Sam Laybourne and his uncle, Tom Saunders, are from the future (the year 2346, to be exact).
As a pre-wedding gift, Tom decided to take Sam back in time to the 1970s to party it up. But on the way there, the time machine broke down. Now they’re stuck in present day, awfully confused by the way the world works, and documenting their experiences.
Both men claim this is not a joke, and because I have no evidence to the contrary, I trust that everything that happens in this best reality show ever is completely real.
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If I had the ambition to use my digital camera, instead of a editorial review of Tom & Sam Are STUCK, I’d give give you an accurate portrayal of the quality of this series by filming myself curled in a ball, pained by laughter. Unfortunately, instead of ambition, I have an incurable laziness. Fortunately, that laziness is a-okay with me now that I have 24 episodes of Tom and Sam are STUCK to watch.
It’s one thing to be stuck in the past (literally) but it’s another level completely when you’ve traded in your plexiskins for disco duds and get trapped in 2006 (when the show first aired), with your uncle, no less. Things are a little different 340 years in the future, what with automated cars, implanted brain chips, thumb-leasing and, of course, time travel, so please bear with these guys as they acclimatize.
As unfortunate as these circumstances are for Tom and Sam (who, in real life, worked together on Arrested Development), it is to our ultimate benefit that Tom decided to hire a film crew (his logic being that everyone else in this period has a reality show, so to fit in they may as well have their own).
Thanks to the cultural detachment of 340 years the doomed duo have unwittingly become a magnificent vehicle of satire for the modern era. Untainted by the “spectacle,” they are free to comment on all manner of strange practices and beliefs of our time with curious and insightful eyes. And though their mode of temporal transporation is off, their comedic timing is impeccable.
Tom and Sam seem to be “enjoying” themselves, which is great because they have no idea how they’re going to get back to their time if they can’t find — nevermind fix — their broken machine. And if you don’t believe these guys are actually from the future, check out the FAQs where they fill up all the holes you thought you poked in their story (like why they don’t talk weird or why in the future they haven’t cured baldness).
For the time being it looks like the pair will have a way to occupy themselves as Starz! and Avalon Television developing a series based on the show. Until that makes its television broadcast debut, I’m going to have to satisfy myself by repeatedly watching these two seasons of Tom and Sam are STUCK….and I highly, highly recommend you do the same.
