Free Agents

Wow; wow; wow; wow; WOW! It is well-known in the TV world that a new sitcom now has to open running on all cylinders or it is over. The two seasons SEINFELD had to get it together is a thing of the past - now you're lucky if you get two episodes! Amazingly, now and then, a sitcom manages to present a pilot that is at mid-third-season form out of the gate, like MODERN FAMILY did - and now FREE AGENTS has done. The writing is quirky and original and yet 100% genuine-to-character - delicious dialog! Everyone knows what a great talent Hank Azaria is - and I have known of Kathryn Hahn's stunning performing skills since they gave her the "A" storyline in an episode of that coroner's office series in which she played a supporting character. I have always imagined they may have regretted that since she completely eclipsed everything else that ever came out of that fairly excellent program! This is television comedy AT ITS BEST. So far, I wouldn't hesitate to put this up against the best sitcoms of today or of any day. I can't imagine anyone giving this anything less than ten stars - unless they work for another network! It's truly top-of-the-line.

Firstly, the casting in this show is brilliant! These are truly talented actors who could pull off any show thrown their way given a good script. Unfortunately, the writers are sleeping on the job. Either they have no writing talent or no true inspiration. Given the number of amazingly talented comedy writers available to breathe much needed oxygen into this show, I would think that Enbom would want to change out writers STAT. A personal Plea to Mr. Enbom: Dear John, please hire Rick Overton, John Fugelsang or Andy Borowitz and give this show the emergency CPR it requires to stay alive! If there is no immediate drastic change, I predict this show will be off the air by it's 4th episode.

The cast is pretty good and it is funny, but it lacks the depth of the British version. Nbc took a rather dark comedy focused on two broken people trying to put there life together and turned it in to a cheer work place comedy focused more on an ensemble of wacky characters than the hardships of the two original characters. The original puts a greater emphasis on Helen dealing with the lose of her fiancé and Alex is in a lot more turmoil over his divorce. The restrictions on swearing and other crudeness may have contributed to its lack of substance but it seams to me the lack of character development is more to blame. If they had focused more on the relationship between Helen and Alex and less on the other characters it might have gone a lot further.

I kind of liked the premise of this show and even if it wasn't a 20 minutes 'laugh out load' episode, it was nice and had me at least laughing a couple of times. Good enough to keep me wanna come back for next week.

This series is probably not gonna be one of those series that wins any awards but will stick around for a while, keeping us entertained. But what do I know, it could very well be one of those shows that grows on you and becomes better with time. The jokes were solid, the cast were solid and the plot were solid, enough to make it on my watch list for a laugh or two on Wednesday evenings.

Check it out and have it on your regular weekly schedule at least, even though it won't be the best new show this fall, I'm looking forward to Terra Nova and Person of Interest, I will write my view on there pilots as well.

probably the worst show I've seen that has been green lit after horrible feedback.

i was amazed to see promos and billboards of this out.

show's premise is very weak. hank is not a bankable lead actor for this show. i like him but not in this role. he honestly reminded me of a live action moe the bartender.

i had a buzzer while watching this pilot to signify at what point would i tune away to another program...i held it down for the entire time.

i sincerely hope that the show has been re-shot with the feedback that we all gave back.

a group of 30 of us spent a good 10 minutes bashing the show after the screening.

good luck hank.