Forget about my rant on the WB! in my Batman Beyond
review; UPN's got it much worse. While teenybopper products like Buffy
the Vampire Slayer and Dawson's Creek continue to swell the WB
audience exponentially, UPN hasn't seen much action since the Voyager
premiere. Somewhere beyond Desmond Pfeiffer is UPN oblivion, one of
those uncharted sectors of the Star Trek universe that would make a
great spin-off.
I'll admit, it's hard to imagine Dilbert as a looming specter of doom,
but that's pretty much what it is to UPN. It's not because Dilbert
is bad, (in fact, the unpolished pilot submitted to me was actually quite
good), but because if Dilbert is in any way a failure, it'll mean the
practical end of UPN as a free television network.
More on the Prophecy of Doom later...
For the uninitiated, Dilbert is the mouth-less corporate everyman who just
happens to rule the priceless 25-44 demographic in comic polls. In his office,
he's sandwiched and surrounded by incompetence, and at home he's tormented
by the intellectual superiority of his mother (Dilmom) and dog (Dogbert).
In the pilot, the company's computer network is backlogged due to the excessive
number of resumes being printed; the company's flagship product wiped out
an entire town ("I told them at the meeting that anthrax was a bacteria,
not an herb.") and now a new flagship product is needed. Dilbert's pointy-haired
boss, in his infinite wisdom, wants the name of the product taken care of
first.
"If you don't know something's name, how do you know what to build?"
All the good names are already taken by competent companies, so their choices
are limited to Greek names, diseases and bodily secretions. There isn't much
on which to judge the series based on the pilot; the sole episode provided
has many unfinished scenes. (Memo to UPN: Why only send one episode? Contrary
to popular belief, TV critics aren't as judgmental as the general public.)
By airtime, the cutting-room staff will hopefully have removed all elements
of the ridiculous "chicken-man" thread; 300-pound sandbags of jokes
which just bring the comic pacing to a screeching halt. It's far from important
to the truly funny bits of the story anyway -- the well-handled ineptitude
of Dilbert's co-workers and the always acerbic Dogbert, who's about a .001
on the pH scale and a real trump card.
A few other elements could stand tidying as well. At least a couple of scenes
(such as the show's prologue involving a voice-controlled shower) seem to
reach too far for gags with otherwise fine payoffs. (It's not hard to convince
someone to unconsciously say "14" and "2001," but the
set-up for the gags are too long.)
Suddenly Susan's Kathy Griffin brings a familiar delivery to her role
as Alice, but there is too little range in her performance to make her dialogue
work. One of Dilbert's associates is just loud; he's simply not obnoxious
enough to sell his presence. Plus, the timing of the visual reactions from
others are strangely late. Maybe the animators at Yeson thought the abstract
visualization would be enough. Hopefully director Seth Kearsley (Mummies
Alive!) will have more input in the final product.
For now, the unfinished product is verbally sharp, visually uninvolving, and
definitely in need of refinement. What's here is certainly more promising
than the debuts to The Simpsons and King of the Hill, and that's
good, even though the standards for both of these shows have been raised since
then. For UPN and its great prophecy however, that's not good enough.
Terrence Briggs, all-purpose animation fan, is more than happy to receive
comments from readers on his work.
Links:
[1] http://www.awn.com/imagepicker/image/4561
