The War Next Door

Bad, weird sitcoms are more interesting than bad, generic ones. But they're still bad. The creators of the brilliant '90s Nickelodeon children's show The Adventures of Pete and Pete have brought their cartoonish, jump-cut surrealism to The War Next Door. The clever premise has a CIA agent turned car salesman followed to the suburbs by his evil, supergenius archenemy. It turns out, though, that the same team also wrote Snow Day, and unfortunately this show veers toward their more recent work, with flat jokes and obvious dialogue. At its best it's a dumb adult show that really wants to be a smart kid's show. Manhattan, AZ, the sitcom that follows it (not created by the P&P guys), is gutsier and more promising. It's also about a life change: this time a married undercover L.A. cop becomes a widowed small-town sheriff. Like The War Next Door, it's plenty weird. The pilot's best joke comes midway through, when the main character says he's noticed that his son has changed since his mother died--and the camera pans to show that the kid is now played by a new actor. It's got some smart jokes and sharp ideas, but, again, this is a half-hour show that feels like a full hour. Suddenly Susan may not take any chances, but at least it moves fast.

--By Joel Stein