This comedy show targets teenagers, ‘Incoming’ is a comedy show with Dave and John Chernin as the directors that arrived on Netflix on August 23rd of the year 2024. The life of the high school students is portrayed in all its disorderly and hilarious glory; the tone is set to resemble ‘Superbad’ and ‘Project X’ and although the aim is to make the audience cringe and laugh at the same time, the attempt is not wholly successful and it leaves the viewers puzzled.
Plot Introduction
Benj Nielsen (Mason Thames) is a gentle face but rather clumsy and shy boy, a freshman and secretly in love with his sister’s best friend, Bailey (Isabella Ferreira). Benj is in high school with his friends Connor (Raphael Alejandro), Eddie (Ramon Reed) and Danah (Bardia Seiri) and is getting ready for events, exams and throws a back-to-school party for the senior student Kayvon (Kayvanai). Full of mishaps and pranks, the series follows the group’s project to succeed and find dates or partners as much as they can, and ultimately results in a night of mayhem.
Characters
Though unlike many stories “Incoming” has rather old type characters, they are plausible. Mason Thames can be also recommended, he plays Benj, a usual embarrassed freshman successfully. Paired with Ferreira who portrays Bailey, there is subtlety that makes the chemistry between the two a smooth blend.
However, the author fails in giving the other characters development and most of them turn out to be a stereotype. The movie relies very much on the jokes that are based on them and this is not very good. For example, annoying and unfriendly girl Alyssa – Benj’s sister, played by Ali Gallo, and Bobby Cannavale who plays a fun chemistry teacher but is not given enough screentime to show us all layers of his personality.
Humor and tone
Humor is the driving force of “Incoming” and at the same time, the movie most prominently shows the overemphasis on the comedic aspect. The humor is naughty and sometimes almost of the television series with jokes that are based on the vague and rude. As much as there are occasional genuinely funny scenes, as when Ruby is around, too much of it looks unnatural and forced. This leads to such comedy being inferior compared to the previous master pieces.
Inexplicably, the beginning of Sin City is no more than sluggish and devoid of charges that can grab the audience’s attention. These concepts are only roughly touched upon – at least, the film picks up steam only when it gets emotional – but once again, they are covered up not with sophistication, humor, or intelligence, but with the use of crass vulgarity and stark idiocy.
Themes and Messages
“Incoming” is mostly a comedy, but it does focus on such issues as friendship, self-acceptance issues, and teenage problems. It also has hints of the oppression of societal norms, youth, pop culture, and love but none are fully delved into. This concentration on humor does not allow for the characters to be developed or, for that matter, the concepts explored in depth. The Chernin brothers are not entirely unsuccessful in putting touches of warmth to the film here and there in scenes where the characters’ sensitive sides were depicted.
However, these rather comic moments are not fully relatable because the film continually tries to introduce suspense through sudden and unnecessary funny scenes that disrupt the story. Conclusion All in all, “Incoming” tries to portray teenage life with the emphasis on the freedom and the adventures of high school students, but fails to do so. It has a few good singing and dancing performances and some truly hilarious sequences, but it is also overwhelmingly crude and one-dimensional.
The film might fit into the bill as a watch-it-for laughs type movie for the younger generation, but those who are looking for an interesting teen comedy might be left disappointed by the events in “Incoming”.
All in all, “Incoming” has a level of comedy with a touch of the emotions, making it bearable to sit through but as a transition type of film in the comedy genre. In total, the film takes only 91 minutes, but it makes an impression that there is no enough substance and emotion in teen comedies.
