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Was I right? Six new TV series reassessed

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 18:39:00 +0000

It's hard to judge a TV show by its first episode. But every fall, when the networks march out their new fall shows, that's exactly what critics have to do. Inevitably, some promising shows fall off, and some not-at-all-promising shows get surprisingly good. Two months into the new season, I checked in on six of the more high-profile new series to see how they're faring. (Sorry, "New Normal" — I was wrong about you!)

NBC’s surprisingly good September

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 14:28:00 +0000

Last night, word leaked out that NBC will not be going ahead with “Mockingbird Lane,” its high-profile reboot of “The Munsters.” Despite detailed explanations of how the new project would be edgy and different from the 1960s sitcom, and the promise of a big, strong cast that included Eddie Izzard and Portia de Rossi, it always sounded like a pretty bad idea, or at least one that would be very difficult to execute well. The restraint shown by NBC in not ordering the series, one NBC has been talking about and up almost since the arrival of Bob Greenblatt, its still relatively new president, is another good sign for the network, which is having a surprisingly good autumn. Aside from airing “Guys With Kids” this fall, NBC is having the best pilot season of all the networks.

“Go On”: “I miss my dead spouse more than you do”

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 20:15:00 +0000

In an attempt to capitalize on an Olympic-size audience, NBC is sneak-previewing two of its fall sitcoms in the coming days. Tonight the network will air “Go On,” which stars Matthew Perry as a widow in a support group, and on Sunday it will air “Animal Practice,” about a sexually potent veterinarian who doesn’t like people very much. Both of these shows will begin in earnest in September, at which point I’ll review them more rigorously, a feet-dragging strategy born entirely of the hope that between now and then NBC will send more episodes of the series out. If this is already sounding like too much critic-y throat clearing, hang on, because I am about to cough up some more writer anxiety phlegm.

Reviewing a TV comedy based on its pilot is not like reviewing a book based on its first chapter — which would be silly enough — so much as reviewing a book based on its book jacket. A pilot is, intentionally, the most simple-minded, immediately graspable distillation of a show. It is a showcase for plot, an introduction to the setting and the players, a sitcom reduced to its most high-concept tag line. Based on their pilots, “30 Rock” was a show “about the making of a sketch comedy show,” and “Community” was “about a motley group of community college students,” even though — many seasons later — it's obvious that saying either of those shows are “about” anything so narrow and concrete would be the most moribund reading of them possible.