User Profile
Night Maire
Cosmopolitan in nature, Night is a creative indie filmmaker and festival judge & programer. He earned a BA in Film & TV focusing on Directing from NYU: Tisch, with Minors in Producing and Psychology. This native Alpine’s passion for the craft led him to pursue a Masters in Directing at SVA, and later a Masters in Screenwriting at Royal Holloway. He garnered his shorts thousands of laurels & awards, premiered music videos on MTV & Glamour, and produced content for LVMH & Red Bull, amongst others.
Reviews
'The Neighbors' is this decade's rendition of 'Mork and Mindy' or '3rd Rock From the Sun', recounting the highly amusing interactions between an average middle class American family (the Weavers) and the colony of friendly and inquisitive aliens sent to Earth to make sense of the human condition (the Zabvronians). The Weaver family finds their way of life comically scrutinized by these extraterrestrials in an envious effort to assimilate to our modern lifestyle. In so doing, the show does a remarkable job of spotlighting our modern society's double standards, and breaking down our culture's often misconceived yet widely accepted norms and values, particularly with regards to family, lifestyle, and happiness.
The show is as funny as it is intelligent, as these galactic immigrants regularly use meta-jokes to poke fun not only at the absurdity of their human neighbors, but at the viewer as well (the opening credit sequence is a testament to this). A lot of the Zabvronian learned behavior comes from watching television, and consequently mimicking theses actions and attitudes, much to the chagrin of their neighbors, who must thereupon educate them on what is conventionally considered common and proper, both ethically and morally. As is to be expected, this usually results in the Weavers learning valuable lessons of their own.
The show is appealing to all demographics as its comedy encompasses many genres, depending on the episode, which include observational, situational, slapstick, physical, musical, deadpan, surreal, sitcom, and spoofs. Sadly, viewers must not have appreciated having the lens turned on them quite as much as I, as reflected in the show’s ratings, which ultimately got it cancelled.
Rigidly forced acting, painfully corny dialogue, unrealistically statuesque people (as is the CW way) made it impossible for me to watch more than the first 15 minutes of this cringe worthy show. Admittedly, I tried skipping ahead a couple of episodes, but shut it down again within the first 5 minutes because it was clear nothing had improved. The overriding consensus seems to be quite antithetical however, so I guess I'm just a spoiled TV snob.