properly heard. And it's real, with no laughter. Then we're back in the stairwell. I am starting to wonder if this show is a satire that doesn't make itself quite obvious enough. The impossibly euphoric and saccharine audience, the ambient-lit diorama sets, the jokes that are overdone before they're even said; is it all part of the larger joke, to be played against Ralph's realness? If it is, then the target audience would seem to be people who are sick of sitcoms, and why would they be watching?
[THUMBS SIDEWAYS]
JULIE MARROW
[The Guide , Sydney Morning Herald, Mon 10/12/2012]
Two Young to Live, Channel Seven, Wednesdays @ 7.30pm
This week, a vending machine falls on Mike, and he ends being treated in hospital by Andrew. We know how this will play out; Mike will wisecrackingly resist until 25 minutes in, at which point he will see how much Andrew really cares, et cetera, see you next time. But I am now convinced that this show is a satire; a sobering one, of a kind that can't be seen elsewhere today. In the hallways we catch bits of conversation between the two nurses about blood tests, someone's collapsing family, and a patient under preventative observation. 20 minutes in, Andrew mentions to Mike that there are only two patients in the ward that day, and a small tragedy falls into place, if you've been paying close enough attention. The episode really consists of that moment, and the rest is both scaffolding and empty fluff. My husband thinks I'm mad.
[THUMBS UP]
JULIE MARROW
[The Guide , Sydney Morning Herald, Mon 24/12/2012]
Two Young to Live, Channel Seven, Wednesdays @ 7.30pm
It seems that the Young brothers, the real ones who created this show, are as bored and fed up with the wasteland of American sitcoms as any of us, and have decided to fight it from within. As dubious as that response might be, every week they are proving their point. The bulk of the show exists in the familiar, absurd sitcom world, and it serves as the setup for a punchline that consists of a small dose of reality, which sits in contrast to, and destroys, that insipid absurdity. The twist is so easy to miss, or to simply put down to an error of timing or a flat joke, and forget, especially with the stupor that the show does its best to induce. But I'm paying close attention, as should you be, if you care about modern television. Merry Christmas. (By the way, this is an amnesia episode.)
[THUMBS UP]
JULIE MARROW
[The Guide , Sydney Morning Herald, Mon 07/01/2013]
Two Young to Live, Channel Seven, Wednesdays @ 7.30pm
The season finale, in which Mike finally asks London on a “for real” date; cheering when he steps in to the living room in jacket & tie, inflected schoolyard ooh-ing when the pair link arms. I have been downloading every previous episode and going through them with a fine-toothed comb. It's amazing what a difference perspective can make. Even the most obnoxious ten-laughs-per-minute scenes start to feel like someone repeatedly saying, “It's OK, I understand perfectly.” Andrew finally saying Mike's catchphrase, which induces frenzy in the studio audience, is a heavy, knowing nod. There is a presence behind every scene, pulling the strings, feeling just as we TV watchers do, and showing us why. Unless, of course, the rest of the viewers out there are watching Two Young to Live for the same reason they watch The Big Bang Theory. Oh well. What are you gonna do?
[THUMBS UP]
JULIE MARROW