Package Deal (2013–2014)
Package Deal Doesn't Deliver
18 November 2014
I know that is a terrible pun title and sorry about that but I just couldn't resist!

Package Deal is a decent premise for a show but I think it has a lot of problems.

First outside of Harland Williams I think the cast is totally lacking in the comedy department. I'm sure they have good acting chops otherwise but I think comedy is a different kind of talent and none of them make me laugh. I particularly find the other brother's performance painful. The female star is definitely attractive and doesn't grate on me like the guys (other than Harland Williams) do, but for the most part all of the non-Williams performances rate somewhere between "not funny" and "someone please make it stop!!!"

Second the writing is terrible. Why does this successful 40-ish lawyer allow his loser brothers to wander into his home even before he has his girlfriend move it? If not then certainly after she moves in wouldn't any sane person change the locks?

Things happen in the show that are simply impossible to believe, even in a suspension of disbelief kind of way. Seriously in one episode Harland Williams strips in a court room in front of a judge and bailiffs who do absolutely nothing, then in the very next scene we find out he got arrested on the street for being naked. So if you want us to buy it's okay to get nude in public, okay, but then don't tell us in the very next scene it's suddenly illegal again. Gah!

Also in that same episode Harland Williams pretends to be his successful lawyer brother, brings a girl home, and while he's sleeping she somehow empties the entire apartment... entire apartment as in every single thing down to a safety pin on the floor is gone. He didn't wake up during this? How did she manage to get all that stuff out, even if she brought in help (which she apparently didn't)? Finally WHY would anyone want to steal absolutely everything including dishes, pens, some random dude's clothes and underwear? Making it even more stupid, when the brother comes home (I guess luckily he was out all night) he's angry but not furious and the only thing he cares about is that the gift he bought for his girlfriend has been taken. Super sorry cause that's super sweet and all but don't you think if someone stole absolutely everything he owned he'd maybe be angry about THAT stuff? It's not like the gift was irreplaceable and his TV and stuff alone are worth way more.

Even if you get past the horribly obvious plot holes and poor writing over all, the writing is still terrible on a basic level of "funny vs not funny" with painfully obvious, predictable and just plain bad jokes. Being delivered poorly by a mostly unfunny cast doesn't help either, but the writing is just plain bad, awful, terrible.

Whoever is producing/directing this show is doing a very poor job and I can't figure out who decided to give this show a second season or why.

I imagine it is solely because Harland Williams is in this, because he's the only thing I like about the show and he's the only reason why I'm bumping the rating up from a 1 to a 3 out of 10.

3 out of 10 from me.
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