Judging the quality of a TV series based on one episode isn’t a particularly fair practice (though I’ll be doing it a lot in the coming week), and this is especially true when it comes to sitcoms. Now classic shows like the US version of The Office, Parks and Recreation and 30 Rock all did not start off well. The pilot for Community was very good but the show sort of dovetailed for about half a season before finally realizing what it was and running wild with it. I managed to stick by three of those shows but didn’t give Parks and Rec much of a chance until I started hearing about how it turned around, and now I think it’s the best sitcom on TV. With all that said, I liked the pilot for NBC’s Up All Night, the story of Regan (Christina Applegate) and Chris (Will Arnett), a married couple whose carefree days of work and play come to a halt when they discover that they’re going to have a baby. When Regan returns her job as the producer of a talk show (the host of which is played by Maya Rudolph), Chris struggles with being a stay-at-home dad.
There’s some serious talent here. Applegate, Arnett and Rudolph all come from comedy backgrounds, and creator Emily Spivey has written for SNL and Parks and Recreation, but the pilot for Up All Night, though an enjoyable 20 minutes, is not particularly funny. There isn’t even much in the way of chuckles to be had. But this first episode does provide an inside look at what it’s like to be a parent, and it establishes Chris and Regan as two likeable characters (Applegate and Arnett especially are very good in this regard). Ava is clearly being positioned as a major source of laughs, and Rudolph is actually a pretty versatile actress, so the fact that she doesn’t fare well here doesn’t mean she and the writers won’t be able to figure out the best way to use Ava in the future.
So like I said, a sitcom pilot is hardly an indicator of overall quality. Very few sitcoms are hilarious right out of the gate and manage to stay that way for a significant number of episodes. I’ve made the mistake of dismissing some shows because I didn’t care for their early episodes (such as the aforementioned Parks and Rec, and I’m also hearing that Happy Endings became stronger as its first season went on), and I don’t wanna do that again, so I’m going to keep watching. The talent pool here is just too deep to tune out after one episode.
This is going to be short. I laughed a lot more during ‘Cool Neighbors’ than I did while watching the pilot last week, so I’d say this is a step in the right direction. I really like how the show is building on what seemed like a thin premise (“Couple has a baby”), as we learn more about the things Chris and Regan had to give up when they had their first child. Last week, it was their freedom. This week, it was their image. In their attempts to try to look cool in the presence of their new, hip neighbors, they end up looking even more uncool, but they eventually realize they’re okay with that. They’ll call the cops on loud neighbors if they have to, and they’ll listen to Train and ‘Like’ as much crap on Facebook as they want. It’s all good.
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