Con Man

Watched it because we had nothing else and just stumbled into Con Man. Very short episodes, but it pulled us along until we were really looking forward to each new odd ball episode. I do hope this is coming back. It had a great cliff hanger. Recommended if you like wackiness that is played straight and somehow makes you think this could really happen--but, please god, don't let it.

I got to see this Crowd Funded show with a few friends and had seen the title before but did not realize who was in the show. For all fans of MMORPG, SciFi, CosPlay, and all the "CONS", it is a MUST SEE! Even if you only get into it 10%, this show holds you rapt around the stigma and dogma of SciFi and its trappings. With all the ups and downs that the actors, shows, and productions have to live and deal with, this follows what happens when one of the stars, who played the lead pilot in their now canceled show, goes around to the different "Cons" speaking about the show; and what happens to him and his agent. Starring the cast of Firefly / Serenity, this had me waiting to see what was going to happen next. There are many guest appearances and cameos throughout the show that it is hard to keep up with them, but do keep up.

It seemed like Con Man took a couple of episodes to find its tone, but once it did I began loving it. Yes, it makes fun of people attending cons, as a previous reviewer noted. It makes fun of people who work at cons. It makes fun of people who book cons. It makes fun of people who act in shows whose fans attend cons. In other words, everybody in this show is a little bit clueless and/or venal and/or crazy - and yet they're all likable and familiar. This isn't Great Art, but it's a hoot - and playing spot-the-SF-star is half the fun. (I had to look up "Dale," the elderly "lady stuntman," who turned out to be a Romulan commander from the original Star Trek. Like that.)

The show feels a lot like Spiner's Fresh Hell or at least the basic idea does. However, the production value and the list of guest stars (which is basically the a Who's Who list of fan favorites in the sci-fi / fantasy genre) are miles ahead in Con Man and the story and characters are overall a lot funnier. The premise of the show is about a sci-fi actor who's entire career is defined by his role in a short lived TV show and how he struggles with this "creative-stigma" on a daily basis. The humor mostly comes from scenes between Tudyk and convention fans, convention volunteers, his booking agent and other actors in his circle. And the anecdotal aspect of it (since Tudyk plays a parody of himself) makes this show extremely funny and I had to pause a couple of times to recover from laughter before continuing to watch. Though, in my opinion it also has enough funny material for people who aren't familiar with Firefly and Tudyk to make it just as entertaining to watch.

I don't understand this show. It's both really good and REALLY bad.

There are really REALLY funny laugh out loud moments, Tudyk is brilliant. I almost never laugh out loud normally.

The rest is filled by soo many GARBAGE "jokes" that to on FOREVER. Crude, wholly unfunny, uninspired and totally unoriginal lame toilet humor that absolutely pollutes the show to a level that makes it unwatchable. It's obviously not written by Tudyk. It's basically the Bobby show, a horribly crude, ugly and unfunny actress that gets the absurd amounts of screen time and plot.

Seems like in order to get the show made they had to make a heavily compromising deal with devils, and you know how those go. They should have passed.

Before this I would have said that I'd watch anything with the Firefly cast. I can't say that anymore.