Checked Out The Big Show Show

This came out a few weeks ago on Netflix and I was actually a bit surprised.

The show is basically a look at Big Show at home, or at least pretty close to one. He’s playing a fictionalized version of himself where he’s a retired wrestler whose daughter moves in with his wife and his two other daughters. It’s a simple premise and that works well for a simple show.

So what works? Big Show is good at the physical comedy and playing himself (as you might expect), Allison Munn is good as his slightly wacky wife and Renlynn Caster (its her first significant role) works as the oldest of three daughters. The show has some continuity with stories running throughout the season, making it a lot easier to watch than some shows that just have random plots with nothing giving them any order.

As for what doesn’t work, the show just isn’t very funny. You might chuckle once or twice (three unnamed wrestlers singing a Backstreet Boys song was funny) but for the most part, it’s a show with a bunch of easy jokes that don’t work very well (the middle daughter knows someone named Taylor Swift (who uses a lot of Swift songs/lyrics) and Big Show always thinks it’s the real one). That being said, you know what you’re getting into with this so it’s not like it’s some huge disappointment.

Overall, the show isn’t great but it’s not trying to be. You can watch the whole thing in about three and a half hours (eight slightly less than a half hour episode). I watched it in a day and to be fair, I certainly wasn’t begging for each show to be over or checking the clock every two minutes to see how long was left. If this had more episodes, it would be a perfectly fine show for a seven year old to watch or as background noise like Full House.

The point here is to get Big Show in front of a camera and that works well enough. I don’t know if it’s going to get a second season, but if it does, then it’s just going to be one less year before you get to have this conversation:

“Remember when Big Show had a sitcom?”

“Yep.”

End of meaningful discussion about the show.

Oh and the guy who played Urkel is in a few episodes. He’s not funny.