Where you can see real hope for IFC’s Maron is in how it works as a television series, not just a chance to give Maron some long overdue TV exposure. “Take it easy, fake fireman,” Maron retorts, in a reference to Leary’s Rescue Me series. “You don’t know what a crawl space is, do you?” Leary says, disappointedly. When Leary finds the source of a smell that’s been driving Maron crazy - a dead possum under the house - the episode becomes a litmus test of whether Maron will get it out of there himself or hire someone to do it. The underlying message that Leary is sending is that maybe Maron, who has never been in a fight in his life, is soft. “I can’t defend the cats,” Maron says, defeated. When Maron objects, Leary asks about all the cats. “I think I saw a Joni Mitchell album,” Leary says. Called “Dead Possum,” the episode centers on a podcast appearance by Leary, who says off microphone that he’s getting a little worried about Maron, what with the garage filled with self-help books and such. In the second episode, Maron gets an unwanted assistant named Kyle ( Josh Brener), and the pairing works surprisingly well both as comedy and with some real feelings mixed in. Maron really gets going when the series begins to flesh out - Hirsch as his absentee father is a particularly good episode (and Hirsch is great). STORY: L.A.’s Comedy Scene: The 13 Hottest Places to Catch a Laugh So, instead of doing the podcast with Foley, Maron drags him into Orange County to confront the guy sending the mean tweets. Things already have been going badly for Maron - his attempt at flirting with his cat’s vet never take off, his fear of seeing his second ex-wife around town come true (plus she’s pregnant and happy) and some troll on Twitter is mocking Maron. In tonight’s episode, a drunk Foley stops by - on the wrong week - for his scheduled podcast interview. It would be difficult to imagine things going much better for Maron, which takes what’s great about the WTF podcast - Maron’s smarts, his profound love of and understanding of comedy and the people who perform it - and adds a scripted, fictional element where Sally Kellerman can play his mother and Judd Hirsch can play his father and a bevy of real-life comics and friends ( Dave Foley, Denis Leary, Andy Kinder, Jeff Garlin, et al.) can stop by to mingle the two worlds and it all works out marvelously and hilariously. Maron is, in fact, surprisingly well-executed in that kind of way where you can imagine him saying, “In a perfect world, I’d have a TV show about the podcast but it would let me branch out a bit with the storylines while keeping the same tendency to over-share my personal issues.” STORY: Marc Maron Named to THR’s Comedy Class of 2013 From It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia to Curb Your Enthusiasm and Louie and even smaller offerings like Portlandia and Children’s Hospital, etc., there were outlets trying to make great comedies that didn’t have to appeal to the Big Tent crowd over on the broadcast networks (which, in a strange turn of events, is now populated with funny but low-rated - and expensive - sitcoms pulling in “cable” numbers).Īnyway, all of this is just a preamble to say that Marc Maron finally got his own show and it’s damned funny.Īnd yes, it’s a lot like his podcast in that famous comedians come around to his house and talk, but it’s unlike his podcast in that it’s scripted, a show about a show, or a show about a man who can’t get famous or keep a wife, but has a garage with some recording equipment and a growing number of cats. Or you could even say the timing is actually perfect, since the long declining network dominance eventually led to greater risks on cable, which led to the Small Comedy boom, where very funny shows didn’t need 10 million viewers to be a success. You could quibble and say this is long overdue or just accept the fact that tons of very funny comics have never become as popular as they should be and never got their own show. Q&A: Marc Maron Reveals Secrets of His New Show, Stage Cats and Podcasting
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