DUMB LUCK
This supposedly comical, political satire is as dumb as its title, and so are all the characters in it. Co-written and directed by Josh Ballinger, Dumb Luck starts with a promising premise: a dumb city councilman, Aaron Luck (played by Josh himself) proposes the dumbest ordinance ever, for the English speaking maple city – “To make English the official language of the city”. As dumb luck would have it, Aaron manages to pass the ordinance against the better judgment of the incumbent Mayor Joan Moore (Jessica Villalba) and the Senior Councilman John Bingham (Bob Honest) with assistance from his newly appointed intern, Danny Mclntyre (Myles Dabbs), and ends up being the most-talked- about member of the council. With no knowledge of practical politics, Aaron manages to pass even dumber ordinances; so much so that his nemeses begin to think that Aaron could actually be a diamond in the rough and it’s better to back off. Towards the end of the season, John Bingham and Joan Moore, decide to resign, paving way for Aaron to head to congress while his assistant Danny is promoted to the post of Mayor. Writers Josh Ballinger and Leighton Strout, as aforementioned, did start the season with a very promising episode, but somehow as the story evolves, the content gets very immature and the humor goes lame. For instance - plastic nipples on coffee mugs…seriously? That wouldn’t even classify as adult humor. What could have been otherwise, a political satire with huge potential, is torn apart with lousy acting and shabby characterization. For example, Mayor Joan Moore, the only female character in the whole season, who appeared to be a sensible woman with a serious political drive in the first episode suddenly becomes obsessed with masculine scents and spends most of her time smelling and seducing men in the remaining episodes. That’s sheer stereotyping guys. Women can do more than that. Also confusing was Danny Mclntyre, who gets a claustrophobic seizure of some sort towards the end of the season, when Mayor Moore tries to seduce him. Why the hell did that happen? Being overwhelmed or shy is acceptable but why start hallucinating? What was the motivation for that?
Chester Bagsby (played by Leighton Strout) is kinda likable but his costume just ruins his charisma. Maybe he is trying to illustrate himself as a funky drop out millionaire businessman but for some reason his clothes look a tad substandard…i.e. in contrast with the character he is playing. Poorly-timed background score and the shaky camera work, add to the misery. Lack of diverse locations is also a major setback. The whole season is shot within two offices and one cubicle. Though one can understand the budgetary limitations, but the continuous two-shots and close-ups make the episodes a bit monotonous to watch. A restructured screenplay, crispier edit with some actual action and fewer but pacy dialogues and more situational comedy can save this series from being bombed. To conclude, Dumb Luck lacks color and seriously needs some luck on its side. One wouldn’t want to watch past the second episode. Nothing personal folks, but it is a thumbs down.
Watch it on youtube
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