TV: Stella

I've watched the first episode of Stella on Comedy Central four times now, and it keeps cracking me up. It's from the comedic minds behind Wet Hot American Summer and The State (and where the hell is my State DVD box set?), so how can you go wrong? Answer: you can not, my friend, you can not.

Stella falls into the "absurd" comedy category (as recently extolled by Ian). Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter, and David Wain play characters named Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter, and David Wain, who all live in an apartment together and don't really seem to do anything but hang out and be goofy. It's not a sketch show, but it's not quite a traditional sitcom, either. There's a plot, kind of, but the plot is secondary to the random silliness.

This first episode begins with an argument over which type of music the boys will listen to before bedtime: Michael wants funk, David wants funk rock, and Michael Ian suggests a compromise of funk rock. So Michael Ian makes his selection from the three-shelf CD rack, which holds exactly three CDs, generically labelled "Funk", "Funk Rock", and "Funk Rock".

Soon, the landlord comes to pay a visit. The boys pose to greet him (Michael holding a book, David with an umbrella jauntily resting on his shoulder, and Michael Ian holding what appears to be a mandolin). The landlord finds the door locked, and demands that they let him in. "We can't," Michael shouts through the closed door, "we're in a tableau."

The landlord evicts them, and the absurdity continues as they search for a new home. Their real estate broker falls for David, and he whispers sweet nothings to her: "ShhhhhhhhHUT UP!!" (Later, at her apartment, she introduces David to her random cameo spouse: "You know my husband, Edward Norton?" David replies, "Not personally, but I'm a fan.") Pleading their case to the members of the co-op board, they all decide to wear skunk tails. Why are you dressed as skunks? is the natural question. They're not dressed as skunks, Michael Ian fussily corrects them: "We're dressed as skunk people." The boys then perform a Flashdance-style routine to win the board members over; the fact that the dance moves are performed by stunt doubles is made abundantly obvious.

Crazy impossibilities occur throughout the show: when told by the boys that the key to their apartment is under the welcome mat, and the mat is at the dry cleaners, the landlord must go downtown and pick up the mat. When he returns, he puts the mat on the floor outside the door, then lifts the corner -- and the key is suddenly there. Or, in one of my favorite bits, David points and shouts "Look!" He then leads the two Michaels around the corner to read a flyer posted on a wall that he could not possibly have seen from where he started. And there are several moments in which the fourth wall is broken, from the stunt doubles, to the boys' downstairs neighbors being aware of a flashback, to the boys (especially Michael Ian) simply looking directly into the camera and grinning or waving.

And the show opens and closes with car crashes, because... well, why not? "If you two don't shut up about boogie boarding," threatens Michael Ian, "I'm gonna drive this truck off a cliff." "DO IT!" "I will!" "DO IT!!!" "I will!" And he does.

I'm sure this sounds perfectly dreadful from my point-by-point breakdown, but trust me, this is incredibly funny stuff. If you've got any taste for original, non-formulaic comedy, Stella is the summer show for you.

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In other news, keep an eye on Brill Building for a giant, comics weblogosphere-shattering development today!