As a person with symptoms of Asperger's syndrome who has trouble establishing and maintaining relationships, one might think that I'd be able to relate to this 1991 Garfield special featuring Jon struggling with social interaction. But of the three Garfield specials on the Garfield as Himself DVD, I'd say this is the weakest. In it, Jon's life is dull and he's feeling bored. He tries to meet people, but fails to find any friends or girlfriends. Eventually he sees an ad for a school that could help him develop more personality, and there he meets a nice woman who has some of the same social problems as Jon. But the relationship won't develop much since, unfortunately, she's allergic to Garfield.
This special tries to find humour in what is dull, but the risk of that is that the special might prove more dull than funny. Although some of the humour here works, the sock talk at the beginning of the special is more dull than funny and the same can be said of Jon's dance, which goes on a bit too long. If you want to laugh at losers, I'd suggest 30 Rock with its main character Liz Lemon; that show manages to be funny without being boring in part because of its faster pacing, in part because of its colourful supporting characters. With Garfield Gets a Life, Garfield is a stronger character than Jon, but this special is a bit too Jon-heavy.
On a side note, it's interesting to note this special has a bit of Canadian content: Garfield watches a TV show with a Mountie, he finds another TV station which plays O Canada, and at the special school the teacher suggests his students learn Canadian English. Not bad.
This special tries to find humour in what is dull, but the risk of that is that the special might prove more dull than funny. Although some of the humour here works, the sock talk at the beginning of the special is more dull than funny and the same can be said of Jon's dance, which goes on a bit too long. If you want to laugh at losers, I'd suggest 30 Rock with its main character Liz Lemon; that show manages to be funny without being boring in part because of its faster pacing, in part because of its colourful supporting characters. With Garfield Gets a Life, Garfield is a stronger character than Jon, but this special is a bit too Jon-heavy.
On a side note, it's interesting to note this special has a bit of Canadian content: Garfield watches a TV show with a Mountie, he finds another TV station which plays O Canada, and at the special school the teacher suggests his students learn Canadian English. Not bad.