Well,
It’s A Comedy With Letters #9JKL #3weekroundup #CBS #review #recap
All pictures courtesy of CBS
Not
a very creative title for a show based on a real-life experience (I
believe of the main actor in the show), so maybe you can’t expect
much from this review/recap. Eh! Dude, like, whatevs! As we zoom
full-speed ahead toward holiday time, expect for the posts to tighten
around me promoting my own work and books and serials and whatnot.
OK? So, let’s get into this show and see if 9JKL is a ball of
laughs or if it flounders amidst the myriad of voices. Let’s find
out together.
CBS’s
new half-hour comedy 9JKL stars Mark Feuerstein as Josh, a
40-something actor (I totally almost put actress and I have no idea
why) who, after a recent divorce and his TV show getting canceled out
in LA, has had to slump back to New York in shame. With very little
money and few business/role prospects for him after playing a
character called The Blind Cop (or Detective) for many years, he is
forced to live pseudo-with his parents. See, as I understood it, his
parents are quite wealthy—his father runs either an accounting or
law firm—and they happen to live in a building where they own/rent
out not one but two apartments at the end of a hallway. The third
apartment in the little circle of rooms is owned by Josh’s brother
and sister-in-law. So, basically the show is like him moving back
home and living in his parents’ basement with his brother’s
family living in the attic, but with apartments instead of a house.
Get it? Good, because that is the basic thrust of the show and this
review/recap can go pretty fast because you all can already assume
nearly every beat of the first three episodes.
 |
| Josh, Josh's Mom Judy, Upstairs Neighbor |
Next
is Josh’s father Harry (played by Elliott Gould) who is the
stereotypical Jewish dad who sorta wanders around aimlessly when not
at work and follows every direction given to him by his wife in this
matriarchal family. He’s the Peter Griffin of the family but with
less lines and screen time. And yes, he’s slightly afraid of his
wife even after so many years but it’s cute and funny (tries to
be).
Then
we have Josh’s brother Andrew (played by David Walton who last
starred on NBC’s About a Boy TV series). Andrew is the taller, more
successful brother who happens to be a surgeon, is happily married,
way taller, more good-looking (if you ask him) and is a recent
first-time father. And he’s taller. And yes, as you’ve already
guessed, I listed all of his accomplishments to say that he is the
one who seems to feel some brother envy because of how his brother
Josh is treated as the golden child.
We
also have Andrew’s wife Eve. Played by Liza Lapira, Eve is a fiesty
Asian woman who thinks a lot like a dude and is supposed to be the
embodiment of the modern woman—easygoing, not hung-up on her man,
and clearly in control of the house as her husband moved from one
matriarchy to another. They’re equals in their marriage, but she’s
definitely more “equal” than he is. There’s huge potential for
her to be an Asian Amy Dunne. Huge potential.
Those
are the characters and they play as such... Episode one is all about
Josh moving back in and readjusting to life in an apartment that he
gets to live in for free because his parents pay for it. He’s
shockingly greeted by his mother and father hovering over his bed as
they watch him sleep, realizes that his father doesn’t have any
pants on but is in Josh’s apartment and not his own, then is
greeted by his brother and Eve who both come over to greet him in the
morning. The term close-knit was made for this family.
Throughout
the episode, as he tries to adjust, he hears of a movie role in a
Paul Feig comedy, a sequel to Bridesmaids called Groomies that he
wants a part in but probably won’t get it. He also is trying to
adjust to the comings and goings in his own schedule. Somehow, every
time he leaves his apartment, when he comes back into the building,
his mother always knows that he is coming home and stops him to
invite him in for a visit. And he has to go because... you know, it’s
his mom. While she is talking about him getting over the divorce and
getting back on his feet, he is not trying to hear about any dating
or any business setups.
And
then he sees an old college friend who has also recently just gone
through a very bad divorce in which her ex got their place and she’s
out sleeping on a friend’s couch. But they had crushes on each
other in college and they’re free now so why not go for it? Gag!
Anyway, they have a decent date but when she asks to go back to his
place, Josh panics because he doesn’t want to introduce her to his
mother and knows that no matter what he does, she’ll know that he
is in the building.
But
when he enters the building and pushes his date onto the elevator, he
hears Nick calling up to his mother to tell her that he’s coming up
and realizes that Judy is paying the guy for forewarning about Josh’s
comings and goings. Craziness. As you can guess, they get up to his
apartment, comedic chaos ensues, he tries to seduce the woman while
avoiding his overbearing mother who thinks that something is going on
when he quickly flees her place after a one-minute sit-down, the lady
ends up leaving and his family ends up arguing on the three balconies
that are all next to each other. At this point, I was seriously
trying to figure out how the hell this building worked because there
was no way that the three balconies to three apartments that are at
the end of a hallway—one on right, one on left and one at
center—should be so close or even see each other. Architects, help
me out here! And then his dad gets a call from his friend who knows a
friend who knows Paul Feig, and somehow Josh gets down there to ask
for a part in Groomies but is too late because the part’s gone to
Steve Carrell. But that’s OK because Josh is back and fully
adjusted to home.
Episode
two is about the one night stand that Josh tries to accomplish.
Always a relationship guy, he’s never had a
wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am kinda night, so Eve and Andrew try to
coach him through such an encounter. They take him to a club and
point out a woman who looks down. Well, as Josh tries for a one-night
conquest, Andrew realizes that Eve’s rules for said conquests are
exactly how she treated him the morning after they first slept
together. Now his feelings are a little hurt because he thought they
had this deep connection that both of them felt immediately. Oh, and
Josh’s parents are tripping over having a surplus of bananas after
Harry bought a second stem of bananas.
Well, Josh’s one-nighter ends up leaving only for them to be caught by his mom at the elevator. Josh still says bye and counts it a job well done. But as he gets back later that evening, he sees who else but his one night stand sitting in his parents’ kitchen. Apparently, this woman and his mother spent the entire day together on accident. She didn’t mean to link with his mother and she apologizes, but now he’s gotta give her that tubesteak again, right? So, they try for another one-nighter and this time it goes successful. But while he is dismissing her, he agonizes over it because she seems like such a great girl. His mother just happens to have her number and gives it to him. Meanwhile, as Josh is calling the girl, Eve shows a keepsake box of the stuff that Andrew sent her after their first one night stand to prove that she did feel that magic he felt. All is well, until Josh gets back with that woman and realizes that she is too eager to get married and was play-acting being cool with one-nighters. Stage 5 Clinger Alert!
Well, Josh’s one-nighter ends up leaving only for them to be caught by his mom at the elevator. Josh still says bye and counts it a job well done. But as he gets back later that evening, he sees who else but his one night stand sitting in his parents’ kitchen. Apparently, this woman and his mother spent the entire day together on accident. She didn’t mean to link with his mother and she apologizes, but now he’s gotta give her that tubesteak again, right? So, they try for another one-nighter and this time it goes successful. But while he is dismissing her, he agonizes over it because she seems like such a great girl. His mother just happens to have her number and gives it to him. Meanwhile, as Josh is calling the girl, Eve shows a keepsake box of the stuff that Andrew sent her after their first one night stand to prove that she did feel that magic he felt. All is well, until Josh gets back with that woman and realizes that she is too eager to get married and was play-acting being cool with one-nighters. Stage 5 Clinger Alert!
Episode
three sees Josh try to get a new friend in the city who isn’t
married because all of his old New York friends are married with
children and want to get to bed by nine o’clock. He leaves his
apartment one day with his bike to go on a long ride and bumps into
another bike rider played by the recently busy Tone Bell. Let me say
that if this show does survive, I hope that they make Tone part of
the cast. And their biking adventures begin.
While
Josh is forming a new friendship, his brother struggles to put
together a baby crib to prove that he’s an everything man. Eve’s
father can build anything and was a carpenter when she grew up and
she loves her father very much. Andrew just wants her to love and
admire him like that so he feels he has to live up to the standard
her father set. But she hires Nick to put the thing together for them
because she’s too busy and no way her husband can do that. Well,
after a while of trying to put it together, Andrew caves and hires
Nick back to construct the crib for him before Eve gets home from
work so he could claim credit. But the crib gets stuck and they get
caught and Andrew learns that his wife loves him just the way he is
now and he doesn’t have to be Handy Andy.
Meanwhile,
Josh and his black buddy are getting along swimmingly until he tells
his parents the guy’s name. Apparently, the guy lives directly
above their apartment and supposedly caused some water damage on the
corner ceiling next to the shower in their bathroom (leaking or
something). Well, he swears he didn’t do it, but Judy swears he did
and tries to forbid and shame Josh into not being friends with the
guy anymore. Josh bucks the matriarchal rule and continues his
friendship until his mother devises a plan to get the man over to her
place to admit he did the damage. But as the guy is unrelenting on
his conviction, and Judy is unrelenting of her blaming, Harry finally
confesses to doing the damage with the wand nozzle showerhead. He
tried spraying a spider he thought he saw on the wallpaper just above
the shower only to realize after he had saturated the wall that the
spider was part of the wallpaper design. Everybody forgives everybody
and life goes on.
What’s
my grade? I give it a B-. Is this a
comedy classic in the making? Probably not, but I will give it enough
room for that. The chemistry across the show for all the characters
is pretty good and you can believe that this would be a modern
situation with so many people of all generations now living with
family but there was just something missing for me that didn’t
necessarily make me laugh all that much. The reason I gave it a B- is
because I know that comedy is highly subjective and something funny
to one is not always funny to another, and vice versa. While I find
the old, over-bearing Jewish mother a well-worn and downright played
trope, it clearly still works for many people. The show reminds me of
(and don’t read too much into this) Seinfeld but without a
definitive George Costanza or Kramer. The way Eve is written and
acted reminds me a little of Elaine and if they played his brother up
as the long-suffering brilliant doctor who seems like nothing more
than a foil in his own life, then I could really get behind this
show, but for now it’s just your average sitcom that’ll get you a
few laughs before bed. Also, and I rarely point this out, but this is
one of the only shows in recent memory where I felt that the laugh
track really interrupted the show and interpreted some situations
incorrectly. It felt like the laughs were too big at some points and
forced at others. But again, the show was serviceable enough. Will it
last the season? Probably, but I haven’t seen the ratings on it. I
would say that if it lasts the season, it could last for five more
seasons then either have to change or end.
Should
you be watching? If you are a CBS viewer already, and like their
other comedies, then chances are you’ll like this, too. It’s
family-oriented, though not necessarily family viewing (the one night
stand episode, remember) but it does try to use the most of the funny
situation. I’d say that Will and Grace fans might get a few chucks
from it as well. It’s old school comedy. If, however, you are into
other comedies like single-cam comedies of ABC where there are no
laugh tracks, then you might want to stay away. 9JKL airs on CBS
Mondays at 8:30pm and you can also catch it on CBS on Demand and CBS
All Access.
What
do you think? Have you heard of 9JKL? If you haven’t, do you think
you’ll tune in now? If you have heard of it, have you seen it? Did
you like it? Where do you think this show can improve? Who’s your
favorite character? And if it gets to stay around, what
actor/director/Hollywood type would you like to see guest star like
Paul Feig did? Let me know in the comments below.
Until next time, “We’re lookin’
for someone with the specialty license plate I. C. Wee Ner. Is there
an I. C. Wee Ner here? I. C.—oh! Damn it! Fooled again!’
P.S.
Seriously, 9JKL was all they could come up with? I totally thought
the show was about working at the DMV and that being a specialty
license plate or something. Then I saw the plainer than beige
commercials for it and got really weirded out by the strangeness of
the advertisements and thought I might be in for something
transcendent. Nope! Regular old comedy. I’ll think of a better
sign-off next time.
AmazonGoodreads Author Page
Goodreads Books Similar to TV Shows
Twitter@filmbooksbball
No comments:
Post a Comment