Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage

Worth watching. George and Mandie's First Marriage is a great spinoff from Young Sheldon. The characters are great, relatable, and the storyline is entertaining. However, the laugh track is super, super annoying and it absolutely ruins the show!! Get rid of it for next season, if there is a next season. PLEASE!! NO MORE LAUGH TRACK !! It takes so much away from the show. Other viewers have mentioned this and I have to agree 100%. If there is a chance that this show continues, no laugh track would be the greatest improvement. I also hope to see other Young Sheldon characters in future episodes.

The actor who plays Georgie is a genuine find, his character really developed well during the course of Young Sheldon. Mandy is a suitable sidekick, but Georgie really is the heart and soul of the show. Sadly they dropped the Single Camera film format for Multi-camera digital and felt the WRONG need to add that incipit laugh track, ala the new Frazier. The look and feel is off and the Laugh Track is beyond annoying an unnecessary. Funny, they tried to explain it away in the narrative. Didn't work. IT IS NOT NECESSARY AND IS DISTRACTING AND ANNOYING. Even worse, the laugh tracks they use today are so blatantly phony it' pathetic. One of the reasons BBT and YS worked so well was the peripheral characters. They were all wonderful. I don't really see that here. While Mandy's Dad is pretty good, her mom is extremely annoying and one dimensional. Any stroll through past sitcom success stories and failures will show you the ones that succeeded, like King of Queens, Cheers, Seinfeld did so because, in addition to solid main characters, the peripheral side ones were equally interesting, funny and added something to the show. Think Kripke, Will Wheaton, Billy Sparks, Professor Sturgis. The new Frazier fails because other than Frazier, the rest of the cast is boring and bland. Kevin Can Wait failed because, other than Kevin James, the rest of the cast were boring and bland.

My first thought was they are killing things with the overuse of the laugh track. Not all the "jokes" are that funny. So far, the show needs to be less of a typical hit-you-over-the-head, low quality sitcom. The characters have a history and development that needs better incorporating in the story. The writing feels cheap to me. I always found the supporting characters much more interesting on Young Sheldon and was pleased to hear of this spinoff. Everything seems too forced so far. I'm really hoping that the writers find their footing soon with this show. It would be a shame to waste the gift they were given.

This review is solely based on the first episode. I'll update the review after the season finale. First of all, it's great that we're still getting content for the Big Bang Theory "universe". I enjoyed most of BBT, and really enjoyed Young Sheldon even more in many ways. With Georgie and Mandy's First Marriage (G&MFM), we get the same wonderful characters from Young Sheldon from Mandy's side, with thankfully cameos from Georgie's family, such as his mom and MeeMaw (who I wish were also regulars or at least frequent recurring cast). The story so far is just ok, it's basically about the couple trying to survive while raising a daughter, while also dealing with Mandy's parents. All of that is decent so far. Here's some things that desperately need to change though: (1) As most of the other reviews mention - The laugh track/audience NEEDS to go, it's both annoying and dated. One of the biggest changes from BBT to Young Sheldon was the removal of the laugh track, and that made the series much more enjoyable so we the viewers can focus on the characters/story. I really hope they reconsider and remove it. (2) Mandy's mom for some reason seems different in character compared to her character on Young Sheldon. It's not just her hairstyle, but it almost feels like she forgot how to act like the character. I actually enjoyed her character on Young Sheldon, so I think the director needs to do a better job at directing the cast to be consistent with their characters. But I'll give that a pass for now since it's just the first episode. (3) The music choice throughout the episode is really unfitting. Using it in the opening credits actually fits because they're dancing (and I actually like it), but using it throughout the episodes feels so random because none of them are Argentinean nor is there any tango dancing theme throughout the show, especially with it being so loud too. I would expect softer, pop-rock background music like in Young Sheldon, or at least music you'd hear in Texas or Mandy's family, in that specific time frame. Hopefully they fix that as well, or at least turn it down a bit because both the laugh track/audience and random tango music is loud and distracting. That's my feedback for now. I'll update again once the season ends.

It felt like I stepped back into 2005. The laugh track was overused, the jokes were over the top, and the plot of the first episode felt pointless. The characters are lacking depth and feel more one dimensional compared the shows predecessors. I would have preferred the format to follow that of Young Sheldon as the format with the laugh track doesn't seem to fit. The show does have redeeming qualities with past favorites from YS appearing and the storyline fitting. The opening title theme is an interesting one, but goes well as it gives into the comedy that the writers seemed to be looking to give the show.