But the execution ... oh dear. The film is presented as two half-hour sitcom episodes, and the jokes seldom manage to rise above quality. One typical exchange: when a lesbian finds out that her naive gay friend has been slutting around, she asks, "what happened to my nice Jamie?" He whines, "I am nice." And she rejoins, "yeah, nice and easy!" The laugh track responds as though this was actually funny; and it feels uncomfortably like a sitcom that should've never been greenlit.

The most bewildering thing about the finished product is that it's supposed to have been done in the style of an old-fashioned, thirty-year-old TV show; but it feels completely modern. Everything about its vocabulary -- the framing of shots, the length of the scenes, the actors' blocking, the pace of the dialogue, the lighting and audio -- could not be more 2007 if they tried. Intercut with actual vintage commercials, the failed attempt at oldfashioneyness comes off as a hopeless, depressing anachronism, like a rapping grandma or the one 40-year-old at a Bright Eyes concert.

After the jump: the good news.

Yes Dear