Tommy Wiseau, World’s Worst Director, Has a New TV Show
The Room, the 2003 romantic drama by screenwriter-director-actor Tommy Wiseau, has a rabid cult following. It’s not a bad movie, it’s a truly terrible one: rock-bottom production values, wooden acting, and garbled dialogue. Inside the ludicrous, though, it’s entirely earnest and strangely watchable. But despite The Room’spopularity, TommyWiseau has remained a one-hit wonder.
When I found out that, more than a decade later, Wiseau was making a sitcomcalled The Neighbors, I immediately bought a ticket to a screening of its first episode. After watching this teaser, I had high hopes the master auteur had returned:
The screening was an event, and — no surprise— sold out. Superfans came in costume, including one guy who had squeezed himself into a sausage-casing red dress as a tribute to The Room’sLisa. Wiseau attended in his signature wraparoundsunglasses, with three belts woven to support his sagging jeans.
So what is Wiseau’s sophomore effort? The Neighbors is a sitcom about the tenants of an apartment building; Episode One covers one lady’s attempt to find her missing chicken. Wiseau plays the building manager and (or?) owner Charlie, who sports an awkward black haircut that might charitably be described as “edgy.” Drug dealer Troy dabbles in illegal arms sales (because it’s a sitcom, obviously); a maintenance man conspicuously sports Tommy Wiseau brand underwear; Ricky Rick — played by Wiseau in a blonde wig— has a girlfriend, Lola, so beautiful and charming she can perform Jedi mind tricks on all men.
The production quality is classic Wiseau. A filing cabinet has no files, and characters stare at blank computer monitors. The sound quality falls to new lows, sometimes droping out completely. The episode is also full of nonsensical dialogue (the hallmark and crown jewel of a Wiseau production), giving us new gems like,“You guys should probably calm down. What is it, a roller coaster ride in here?” And regardless of action or context, Wiseau’s Charlie always finds a way to end the scene withhis catchphrase, “What a day!” Indeed.
But while The Neighbors shares some of the bumbling charm of The Room, it’s considerably — and I can’t believe I’m typing this — less nuanced. The Room attempts to scale the airy heights of dramatic cinema and fails at every turn. That failure made it so engaging, and so uniquely and genuinely deranged. But where The Room is a hilariously failed drama, The Neighbors is a failed comedy — and nothing is less hilarious than that.
To see ifThe Neighborsis screening in your area, check the website here.