Category Archives: Sitcoms
Marry Me ‘s Not Ready For Long-term Commitment
Anyone who has ever had a “why am I still talking” or wishes that their friend who talks to much would get their telepathic message to stop talking can relate to Marry Me‘s main characters, Annie (Casey Wilson) and Jake (Dan Marino). Despite Annie being the high-strung one and Jake being the opposite, they both say too much, which gets Annie into a lot of trouble. Annie got Jake fired from his job and insulted his mother. Jake’s problem is he talks way past the point of where the topic he’s talking about became embarrassing.
Going on the pilot, the show may be a little one dimensional. Jake and Annie love each other. Annie messes up Jake’s initial proposal because she was made he didn’t propose on their trip to Mexico, so she starts going off on their life together. In the other room, their friends and family are hiding. Annie manages to insult everyone, except her two fathers. Naturally, no one is in the mood to celebrate. Annie and Jake agree to redo their proposal.
Proposal attempt #2 doesn’t go much better. Annie surprises Jake at his office. Initially, Jake’s just embarrassed. Things take a turn for the worse when his boss finds out that Jake was on vacation. Jake told his boss that he took off because he was in the hospital trying to decide whether or not to pull the plug on his mother. As a result, Jake is shown the door. This is the point where I started to wonder how many more failed proposals will we have to sit through. Fortunately, it was zero.
Annie and Jake finally decide they should get married when they both skip their engagement party. Neither one is in the mood for celebrating, so they go their separate ways. Turns out they each decided to go to their favorite Mexican restaurant alone. That is how they decide fate is bringing together. Weird? Yes, but it worked for this couple.
When the plot took a break from Annie and Jake, it focused on Annie’s two fathers: Kevin One (Tim Meadows) and Kevin Two (Dan Bucatinsky). They fight over who is Annie’s biological father. Everyone knows it’s Kevin Two because he and Annie are both white. Kevin One likes to argue that it’s possible Annie is a light skinned black woman, which would make her his biological daughter. No one believes it, but it really doesn’t matter because the both Kevins love Annie.
Marry Me has the potential to be clever. The writing is witty. The cast has chemistry. The show simply needs to be careful about slipping into a rut. No one wants to watch 13 episodes of “look the main characters can’t get a proposal right.” The second episode will decided the direction for the rest of the series. I’m going to give the show the benefit of the doubt: the pilot suffered because it was purely background that served only to set up the future.
Mulaney, Series Premiere, Review
Mulaney is a modern take on Seinfield. The former is nowhere near as good as the latter, but Mulaney is far from being another Selfie. Although, that’s not saying much.
In the show, John Mulaney plays a fictional version of himself. The fictional John Mulaney is a struggling standup comic, who lands a job at Lou Cannon’s television show. Cannon (Martin Short) comes off as self-absorbed, but in the end we find out he has a soft spot for Mulaney. Cannon uses Mulaney’s jokes, so Mulaney doesn’t quit.
I love Martin Short’s obviously affected over the top public persona, but he does it all the time and there’s no other character that rivals his hamminess. Making matters worse, (the real) Mulaney either can’t act or is completely uninterested in his own show. As a result, the scenes with Cannon and (the character) Mulaney feel like “The Martin Short Show.” If Short wants to do weekly television, someone should give him his own damn show. Leave Mulaney in the writers room.
Selfie Meet Pop Culture Cliches
Have you ever watched a show and realized it was bad three minutes into the pilot episode? If not, watch Selfie you’ll be in for quite an experience. Everyone else should avoid this show. What could’ve been a clever commentary on millennials’ being so obsessed with social media that they forget to live in the moment, manages to fail and make you dislike the main character Eliza Dooley (Karen Gillan). You know, the person you’re supposed to be rooting for.
As someone around Eliza’s age, I want to slap her. She was unpopular in school, so she thought having thousands of Facebook friends and Instagram followers would make her feel better. Eliza thinks everyone thought she was “butt” as a child, when it was really just an awkward stage. In her head, she’s now the popular girl. Sure, Eliza’s pretty and successful, but none of her coworkers like her and clients only buy products from her because she knows her way around a miniskirt.
McGurk: A Dog’s Life Is a Dog
McGurk: A Dog’s Life is so bad, it’s easy to forget that it’s producer, Norman Lear, is responsible for All in the Family and The Jeffersons. The show manages to have no redeeming qualities. The pilot episode is 22 minutes dedicated to McGurk thinking he’s dying. Keep in mind that A Dog’s Life has all of the actors in bad dog costumes and is supposed to be a sitcom, which it manages to be because it sure as hell isn’t a drama.
This masterpiece starts with McGurk talking to the camera explaining his morning routine. Every joke ends with the punchline “I’m a dog.” He can’t tell time. Why? He’s a dog. Any show starring anthropomorphic animals standing on two feet and speaking English gives up the right to make jokes about their species. For all intents and purposes, they’re just people with dog ears and tails, which makes it disconcerting when McGurk refers wants to please his owner.
Surviving Jack Premiere Review
There is absolutely no reason for Surviving Jack to be a good show. It has the same premise of half the sitcoms this season: kid with grumpy father grew up in the 80s/90s and is now reflecting on it. Television this season has basically been filled with a bunch of The Wonder Years wannabees. Despite starting from the same cliche, Surviving Jack uses the past as a tool to enhance the comedy, instead of as a distraction. There is no haha it’s the 90s, what were we thinking? It’s just a sitcom that happens to take place in the 90s.
Surviving Jack stars Christopher Meloni as Dr. Jack Dunlevy, who is a great doctor, but a rough parent. He love his kids, but doesn’t know how to get that across. Jack is forced to take over primary parenting responsibilities when his wife, Joanne, goes to law school, a move he fully supports. Like any mother, Joanne is afraid of what will happen. As it is, she has two teenage children, Frankie and Rachel, who are busy getting themselves into trouble.
In the premiere, Frankie and his friends George and Mikey steal dirty magazines from a homeless man. Not wanting to be found out, Frankie hides it in the backyard. Jack catches his son digging a hole in the backyard at 2am. He’s not mad that Frankie has the magazines. However, Jack disapproves of the fact that he stole them. A few days later, he takes Frankie, George, and Mikey to return the magazines. The homeless man jumps out from behind a tent, holding a shovel, and scares them. Jack fights the man until the boys are out of sight. Then, Jack pays the guy 20 bucks because that part was a set up. Of course, Jack would. He’s that kind of guy. Jack acts like a drill sergeant, whose convinced he’s actually a big softie. He’s not, but he cares.
‘Ground Floor’: “The New Office” Recap
Ground Floor may not be the most original concept, but the actors seem made for their characters. When watching the show I don’t think “Oh, there’s John C. McGinley playing Mansfield” and “Skylar Astin pretending to be Brody Moyer,” I wonder where the character ends and the actor behind it begins. John C. McGinley makes you forget he’s Dr. Cox because he owns Mansfield. As for Skylar Astin, it appears he pretty much plays himself with a new name, which he gets away with because he has only been in a few things.
If McGinley, Astin, and the rest of the cast weren’t so good at their roles, Ground Floor would be boring. In “The New Office,” an older employee is fired and the young ones stab each other in the back to impress Mansfield. Thankfully, Brody and Threepeat are quirky enough that the backstabbing is friendly and silly. For example, Threepeat discovers a cool new way to sit down that he calls “the Riker,” after Commander Riker from Star Trek: The Next Generation, but it backfires when it tries it in Mansfield’s office because the chair back was too large. All the kissing up to the boss doesn’t pay off, when no one gets the empty office. Mansfield decides to give it to his plant because it was the only thing in the room that didn’t annoy him.
‘Ground Floor’: Premiere Review
Last night, TBS’s Ground Floor debuted with two back to back episodes. While I wasn’t expecting much from the show, it is the best show I have seen this season. Ground Floor is pretty much a brotastic version of Just Shoot Me!, which sounds terrible, but actually ends up being better than latter.
Ground Floor stars Skylar Astin as Brody Moyer. Brody works for a money managing company owned by Remington Stewart Mansfield, who John C. McGinley plays masterfully. Remington feels that Brody is like the son he never had. He is grooming Brody to take over the company and wants Brody to focus solely on work. However, Brody met a girl, who works on the ground floor.
The pilot episode revolves around the tension between the top floor and the bottom floor. The top floor looks down on the bottom floor because a lot of those employees barely finished high school and will never move up in their careers. The bottom floor believes that the top floor is full of soulless people, who never have any fun.
Leslie’s Under Fire in “Parks and Rec”
Even though there’s a recall election, the Leslie Knope committee is still campaigning in full force, complete with farting dolls for the kids. Leslie’s only down four points in the most recent popularity poll. Her fellow council members, though, want the gap between her and her opponents to grow. They get the perfect opportunity in “Gin It Up” when Donna accidentally sends a wonderfully racy tweet from the parks department Twitter account. Let’s see how they got there.
Leslie and Donna
Jamm, Dexhart, and the other councilmen are trying their hardest to delay all of Leslie’s bills, including cutting their meetings short to prevent her from even presenting them. Just after Jamm straight up tells her he wants her recalled because he doesn’t like her, Chris drops in and to tell her there’s a problem: Donna sent a tweet including the phrase “Hope you like tongue baths, you big nasty fireman” – with eggplant emoji, of course – from the parks department’s Twitter instead of her own. Jamm, of course, found out immediately and called a press conference, promising to blow “Twitter Watergate” way out of proportion.
‘Sean Saves the World’: “Busted” Review
Sean Saves the World’s second episode, “Busted,” is much better than the pilot. The writers still appear to be behind the times because this episode makes a big deal about Sean’s daughter’s first bra. With the exception of Sean being a gay father, the show could have taken place in the 1980s.
The entire episode revolved around Sean’s daughter, Ellie (Samantha Isler), trying to find the perfect first bra. Since her mother isn’t around, Grandma Lorna (Linda Lavin) and older sister figure Liz (Megan Hilty) both want to take Ellie bra shopping. Let the wacky antics begin!
Liz takes Ellie shopping first. Liz doesn’t realize that Ellie is a sensible 14-year-old. All Ellie wants is something to keep her breasts from jiggling. However, Liz has other plans. She even asks Ellie, “Are you sexually active? Do you want to be?” It’s a little disturbing that Liz wants Ellie to sleep around like she did. After browsing the store, Liz buys Ellie a bunch of sexy bras and a piece of lingerie, which Sean doesn’t have a problem with because Ellie makes it clear she is unhappy with Liz’s choices.
‘We Are Men’: “We Are Dognappers Review”
We Are Men is probably going to be cancelled soon. The show is only mildly entertaining, which is never a good sign.
Two of the four main characters, Frank Russo (Tony Shalhoub) and Stuart Strickland (Jerry O’Connell), are total morons, who show few signs of character development. Frank’s aging Casanova ways show no signs of stopping. If anything, Stuart looks up to him and wants to live the same way. Frank still parties like a college student. His idea of a good party is one you can’t remember, which is why he loves Tiki Night. Stuart goes along with it as long as his second ex-wife, Amy, isn’t busy trying to empty his bank account.
It’s clear that Frank leads the group. In the episode “We Are Dognappers,” Stuart has the chance to finalize his divorce as long as he’s willing to give his ex-wife his dog, which he has had longer than his wife. Stuart gives in, but finds out that his wife ignores the dog. Frank’s solution is to have the group steal the dog. For some reason, the entire group agrees to this idea. Even Gil Bartis and Carter Thomas, who are the sane ones, don’t bring up the myriad of problems with this solution. Grown men try to go threw with a plot that a thirteen year old wouldn’t do because it’s stupid.
Wait! What's A Dial? 