For Your Consideration — January 24, 2013

TV SHOW

Legit is the latest in the stream of male-centric, slightly-sociopathic FX comedies (Always Sunny, Wilfred, anything with Charlie Sheen) This time, comedian Jim Jefferies plays an Australian jerk deciding, a little reluctantly and a little ineffectually, to become a better guy. DJ Qualls (from being-incredibly-gangly fame) plays Billy, a young man confined to a wheelchair due to muscular dystrophy and the butt of the most risqué jokes. If this series succeeds, however, it will be because of its nearly undetectable underlying sweetness, not its shock value.

E-BOOK

At first, the joke about The Onion’s portrayal of Vice President Joe Biden as “Diamond Joe,” a hard-drinking, Trans-Am-loving dirty old man, seemed to be mostly about how unseemly such behavior would be for a respected vice president. But gradually, the actual Joe Biden has begun to become his satirical caricature. His guffawing, aggressive performance in his debate against Paul Ryan. The biker chick sitting on his lap. His command to “spread your legs, you’re going to be frisked” to the husband of a senator. Now that The Onion has released the President of Vice, a purported autobiography from Diamond Joe, the convergence can continue.

VIDEOGAME

The golden age of weird indie videogames continues with the beta of Don’t Starve. The top-down cartoony videogame is purportedly about survival — don’t get killed by monsters or forget to eat food — but in reality it’s about discovery. The game doesn’t come with an instruction manual or a tutorial. It’s all about figuring things out. Click here or there, explore, combine items, combine items, cook food, plant crops, make traps, construct buildings, create machines and fight pig-men. It’s the sort of game that can be spoiled by giving too much away.