Up All Night: Season 1, Episode 2 “Cool Neighbors” (C+)
Free Agents: Season 1, Episode 2 “What I Did for Work” (D+)
I felt that it would be economical and useful to review these two programs together since someone paired them up, and watching them back-to-back creates plenty of parallels between them for me. On top of that, I don’t have much to say, good or bad, about the two installments, but don’t want to abandon reviewing them just yet. The 8pm leader is a show I want to like, but it’s just not creating a compelling enough universe in which its characters can live. Applegate and Arnett aren’t the problem, but they’re also not the solution. Whereas other ensemble sitcoms accomplish so much in twenty short minutes, this show barely did anything and stuck to just one storyline, which is Reagan and Chris’ desire to be liked by their neighbors gone horribly wrong. That was predictable and not as amusing as it should have been, but what’s really grating is the entire character of Ava, who should be good but just comes on too strong. She’s not germane enough to the show, and to have her play such a domineering, distracting part isn’t good for the show. The latter series actually improved slightly in its second installment, if only because it managed to accomplish a decent amount in its half hour, handling two major plotlines while moving ahead the background story of Alex and Helen’s relationship. Seeing Fred Goss as a businessman felt strange because he usually plays loveable losers, and the show was actually doing okay until the women were revealed to be prostitutes. Azaria just doesn’t have the right charisma to play this part, and Hahn is trying her hardest but working with so little. I find Emma and her utterance of “Hi” to be unbearably grating, and she’s a notch above the male support. I don’t expect the latter show to improve, but I do hope that the former can find its footing.
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