The writers for The Simpsons clearly gave up any sense of relevancy years ago; Family Guy is essentially the same laugh-free joke week after week; and Fox’s new Jonah Hill-voiced series (which is so dull I can’t even be bothered to remember the name) is dead on arrival, leaving South Park as one of a few adult cartoons that still elicits a chuckle every now and then. But HBO’s brilliant The Life & Times of Tim is one of the only remaining shows that can still manage to keep up with South Park for laughs.
The animation is still crudely drawn and the characters and scenarios are still laugh-out loud inappropriate. The 15 min. episodes are just long enough to set up the jokes, and don’t come off as plodding like many other animated series.
Created by Steve Dildarian, the show revolves Tim and his live-in girlfriend in New York. Through a series of escalating misunderstandings and odd situations, like competing with a homeless man for his job or finding a lookalike stripper to replace his girlfriend, the show is refreshingly original.
Cancelled by HBO after the second season, the network thankfully reversed course and agreed to bring the show back for season three. So let’s celebrate by catching back up with the second season out now on DVD.
The Life and Times of Tim: The Complete Second Season/2 DVDs/2011/HBO Home Video /300 mins.