Sunnyside

Please keep in mind that this was a comedy, and a pilot episode at that (September 26th, 2019), so I, as a Republican voter will cut the series some slack for the first several episodes to see how the characters evolve. Evolve? Yes that is what I said. Well.... wait no longer for Kal Penn to evolve because he is a natural. Some may say Garrett Modi is a drunk, selfish, and a natural loser in this show, but I say he is a natural winner, winning over his audience with his natural ability to make his character, a dismissed/fired City Councillor the champion and saviour of a bunch of immigrants.

If you can see past the political left wing emphasis you just have to keep in mind that the show is a sitcom, and not a promotion to vote Democratic, because if that is what you perceive this sitcom to be than the joke is on all of us. They will never beat Trump and he never starred in a TV sitcom.

I have always liked Kal Penn and he reminds me of the Gujarati Indian model version of the American John Belushi, rest his soul.

Garrett Modi (Kal Penn) spent fifteen years as a city councilman for Sunnyside, Queens. He is forced out after years of hard partying, incompetence, and a drunken viral police videotape scandal. He is trying to make a comeback and finds himself tutoring a bunch of folks hoping to be new citizens.

The subject matter is serious and the humor is rather broad. Sadly, it is not all that funny. The seriousness deflates the start. It is probably a mistake to sent one of the illegals into detention so early. I would think that's a season finale move. At least, they need to build that character up to have a relationship with the audience. We don't know who he is and nobody cares what happens to him. Worst, it's not funny.

The Asian siblings almost get there in outlandish comedy. The show needs to drop any hint of seriousness at the start. It never clicks and NBC pulls it after only four episodes. They dump the remaining seven episode online and the show disappears into the ethereal nothingness of streaming.

Sunnyside is a conventional, old-school sitcom about a disgraced politician trying to win redemption by helping a multi-cultural group gain citizenship.

I watched the first episode and liked it well enough to watch a second. It's got some good jokes scattered through it, but the plotting is sitcom stupid and the main character is an objectionable idiot, which makes it perplexing that the people he's trying to help don't give up on him.

The series is pro-immigrant, ethnically varied, and eager to avoid stereotypes. The best characters are Asian siblings who, instead of the familiar hardworking genius Asians, are wealthy, lazy, and not so bright. They are easily the funniest thing in the series, especially thanks to Poppy Liu who makes even the most innocuous lines hilarious.

Sunnyside is harmless and sometimes funny but simply doesn't offer enough to make it worth committing to.

The dialog is bad and the plot is simplistic. I would expect better from KAL Penn.

It's a slapstick comedy that used to work in the 80s and 90s but the comedy world has evolved a lot since then with shows like 'it's always sunny', parks & rec, Veep, community, rick & morty, etc. Who'd watch something this basic and unfunny?