if you live in indiana and follow entertainment news, you surely know that tonight is the premiere of armed & famous on cbs (particularly if you read the muncie star-press). this is the show where obscure celebrities like mini-me and ponch run around muncie, indiana, acting like they're cops. (if you didn't realize the premiere was tonight, and want to run to set your dvr now and thanks me later, i'll understand.)

well, the reviews are in, and surprise surprise, they are uniformly bad. according to tv critics, the show is somewhere in between mediocre and a plague upon humanity.

apparently, at some point, muncie mayor dan canan became convinced that this show wouldn't portray his city in a negative light. so let's hope for his sake that he doesn't read any reviews like this one in the buffalo news, where the reviewer whines that the show "may be as boring as life in Muncie, Ind., the area of 67,000 people that apparently considers this show good publicity", and declares that he'd "rather spend a month in Muncie or be tasered than watch another episode." (when people from buffalo, new york, think they can make fun of your city, you know your city has image problems.)

on the other hand, matt tully thinks the city merely comes off as "a bit sleepy". then again, tully apparently thinks indianapolis is terrifyingly dangerous these days, so maybe his perspective is a bit off.

at any rate, as someone who's spent a bit of time in muncie, enough to feel at least a minor connection to the town, my dvr is set and i'll definitely be watching tonight's premiere. how about you? ¶