‘2 Girls 1 Cop’ Reviewed: Be Careful What You Google

Conceptually clever 2 Girls 1 Cop, created and written by Erica Bardin and Susan Graham has two things going for it: hot girls and great production value…and that’s it.

Not that that’s a bad thing. I didn’t mind losing the three and half minutes to watching actresses Juliana Barninger and Daina Gozen eventually undress to their skivvies to avoid a parking ticket. However, I did find the comedy in this “comedy” to be lackluster and broad.

The basic concept is a spin on the car safety device, OnStar, only this one is called OnSluts which is designed to help hot girls get out of jams with the law. In the pilot, Cheerleaders 1 and 2 are pulled over by Officer Duda, played competently by Hal Rudnick. The girls are then instructed by the OnSluts, played by Bardin and Graham, via dashboard video, on various ways to convince Duda to throw out their ticket.

Structurally, we watch three scenarios which escalate in prurience and success until they finally force Duda to tear up the ticket by threatening to tweet a compromising picture they orchestrated with the help of the OnSluts. This final punch is the funniest bit and got a smile out of me, but nothing to write home about.

I like the basic idea of the show, it’s just that I didn’t laugh, due partly to performance and partly to writing. While clever in concept, the writing is just average and broad, unfortunately. There’s an abortion joke that falls flat, is not needed, and made me cringe; and then a smeared brownie moment that could have been funny (maybe?), but just plays as bad titillation.

And the performances aren’t terrible, they’re just…okay. Other than the big joke at the end, there wasn’t a single punchline that landed for me, though this could be due to direction because I didn’t find any of the actors to be bad per se. Like I said with Rudnick, everyone seems competent, but unfortunately ‘competent’ does not a good comedy make.

On the other hand, for what is basically a sketch, I found the production value to be pretty amazing. Nicely shot by Michael Elko Weaver this is as polished a production as any commercial on television these days. The OnSlut set is impressive and oddly believable, even the costuming is strong both here and with the cheerleaders.

The end of the pilot promises more OnSluts (spoiler alert) with the parting comment, ‘Look what’s up next…Nina took her top off at the airport.’ Yay! More sluts and what I’m assuming is mild, slightly offensive humor. Well, I’m guessing with over 230k viewings since an initial air date of March 2nd, episode two should do fine. Especially with the promise of more hot chicks in a crisp production, I just hope that this atom.com show exhibits more of the promised humor with better writing and funnier perfs.