Sitcom From Controversial Filmmaker Is So Terrible You Can’t Look Away
Ever since Tommy Wiseau created, wrote, directed, produced, and starred in The Room (2003), which has been considered by critics to be the “Citizen Kane of bad movies,” he has had trouble finding an audience. The primary reason for this is that it’s incredibly hard to tell if the enigmatic and controversial filmmaker is earnestly trying to make art and failing miserably in every conceivable way, or if he’s been trolling us for over 20 years because he’s deliberately putting out awful content and gets a sick pleasure out of producing problematic premises. Wiseau’s short-lived and ill-fated 2015 sitcom, The Neighbors, only adds more confusion to the mix because it’s not (intentionally) funny, the acting is terrible, the sound design and cinematography are absolutely jarring, and its several story lines make absolutely zero sense.
Though The Neighbors saw its Hulu premiere in 2015, it has since been scrubbed from the streamer, and you have to resort to online fan uploads to enjoy this series if it’s too late for you to find God.
The Neighbors Is One Of The Shows Of All Time
The Neighbors is set entirely in an apartment building, and supposedly based on a novel of the same name that was also written by Tommy Wiseau.
To the best of my knowledge, no such novel exists, and various internet message boards have confirmed my assumptions.
Though all of the interior shots are clearly filmed on some sort of sound stage, the apartment building itself is a god-awful CGI rendering full of stop-motion animation, explosions, a dinosaur for some reason, and transition music that’s as bombastic and infectious as it is disorienting.
“What A Day!”
As for The Neighbors’ plot, it would be generous to tell you that any important themes or story lines are actually explored in this sitcom, as it’s really more of a jumbled series of vignettes that take place inside of the apartment building. Tommy Wiseau is the series’ primary protagonist, an affable yet off-putting property manager named Charlie who tries to run a tight ship. Working alongside Charlie is Bebe, his assistant director, or secretary, or something … they never really get into it. Charlie and Bebe collect rent, send out eviction notices, and work with the maintenance crew to make sure their tenants are happy with their living situations.
Tommy Wiseau Wanted To Show His Range
But can you even have a sitcom without some sort of antagonist to create tension that leads to a big payoff or release? Don’t worry, because Tommy Wiseau thought of everything.
The antagonist in The Neighbors is Ricky Rick (also Tommy Wiseau, but wearing a blonde wig), the son of a billionaire who we never see on-screen, but are told owns the building. Ricky Rick harasses women, doesn’t know how to use a phone, quickly gets wrapped up in get-rich-quick schemes, and, during the one scene he shares with Charlie (who is mysteriously absent during the rest of Ricky’s scenes), is clearly another actor wearing the same clothes.
Tommy Wiseau submitted this series for an Emmy Nomination upon its 2015 release.
Conflict, Resolution, And … Nevermind
Most conversations in The Neighbors devolve into yelling as the various tenants get into fights over missing chickens, botched drug deals, inconsistent Wi-Fi service, and, in one instance, unclear instructions on how the laundry room escort service actually works. Once these escalations are established, they either anticlimactically resolve, or don’t get resolved at all before they’re never mentioned again. Surprisingly enough, everybody congregates in the office whenever Charlie sees a reason to celebrate, like Bebe’s upcoming birthday party.
The best way to describe everything that happens in The Neighbors is what you’d get if a man who has zero grasp on American culture decided to make a sitcom after going on an ether frollick and binge-watching Friends.
Who Is The Neighbors For?
GFR SCORE
If I had to answer the question, “who is The Neighbors for?” I’d have to say that it’s for anybody out there who has watched so many terrible titles ironically that they no longer know what’s objectively good or bad.
In my mind, The Neighbors was somehow specifically created for my own personal enjoyment, as its entertainment value comes to me in the form of making my loved ones sit down for a viewing so I can watch them watch it and bask in their ever-growing and all consuming hatred for everything that I stand for. And when the 1,000th “joke” fails to land, I can’t help but smile because not only have I wasted somebody else’s time (the one thing you can’t get back), they stop asking me for recommendations and I can move on with my life.
As of this writing, you cannot find The Neighbors anywhere on streaming, but it’s pretty easy to find on YouTube if you want to spend 3 hours admiring its audacity.
