Free Agents

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 had not seen a single bit of advertising for this show. I saw that it was starting tonight when I was browsing DirecTV, so I set it to record, strictly because Hank Azaria is always funny in anything I've seen him in.

He did not disappoint! From the premise, I didn't want to like the show and it totally won me over. Hank delivers great lines, and naturally has fantastic comic delivery, and manages to make even a slightly weepy sap come off as both sympathetic and charismatic - oh, and extremely funny.

Great job! If you get a chance to see this, and if it continues to hold up to the level of humor of the first show, you will be glad you did.

I think it is a refreshing new twist on the sitcoms that are usually on. It is two adults, they don't partake in excessive drinking, nor excessive illegal drugs, they have jobs to go to. They both have lost a love in their life and it shows the true "fog" they are in as they stumble thru their recovery. To me is seems honest, good natured and I think the characters do a great job. The comedy is crisp and real. I do love the Portland scenes, although I don't think they are filming up here. It's too bad it is against such other heavy hitter shows in the current time slot. If this show was on Friday night or Sunday night it would be around longer. I will watch it until they take it off...but it is better than all the reality TV that hogs all the time slots.

and doesn't treat the thirty-and-fortysomethings like they're elderly. We find it funny and enjoyable and don't understand the highly negative ratings this is getting. I could do with less of Emma personally, but there's a lot of funny stuff and as has been mentioned, the cast are great.

As for the people who say it's worthless because it "doesn't compare" the UK version, well... haven't seen the original, might or might not ever see it, but definitely don't care how this compares to what inspired it. Same with The Office. Each succeeds or fails on its own merits.

Sad to hear Free Agents on the bubble, especially since the deplorable Whitney seems to have been picked up.

I give this a 7, which means we'll keep watching every week, and expect it to improve with time, if it's allowed to prosper.

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.