Big Time in Hollywood, FL is an American comedy series that premiered on Comedy Central in March of 2015, written by Alex Anfanger and Dan Schimpf and produced by Ben Stiller.
The show follows Ben and Jack Dolfe, a pair of delusional brothers and self-styled film-makers living at home. When Ben and Jack are told by their parents that they have two weeks to get real jobs and move out of the house, the two decide on the only logical course of action: Pretend that Ben is a drug addict, hire a struggling actor to play the dealer and kidnap him, and extort their parents for $20,000 dollars. Things fall apart almost immediately, and the show follows the brothers as they desperately try to lie and scheme their way out of the mess they've created, all while still trying to launch their careers.
This show is tightly plotted and serialized, and character deaths happen at the drop of the hat, so be wary of spoilers.
This series provides examples of:
- As Himself: Cuba Gooding Jr.. as a violent coke-head in debt to the mob.
- And in episode 9 Jason Alexander as a drug-dealing, human-trafficking pedophile
- Butt-Monkey: Whenever Ben and Jack need a fall guy, or just someone to do grunt work, Del is always the first one they think of, and when even the possibility of him blowing their cover is brought up Jack's first instinct is to kill him.
- Death by Cameo: A running gag which fits the show's theme of show-business as evil. Simply put: the more famous the actor, the fewer episodes they last.
- For context: Ben Stiller lasted half an episode before being killed in a hail of gunfire, Michael Madsen made it through three episodes before accidentally blowing his brains out, and Jason Alexander barely got ten minutes before Cuba strangled him to death. Cuba Gooding Jr., being a main character, breaks the pattern by not dying, but he's been beaten, kidnapped and mutilated multiple times throughout the series.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Downplayed as both brothers are complete idiots, but Jack is definitely more conniving and devious of the two, with Ben being marginally more responsible/less willing to resort to murder.
- Knight of Cerebus: Although the series still remains a mad-cap comedy, Isabella Delgado's introduction definitely ups the tension.
- Reckless Gun Usage: As Harvey Scoles finds out, liquor and guns don't mix well.
- Stylistic Suck: The boys' films aren't exactly Oscar-worthy
- Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist
- Zany Scheme: The crux of the show, when it goes wrong in the first episode the entire rest of the first season is Ben and Jack trying to lie their way out of it.
