I'm glad I made the effort to tune into the US premiere of Working the Engels. Before watching the pilot episode, I made the mistake of sitting through the pilot of Welcome to Sweden. I've been to Sweden, and it was much more entertaining than this homage to the Nordic lifestyle. Sitting through that 30 minutes, I laughed once. I debated whether to skip the pilot of Working the Engels thinking that, "If this is what NBC is offering for new programming, I'm better off reading a book." Within the first 2 or 3 minutes of Working the Engels, I laughed several times. This show reminded me of Arrested Development with an even more dysfunctional family. Similar to Arrested Development, Working the Engels has characters that are similar to people from real life. Perhaps I know too many lawyers and people in recovery, but this show did a great job re-framing a dull profession and recovery from addiction in a humorous light. The writers, director, and cast even managed to see the comicality of possible financial ruin, a subject that is very familiar to many Americans post the great recession that started in 2007. There's an old saying, "Years from now will laugh about this," and Working the Engels manages to fulfill that promise. Andrea Martin is a major talent with excellent comic timing, and I've seen her deliver the same zaniness in live theater. The rest of the cast appear to be relatively unknown in the American market, but the ensemble worked very well together. I am glad that the show is going to provide more than the 4-6 episodes that usually make up a summer television series.
