LA Weekly
December 17, 2007
By STEVEN LEIGH MORRIS
Now in its 12th season, Joe Keyes and Rob Elk’s holiday sitcom spins out some gloriously funny lines and cameos from the premise of a drunken Christmas party in the ramshackle office of a ramshackle insurance agent, Bob Finhead (Elk), somewhere in a small Midwest town. Bob’s the product of three generations of insurance salesmen, and he’s now torn between staying with his deranged community and heading for new, creative opportunities as an inventor in Des Moines — city of light, city of magic. People come, people go, including pudgy, now-bald Elwin Beewee (Kyle Colerider-Krugh), returning as a success after being hogtied to a wall in high school, mocked for his acne and explosive-bowel syndrome and referred to as“stinky.” No longer a stutterer and seemingly jocular, Elwin is more diabolical than he appears, with a clandestine plan to exact his revenge. His threat to the town provides a theme-and-variation on The Cherry Orchard, as filtered through an episode of The Office. It’s one thing when Sheriff Joe Walker (Joe Keyes) sits on a toilet with a broken door, showing his knees while chattering about the Bible, but a more somber horror emerges when one of the aging Johnson triplets (Linda Miller, Melissa Denton and Maile Flanagan) sputters mockingly at Elwin’s belief in global warming— “Bet you believe in the tooth fairy as well . . . and evolution,” she smirks — followed by screams of laughter all round. Ann Randolph turns in a pair of insane cartoons as folksinger Carol — recently released from the asylum — and town whore Brandy, looking for any crotch to rest her head on. And Mark Fite, a cross between Owen Wilson and a young Bill Pullman, makes for a perfect pothead as Marty, who keeps crashing his truck — sometimes without even starting it. Why Bob would want to escape these people is evident; why he would be conflicted by that decision is less so. Justin Tanner directs this spitfire ensemble with timing so fine you don’t even know it’s been tuned.