Starring:
John Lehr as Leslie Poole
Bob Clendenin as Carl
Greg Davis Jr. as Buck
Chris Payne Gilbert as Todd
Kirsten Gronfield as Ingrid
Christopher Liam Moore as Richard
Roberta Valderrama as Yolanda
Jennifer Elise Cox as Amy Anderson
Last week I wrote about the first season of 10 Items or Less, which was a five episode bonanza of fast paced, likable and witty semi-improvised comedy which had echoes of Arrested Development, Curb Your Enthusiasm and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Well on the weekend I had a chance to watch the eight episodes which make up the second season and I'm back to let you know if the show continues to deliver on the fun and laughs.
If you're in a hurry, the answer is yes. If you've got a little time, I can expand on that somewhat.
The second season shows considerable improvement in the production quality of the show, while it's still got that quirky, slightly run down, "real" feel to things - which keeps the place looking like a cheap and cheerful, small grocery store. It's brighter, bolder and there is now a short (and funny) opening credit sequence. Everything looks a little better and it still has the charm of the original season.
The cast has remained the same, but the load has been spread out a little more, so every character gets their own story this season, and while the majority of the work is still performed by John Lehr we are seeing more scenes involving the other characters interacting with each other. Over the eight episodes the cast deal with a wide range of situations; including losing your virginity, inheritances, Star Wars, slaughtering cattle in store, illegal immigrants, Renaissance fairs and a whole host of things only loosely related to working in a grocers.
The laughs continue thick and fast and the performances from the cast are stronger than the first season, everyone has found the core of their character and really nailed it. While the first season did feature great performances this is a cast with many people who are not that experienced on television, so it's great to see how good they all are and how they've already grown. I'm especially fond of Chris's performance as Todd, but Christopher as Richard has also grown on me now they've given him more material to work with.
10 Items or Less is a fantastic sitcom and worthy of your attention, especially because of it's relatively short season lengths, the first two seasons combined have an approximate run time of a little over four and a half hours. So it's something which doesn't require a huge commitment to try out. Also as the episodes are available to watch online on the official site (here) there's really no excuse not to at least give a few episodes a go.
Go check it out now!
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