“Contest Searchlight”
10:30 Wednesday night
Comedy Central
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I DIDN’T expect much from “Contest Searchlight,” perhaps because it was being introduced in the dead of summer when viewers and TV critics are least likely to notice.
But I love being pleasantly surprised by a show I knew almost nothing about.
And in the case of “Contest Searchlight,” I laughed so hard while watching last week’s premiere that I almost fell on the floor.
This half-hour series was introduced last Wednesday night at 10:30 on Comedy Central – the time slot where it will take up residence for 10 weeks (now down to nine).
It’s primarily a spoof – of reality shows in general and “Project Greenlight” in particular.
The latter was the HBO series produced by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon that awarded an aspiring director the opportunity to make a movie from his original script.
The result was “Stolen Summer,” directed by contest winner Pete Jones.
In “Contest Searchlight,” the object is to find an aspiring TV producer who will be given the chance to turn his or her dream into a reality.
Instead of Affleck and Damon, the celebrity producers in charge of “Contest Searchlight” are comedians Denis Leary and Lenny Clarke, who were last seen together in Leary’s shortlived ABC series, “The Job.”
“Contest Searchlight” is a spoof, but it’s so effective that it’s difficult to tell where the spoof leaves off and the reality, if any, begins.
In the first two episodes (one of which aired last week and the one that airs this Wednesday night), the series savagely sends up the self-important earnestness of “Project Greenlight,” which treated the making of “Stolen Summer” as if the future of the world was at stake.
“Contest Searchlight” takes that same feeling of impending disaster and makes it worse.
Unlike the producers of “Project Greenlight,” Leary demonstrates no interest whatsoever in the outcome of the series he’s put into production.
His apathy is so infectious that when he and the other producers are faced with picking the contest winner, they realize – hilariously – that the three concepts they’ve chosen as finalists all stink.
So they combine elements of two of them and declare two contest winners. They then embark on producing the project, which is kind of like a reality-based “Friends” in which one of the characters is Jesus.
In this week’s episode, filming commences on a Greenwich Village street and, of course, everything goes wrong – including multiple vehicle mishaps and at least one brawl.
And of course, at least one of the contest winners breaks down in tears – which also happened on “Project Greenlight.”
If you tune in this week, look for standout performances by Colin Quinn and Peter Gallagher, who play themselves.
