By Dave Shiflett Many television shows aspire to path-breaking status, but “La-La Land,” which has been airing on Showtime since late January, has actually delivered. This has been one of the dumbest shows ever. If you haven’t tuned in, the last chance is Feb. 28 at 11 p.m. New York time. Shows like this don’t come along all that often. The finale may be worth a look if only for historic purposes. Marc Wootton, the comic sensation from the UK, stars as three characters trying to make it in Los Angeles. It’s billed as a cross between a comedy and documentary; Wootton’s characters interacted with people who are allegedly “completely real and utterly unaware they are talking to an actor.” That’s been a bit hard to believe. After all, Wootton, in his several guises, has always been shadowed by a camera crew. In any event, the “real people” have been at least as funny as the star and supposedly haven’t been reading from a script. The three alter-egos are Gary Garner, an annoying actor on the make; Shirley Ghostman, an annoying psychic on the make; and Brendan Allen, a profoundly stupid wannabe documentary filmmaker whose jokes are every bit as lame as Gary’s and Shirley’s. If there’s genius at work here, it’s that Wootton created three characters who are impossible to like. Gary, who favors a lime green shirt and sports a greasy porcupine haircut, does have the virtue of being a loyal son to his departed mother, a porn star who never made it to Tinseltown, at least under her own steam. He brought her ashes along to scatter, though his inane banter makes you wish someone would torch him. Shirley is a prissy moron who dresses like Captain Kangaroo and whose funniest gag is belching, while Brendan is a thoroughgoing dope. All three characters are the equivalent of a bad leper joke. On a positive note, the show has had one discrete charm: It is so dumb you might find yourself tuning back in to see if it could get any dumber. The final episode includes segments that rival the preceding slop, which included a scene in which Shirley fell into a trance in a private investigator’s office and wet himself. At the time, I found myself wishing the PI would drive a stake through his heart. Then there was Brendan’s trip to Malibu State Park where he hoped to film a pre-mediated rock-climbing disaster. The worst part of that episode was that Bigfoot didn’t come out of the forest and eat him. The closer includes an exorcism involving the spirits of Colonel Saunders and Princess Diana. All told, it confirms the suspicion that just when you thought inanity has reached its peak, another summit rises in the distance. The series was less like entertainment and more like water-boarding. To end on a positive note, Sunday night’s episode may be far from grand, but it is the finale.
