Pilot Review: Whitney

Whitney (NBC)
Premiered September 22 at 9:30pm

Last year, the horrific and now fortunately dead "Outsourced" somehow made its way onto the NBC Thursday night comedy lineup once touted as "Must-See." This year, "Whitney" fills that same role, inexplicably deemed by someone at the Peacock as one of the fall's funniest offerings. If you're a resident of the great city of New York, you've been privy for the past month or two to see the many advertisements attempting to cast the show as something highly original and groundbreaking. As it turns out, it's anything but, with stand-up comic Whitney Cummings inhabiting the all-too-familiar part of the high-strung, marriage-phobic woman who seems to be able to make a fool out of herself in every possible social situation. Cummings may be skilled at comedy routines, but here she's just grating, sort of like an infinitely exaggerated Debra Messing in the final seasons of "Will & Grace." Cummings doesn't much like to share the spotlight, obnoxiously dominating the entirety of the half-hour with her antics and loud expressions of opinion. Chris D'Elia is trapped in what one might patently call the Hamish Linklater role (from "The New Adventures of Old Christine"), forced to play straight man to a crazy woman, almost always given mocking dialogue that is rarely germane to the rest of the show. Both Maulik Pancholy, of "Weeds" and "30 Rock" fame, and Jane Kaczmarek, from "Malcolm in the Middle," have also unfortunately found their way into this extremely unfunny, over-the-top mess. I'm a little worried that this one is going to remain on the air far longer that it should, and I'm not planning on making this a regular part of my weekly watch list.

How will it work as a series? This is your traditional sitcom, with an irritating laugh track built in to ensure that you realize that you're actually supposed to be laughing each episode, which will surely focus on Whitney and her incredible ability to embarrass herself when it seems so possible that she could just fly under the radar and not be noticed.
How long will it last? Far too long, I fear. It's disheartening to me that more people watched this than the season premiere of "Parks & Recreation." Heck, "Outsourced" even lasted a full season. I don't think that's the case for this terrible show, so I'd expect to be gone by midseason when "30 Rock" needs a place to live, if not before then.

Pilot grade: F