I'm Dying Up Here

The drama has a lot going for it, with a strong ensemble of actors. ... There are many people we're supposed to care about, whose lives are not particularly happy, but none has enough screen time to make them sufficiently sympathetic. Too often, they come off as personality types rather than specific people. .... And then the entire ensemble is somewhat overwhelmed by the show's bold, frenzied filming style.

The laughs, as you can imagine, are few and far between -- what with that death hanging over the comics, who come off as some of the unhappiest, bitter and jealous people ever. ... [Michael Angarano and Clark Duke] play two penniless and naive comics from Boston who come to L.A. seeking fame and fortune. They are funny. I wanted to see more them (and their story) and less of everyone else.

In I’m Dying Up Here’s attempts to reflect a diversity of experiences within the pursuit of creative satisfaction, it sometimes feels like everyone is working at the same club that’s located in parallel universes.

Dying drops a killer set but doesn’t know how to close the room.

A majority of the characters are either unlikable or uninteresting, and the show’s attempts at relevancy lack a fresh edge. For as much as it wants to parallel the present with candid stories on sexism, racism, and more material covered by the era’s edgiest comics, “I’m Dying Up Here” still feels stuck in the past.

Its characters are, for the most part, fictional composites. And too often, a number of them are a good deal less interesting than the show’s version of Pryor.

You’ve seen it before, read it before. Too bad Dying passed up an opportunity to tell it in an exciting, engaging new way.

If all of the characters were as 14-karat authentic as Goldie, I'm Dying Up Here might have had a fighting chance. Instead, even with Jim Carrey on board as an executive producer and Tom Dreesen along for the erratic ride as technical consultant, this Showtime newcomer only intermittently finds its rhythm and hits its stride as compelling drama.

I’m Dying Up Here never manages to find its footing amidst the challenges it created for itself, and audiences suffer for that. Only give this one a watch if you’re a die-hard comedy fan--but don’t expect to laugh.

As drama, the show is inert. After watching four episodes, I realized I’d been watching constant variations of the same narrative arc: Comedian campaigns to get stage time at Goldie’s. Pause for subplots about other comics’ personal lives. Back to Goldie’s for a performance, during which the comedian either “kills” or bombs, after which he or she is just as miserable as when the episode began.

It’s sporadically entertaining and interesting, but cut up by wild tonal shifts, bad editing, and some worse writing. It doesn’t help that the whole thing looks like a bad comedy sketch, complete with gauzy lensing and exaggerated costumes designed to scream ‘70s. Too little of it feels lived-in or genuine.