Waking up every morning, I always marvel at where I live. I live in a nice suburban street in a cozy neighborhood (cue "Little Boxes" from the "Weeds" soundtrack). I am surrounded by nice people from a similar background. We are all normal Americans. However, what if you lived in a neighborhood and you were somehow different from all of the people who live near you? Would you fit in?
This is the question that my new favorite comedy (aside from "Modern Family") tackles, ABC's "The Neighbors." At first, I'd seen bits and pieces of this show on Wednesday nights when I came home from a long day at school. The promo picture for this show, as seen above, seemed weird to me. I wasn't sure what it was about, and the creepy guy with the British accent to the right seemed, well, weird.
But I decided to give it a shot when I was flipping through the channels and saw that it starred Jami Gertz ("Twister," "Entourage"), whom I've been watching since she starred as the uber-chipper Muffy Tepperman (top right) on the short-lived series "Square Pegs" with Sarah Jessica Parker years ago.
"Square Pegs"-----------------------^
Debbie (Gertz) and Marty Weaver (Lenny Venito, "The Sopranos," "NYPD Blue") are a normal New Jersey family who move into a gated community named "Hidden Hills." They meet the other people living in their community on the very first day, and something seems off about them. They speak with British accents. They bring several cherry pies to greet the Weavers, "as is your humans' custom," they are told by the head of the community, Larry Bird.
Larry's wife, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, is also very welcoming and introduces their two children to the Weavers: Dick Butkus and Reggie Jackson.
As is custom, Larry and Jackie invite the Weavers over for dinner where it is shown that the Weavers are the only ones who are eating. When they question Larry and Jackie about this, they respond that they receive nourishment by reading. Weird? Weird. They brush it off and continue eating their barely cooked pasta and baked potatoes.
After the children go upstairs to play, the awkward pauses and conversation continue with the adults downstairs. The children run downstairs suddenly and out of the house. They later tell their parents that Dick Butkus transformed into an alien, which is why they fled. However, their parents do not believe them, and awkwardly bid the Kersee-Birds good night.
Larry and Jackie realize what has happened: "It appears our Dick has exposed himself again." As the Weaver children cower in their parents' bedroom, Larry and Jackie appear, and reveal themselves to the Weavers, eliciting screams and freak-outs.
It seems the Weavers have moved into a community where aliens roam free, waiting for further instructions from their leaders through the use of a communications device called a Pupar. However, after exposing themselves to the Weavers they agree that they can learn much from each other. It's a quirky show and I didn't describe it as well as I would have liked, but if you browse reedit.com, here's the skinny.
TL; DR: A normal family from New Jersey moves into a gated community where aliens with athletes' names and British accents reside. Hilarity ensues. Give it a shot. You'll be glad you did.
N.B. "TL DR" means too long, didn't read. It is a technique redditors use when they feel they have gone on at great length about something, as I may have. It's on Wednesday nights at 9 on ABC, and serves as the lead-in to "Modern Family." Try it.
