Worried about the effects of climate change and the damage that mankind’s impetuousness has wreaked upon the fragile polar ice caps? Relax. Hollywood has dispatched a couple of its finest celebrities to investigate the situation, and they should have the matter well in hand within a few days. Specifically, True Blood star Alexander Skarsgård and 30 Rock’s Jack McBrayer have teamed up for a new Funny Or Die series entitled Jack & Alex Save The Arctic, which chronicles the unlikely pals’ nine-day expedition to the North Pole, one of the coldest, least hospitable places on the planet, aboard a Greenpeace boat. Silly as this may initially seem, it’s actually part of a Greenpeace’s very real “Save The Arctic” campaign, which seeks to end oil drilling and create a wildlife sanctuary in that beleaguered part of the world.
Jack & Alex Save The Arctic, however, largely eschews serious environmental issues to concentrate on the humor inherent in taking two pampered celebrities out of their cushy Hollywood comfort zones. The series plays up the contrast between the two actors, with Skarsgård portrayed as a self-styled rugged adventurer determined to impress everyone around him with his sheer awesomeness and delicate McBrayer portrayed as an utter milquetoast who desperately longs for his swimming pool back home in California and who keeps pitifully asking about hot cocoa. But there’s a twist to the series! Inexperienced as he is, McBrayer is at least approaching this project with his usual level of guileless sincerity. Skarsgård, on the other hand, may have some selfish, career-based ulterior motives he is hiding from from his so-called friend. There is a vaguely Tropic Thunder-ish feel to all this, except in a drastically different climate, obviously.
Jack & Alex Set Sail from Funny Or Die