Posted: 6/11/18 at 11:18am
I saw the show Saturday night from a great seat and have already posted my comments, but in short, I really disliked it. But I knew going in that many, many people found it to be extremely entertaining, so I wondered why I got so little out of it. To help me find out, I went back and read about 10 reviews of major critics (e.g. Brantley, Adam Feldman). The prevailing theme was that if you were familiar with the TV series and characters, you'd probably love the show and if you had no familiarity with it, you'd likely hate (or dislike it). So I was in the latter category, never having seen a minute of Spongebob on TV. Brantley said he spent hours watching episodes prior to seeing the show, and as a result he really enjoyed himself.
I completely understand that this is a generalization and there are those who see it "tabula rosa" as I did who still enjoyed the show. But at least it explained why it was difficult for me to "get it." I'd bet (as the subject of a research paper), that people who liked Spongebob with no background in the series would tend to dislike The Band's Visit intensely. Different strokes and all that.