Hello,
The Fall 2012 TV slate is shaping up to be one of the worst times for new TV shows ever. Yes, it really has been that bad based on the few shows I've seen. I was bored by "Ben & Kate" and I couldn't make myself watch "The Mob Doctor" I thought this Fall season had hit it's nadir. And with those shows let's hope it did. However add one more show to the crap at the bottom of the barrel.
Wow "Guys With Kids" is bad. Other than the guest appearance of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, this first episode didn't practically have anything to recommend it. The premise of the show seems like it could be funny . However the three Dads this show is built around aren't funny. I can't think of one character that is likable. These are people you wouldn't want to hang out with. A weak ex-husband, his shrewish ex-wife and the unfunny other two Dads. Anthony Anderson plays a stay at home Dad of four kids. His character is supposed to be funny, but just isn't. Trying to ring comedy out of a stay at home Dad of four kids shows little potential. This show just isn't funny.
One of the Dads wives was looking forward to getting out of the house and going to a Titanic themed activity at their kid's school. He forgot that they had made this plan. He couldn't go because he already agreed to watch one of the other Dad's kids. Anyway Mom still went out anyway. When she came home he had prepared a Titanic themed apartment as a surprise. Yes one of the biggest disasters in US history is played for laughs. With that kind of "humor", it should be no surprise to anyone that I expect this show to be cancelled fairly quickly.
This show originally premiered on September 12th. You can add "Guys With Kids" to the likely to be cancelled soon list. I didn't realize that "Ben & Kate" and "The Mob Doctor" was going to have such strong competition to get cancelled first. The whole premise of "The Mob Doctor" is so ridiculous that it feels like it's a bad "Saturday Night Live" skit.
Slightly better, but still not amazing is "Animal Practice". This show is about an animal hospital and the allegedly wacky people that work there. Wacky alert: Rizzo the monkey is one of the doctors. Joanne Garcia plays Dorothy Crane. Crane is the granddaughter of the hospital's owner, who just recently passed away. It seems that Crane hasn't been around the practice for a couple of years. Where was she? We aren't told, and a sign of the shallowness of the characters, is we don't care. Crane has decided she wants to be around the practice to protect her legacy.
The head vet is played by Justin Kirk, he's Dr. George Coleman. He's a completely anal and shallow egoist that seems not to care about anything. I didn't even believe that he cared about the animals that he's suppose to take care of. Very predictably this mismatched couple used to be in a relationship. They do have some chemistry, but they are a completely unbelievable couple. Crane is vivacious, but very straight laced and humor challenged. Again Coleman is an anal egotist, a person you'd need to have a great sense-of-humor to want to be around him. Coleman is someone that would feel more comfortable with animals. Coleman's character is so off, it seems highly likely that he has some kind of mental issue.
It's completely believable that this couple broke up, but not believable they ever got together in the first place. This weighty past relationship is symptomatic of the tired comedy ground this series seems it wants to explore. Storylines featuring a mismatched ex-couple and other one dimensional characters doesn't make this show look to have a long term future.
Again the humor is tired and the lead character, Coleman, is boorish. I realize this is fiction and suppose to be funny but after one episode none of these characters ring true. And the wacky characters aren't outrageously funny. We've seen similar characters elsewhere that were a lot more funny. I'm thinking of Frank Burns and Kramer for instance. In fact, the below clip is funnier than the 22 minutes of "Animal Practice".
This is Bob Costas discussing the timing of the "Animal Practice" premiere shown during the closing ceremonies of the recent Summer Olympics.
Let's hope "Revolution" and other upcoming shows can redeem this season. I was looking forward to "Nashville" until I saw it described as a country soap opera. That makes me a little skittish. I also realized that from it's premise it reminds me a lot of "Smash". Two competitive female characters set in a musical backdrop. "Smash" was a decent show it's first season. However I got bored by the sameness of it's stories and won't be watching Season Two.
themusicaddict
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