With DVRs and On Demand viewing on apps, I have a hard time believing in appointment television anymore. It’s so easy nowadays to just catch up on something when you have the time, and use time previously allocated to TV for other things. BUT – I have had Mulaney circled on the calendar since it was announced back in May that Fox had picked up six episodes of the comedian’s sitcom. In May, I even wrote a piece for the site called “Fox Can’t Mess This Up, Right?” Fortunately, Fox didn’t mess up the promotion of Mulaney, even giving it a pretty prime timeslot of 9:30 PM, right after Family Guy. Unfortunately, however, the pilot episode of Mulaney just didn’t deliver.
I will admit, John Mulaney is one of my favorite comedians. His album “New In Town” is hilarious from the first to last track, with not a single moment without a laugh. I was prepared to watch his sitcom and blindly follow it, no matter what happened. But yeeeeesh….
The biggest problem with the Mulaney premier is what makes John Mulaney so likable, his standup bits. Over the course of the episode, bits from his stand-up are interspersed within the episode as almost throwaway jokes. The episode opens up with Mulaney performing standup, on-set, in front of the live studio audience (we know it’s a live studio audience because Ice-T tells us so). That standup is fine, as both Seinfeld and Christopher Titus had success with that format in their shows. It was the first scene of the show where things went downhill. Mulaney is in the doctor’s office, trying to get Xanax from a doctor by lying about an illness. On his album, New in Town, this is a nine minute bit with interesting characters including “Nurse Batman”. In the pilot episode on Sunday, the entire nine minute bit was a dismissed story performed in two minutes, while trying to introduce characters Motif and Jane. If Mulaney wants to go with his standup in the show, why not do it like “Louie” where some episodes are two different stories split at about 12 minutes each in the half hour? Either that, or just drop the bits all together from his routine.
The other problem with Mulaney intertwining stand-up bits within the story is his delivery. For every moment that John Mulaney is on screen and he’s doing something that is scripted and not from his act, it seems somewhat natural. But when he has lines that come straight from his act, it’s as though he’s reciting the lines right on stage. For example, his wheelchair knocked over bit:
It’s so unnatural for that bit to be in there in the first place, and it has a VERY stiff delivery.
The supporting cast did a fine job. The person who seemed most at home in the sitcom world was Motif, Mulaney’s fellow comedian roommate. He seemed the most relaxed actor of the crew in the multicam sitcom format. His B-Story of trying to find the punchline to a joke he made up actually made me laugh, one of the few times I did in this episode. Martin Short also was enjoyable, just in the idea that it’s Martin Short playing Martin Short with a different name. When you add Short to your cast, you know what you’re going to get, and that’s what we got. Nasim Pedrad’s character, Jane, is also an interesting sitcom character. Pedrad either just doesn’t seem right for the role, or the scripted nature of her lines make it seem off. Pedrad is a great improv actor, so it was tough seeing her give her all to the script, and it didn’t land. Rich kid drug dealer Andre was ever as annoying as his character was meant to be, so that’s fine. Elliott Gould plays Mulaney’s gay neighbor Oscar, who is as ever delightful as that sounds. He seems to be the voice of reason for Mulaney, which was a little heavy handed in the first episode, but it could get better?
I will continue to watch Mulaney, hoping that it gets better over time. There are some programs that have a very rough pilot episodes, and start to find their footing after that. Variety reported that Mulaney had the weakest score for any fall series premier, losing over half of the lead-in audience from Family Guy. To be fair, it did have to go up against SNF, MLB, Homeland, Boardwalk Empire and The Good Wife. That’s a tough group to try and draw viewers from. But, just seeing that statistic by itself is not something that the brass at Fox is going to enjoy.It will be very apparent that the second episode of Mulaney needs to deliver, or it is going to be in a very tight spot.
Did you watch Mulaney? What did you think of the Pilot?