You gotta give TNN credit.
The down-home cable channel once known as The Nashville Network has successfully revamped itself into The National Network, airing more broad-based syndicated programs like C.S.I. and The Wonder Years and movie events, including a recent Star Trek marathon.
But now, they’re getting ambitious. They’re launching a barrage of new, original series this fall, one of which–Small Shots–debuts Wednesday, Aug. 22 at 8 p.m. EST.
Small Shots follows two roving filmmakers (Chris Cox and Matt Sloan) cross-country as they seek out everyday people to star in their various three-minute movie spoofs. The premiere episode finds the two in search of actors to portray Hannibal Lecter and Clarice Starling in the spoof The Silence of the Yams, a parody in which Lecter is portrayed as a raving vegetarian forcing his yams on the meat-eating Starling.
Yep, that’s the concept.
Surprisingly, it’s not the parody that draws your attention: it’s the auditions. Cox and Sloan hold try-outs with locals for the parts (in the debut episode, locals of the town of Alton, Miss.) selecting the most convincing wannabe thespians. The local color–the dialect, the dirt-under-the-nails simplicity of the people–keep the show interesting. But that’s not to say funny.
What is funny? Cox and Sloan scouting out locations for their shoot.
Walking down what could be Main Street in any town across the country, the pair ridicule the homes and living conditions in Alton. It’s a bit mean, but it’s a bit funny. Pointing to one home, Cox asks Sloan whether or not it would be a good location for Lecter’s lair. The response: “I don’t think Hannibal Lecter would live in a dump.”
Up next week for Cox and Sloan will be a parody of Gladiator, entitled Non-Violent Gladiator. Perhaps viewers should stick around and give it a whirl. They could easily pick up the pace here.
