TV Show You Might Not Know: Comic Book Men

For some unexplained reason I never managed to catch on to the "Reality TV" fad, either because it's anything BUT or because watching it would confirm my suspicion that the human race is even more pathetic that we think. I AM however a fan of Kevin Smith, not so much of the man himself (his wife even less, I must admit) but his films and especially his stories. Smith's greatest talent is talking, and he parlayed his fame as the "Clerks Guy" into a lucrative notoriety as a storyteller during conventions, Q&A sessions held throughout the world and a series of podcasts that gave birth to a whole network of talking heads under the Smith banner. If you're a geek and a fanboy, you just can't ignore Kevin Smith's contribution into that "universe".

So the next logical step was to take his talking heads concept to television. AMC, which does not require millions of viewers to consider keeping a show, gave his new series Comic Book Men a prime spot as the tailgate to its flagship hit The Walking Dead (BRILLIANT move if you ask me), and I just this past weekend  discovered the darn thing. Liked it so much I downloaded (YES, downloaded, so sue me I don't get AMC here in Parasite Land) all 5 episodes already aired and watched them in one sitting.

The concept is pretty simple: cameras are set-up at Smith's New Jersey store Jay & Bob's Secret Stash, and capture the geeky shenanigans perpetrated by his buddies who maintain and populate the store (among them Bryan Johnson and Walt Flanagan, also known as Steve-Dave & Walt from Smith's earlier movies). It surely won't appeal to people who despise the man to begin with, but anyone who appreciate his particular humor or simply a good ol' fanboy debate should check this one out.

Here's a quickie look at the show, while the next episode airs this Sunday at 10:30pm EDT.