A Gamer Watches "Game Over"

What happens to your favorite characters after you turn off the game? That's the premise behind Game Over, a new show on the UPN network. Game Over airs Wednesdays at 8 PM. This is opposite Fox's That 70s Show, and frankly, I'd rather watch that. But I was still very curious what Game Over would be like, so when UPN aired an encore episode of the pilot on Friday at 9, I jumped at it. Despite the fact that the Wonderfalls (another showаI was looking forward to) debut on Fox called for myаVCR to performаdouble duty. Now that both shows are over, Iаhighly recommend Wonderfalls as it's fantastic and clever, but can't say the same about Game Over, whichаclearly didn't have its game on.

Game Over follows the computer animated exploits of the Smashenburns, your regular, everyday, suburban family. There's the good natured father, Rip (voiced by Patrick Warburton AKA Puddy from "Seinfeld"), who doubles as a NASCAR driver. His wife Raquel (voiced by Lucy Liu) is your basic Lara Croft knockoff complete with her own pair of big... err... knockers and a pair of twin pistols. Their two adoring children are whiny, blog writing, teenager Alice and her hip-hop wannabe twin brother Billy, who manages to drop trough solely so Rip can say "Why is your johnson hanging out of your pants!"

The pilot episode revolved around three slightly interconnected plots: Mom's tomb raid for the Emerald Monkey, Alice going bra shopping with her father, and the family adopting a pet. That pet is the Sonic the Hedgehog inspired Turbo, but his personality can best be described as Bender-lite. He smokes cigars, sucks down booze at any hour of the day, and has a penchant for crime. Voiced by Artie Lange of Mad TV and The Howard Stern Show fame, Turbo is a pale imitation of Bender and even though they share a personality, Turbo isn't half as funny as Bender Bending Rodriguez.

Turbo is also responsible for Game Over's first mini-controversy. He peeps on Raquel in the shower, which originally featured a close up of her digitally sculpted derriere. In the aired version however, her buttocks were blurred over. I guess in this post-Janet world (please shoot me for typing that), UPN didn't want to take any chances. Even though there is more nudity than that in your average episode of The Simpsons. And an above average episode like the public sex episode would make their heads explode. But if you must see these short three seconds in all their unblurred glory, GamePro has the uncensored promotional cut.

For a television show supposedly inspired by the video game world, Game Over never really comes off as anything more than a low rent Family Guy clone. Except it has none of the wit or absurdity, and naturally it's lacking the "Did they just f***ing say that on TV?" factor. And Turbo is no Brian. Sure there's the pervasive feel of The Sims and Tomb Raider throughout the show. And the producers did manage to place a few of our "real" favorite characters into the background. I counted Crash Bandicoot, Abe from Oddworld, and Tommy Vercetti (who cold cocked Rip out of nowhere) myself. But this is just a lame sitcom complete with wacky neighbors (who happen to be shaolin monks who are always being attacked by ninjas here).

There were a few nice touches, the Tommy Vercetti joke for example, and the fact that "Mom's minivan" is a tricked out battle wagon complete with all the usual amenities. But the producers could have done so much more to play with the conventions of the video game world. Maybe pop random meters all over the place, or include a joke loading screen. Something, anything, toаlet the audience know that this show takes place in a video game and isn't just one more sitcom. Except... that it is.

South Park built a whole episode around the fact that The Simpsons have done everything first in the world of animation. And when it comes to video game humor, the "Simpsons did it!", and have done it better. When Maude Flanders died, Bart plays a game called Billy Graham's Bible Blaster with Rod and Todd. When they start the game's second level a voice intones: "Second Coming! Reload! Reload!" Nothing in Game Over's thirty minutes comes close to that three minute gag.

The only scale of whether a TV show is any good is whether you'll watch it again, which I don't think I'll beаtuning into Game Over on Wednesdays. Of course, I doubt this game will reach it's second level, season, or if we're all lucky, episode.