Sean Saves the World

I really wanted to like this because I think Sean Hayes is a really talented comic actor but this show is terribly forced. It wants to be funny but isn't. I found more natural acting on a Disney channel tween show.

Scrap the whole thing Sean, bring back Jack and his mother (from one episode) played by Veronica Cartwright in a "Will & Grace" spin-off.

It is great to see Linda Lavin but "kiss by grits" she isn't strong enough to help this.

I saw that James Burrows directed - at least - the first episode but his creative genius isn't evident.

Make the pain stop...

Oh wait, I did by not watching after the second episode.

First of all I just want to say this is a sitcom, and not a contender for the Oscars, people seem to be being rather harsh, that being said...

Sean Hayes plays a very willing father to an estranged daughter (Samantha Isler) who was left in his care after the mother thought she needed to move on and when the daughter objected, left her with her father, oh and btw Sean the father is gay which immediately opens us up to a whole bunch of comically awkward scenarios!

Helping Sean with his new charge is his very stern mother Lorna (Lida Lavin) and his very outgoing, slightly loose female best friend Liz (Megan Hilty), the mother being a little too strict, the friend being a little too easy-going but between the three of them they try to do their best for the young lady, an adolescent 14-year-old with all the baggage that comes with this very strange and new situation, but they handle it with smiles love and laughter, lots of laughter!

The show bounces between Sean's home life and work life... Work being trying to run an online retail store which has recently acquired a new and very strange owner Max, played by the wonderful Thomas Lennon, who just loves to make Sean's life both difficult and awkward. Fortunately to help Sean along at work is his aforementioned best friend Liz and their very funny co-worker Hunter (Echo Kellum)

Now I'm not going to say that this show is original, some might even call the characters cliché, nonetheless it works!

I was grinning from ear to ear throughout the two episodes I have seen so far, Sean Hayes has a very big fan base and as long as people do not expect him to be Jack, I think they will be pleasantly surprised by the witty humor, comically awkward situations and family bonding that this show seems to give out quite generously.

Both my wife and I have agreed that of all the new shows that have started this fall season of 2013 this is definitely a winner and we wish to see it continue bringing smiles to our faces!

In spite of the setup (gay man raising a daughter) this show almost never freed itself from being a very generic sitcom. First few episodes were bad and the worst one was the one about buying the bra, but after that it kind of picked itself up and was enjoyable for me.

Yes it was generic but I liked it because it relaxed me. Some people turn on sounds of rain falling or nature sounds, but I watch sitcoms like this.

Sean Saves the World sometimes gets it right. Sean Hayes occasionally delivers the great one-liner in his portrayal of Sean, a single father left in charge of his daughter Ellie (Samantha Isler) when his ex-wife moved to New York. His character is not as off the wall as it was in Will and Grace. He's not as overly dramatic and excitable as he once was. Still has the same flare, just not as loud. I agree with another reviewer that the highlight of the show is Thomas Lennon who plays Sean's new boss, Max. Since seeing Lennon in Seventeen Again and tiny parts like Doug in I Love You, Man I've been amazed at his comedic ability. He's like Jane Lynch, a great character actor that can make any part his own, even if the script is a tad weak. With him on board I see potential in this show.

Sean Hayes is a very talented man and he works very hard in this. He has to because it's largely like a terrible parody of U.S. 90s sitcoms. If only it were a parody.

Most of the characters are TV clichés or racial tokens (one "Asian", one black guy). The plot for each episode is jammed in our faces as if otherwise we'd be too stupid to understand it: "My daughter needs her first bra!". Hilarity ensues, except it doesn't, it's truly truly painful.

Cue laugh track, then cue it again and again. The less I smile and the more laughter I hear the more depressing the whole thing becomes.

The supporting cast is a mixed bunch which range from a wooden spoon with a face drawn on it wearing a kitchen mop for hair (Megan Hilty) through to performances of genuinely twisted comedic genius from Tom Lennon.

That was really my point about a good show within a terrible one. Every scene with Tom Lennon in it seems to come from a different place than the rest of the show, a much improved place where the show is actually funny.

I sat stony-faced through the pilot yet laughed out loud at some of the Tom Lennon scenes. Whether I can continue to grit my teeth waiting for those moments is debatable.

It feels like being in a wheelchair having lost the use of your legs, with NBC looking down at you and saying in a very loud, slow, voice... "Are you alright down there? Can I get you anything? Do you want to go to the toilet? Do you want to hear a funny joke?".

I may be sitting down, but I'm not deaf and I'm not an idiot, please stop treating me as such.

If they could build on the Hayes-Lennon core a bit more (they're great together) focus less on the been there, done that ha ha ha feel of the rest of it, perhaps try to give some dimension to the characters of the other actors then this could really be something.