Have you ever asked yourself what it would be like if it turned out that James Dean wasn’t really dead, but had been sucked into a wormhole and suddenly returned to 2007? The talented people at Super Deluxe will be unhappy to hear that since they have created an ongoing web show about that very thing.
A lot has changed in fifty-two years and James Dean just can’t seem to adapt. He doesn’t understand that his gay roommate is gay. He has no idea that public water fountains are no longer segregated until he offends a black man, and he doesn’t understand the current day slang. It all just makes it harder for him to fit in and gets him in trouble more often than not, especially when an actress is coming on to him telling him she wants him to “hit it”. He takes her literally and punches her in the face.
All James wants is to star in the sequel to Rebel Without a Cause, Rebel Without a Cause 2: Causeless. The role has been given to Luke Perry, because he is a James Dean type. The producer doesn’t want James Dean; he wants a James Dean type. Even worse, everywhere James goes, he’s constantly mistaken for Luke Perry by the general population. As much as he hates Luke Perry, he sometimes uses the mistaken identity to get what he wants. At one point the producer of “RW/OAC2: Causeless” even tells him he does a remarkable impersonation of Luke Perry impersonating James Dean. It is lost on everyone in Hollywood that James Dean is back. Everyone is so interested in finding a James Dean type, that they are constantly overlooking the original thing.
His agent isn’t much help. Instead of helping him adapt to 2007, getting him work and trying to make him famous again, Sam is trying to convince him to do whatever it takes just to get his name in the news. In order to be a celebrity again, he has to act like a celebrity. The perfect solution would be a sex tape. Nothing brings popularity and riches like a sex tape. When James finally breaks down and makes a celebrity sex tape it doesn’t turn out how anyone expects. Not being from a world where celebrity sex tapes are relatively normal, James doesn’t understand what is wrong with him and his agent fires him because he is a “lost cause and an idiot”.
The humor is mostly off color, but funny nonetheless. There is off color humor that succeeds in being nothing but raunchy and then there is off color humor that works and makes you laugh. Doing His Best walks a fine line between the two proving that humor can be funny and tasteless. That is a rare talent that not many can pull off. Usually such humor does more to offend and embarrass the audience than make them laugh. It’s even better when Ron Jeremy joins the cast to help deliver the laughs.
