Take Three: Camping

Camping: Season 1, Episode 3 “Fishing Trip” (C+)

I make a point to watch every pilot, and if I’m intrigued by a show, I usually stick around for a few episodes. Three episodes in, the question is whether I have a genuine interest in what these characters do and where they end up. At this point on this show, I really don’t. While this is a unique and odd series, there are still some very archetypal characters who dominate too much of the energy, namely Kathryn and Jandice. Kathryn is the controlling element who is so buttoned-up that she would never dream of doing anything that didn’t fit with her meticulously-prepared plan and Jandice is all about whatever she wants to do, corrupting every element she comes into contact with just for the hell of it. We got to see a bit of the men being together fishing, but then it was all about Joe and his feeling left out since the group was isolating him with inside jokes and making him feel like an outsider for his poorly-conceived Bond references. He’s hardly the easiest to get along with, throwing a wad of paper into Carleen’s open mouth to wake her up and being decidedly not into the camping experience if he thought using the bathroom at Burger King was a real treat. Lines like “Don’t pout, it makes your face look rounder than it already is” and “Who wants oatmeal in a cookie? I barely want oatmeal in my oatmeal” are certainly memorable, but this show as a whole is all over the place and I don’t think that I need to keep watching it.