STARS: 3/5
The fictional comedy — produced by “My Name is Earl” writer Greg Garcia — tells the story of different guests staying at a rental cottage in the woods in a small, seedy town. Each episode tells the story of a different guest’s experience.  
The opening scene of the first episode immediately captures viewers’ attention as they see the first guest crouching on a wooden beam near the ceiling of Froggy Cottage, writing in the cottage’s guest books. He continues to narrate from the beam as the audience slowly learns exactly how he got there.
The show’s premise is interesting and upon first read sounds so wholesome it risks veering on cheesy. However, the show’s crude humor and eclectic, problematic characters — whose behavior include lying, sedating and cheating — drive the show in a completely different direction.
Some good aspects of this surprising angle are the plot twists and cliffhangers you would not expect from an anthology series. The first episode ends with the next guests overlooking their son and his fiancé saying, “Are you sure you want to go through with this? We could go to jail.”
Despite the main characters changing in every episode, the show cleverly manages some recurring story lines. Living next door to the rental cottage is a man going through a rough divorce, constantly trying to win over his son’s love by any means possible; while at the strip club down the road, a man struggles to stand-up to his stepmother when he decides he no longer wants to partake in her blackmailing schemes.
If the cruel stepmother stereotype sounds familiar, so will the many other stereotypes the show uses. The first episode centers on a nagging wife, an overwhelmed husband and their loveless marriage since the birth of their child; the second features southern Evangelicals who go to extreme lengths to baptize their son’s atheist fiancé.
“The Guest Book” succeeds at keeping viewers on their toes, but fails to produce the kind of likeable characters that audiences can get attached to.