The animated sitcom The Life and Times of Tim caught my eye last year when HBO had free clips of the show on its website. Despite its bare bones, scribbly artwork, I highly enjoyed what I saw: It mixed a conversational style of humor, such as the kind you'd hear in Dr. Katz, with dry deliveries by the cast and situations which started out normal but quickly took a turn for the silly. For instance, Tim arm wrestling an old lady in an airplane because somebody was concerned he wasn't tough enough to assist other passengers in the event of an emergency. Unfortunately, I don't subscribe to HBO, so I've missed out until now, when I've been able to review three episodes in the upcoming second season.
 The show centers around the titular character, a 20-something, unobtrusive fellow trying to make it in New York City. He holds a lowly office assistant job in OmniCorp, a large multi-national company where he contends with his slick, pompous unnamed boss. He also has an extremely exasperated girlfriend, Amy. There are others in the show, such as his best friend, Stu, though most of them don't get too great of an introduction in these three episodes. Stu likes to get high, apparently, but that's it for characterization.
After viewing these three episodes, I'd say of the show's one big strengths is how complicated things get from a seemingly simple start. For example, take the episode "Tim's Beard". It starts with a newly broken-up Tim deciding to grow a beard. Everyone in the office thinks the beard makes him look like a bum, but Tim denies it. The boss gets an idea to bring in a real bum from the streets and compare them side-by-side, and everyone agrees the bum actually looks better than Tim does. Somehow, the bum makes a great impression on the boss, so now Tim's job is in jeopardy and the only way he can keep it is through a method I won't give away, but it's pretty hilarious and gets Tim into an embarrassing situation that makes you say, "Wow, all this, just because Tim wanted some facial hair."
The conversations are frequently humorous, going in odd directions. One scene in "Novelist" has Tim and a couple friends at a bar hoping to drink their troubles away, and quickly getting chastised by the grisly bartender for not being "real men with real problems"; the group compares their petty problems (such as being bummed that their favorite TV show is cancelled) with others in the bar: One is losing his jaw to cancer and also has a violent wife. There are also funny Seinfeld-ian faux pas discussions, like when Tim doesn't realize he was supposed to tip a bathroom attendant and wants to make up for his mistake, but realizes he doesn't have a bill smaller than a $20; when the attendant offers to break his $20, Tim is uncomfortable with taking dollar bills that have been touched by people who just took a leak.
I also rather liked how I never knew what to expect. Without giving too much away, I was rather surprised at one development and how it carried over into later episodes. While the show is episodic in nature, if these three are any indication, things don't just hit reset at the end of an episode when it comes to big events, so that's neat to see. This sort of thing keeps you on your toes.
 However, as is evident from the screenshots in the review, the show's weakness is in its visuals. If there were ever a series that demonstrated "illustrated radio", Tim would be the prime example. Characters stay static aside from their mouths and eyes and an occasional limb movement, and you could easily listen to the show without watching and still be able to follow the story. Furthermore, character designs aren't exactly attractive and don't showcase any real skill. And was it too much to ask for the characters to properly face people when talking to them? There was a scene in "Amy's Got a Gun" where Tim and Amy both talk to the gun store owner with their backs to him and only their eyes pointed at him, which just looks strange. Needless to say, the animation leaves a lot to be desired.
The Life and Times of Tim has some amusingly escalating situations that the hapless Tim gets into, and the deadpan, overlapping dialog is often very funny. I just wish the show had the artwork to match, because it's pretty boring and doesn't bring the visual emotion that would only enhance the dialog. Still, if you can stand the practically still images, Tim is worth a watch, especially if you are a Dr. Katz fan, as this show is very much in the same vein, only without the squiggle.
The Life and Times of Tim's second season debuts on February 19, 2010; upcoming episodes include "Tim's Beard / Unjustly Neglected Drama", "Pharmaceutical Sales Rep Gone Wild / Amy's Got a Gun", and "London Boiling / Novelist". For more information, visit HBO.com's Life and Times of Tim page. The first season is also on DVD now.
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