Lost WRECKED

Article first published as WRECKED Review on Seat42F.

TBS’s latest sitcom, WRECKED, is nothing if not ambitious. It begins with a plane wreck on a deserted island, and then laughs ensue as the survivors get bogged down in petty things, rather than what it takes to survive. If this sounds like the comedy version of Lost, I believe that’s on purpose given the pilot’s title of “All’s Not Lost” and the appearance of the primary Jack-like hero who steps up at the beginning.

But WRECKED isn’t about to just rehash Lost. It can’t, can it? After all, Lost was a deep and complex series that had a lot of mythology. A comedy does not support that kind of structure (unless it’s Arrested Development). So while WRECKED picks at certain elements of Lost, such as the ghost of a dead father showing up to chastise his son, or lampoons a scene of a survivor trying to get a radio signal, I don’t expect it to commit to flashbacks and smoke monsters in any real way.

Still, the fact that someone is even going after Lost, a cultural icon of television no matter what you thought of its polarizing ending, is laudable. It’s one of those ideas that usually gets the low budget internet treatment, and I’m delighted to see this one make it to broadcast with actual money behind it instead. Even when the results are mixed, which does happen in the first few episodes, it still seems ambitious enough to be worth trying.

A couple of faces in the cast look familiar, but none are A-, or even B-, list stars, which may work in WRECKED’s favor. At the center are flight attendant Owen O’Connor (Zach Cregger, Guys With Kids, The Whitest Kids U’Know) and a fat (for TV) passenger lazy Owen was told to interact with, Danny Wallace (Brian Sacca, The Wolf of Wall Street). They are the odd couple who step up to lead when they’re not sitting on the sidelines making fun of their fellow survivors. And they work just fine as the focus of the show.

Along with Owen and Danny are geeky agent Pack Hara (Asif Ali, Mr. Robinson), scary survivalist Karen Cushman (Brooke Dillman, Bob’s Burgers), hippie Florence Bitterman (Jessica Lowe, Blended), Florence’s put-together doctor roommate Emma Cook (Ginger Gonzaga, Togetherness, Legit), shallow Todd Hinkle (Will Greenberg, The Grinder), Todd’s dissatisfied girlfriend who could do better Jess Kato (Ally Maki, Step Up 3D), and injured comic relief Steve Rutherford (Rhys Darby, Flight of the Conchords). It’s a pretty good ensemble, each given significant screen time and storylines, and hits just about all the archetypes one wants in such a series.

There are plenty of extras milling around in such a way that new people can be added to the group at any time, and I expect that to happen. A lot of the writing focuses on spoofing the genre, from comments such as pointing out the relative unattractiveness (for TV) of the castaways, to the way a boar is easily slaughtered. The rest goes for typical sitcom fodder, such as mistaking a golf club for a child, that seems crazily out of place under the circumstances.

WRECKED isn’t the best comedy on television; not even close. But it may be the boldest, taking a huge risk to commit whole-heartedly to such a bizarre concept. I applaud that fully, and as such, am definitely willing to give this show a chance to find its footing. The first few episodes aren’t bad overall, and each have some really clever elements to them that prove why this program should be made. I hope it gets a second season just because I believe the first one will likely be a hit-and-miss learning experience, and I am very interested to see what could happen if this is taken further.

WRECKED premieres June 14^th at 10/9c on TBS.

"Love" LEGIT

Article first published as LEGIT Review Season 2 on Seat42F.

LEGIT’s second season begins on FXX this week with “Loveline.” It’s as much a continuation of the first year as it is a fresh tale. Jim (Jim Jefferies) appears on the radio show Loveline with Dr. Drew Pinsky (himself). During and after this appearance, past girlfriends haunt him, while Dr. Drew attempts to convince Jim that he has a sex addiction and should seek help.

I love that LEGIT goes this route of continuation, rather than starting over. It provides a cohesion and through-line between the two seasons, and even if you didn’t see the previous episodes, or your memory is a little fuzzy about them, there are still plenty of jokes that can be enjoyed with no background. It’s not the type of show to really do long arcs, but the inclusion of Peggy (Ginger Gonzaga) and Jenny (Bre Blair) are still able to hail back to the previous installments.

Even more of a connecting tissue is the movie that Jim got fired from after his highly inappropriate, but very funny, rape misunderstanding last season. The film is now in theaters, and it turns out to be very, very good, much to Jim’s dismay. This provides no end to the humor at Jim’s expense.

A theme of “Loveline” seems to be ‘poor Jim.’ The main character in LEGIT is likeable enough, but he also has his flaws. He can be selfish and self-absorbed. “Loveline” shows us a different side of him, the kind that unfairly suffers from circumstances often outside of his control. It makes him more sympathetic, and even when he looks a bit pathetic, you still root for him to do well, something that isn’t quite always the case in previous entries.

Of course, that’s not true of everything in the half hour. There is at least one scene in which Jim lies to get what he wants, something we’ve seen is part of his nature. But mostly, this premiere finds Jim more accessible and easy to get behind than before.

Even Jim’s sex addiction issues aren’t an indicator of Jim being bad. For one thing, we’re only told about the worst of his actions. What is shown is actually relatively tame. We know he’s screwed up, but I’m not even convinced that Jim needs help. He may just need to find the right person.

Playing it down could actually backfire. LEGET gets well-deserved credit for the handling of some sensitive issues, especially in the way it portrays people with disabilities, both physical and mental. If the sex addiction story is made light of too much, without any real consequences or development, then it could do disserve not only to that problem, but also the character of Jim.

What I like about LEGIT is that it features fully formed characters. Billy (DJ Qualls) is so much more than what one might expect at first glance, and Steve (Dan Bakkedahl) has plenty of problems and idiosyncrasies, too, his alcoholism brought up again in “Loveline.” Jim can be unfeeling at times, but the way he takes care of Steve and Billy as much as he does proves his humanity and compassion for fellow men. Yes, the show is a comedy and needs to keep being funny, but it could also make the sex addiction thing a season-long plot that shows us something new in Jim.

That aside, though, “Loveline” is absolutely just as hilarious as pretty much any installment of LEGIT so far. It’s an edgy, different show with a specific voice and perspective not often shown on TV. I greatly enjoy it, and this premiere is true to the established form. It definitely bodes well for the coming installments.

LEGIT premieres Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET on FXX.

MIXOLOGY A Bad Brew

Article first published MIXOLOGY Review on Seat42F.

ABC’s MIXOLOGY, a new sitcom about ten single people spending one night in a bar, premieres this Wednesday. In the first half hour, “Tom & Maya,” we are introduced to most of the cast and the premise as Tom (Blake Lee, Parks and Recreation), recently dumped by his fiancé of eight years and dragged out by a couple of friends, hits on Maya (Ginger Gonzaga, Legit), a ruthless, ball-busting lawyer.

MIXOLOGY is a little bit of an anthology series with a tone similar to the quickly canceled Love Bites because it will jump around from person to person each week. But it’s not quite an anthology because the main story only takes up a little bit of the episode, with other players being featured throughout the half hour, too, even when their names aren’t in the title.

This structure is very confusing. The characters are easy enough to tell apart, to be sure, but there’s a lot of them for a sitcom, and the pacing is rapid enough to really prevent the viewer from learning even the names of the characters. After two installments, I’m still having to use the show’s website for help in telling you who these people are.

There’s Tom, of course, and his well-intentioned, but kind of douchey, friends, Cal (Craig Frank, 8.13) and Bruce (Andrew Santino, Crafty). Maya is there to meet her wishy-washy friend, Liv (Kate Simses, What’s Your Number?), who chooses the safe relationship over passion. Jessica (Alexis Carra, Incredible Girl) asks her sister, Janey (Sarah Bolger, Once Upon a Time), to go with her to meet a date she set up online. The man Jessica is meeting turns out to be Brit Ron (Adam Campbell, Touch), who is having the worst day of his life. And their waitress, Kacey (Vanessa Lengies, Glee), tries to break up with the jerk bartender, Dominic (Adan Canto, The Following).

To make matters more confusing, Janey disappears before episode two and is replaced by an annoying friend of Jessica’s, Fab (Frankie Shaw, Blue Mountain State), whom we don’t really get a read-on yet. This means a character who has a touching interaction with Janey has to immediately forget about her and turn his attentions elsewhere. Plus, flashbacks grow the cast even more, making MIXOLOGY one hard show to follow.

Not that viewers will be tempted to try to puzzle it out because there isn’t a single likable character in the whole group to connect through. Tom may be the stereotypical “nice guy,” but he’s a wimp and way too much of a pushover to be the hero. And will anyone really want him to get with Maya after they see just how cruel she can be? It’s not like she’s an obvious happy ending for him. The others are equally flawed and detestable, with horndog men and easily manipulated women who like being put down.

To be fair, the setting of MIXOLOGY, a bar where people come to hit on strangers and many of them just want to get laid, isn’t the ideal place to find good people. Good people go to bars, sure, but the types of friends we’re used to seeing portrayed are either frequenting those establishments while enjoying one another’s company, or are having a bad day and acting a bit out of character. Rarely do they make a habit of trolling. Now, this series asks us to see this as a viable place to find love and change one’s life for the better, and that just doesn’t work.

The premise also extremely limits the structure. As mentioned, the episodes do take time to show us other places and events, but the main story is confined to a single place and time. This will grow old week after week. How I Met Your Mother is getting mixed reviews doing its final season over the course of one weekend. Having multiple seasons, assuming the series goes on for any length of time, on one night is just not tenable. Either it needs some serious changes, or it can’t possibly last.

Two episodes was more than enough for me. I don’t think I’ll be checking back in on it again, assuming it even lasts beyond that pair of installments, which is not a certainty at this point.

MIXOLOGY premieres Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. ET on ABC.