I saw Giant Bomb had a new FMV stream, so I thought that would be a fun thing to watch while eating lunch. Then like 15 minutes in, there's an ad break. These two young people are talking about how proud they are of the new show they're in on NBC. I was going to press the skip button, but I noticed that they were both wearing Georgia-centric shirts, and I guess I'm interested in Southern focused media that goes beyond stereotypes and conservative pandering. So, I stuck around for a minute... Wow.
I watched the whole thing.
Like, you know those "We made an AI watch 50 hours of ______, and it wrote this" memes? This is like one of those, if the blank was Lifetime, Seventh Heaven, and This is Us (I actually haven't seen This is Us, but my understanding is that it's like this, but... better, I would hope). This is a show designed by committee, with no apparent heart or style.
For a second, I thought this was some sort of secret faith-based show from PureFlix that somehow got onto mainstream TV, until I realized that there were LGBT characters. Nothing about this works. The acting. The writing. The editing. Maybe I've just been spoiled by jumping in on series that get solid reviews and leaving behind the broadcast TV pilot season swill, but man...
The plot... I don't know. Seems like maybe it could work... If, like, PAX-TV was still around, or something. There's this big happy family in Savannah, GA, and their dad gets cancer. He starts worrying about not being around, so he creates--and this is literally what they call it in the show, on multiple occasions--a "Council of Dads" to watch over his kids after he's gone. The pilot sets this up, chronicling the last year that the OG dad was alive, and his initial plan to organize the Council. This kind of sounds like a plot line you'd hear in Bojack Horseman.
Do me a favor and watch the cold open.
Starts at 0:15 and goes on to 3:40
What the hell was that?! Why would you play music over that scene like it was the climax?! Why is everybody in the family looking at each other so weird?! Why are they so invested in this kid jumping into the water? We don't even know these characters yet!
This feels like a scene from a crappy comedy movie where they jump and accidentally land on a pier beneath them and the family goes "Oooooh!" and the music abruptly stops before the dad goes, "I was wrong! We shouldn't have jumped!" before smash-cutting to the title, as a deconstruction of inspirational scenes in drama movies.
So much happens in this episode! The dad gets cancer in the cold open, beats it in the next scene, relapses later in the episode, and then dies off screen. The oldest daughter is planning to take an internship in New York, but meets a boy from high school and promises her dad that he won't get in the way of her dreams, and then marries him at the end after her dad dies. The mom gets pregnant and has a baby the day the dad finds out he has cancer again. It's supposed to take place in one year! It's only 45 minutes long! The episode reveals that the youngest son is transgender in the last ten minutes, and it sets up this big conflict with the grandmother, but then the son waves it off with a "It's cool, grandma. It can take awhile for people from your generation to understand," and I think it's supposed to be funny. There are multiple jokes about Anne Frank and Christopher Reeves that do not fit the tone at all. And, I know what you're asking, and yes, there is awkward singing along to Missy Elliott.
At the end, after a super boring wedding, they all form the word LOVE with sparklers... For nobody. Nobody can see that except the audience, and this show doesn't break the fourth wall or use any other heightened reality choices.
I feel like I'm losing my mind.
I watched the whole thing.
Like, you know those "We made an AI watch 50 hours of ______, and it wrote this" memes? This is like one of those, if the blank was Lifetime, Seventh Heaven, and This is Us (I actually haven't seen This is Us, but my understanding is that it's like this, but... better, I would hope). This is a show designed by committee, with no apparent heart or style.
For a second, I thought this was some sort of secret faith-based show from PureFlix that somehow got onto mainstream TV, until I realized that there were LGBT characters. Nothing about this works. The acting. The writing. The editing. Maybe I've just been spoiled by jumping in on series that get solid reviews and leaving behind the broadcast TV pilot season swill, but man...
The plot... I don't know. Seems like maybe it could work... If, like, PAX-TV was still around, or something. There's this big happy family in Savannah, GA, and their dad gets cancer. He starts worrying about not being around, so he creates--and this is literally what they call it in the show, on multiple occasions--a "Council of Dads" to watch over his kids after he's gone. The pilot sets this up, chronicling the last year that the OG dad was alive, and his initial plan to organize the Council. This kind of sounds like a plot line you'd hear in Bojack Horseman.
Do me a favor and watch the cold open.
Starts at 0:15 and goes on to 3:40
What the hell was that?! Why would you play music over that scene like it was the climax?! Why is everybody in the family looking at each other so weird?! Why are they so invested in this kid jumping into the water? We don't even know these characters yet!
This feels like a scene from a crappy comedy movie where they jump and accidentally land on a pier beneath them and the family goes "Oooooh!" and the music abruptly stops before the dad goes, "I was wrong! We shouldn't have jumped!" before smash-cutting to the title, as a deconstruction of inspirational scenes in drama movies.
So much happens in this episode! The dad gets cancer in the cold open, beats it in the next scene, relapses later in the episode, and then dies off screen. The oldest daughter is planning to take an internship in New York, but meets a boy from high school and promises her dad that he won't get in the way of her dreams, and then marries him at the end after her dad dies. The mom gets pregnant and has a baby the day the dad finds out he has cancer again. It's supposed to take place in one year! It's only 45 minutes long! The episode reveals that the youngest son is transgender in the last ten minutes, and it sets up this big conflict with the grandmother, but then the son waves it off with a "It's cool, grandma. It can take awhile for people from your generation to understand," and I think it's supposed to be funny. There are multiple jokes about Anne Frank and Christopher Reeves that do not fit the tone at all. And, I know what you're asking, and yes, there is awkward singing along to Missy Elliott.
At the end, after a super boring wedding, they all form the word LOVE with sparklers... For nobody. Nobody can see that except the audience, and this show doesn't break the fourth wall or use any other heightened reality choices.
I feel like I'm losing my mind.
