Mr. Sunshine

This was my favourite show from this past T.V. season and I really hope it gets picked up for next year. It's a sharp, well-written sitcom with great comedic performances by virtually the entire main cast. The premise revolves around Ben (Matthew Perry), who is the manager of a major sports arena in San Diego, and his off-beat staff members and wacky boss (Allison Janney).

Janney really sinks her teeth into this quasi-insane character, who, despite being the owner of the arena, delegates most of the work and responsibility to Ben. I really enjoyed the season-long arc involving her awkward and contrived attempts to be a better mom to her 20-something son and new employee, Roman (Nate Torrence), who seems to have been neglected by her and is just looking for a healthy mother-son relationship. Actually, I liked any scene or plot line which involved Roman. Torrence is hilarious and charming pretty much every time he appears on screen and gets a laughs from me simply through his delivery. I've read some people saying they find him obnoxious and don't like him, but I just can't understand why that is, because to me, he's my favourite character.

Even though the performances are great, I think the real star of this series is the writing. I just watched the 'Celebrity Tennis' episode on NETFLIX and I was laughing consistently throughout. You can't find a lot of new shows with scripts this smart and so densely packed with humour. However, I have a sense that it may not have mainstream appeal, since there didn't seem to be a lot of buzz and fanfare for it.

I really hope people discover it on NETFLIX (The first 8 episodes are currently available) and a fan-base starts to develop that is large enough to keep it going indefinitely on ABC. I also think ABC should have been airing more reruns of the first season this summer to give it a chance to catch on, and I really hope this does not indicate that they are giving up on it.

I encourage you to watch it if you can (start with the first episode just to get a sense of all the main plot lines and relationships) and decide for yourself if you think it's as good as I do. Note, however, that this is one of those sitcoms without a laugh-track, which is an important feature of this show since I just can't imagine it working as well with one.

Season Rating: 3.5 stars out of 4

Like many other reviewers, I started watching this on to see Mathew Perry return to television. He's always been fun to watch and Mr. Sunshine is no exception.

Unfortunately, the show hasn't hit its stride yet. Four of the cast members are fun to watch and offer some decent laughs: Perry, Andrea Anders, James Lesure and Allison Janney. The two additional cast members however are one note jokes that wear flat almost immediately.

Nate Torrence's "I'm an idiot" shtick gets boring really quickly and elicits no laughter. Portia Doubleday has potential, but the show works the crazy angle so hard that it retreats into sitcom cliché instead of real character.

I'll still be watching the show in hopes it improves, but its going to need some work to stick around.

If the rest of the episodes live up to pilot, Mr Sunshine will be a big hit. It is a smart comedy with dialogue reminiscent of some of the episodes of "West Wing". Allison Janney & Matthew Perry play off each other well and though Matthew Perry's character seems a little like, "Chandler - the Later Years", it's still very funny.

As with most ensemble comedies, it will take a little time to learn the characters and their individual personalities. I think this show has the potential to be a big hit and it is in an appropriate spot in the line-up at the present time, following 3 other hit comedies. Let's hope the network doesn't move it around to other time spots, as sometimes happens, before it has time to create its audience.

Mr. Sunshine is more than an exercise in comedy, it's well written and very well executed with a great cast. The comedy may not be 20 minutes all-out laughing but it's impossible not to have a smile on your face for the entire show! Matthew Perry is outstanding as the misanthropic manager who is not half as bad as he'd like to think or likes others to belief. It's unfair to compare his character to Chandler but his Matt Albie on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip is a fair facsimile. It is very good to see Allison Janney back in a meaty role which allows her to flex her considerable acting muscle. Her interaction with Matt seems natural and absolutely in keeping with the spirit of her character. She is an acting tour de force and, as always, a joy to behold. One can only hope she will do the "the Jackall" again in some future episode. In all this is a solid comedy with much to enjoy and hopefully for a long time.

Matthew Perry writes, executive produces and stars in this fab new comedy from ABC in which the manager of a sports centre has a mid life crisis.

Perry still has enough of the traits of Chandler Bing to entertain old fans and has smartly surrounded himself with a good supporting cast. Although at times this show did feel all on his head with the other characters never really stepping up to the plate.

Allison Janney of West Wing fame is on top form as Crystal and former Joey cast member Andrea Anders adds suitable bite to her role as Perry's love interest while former Studio 60 man Nate Torrence is a scream as Roman.

It is a shame that this show never got renewed from a second series but with dipping rating figures and the critics on it's back the sunshine soon dimmed.