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.
