Network: Fox; Genre: Comedy, Guilty Pleasure; Content Rating: TV-14 (for language, sexual content and scatological humor); Available: DVD; Perspective: Contemporary (star range: 1 - 4); Seasons Reviewed: Complete Series (2 seasons) Sam Sullivan (Bret Harrison, "Grounded for Life") is the youngest executive in the history of an airline that seems like it must have been named, but for the life of me I can't recall. Sullivan finds himself in one wacky adventure after another trying to please his bosses (Phillip Baker Hall and Mimi Rogers) and grow up and away from his still-immature friends – reduced to his brother Sully (Eric Christian Olsen, "Tru Calling") in the sharper 2nd season.If Pam Brady contributed anything to the early days of "South Park" (Emmy nominated for the show) there is no evidence of that show's profound success in her own creation "The Loop". Pardon me for also thinking that this premise, reduced to a logline, is an untapped comic reservoir. It is hard not to watch the show and constantly be reminded of what it could have been: a fresh fish-out-of-water story about a young college graduate forced into the work-a-day corporate world. The compromises he must make, the drifting away of his old, "fun" life and attempts to re-capture it, insane bosses and even more insane rules for the sake of perception. White collar satire and college hijinks wrapped up into one, always at war with each other. "Undeclared" meets "The Office"."Loop" under Brady's pen becomes another single-camera "Scrubs" clone with that racy, tacky Fox twist. It makes no attempt to comment on the corporate world or to connect with Generation-Y coming into that world (as "Free Ride" and "Wonderfalls" did). Instead it sets up a stupid sitcom premise and then twists it into an absurd cartoon with all of the poor comic set-piece staging of "Scrub" and none of the heart or creativity. When in doubt the show throws Harrison into a Clay Aiken shirt or his boss's dress for a cheap laugh, or into the arms of that week's hot young babe for a cheap thrill. The women on this show have a zeal for casual sex you'll only otherwise see on late night Cinemax. Harrison, for his part, appears to be using the show as an open audition to show any potential casting agent he can do better.Speaking of doing better, where the show crosses the line from a simple stupid sitcom to sheer embarrassment is with what it has Mimi Rogers and Philip Baker Hall doing. Rogers may not care about her career but it is agonizing watch her play the cougar to Sam's catnip. Worse, is a truly great actor like Hall reduced to running around as the typical clueless boss and forced to spit out tacky "it's-funny-because-it's-about-sex" one-liners that might as well be from a Fox folder labeled "Things teenagers will find funny when said by an old person". It's an insult.Should I have expected more from former South Park cohort Pam Brady? I think so.* / 4

I love the wackiness of this 22 min. slice of FUN! The cast is perfect & Mimi Rodgers really stands out as bit of a twisted mentor to the new young airline exec. The female roommates and the brother's hi-jinx balance out the "serious" side of Sam's life. Plus the opening theme song is the quirkiest since "Pee-Wee's Playhouse"! I downloaded it and played at least a hundred times last summer. The spots Sully gets Sam into will leave you laughing out loud. Can't wait for this mid-season replacement to return. I used to live in Chicago and it is a kick to see my old apartment building in the opening credits. I also used to work in the airline industry and I'm pretty sure some of our board meetings and executive decisions went about as well as the ones portrayed in this comedy.

The Loop is a show about a recent college graduate, Sam, hired by a failing airline company trying to survive in the low-cost airline era. Because of his college thesis about the company, which is supposed to have been very insightful, he is given a high-ranking executive position. Meanwhile, he lives at home with his loser brother, Sully, and two very attractive women, one of whom, Piper, is a student and the other, Lizzy, a bartender. From this simple setting, a very original comedy follows.Each episode is pretty atomic, with the only important continuing plot line being Sam's hidden love for Piper. This plot line involves the usual sitcom stuff, like Sam trying to impress her or help her deal with the problems of her long distance relationship with her boyfriend. Other plot lines specific to individual episodes usually concern some problem Sam is confronted with at work, or problems with work or love that one of the other people Sam lives with are having. Sounds real funny and original, huh? Though the plots in this show are not necessarily unique or hilarious, this show is still very funny. The humor comes from the dialog and performance of the actors, which on the whole are fantastic. Russ and Meryl, Sam's bosses, are really spectacular, as is Sully, his brother. The show is essentially about Sam, a relatively grounded straight character, interacting with some unusual people and trying to begin life after college. The show seems geared towards 18-30 year olds, and many other people will find it very funny. I think the reviews dogging the show for its lack of originality, poor acting, and low brow humor just don't get what the show is supposed to be; I'm 23, and everyone I know who watches it likes it. It is definitely worth watching if Fox picks it up for another season, which hopefully will happen due to the good ratings the show got from coming after American Idol. Overall, I highly recommend it, and compare it to a Seinfeld built for 20-somethings. It is by no means at the level of Seinfeld in terms of greatness, but the style of the show is similar in that it depends less on the plot and more on the characters and comments they make. If you like Seinfeld, Arrested Development, or Curb Your Enthusiam, you should check out The Loop.

Before I review or make a judgment on any TV show I watch a few episodes, then make my judgment. For The Loop I watched the first three episodes. The problem was it felt like I was watching the same episodes over and over. The plot of the show is basically the same, dude wants to do something with personal life, work gets in way of personal life, dude somehow wiggles out of both situations. With a few alterations the plot is generally the same. Another drawback of this show is the poor acting. The characters have some variety but about 95% percent of the characters have very little common sense and well brain matter. Sully is probably my favorite character mainly because he acts so stupid and shows no hint of any kind of thinking matter. Unlike the other characters he seems fresh and full of life maybe it's because of the way the writers make seemingly stupid characters who make extremely dumb decision suddenly come up with amazingly bright ideas while Sully is just plain stupid (but in a funny way). Draw backs aside the show does make me laugh on occasion. The jokes are primarily immature targeted towards the high school crowd, but enough of these jokes are bound to make someone laugh at least once an episode. Overall if you like shows with humor dealing with sex and the same over used jokes this would be a good show to watch. But for the rest of the crowd throw this on the tube if you have "nothing" to do.