DVD REVIEW: GEORGE LOPEZ – SEASONS 1 & 2

Finalmente, un sitcom de Latino en la TV a ir con el resto que no miro.

The Humans

George Lopez, Constance Marie, Luis Armand Garcia, Masiela Lusha, Belita Moreno, Valente Rodriguez.

The Nutshell

George Lopez is a regular Joe (or in this case, Jose) who works at an
airplane parts factory and deals with married life, fatherhood and his
disaffected mother in the confines of the sitcom model.

The Lowdown

Becoming only the fourth Latino to headline his own sitcom, George
Lopez stars as a guy named… George Lopez…. However, rather than
being a comedian, he’s a manager at an airplane parts factory and
loving husband and father of two. And from there, the setup is pretty
much the same as a thousand other sitcoms: life lessons are taught, he
gets into embarrassing situations, his wife has his balls in her
pocket, and the laugh track is constantly on overdrive. Now normally
this would make me just classify this sitcom with all of the others –
especially family sitcoms – that I don’t watch, am trying to forget, or
refuse to acknowledge. But this one actually isn’t bad at all, which
is surprising because it has all of the aforementioned ingredients that
I despise about sitcoms.

First of all, Lopez is very likable in the role and the writing is
usually pretty funny without being so sickeningly condescending as
other family sitcoms. Lopez also has a good rapport with Constance
Marie, who plays his wife (and is delectable in her own right).
Another thing that is different than many sitcoms is that Lopez’
mother, Benny (Moreno), is a trash talking, bingo playing, chain
smoking (although apparently offscreen), hard-assed matriarch who
doesn’t hesitate to put George in his place. The show uses a lot of
the same storylines as the umpteen trillion sitcoms before it. It also
distinguishes that this is indeed a Latino sitcom, even though at its
heart, it’s still cut from pretty much the same cloth as all of the
others. Generally, aside from the Latino angle, this would be enough
to make me discount George Lopez
from all the others and toss it on my sitcom scrapheap. But this show
is pretty well written, and Lopez and company just make it work. Don’t
ask me how.

Normally, I don’t get caught up in all of the “first Black this” or
“first Latino that” on TV, but I do think it’s pretty ridiculous that
this is the first Latino sitcom to come down the pike since Paul
Rodriguez’ a.k.a Pablo some 18 years prior. And that show only lasted one season. That being said, Lopez
does successfully blend the Latino influences with the tried and true
sitcom formula, and normally I just wouldn’t think that it would be
successful. But five plus season on the air so far would have proved
me wrong. I think it’s that possibly the Latino influences, however
prominent or subtle, do set it apart, however so slightly. But mostly
it’s the undeniable appeal of Lopez himself as the lead character.
He’s likeable, funny, and I don’t feel like I’m watching a cookie
cutter TV dad whenever I see him. And that’s cool with me.

I don’t pretend to have an answer to the Latino immigration problems
currently plaguing this country, but I think that if there’s a good
first step (at least a baby step) to helping to try to bridge the gap,
and to show that Latinos can be and are just like the rest of us, while
still maintaining their own distinct identity, this show has taken it.
I’m actually shocked that I would be able to watch this show as easily
as I did, because if you’ve read three words on any sitcom review I’ve
ever done, you know that I don’t suffer stupid sitcoms at all (check out my love fest for Full House here). George Lopez
is a pretty fun 22 minutes and is very watchable, despite the fact that
it falls into all of the sitcom traps there are out there. But it
manages to crawl out of the majority of them. Who woulda thunk it?
Ciertamente no yo, esse.

The Package