...and mere hours later, "Entertainment on Jeff's Terms" returns to gab a bit more about the tubes of boobs. We continue our journey through NBC's attempt to create a foothold in the Wednesday night comedy game. If you haven't already, be sure to check out my look at their 8pm offering Up All Night, and then let us move forward to the 8:30 selection.
Based on a cult hit British sitcom of the same name, please give a kind American welcome to a series entitled Free Agents*.
*CO-WINNER OF THE 2011 FALLY AWARD FOR MOST PROMISING NEW SERIES: NBC.
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THE GIST OF IT
A black screen accompanied by decreasingly empassioned sighs. A lamp lights up the room. We are first introduced to public relations agents Alex (Hank Azaria; best known for the eleventy billion characters he voices on The Simpsons) and Helen (Kathryn Hahn; best known for her non-stop attempts to seduce John C. Reilly in Step Brothers) in a state of post-coital shock. Helen wants to make this quick and see Alex off in a cab, while Alex sheds a few tears about his kids whom he's presumably not seen since his recent divorce. Cut to the next morning at work. Alex's fratboy-ish co-workers want all the details of his sexual conquest, so he rattles off a laundry list of (mostly) fictional sexual positions he achieved with an apparently large-breasted woman with whom he alleges to have had panther-like sex. Meanwhile, Alex's boss Stephen (Anthony FUCKING Stewart FUCKING Head; of Buffy and other sundry awesome things fame) warns that his recent emotional troubles are starting to affect his work. In an effort to find stability, Alex approaches Helen about spending another night together, to which she quickly declines. She's got problems of her own; particularly an apartment full of what add up to twenty-two increasingly over-the-top portraits of her dead-a-year fiancé (including the very coffee mug from which she's guzzling down Merlot). After a failed attempt to dispose of the largest of the portraits and Alex's failed attempt to go out on the town with co-worker Dan (comedian Mo Mandel), the pair reunite in the bedroom once again, vowing to figure out how to stop this from happening again and soon.
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MOVING FORWARD (NO SPOILERS, BECAUSE...)
...there isn't really much in the way of plot synopses or "This season on Free Agents..." preview clips out there to speak of so, I'll just assume we're in for a series of wacky will they-won't they misadventures with Alex and Helen and more inappropriate (and hilarious) scenes of Anthony Head's Stephen making everyone uncomfortable.
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IN ESSENCE, MY FRIENDS...
...I'll say this. Free Agents certainly isn't reinventing the television comedy wheel here. However, I'm kind of okay with that. I'll admit that for the first half of the pilot, my spirits kept being dampened by the RIDICULOUSLY dated office antics of the aforementioned Mo Mandel, alongside The Daily Show's "Senior Latino Correspondent" Al Madrigal and Chelsea Lately mainstay Natasha Leggero as the most annoyingly stereotypical snarky/sassy secretary character since Kathy Griffin on Suddenly Susan. These three characters in particular seem like they're stuck in any number of the Friends or more accurately Newsradio clones NBC foisted on us throughout the '90s. You know the kind; the ones where two characters are having a conversation in the middle of the office, and one character passes by just quick enough to drop some snappy one-liner about something or another and then moves on to whatever arbitrary coffee pot awaits them stage-left.
However, I truly believe there IS a promising show here; because for all the dated banter and the lame sub-Zack Morris dating philosophies Alex's male co-workers spout, there are also four interesting, funny, likable characters...and aren't we lucky?--Three of them are the show's top three stars.
Azaria is golden, as always. Let's face it, though; for all the success he's had with The Simpsons and in live-action works like the award-winning TV adaptation of Mitch Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie, the man hasn't had much in the way of household-name-making roles, and it's a damned shame. I'm not saying he's found that here exactly, but I think if the show learns to give him the floor far more than the sitcom stereotypes mentioned above, I think he could take this thing and run with it.
Kathryn Hahn. I enjoy her. Like many of you, I spent many years writing her off as that random woman who always shows up in things being the poor man's Ana Gasteyer. After Step Brothers and--yes, I think this counts when you consider his wildly unorthodox interview style--a couple of really entertaining appearances on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, she's charmed me quite a bit. In this role in particular, I appreciate her ability to play the three main facets of her character's personality--the broadly comedic frazzled single woman, the conservative and very human grieving ex-fiance, and the unquestionably sexy confident career woman--without missing a beat. Hahn's performance, I feel, gives the best representation of why Free Agents isn't going to be the broad, hacky, stuck-in-1995 comedy that a lot of the promotional materials and the three-headed Mandel-Madrigal-Leggero quip-monster make it out to be, and I say nor should it be.
Thirdly, there's The State alum Joe Lo Truglio as the office building's security manager Walter. He only gets about three minutes of screen time here, but it's a fun three minutes, to be sure. So far, all we know of him is that he's that poor schmo who spends all his spare cash on "samurai" swords from late-night infomercials, but it seems he will also likely be filling the well-worn (but appreciated) role of the quirky ancillary character who dispenses random dollops of good advice to our main characters every now and again. I can dig it.
Of course...we have to talk about Anthony Head. He actually only gets about three minutes on-screen, as well...but they are also a hell of a three minutes. Stephen (a role Head also portrayed in the British original) is clearly the Douglas Reynholm of our piece; the slimy but ultimately likable sex-crazed authority figure who emerges every so often to disgust our main characters with--using this episode's example--a photograph of the thought-to-be-fictional "Flying Dutchman" sexual position. Truth be told, for how realistic and truthfully un-wacky as this show is...Stephen--much like Mandel, Madrigal, and Leggero--kind of doesn't belong...BUT(!), in small doses and with Head in the role, I wouldn't mind his inappropriate interruptions in our action each week.
So to make a long story short (too late), Free Agents has its problems, but with moments of quiet genius (like the recurring uses of The Archies' "Sugar Sugar" and ABBA's "Fernando"), and the better members of its cast sharing the heavier brunt of the comedic workload, it has what its lead-in Up All Night simply does not: potential.
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THESE ARE BLURBS
A final serving of my thoughts on Free Agents...
- Seriously though...tone down Mandel, Madrigal, and especially Leggero ASAP. They aren't our top-billed stars, but their hacky brand of bon mots could sink this show (if the shitty time slot doesn't).
- I will admit, the funniest moments in the episode were ALL in the trailer released during Network Upfronts in May...but it didn't stop me from laughing at the "Flying Dutchman" scene or Azaria's line about his new shirt resembling something worn by the DJ at an Armenian gangster's acquittal party. So, there's that.
- I did it up there mainly just for familiarity's sake, but I'm going to take this opportunity to kill any and all comparisons of Kathryn Hahn to Ana Gasteyer. The former is, if I may, WORLDS more attractive and far less off-putting than the latter. Much more Danielle Fishel than Gasteyer.
- THIS is the other promotional photo for Free Agents. Your thoughts?
- FREE AGENTS AIRS WEDNESDAY NIGHTS AT 8:30pm EST ON NBC!
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...and so ends my first week of new pilots. We had one piece of kitschy fun, one thoroughly disappointing attempt at comedy, and as you've just seen, one charming laffer with potential. Not a bad start.
NEXT WEEK(!), unless my interest wavers back toward giving CBS' 2 Broke Girls a shot, we'll reconvene next Monday night at 10pm EST for the premiere of NBC's attempt to bring a bit of Mad Men to network television with The Playboy Club; kicking off--according to my calendar--the most pilot-heavy week of the Fall season. Lots to cover, folks. Hope you'll join me and PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, comments. They'd be much appreciated.
Until then, there was something in the air that night.
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