I was thinking how effortlessly "Satisfied" handles a parallel conceit (time bending) without trickery beyond revolves, lights and a click track or two. "Groundhog Day" on film charmingly carries its concept in a digital clock that resets to 6 a.m. and repeats a song. Who needs magic? It already sounds overthought and overwhelmed with stagecraft. But as much as I love the film, I also think it's at best a challenge to adapt. First of all, it's not really loaded with laughs. You smile, you grin at the turns, but it's not packed with great comic scenes. The fun comes from the repetition. And its milieu is painfully flat and ordinary, a dreary town that is on the map only because of a single grey day in February. Kind of a reverse "Brigadoon." To overly satirize Americana or to womp up small town life with too much stylization (and thus caricature) could be arch and overwhelm what is basically a slender story. Easy to musicalize it is not, regardless of intention.
"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling
