If you’ve been wondering why Idiotsitter, the webseries from Jillian Bell and Charlotte Newhouse, had disappeared from Comedy Central’s website, here’s why. It’s now a full-fledged TV show, with half hour episodes and everything, airing every Thursday after Workaholics, the show Bell is best known for. And since it’ll be recovering at least some of the same ground as the web version, and also probably just to avoid confusion, it made sense to wipe the original Idiotsitter from the face of the earth. Don’t worry, though: if you liked those shorts you’ll probably like the show.
With its hard-partying lead, it’s tempting to compare Idiotsitter to the show that airs before it. Bell plays Gene, the spoiled, classless daughter of a distant multimillionaire dad (the always excellent Stephen Root), and she is just as irresponsible and immature as any of the guys on Workaholics. The first time we see her she’s riding a pony down a highway, bloodied and swigging straight from a bottle of Old Grandad, leisurely strolling up to a cruiser and propositioning two cops. Her solution to every problem is to throw money at it, which she learned from her dad, so if this show becomes a hit expect a wave of affluenza thinkpieces.
The idiotsitter of the title is Billie, an uptight Harvard grad plagued by student loans and repo men, and played by Charlotte Newhouse. She thinks she’s interviewing to be a babysitter for a child and is shocked to meet Gene, who makes a dramatic entrance befitting Rebel Wilson in a Pitch Perfect movie. Gene’s dad hires Billie to fill basically every hole in Gene’s life: best friend, teacher (Gene, who is probably in her 30s, is still working on her GED), big sister, surrogate mom. Billie takes the job because she needs the money but only after starting to feel sorry for Gene—she recognizes that Gene is the way she is because of her horrible, negligent parents. And of course Gene in turn helps the uptight Billie relax a bit when they throw a huge rager at the mansion.
There’s a lot that’s familiar about Idiotsitter so far. Both the characters are stock types, but at least the show recognizes that, and tries to avoid the most obvious outcomes. After Billie gets drunk and loosens up too much at the party, Gene eventually admits there was more in that glass than just wine. It takes that cliché a bit further than you might expect from a TV show, but despite the twisted outcome it still feels like any other crazy party scene, just like, say, the one involving a crazy party animal and her uptight friend / sister in Sisters.
The party scene is supposed to be a setpiece but falls flat, referencing our familiarity with the party scene from every high school movie ever without using it to offer much new insight into this show or its characters. It’s not surprising that Gene would turn Billie’s suggestion of a low-key night with a few friends into a stereotypical frat party because, even in only half an episode, the show had already established that Gene does everything to extremes. It’s somehow the only scene where Bell isn’t convincing as a conscience-free party animal, and it’s also full of lines that simply don’t land coming from the mouths of poorly defined secondary characters.
The leads aren’t perfect: Billie isn’t fully-formed, and Gene is too one-sided. Gene is such an outrageous, over-the-top character that it’s impossible to feel any sympathy for her, even if Bell is more than capable of holding her own as an actress in those scenes. Meanwhile Newhouse overacts to an uncomfortable degree, which is especially damaging, since Billie is supposed to be the reserved voice of reason.
There are a few encouraging signs, at least. Bell is great as Gene, even if the character feels uninspired. The first episode ends in a bit of a cliff-hanger, so perhaps there’ll be some character development as the season progresses (that’s one of the big knocks against Workaholics, which is only intermittently funny enough to compensate for the total stagnation of its characters). The second episode is a step up on most accounts, with better writing and acting. The entire show shouldn’t be written off after one lackluster first episode, especially since the webseries was one of the best things to come out of Comedy Central’s web division so far. There could be a good show here in time, and soon, but this first episode is about as slow as riding a pony on a highway.
Garrett Martin edits Paste’s comedy and games sections. He’s on Twitter @grmartin.