What I liked
The comedy hits so well. Taking these horrifying stories and turning them into laugh out loud moments is nothing short of brilliance at work. I loved the semi-unbroken timeline of things and I loved how it all came together with the bookends of the trip to Target field.
What I didn't like
Honestly, I just wished it was a little longer. I wasn’t ready to leave those characters (Hal and his dad) behind just yet.
My overall impression
“Jersey Devil” is comedy in it’s rawest form: it’s truth. It’s hard to really paint a portrait of a person who you both love and has caused you immense trauma, and yet Hal invites us in to see the complicated person that his dad was. The comedy of the show comes from the raw honesty which ranges from “that’s genuinely pretty funny” all the way to “i’m laughing because it’s so shocking my body doesn’t know how else to respond”. And yet, nothing ever feels sensationalized or or done in such a way as to advance a narrative. This is the story of a man who did a lot of bad things, but also had some good moments. There’s a beautiful dichotomy between the outlandish character Hal portrays and the nuance he also manages to sneak in about how we’re all human and we all make mistakes and we have to live without shame of where we came from. I tried to tell my wife beat for beat what happened in the show and she was horrified, which just made me realize how amazing of a storyteller Hal is that in the moment it never felt too heavy. This is a story about fathers and sons, a story about unconditional love, a story about your past not defining your future, and a story about how even in death we can still cause a little mischief. I am so happy I got to see this show and hope others are able to experience it as well.
