I Confess

Creators: Andy Haskins

and Paul Kozlowski

22 minutes

Cast: Paul Kozlowski, Tom Kenny (yes, that guy from SpongeBob), Bobcat Goldthwait, Mary Lynn Rajskub
Program: Animated comedy
Headline: Dr. Katz meets church

Steve's take: This was the only out-and-out slam-dunk I saw—a brilliantly executed and cleverly conceived pilot.

 

Father Paul is a sarcastic, self-indulgent (but well-intentioned) minister who oversees a congregation and its confessional booth. He's blunt with those seeking advice—like when Mary Lynn Rajskub is thinking about getting a boob job and Father Paul decrees that it's fine if Rajskub performs an act of charity, giving a boob job to a poor woman at the same time. He also tries to shelter Father Tom, his underling, who's sweetly naive and prone to screw-ups. Things become difficult in the pilot when Father Paul, at the request of the cold Bishop Goldthwarp, is told to judge the hymn competition Father Tom desperately wants to win. Father Tom sucks; all his hymns are just rip-offs of public-domain songs ("Mary had a little boy / little boy / little boy"), and thus Father Paul feels guilty for deceiving his friend.

 

The humor in I Confess is bone-dry and refreshingly deadpan, emphasizing Father Paul's quizzical reactions to the absurdity around him just as much as the absurdity itself. But the beauty of I Confess is that even in the world of the church, there's no clear good guy. No decision is clear-cut and as long as you offend as few people as possible in any given day, it's a success. Everything in I Confess works towards that message, be it the confessional segments with handjob-loving celebrities or witnessing Father Paul encourage the congregation to sing along to Father Tom's "fourth place hymnal" even though it's really bad.

Grade: A