television review: boohbah

boohbah is about the “adventures” of five brightly colored blobs (humbah, zumbah, jumbah, zing-zing-zingbah, and the often controversial jingbah) who float around in a glowing sphere above mid-town manhattan. co-existing with our heroes, are the residents of “storyworld.” they include grandpappa, grandmamma, mr. man, mrs. lady, brother, sister, and auntie. the “storypeople” are constantly getting in and out of various situations, while the boohbahs tend to experiment in movement and dance.

today, we are going to talk about the episode entitled “squeaky seesaw.” this episode consists mainly of a series of non-sequitors, incoherent plot twists and utterly laughable special effects thinly wrapped around the story of grandpappa and mr. man playing on a progressively unmanageable seesaw. the story is completely predictable and the narration, instead of adding value, only points out the obvious. for example, when an oil can is introduced to aid the two in fixing their immobile seesaw, the narrator deadpans, “an oil can” and offers no glimpse for the viewer into the psyche of these silent characters caught in this situation.

in the floating orb that contains the boohbahs, we see them dancing in various patterns ad nasuem. just when the viewer thinks the segment is going to end, the patterns seem to repeat themselves. the total lack of focus or a plausible plot device is in a word, sickening. instead, the director relies on cheap visual gimmickry and sight gags.

the third element of “squeaky seesaw” contains children repeating monotonous movements over and over in what appears to be central park while the boohbahs flaunt about in their globe overhead. this simply did not fit within the under-riding theme of the episode and seemed forced.

the concept of boohbah is nice enough, but the execution is elementary. the editing is jumpy and there is a complete disregard for continuity. the creators fail to capture the magic that they did in past shows such as teletubbies and acid trip for preschoolers. overall, boohbah’s heart my be in the right place, but it’s direction is borderline insulting to the educated audience it tries to impress.

(reviewers note: someone told me that this is, in fact, a show for kids. i could not verify this info, but i hope that if this is the case, i never have any.