NBC’s ‘Camp’ is really overcrowded
SAN FRANCISCO – Give me a minute to catch my breath: I’ve just watched three hourlong episodes of NBC’s new drama “Camp,” and the sheer number of characters and subplots has left me exhausted. I mean, History’s “The Bible” had a smaller cast and managed to cover a few thousand years, not just one summer at a family camp.
Created by Liz Heldens (“Deception”) and Peter Elkoff (“Gossip Girl”), “Camp” airs at 10 p.m. Wednesdays and is about a family summer camp run by newly divorced Mackenzie (Rachel Griffiths, “Brothers and Sisters”). It’s a dramatic series the way NBC’s enduring “Parenthood” is a dramatic series: It’s meant to tell a realistic, evolving story, but with occasional humor to keep things from being too dark.
OK, sounds straightforward enough, right? Well, not if you have to keep track of character back stories and largely recycled plot lines. Here’s a brief checklist.
Camp Little Otter is located across the lake from Ridgefield, a family camp run for rich people and operated by Roger Shepherd (Rodger Corser, “Underbelly”), who wants Mack to sell her camp to him.
Mack’s ex, Steve (Jonathan LaPaglia, “Underbelly”), is dating a much younger Russian waxing technologist and is very good at playing the visiting other parent who doesn’t enforce any rules with his 15-year-old hormonal son, Buzz (Charles Grounds, “Why Ryan is in Detention”).
Little Otter’s maintenance guy, Cole (Nikolai Nikolaeff, “Sea Patrol”) is protective of Mackenzie because he’s secretly crushing on her.
Activities director Robbie (Tim Pocock, “X-Men: Wolverine”) is renewing his summer romance with counselor Sarah (Dena Kaplan, “Dance Academy”) who swims across the lake every morning and winds up meeting a handsome writer named Miguel Santos (Juan Pablo Di Pace, “Mama Mia”). Meanwhile, Robbie, who wants to go to law school, has some problems in his family that are sapping his attention and bank account.
Counselor in training Marina (Lily Sullivan, “Mental”) is the odd girl out from the start of camp and gets picked on by the mean-girl popular set.
Newbie CIT Kip (Thom Green, “Dance Academy”) is a hoodie-wearing loner who has a serious disease only a few people at camp know about. Marina immediately softens his resistance to being at camp, but of course, she has to go and fall for another guy. In response, he begins seeing a death-obsessed airhead, but we know it’s only a matter of time before he and Marina get together.
If you pause long enough to consider even some of the characters and plot situations, you may be reminded of other shows. It would be easy to think of the new series as “Freaks & Geeks Go To Camp,” or “Brothers and Sisters and Campers,” or “Camperhood,” or “Friday Night Campfire” because it borrows so shamelessly. But if you’re going to steal, as they say in Hollywood, steal from the best.
“Camp” is a summer show – not just because it’s about going to camp in the summer, but because it’s a show the network doesn’t quite think is ready for a fall season berth. It isn’t ready, but it has promise – promise that’s not always easy to see through the dense thicket of characters and subplots.
But if you stick with the series, you’ll of course care about Mack, in large part because Griffiths is an appealing actress. Kip’s story may be poignant but that isn’t a bad thing and Green is a charmingly convincing actor. Buzz is a walking, permanently aroused 15-year-old cliché, but Grounds is a gifted young actor with solid comic timing reminiscent of a younger Jay Baruchel.