The Fine Brothers, famous for uploading React (Kids React, Teens React, etc.) videos to YouTube, have come to TruTV with something completely different. Six Degrees of Everything is a take on the popular Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game. The brothers will try to connect two seemingly random things in only six steps. Since I always try to support YouTubers and their attempts to break into mainstream media, I watched the first two episodes.
I have to admit that I was fairly skeptical of the premise of the show. It sounds interesting to connect Albert Einstein to breast implants but is it actually interesting? On top of that, Benny and Rafi Fine are usually behind the camera. When they are on camera, they can be funny. But will they have the personalities to hold an audience's attention for a half hour show?
The answer to both of those questions is "not really."
The connections that they make between "degrees" are often tenuous, at best. Since the rules aren't as strict as the original game's, they can make any connection they want. For example, in the premiere episode, they connect Einstein to Cousin Couple because his second marriage was to his cousin then they connect Cousin Couples to Elvis Presley because he had a song called 'Kissing Cousins.' As you can see, that first connection is pretty strong but then that second connection is, well, weak. And the connections don't get any better from there on out. Elvis is connected to comic books (because he based his look on Captain Marvel Jr), which is then connected to Lie Detectors (the guy that created Wonder Woman also created a component of the modern lie detector) , which is then connected to breast implants (because one way to detect lies is with an EEG and they can be thrown off by breast implants). See? Weaksauce.
In between these connections, the brothers give us tidbits of information. Sometimes they are slightly interesting but, most of the time, they are not. Instead of feeling like a conversation between brothers, it feels like they just needed to fill space. Sure, they probably did need to fill space but it shouldn't feel like it.
On top of that, the brothers just aren't interesting enough to keep the audience's attention. I honestly think this show would be better if it were presented as a conversation between brothers. Sometimes they get along, sometimes they fight, but they always get excited when the reach the end of their trail. Instead, everything feels overproduced. Their "fights" are obviously scripted and they don't have the acting chops to make them feel organic. (For an example of a show hosted by brothers that feels like a natural conversation between them, check out Hank and John Green's pocast - Dear Hank and John. There is a little bit of awkwardness as they change subjects but their 'arguments' feel real.) As a result, Benny and Rafi come off as stiff and almost inhuman. This show proves that they need to stay behind the camera.
TruTV only ordered 10 episodes. The first two have already aired. I'm not sure the show will make it through the next 8. Even though I love The Fine Brothers and their productions, this one is a bust. The show's production staff should watch a few episodes of Outrageous Acts of Science on the Science Channel. Everyone on that show has the personality to explain complex science experiments and keep them interesting. While OAoS doesn't connect their videos, I think their format could easily be modified to fit the Six Degrees format. That would be amazing! Since that is unlikely to happen, I'm just going to skip past Six Degrees and hope something better comes out of it.