Kevin James, Gary Valentine Get Reckless on 'Dusty Peacock'

I’m not a huge Kevin James fan. Sure, King of Queens is better than According to Jim, but I’ve never found James’ brand of likable everyman humor particularly hilarious or groundbreaking. His film and television roles seem too soft around the edges.

When it was recently announced that he had produced a new web series called Dusty Peacock starring his sometime screenmate and real-life brother Gary Valentine, I wasn’t exactly giddy. Still, it’s probably fair to say that the name Kevin James can draw a pretty decent crowd and nobody will lose sleep over my not being the intended demographic.

Who, then, is Dusty Peacock? Mr. Peacock is a third-rate illusionist/stuntman slowly somersaulting down the pot-holed back alley to fame and fortune. Poor sod, he’s never gonna make it, especially if his manager, trainer, girlfriend or brother have anything to do with it. They try alright, but they’re all basically idiots. With lots of mindless yelling and half-assed slapstick, Dusty Peacock is the kind of “low-brow” that I just don’t find that funny.

The premise of Dusty Peacock isn’t actually that bad. However, the C-level illusionist has already been perfected by Will Arnett’s Gob Bluth

and I don’t see anyone topping that character anytime soon. Of course it’s not really fair of me to compare the two shows. Arnett was one part of a stellar cast and worked with top-notch writers, so he had a clear edge. Dusty Peacock.

Aside from Nick Bakay‘s role as Dusty’s Manager, “Burt Reynolds. No relation,” the supporting cast really irks me. It isn’t that the roles are poorly acted; they’re supposed to be supremely annoying in a “too many cooks” kinda way, and they certainly accomplish that. The writing just seems to flounder here on the periphery, providing weak support for the main draws. However, as in all Kevin James vehicles, the characters do have heart, and for that the show deserves some credit.

Crackle.com just posted the first few episodes this week, so it might be worthwhile to go check them out for yourself. Like I said above, this style of humor falls flat to me, but it’s not actually a bad show in any respect. It’s just not my bag of tricks.