The Tushy Gang
is all here, back for another season working the family biz. Who knew
life as a porn producer known as Seymore Butts (a.k.a. Adam Glasser)
would be filled with such pathos and drama that most people could
identify with? In the second season of this late-night reality
series, Adam continues to search for true love that’s worlds away from
the lust-filled business in which he makes his living. Lila continues
to hawk her cookbook, while Cousin Stevie tries to direct movies
himself.
CRITIQUE
Everyone’s
favorite family of porn is back, much like we left them, only this
time coping with the added notoriety of a successful television show
thrown into the mix. The exposure has opened new doors for everyone,
but the family business still comes first. The first episode, which
recaps everything for anyone who isn’t up to speed: Adam is a single
father, looking for love in the big city with a woman who can accept
the business he is in. Cousin Stevie is still managing things, only
now he has discovered his creativity, and he is looking to get behind
the camera more. Lila is working on a cookbook when not keeping up
with the books.
Myrna - Mari
Possa - is getting more and more into her porn star role. She still
does the office work for Adam, but she has stepped up into the world
of feature dancing, and she decides to get her breasts done. It seems
there has to be at least one episode per season where Adam and Stevie
have to try and talk a girl out of something, and this time they are
trying desperately to talk Myrna out of a boob job. They go so far as
to bring in girls to “audition,” the idea being that Myrna will get a
look at some bad jobs and get scared out of it. Adam brings in some
doozies, but Myrna seems blind to it all, even fawning over one woman
whose breasts are clearly two different sizes. Despite their best
efforts, she decides to go through with the operation. The operation
is played with a note of sadness, as though Myrna is unnecessarily
mutilating herself, succumbing to the pressures of the industry. It
is as though a certain innocence has been lost. At her first photo
shoot after her operation, Mari shows off her new assets. The fresh
faced Myrna that we have come to know is gone. Mari Possa is here to
stay.
In the first
season, some of the situations seemed staged, and the show treaded a
line between reality show and sitcom. That lined has become blurred
even more in this season. Much more of the situations seem staged,
concocted only to put the three of them in uncomfortable situations.
Adam, who still has not found a girlfriend, is signed up for a night
of speed dating by Lila. Thirty girls in one night, five minute
sessions for him to try and find his true love. In what is supposed
to open him up to a wide range of women, Adam finds that all the women
coming his way are lawyers, and when he divulges the business he is in
- because he just has to be honest - they laugh, probably happy
to have a story for their girlfriends, and cross him off their lists.
Season two
suffers most in this way: with so much of the show feeling staged, we
lose the spontaneity that made the first season such a joy. When
something “just happens” this time around, it is such an obvious
put-on that it becomes difficult to accept after a few episodes. Not
that put-ons are bad, but when they are done this badly it becomes
insulting. The same jokes and situations come up over and over, and
after a while the whole thing just falls flat.
We start to see
more people, which is what the show needed more than anything else.
After only getting to hear her voice, we get to meet Aimee, Stevie’s
wife. She seems like an interesting woman, but there is so little of
her that she never makes much of an impression. Bishop, Adam’s
production manager, gets more screen time as he tries to produce his
own series of videos, Blind Sex Dates, which is kind of like
the show Blind Date, only the dates end with sex and Bishop
films it. We also see more of Brady, which is probably good,
considering how much is made of Adam being a single father.
Family Business
offers the same kind of humor that was seen in the first season, but
nothing is added to. There is no notion of building on the
characters, and after a while it seems like the same old thing.
Reality has been replaced in this show but that most dreaded of all
things: the gimmick.
THE VIDEO
Family Business
is
presented in the original fullscreen format. The video quality has
been greatly improved since the first season. There is still room to
improve, but gone is the amateur home video look that so dominated
season one. The colors are improved, the instances of grain and
distortion have been almost completely eliminated.
THE AUDIO
This DVD is
presented in English Stereo, English Dolby 5.1, with an optional
Spanish Mono track. The presentation is solid, without any noticeable
defects. The show offers almost nothing that would demand high end
audio, but what is here is well translated.
THE EXTRAS
Family Business
Shorts:
Three short Q&A sessions with Adam, Cousin Stevie, and Mari Possa.
These are all candid interviews, but there is little offered here that
we do not learn from watching the show. Most interesting if only to
see Adam and Stevie step outside their on-camera facades.
The shorts are
slightly interesting, and they add very little. Aside from that,
there is not so much as a commentary track to flesh out this set.
Very disappointing.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Maybe the focus
of the show is too narrow. The second season of Family Business
adds very little to what happened in season one; nothing is built
upon, and new revelations about the characters are few and far
between. We see more of people and meet some new people this time
around, but there is too little time devoted to that to make much
difference. The bonus material is only mildly interesting, and would
not be missed if it had not been included.
