Season one of "The Loop" is a breath of fresh air

In an era filled with copy cat sitcoms and an endless brigade of investigative dramas, Fox's "The Loop" is a fresh and bright new comedy ripe with potential. If your sick and tired of the same old married life comedys, or single guy sitcoms then "The Loop" is definately for you. Much like NBC's "The Office" The show takes us into the corporate space for some unique humor, but "The Loop" relies more heavily on snappy dialouge and clever word play than "The office" does. Loop deals with that strange time in life between college and growing up. Our main character Sam, played by Bret Harrison, is a twenty something airline executive trying desperately to balance work and play. Sams brother and two roomates make getting to bed on time, and working at home nearly impossible and usually find a way for Sam to be fashionably late to important meetings,ill preparred, or at the very least inapropriately dressed. Sam does have an ally at work in the form of his fourty something year old superior Meryl, played by Mimi Rogers. Meryl has the hots for Sam, and often protects him from the big boss Russ, played by the brilliant Philip Baker Hall. Russ is the engine that drives this clever show with his perfect delivery of funny one-liners, and his wonderfully unflappable expression even in the face of madness.

The Piolit epside of "The Loop" is positively hysterical wasting no time, and jumping right into a story as if we have already known all of the key characters and it seems like we do. I particularly like the way characters are first introduced with a brief freeze frame and a humerous two or three word subtitle summary of the character. One unlikeable repeat character is simply introduced as: Derek (Deuche). The second episode of season one is entitled "Jack air." This episode is worth the entire purchase price of the Loop season one. "Jack air" is as funny a thirty minutes of television as I have ever seen. Sam finds a humerous flaw with a new lost cost airline pitch, and suddenly finds himself in charge of re-vamping the project. Unfortunately for Sam he has very little time to work on the project when he falls into a steamy romance with a girl who works for a major tequilla company. More complitcations arise when Sam fails his physical after competing in an egg eating contest. The hilarity ensues as Sam tries desperately to get back from Mexico, lower his cholesterol, and come up with a low cost airline pitch for Russ.

Every episode of "The Loop" season one is littered with funny one-liners and unique story lines, coming up with a variety of clever ways for sams roomates to get him into trouble. Wheather they have stolen his car, taken the sleeves from his work shirts, or shaved a stripe on his head for passing out drunk. The season is only seven episodes long but none of them disapoint, and the DVD leaves me chomping at the bit for the new season to begin. I can only hope that the cast remains stable, and the writing stays this fresh for a long time to come. Joy Osmanski is also worth mentioning for her role as Sams secrectary, Darcy. Darcy is a Chineese MIT graduate and has a variety of wonderful punchlines delievered in believable dead-pan fashion. "The Loop" is great fun with a nice blend of high and low brow comedey with both work and social settings to play with, Loop story lines are almost limitless. The paceing of the show is phenominal and the half hour shows pass like ten minutes. Snappy line, after snappy line keeps the laughs rolling and you wondering how the situations Sam is in will possibly be resolved. Wheather Sam is cutting out of work to keep his life long crush, Piper, from hooking up with the wrong guy, or Sam is trying to give a work presentation with a magic marker bra drawn onto his naked chest, the laughs keep coming and coming. The writers of this show come up witrh the most unique story lines, and the way the funny coincidences and mishaps end up comning full circle is pure genious, in that respect this show reminds me a bit of "Frasier." While it's not fair to compare any show one one of the all time greats, "The Loops" is as crisp, smart, and fresh as any show in recent memory. I highly reccomend picking up a copy of season one.