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Indie filmmaker Kevin Smith got lucky with his first film, "Clerks." Miramax picked up the low budget flick, a meandering, episodic project that follows the silly exploits of two clerks (Dante and Randal) and the odd couple of Jay and Silent Bob. The film has since gained cult status, though I fail to see its appeal. For me, "Clerks" is an uninspired, offensive, and tediously slow movie. When did stuff like boorishness and necrophilia become a source of laughter?
Well, Kevin Smith and his band seemed to have thought that "Clerks" was popular enough with the "hip" crowd for him to revisit the material. So, he got the greenlight to create an animated series based on the film, and ABC picked up the program. However, Smith was dead wrong. Nobody gave a damn about "Clerks" the animated series, and ABC yanked it off the air after only two episodes.
As in the film, Dante and Randal are clerks at a convenience store and its adjacent video store. They sit around complaining about the customers, their non-existent sex lives, and their lack of a future. Occasionally, Jay and Silent Bob make trouble for Dante and Randal, but that's about it.
Now, Miramax has released the six completed episodes on a two-disc set. This will be the first time that most people will see the other four episodes, and I don't know if it's a good thing that Smith kept true to the spirit of the original film. The storylines are utter nonsense. The pacing is horrid, and the characters aren't as clever as the screenwriters think they are. The show's creators think that it's enough to have a bunch of smart-asses standing around mouthing off to one another and make references to other movies. After watching only two episodes, you start to think that ABC was wise in cutting its losses early in the season.
Additionally, since most of these episodes ended up not being shown on air, Smith put back some outrageously offensive material. For example, in Episode 2, Randal makes a crack about watching "Spielberg's 'Flintstone's List' starring Liam Neeson as Fred." Then we're shown a clip of people rounded up and sent on trains, "Schindler's List" filtered through "The Flintstones." Unbelievable. Awful.
The actors in the original film return to voice the same characters. A dreadful sense of deja-vu sets in quickly since Randal (Jeff Anderson) is always spaced out, Jay (Jason Mewes) is always all-attitude, and Dante (Brian O'Halloran) is always whining. This isn't comedy, guys, it's monotony.
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[release]6320[/release]