Here we have a sitcom that left many viewers, critics and network executives speechless, so it can’t have been all that bad. But then all those people regained their power of speech and expressed their opinion in no uncertain terms: “What in the name of mighty Zeus is this?” Colossal waste of time or genius cult comedy, Get a Life has had its share of cheerleaders and detractors.

Comedian Chris Elliott plays Chris Peterson, the world’s oldest paperboy, who still lives with his parents. Chris refuses to grow up—mentally and emotionally—and is content to work the same paper route he had as a child. He avoids responsibility like the plague, preferring to live above his parents’ garage and riding his bicycle everywhere since he doesn’t have a driver’s license. Eschewing the adult world isn’t a conscious decision by Chris because he genuinely doesn’t know any better. He exhibits no intelligence whatsoever, forgetting at times the simplest things such as the way to work a door. Spoiler alert: Chris does not win a Nobel Prize.

Chris’s parents are Fred and Gladys, who always appear in their bathrobes or pajamas no matter where they are or what they are doing. They’re fond of Chris but fail to understand the reasons behind his arrested development and Fred especially gets exasperated with his son. Larry is Chris’s best friend since childhood but he has grown up and has a job, a family and really nagging wife. Sharon, Larry’s wife, loathes Chris with a passion because he gets Larry into trouble and undermines her authority over her meek husband.

How to describe the plot? Surreal, that’s the word that comes to mind. Wacky, another good word. Also, odd, strange, bizarre, off-putting, sometimes gross, subversive, disconcerting. Chris moves through life in a cloud of general idiocy, often getting into trouble because of his gullibility and childish behavior. Oddly (that was in our list of words, remember?), Chris dies at the end of many of the episodes in a variety of ways, most of them violent.

The show ran for two seasons but suffered from poor ratings and bad reviews so as soon as Fox executives picked their jaws off the floor after seeing what Chris Elliott’s brain had to offer, they canceled the show. Get a Life did gain cult status among viewers who thought the series was simply ahead of its time or too cool to be understood by the unwashed masses. Whatever the case, if you film it, someone will love it and someone will hate it.