I watched the premieres of a couple of the freshman fall sitcoms. First, the kinda OK one.
I love Frasier and I’m seriously in like with Everybody Loves Raymond, mostly because of Raymond not Patricia Heaton. Back To You is neither of those shows, which is a disappointment though not surprising; the commercials weren’t all that good.
My first thought: “Look, Frasier’s on the news.” I suppose the hazard of playing the same character (even one as great as Frasier) for twenty years is obvious. It’s hard not to see Frasier whenever Grammar’s on the screen. He sounds like Frasier, he dispenses advice like Frasier, all he needs is to do to complete the illusion is punctuate his sentences with “I’m listening” and I won’t be able to get past it. Luckily Frasier is funny and I don’t mind more of him.
My second thought: “Look, Mrs. Raymond’s on the news.” Without Marie across the street, you realize something about Patricia Heaton: she’s kind of annoying. She’s not awful, but she’s not great either.
The show itself is rather bland. Easy, obvious jokes, only a couple of which are all that clever. The characters, for the most part, come straight from the ‘Sitcom Guide to People That Are Funny’ including ‘Slutty Girl’ and ‘Guy Who Makes Inappropriate Jokes.’ I’ll admit to liking Josh Gad’s too young News Director, most of the funny bits involved him.
All in all, not horrible, certainly an above average sitcom, but that speaks more to the awful quality of the average sitcom than to the quality of this particular show.
Which brings us to:
This is a below average sitcom. In fact it’s downright awful. The big idea behind this show, such as it is, is that dorks/geeks are funny and what could possibly be funnier than sticking socially inept nerds next door to a REALLY PRETTY GIRL. Hahahaha, hilarity!
Note to show: successful shows have characters you care about. All of the jokes here are at the expense of the main characters, if you laugh at them you laugh at the main characters, definitely not with them. Really, though, you won’t be laughing; it’s not funny. If you find yourself laughing during the show, it won’t be the shows fault. Maybe someone around you made fun of the show’s writers, maybe a clown walked into your living room, maybe the show was interrupted by the latest presidential address, I don’t know. What you won’t be doing is laughing at the jokes, though you might feel like whimpering softly to yourself.
My favorite part, if I can say anything was my favorite, was the staircase. It had the magic property of being exactly as long as was necessary to finish the conversation. Obviously the same set, repeated with slightly different decorations until the dorks finished their last sentence. Look, door without caution tape, now the door has caution tape, now it doesn’t… Caution tape? Oh, I forgot, I’m pretty sure the apartment building where everybody lives is supposed to be run-down and maybe full of crack-heads. How do I know, well, there’s caution tape on doors sometimes.
Seriously, don’t watch this show. There’s only so many IQ points floating around the world and it’s not worth losing some to these geeks.