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.

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.

Hahn is great in this along with the rest of the cast. I can't believe the neg ratings. They must be the dumbed down sheep that like Whitney and up all night, which are forced, unfunny and surprisingly horribly acted. So much so that they have a laugh track so you'll know what was supposed to be funny. Those shows were painful to watch so I was not expecting much from this one. Give it a look and you'll get hooked.

I hope they give this show a chance as it looks like it could be one of those special shows. The back up characters are set to bring out other funny story lines in the future. Hank is good in this as well, but this Hahn lady is set to breakout...i don't remember seeing her before, but think we will see a lot more of her. And these people that keep on talking about the English version...give me a brake! If you want to talk about it then go on it's page.

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.

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.