Wednesday, October 26, 2016
CBS Fall Pilot Review: The Great Indoors - Premieres Thursday (Oct. 27); TBS's Conan in NYC Week
The Great Indoors - Thursdays at 8:30PM ET/PT on CBS
Premieres Thursday, October 27, 2016 at 8:30PM ET/PT
by Skees
Joel McHale makes his return to the sitcom world in The Great Indoors, the newest sitcom on CBS. McHale stars as Jack Gordon, an adventurer who does his work out in the wilderness as a magazine reporter. But the world of magazine publishing is changing, and with those changes, Jack's desk is about to become an actual desk in an actual office in Chicago, not the great outdoors. And that isn't all: even though he feels young at heart (and actually is relatively young), he is being quickly thrust into a workplace where he is now the technologically unsavvy "grandpa" working with the tech savvy millennials who know absolutely nothing about outdoor life. How will he (and everybody else, for that matter) cope with these changes? That's what this series explores.
Cast Details:
Joel McHale as Jack Gordon
Stephen Fry as Roland
Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Clark
Christine Ko as Emma
Shaun Brown as Mason
Susannah Fielding as Brooke
Chris Williams as Eddie
Joel McHale (Jack Gordon) is the star of the series, and he got his start with a few small acting roles before he took the hosting role of the E! series The Soup, which replaced the long-running series Talk Soup in 2004. He remained on that series up until December 2015, but while hosting that series, he entered the sitcom world by starring as Jeff Winger on the NBC (and later Yahoo! Screen) sitcom Community for six seasons.
Stephen Fry (Roland) is an accomplished actor who has had a long and award winning career in his home country in London, England, but is likely less familiar to American audiences. He starred as the title character in the 1997 biographical film Wilde, and also had a brief appearance in A Fish Called Wanda.
Christine Ko (Emma) is a relative newcomer to the small screen, but she has had a guest role in the series Ballers.
Shaun Brown (Mason) has had guest roles in several appearances in cable series spanning a variety of genres, such as Rizzoli & Isles, The Newsroom, The First Family, True Blood, and even some Nickelodeon series.
Susannah Fielding (Brooke) is a British actress who has also had an award winning career on the other side of the Atlantic, particularly in theater, but is mostly unknown to American audiences. She has also appeared in guest roles in several British series, including Doctor Who.
Chris Williams (Eddie) has made guest appearances on countless TV series, beginning with The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in 1992, and with more recent appearances in 2 Broke Girls and Silicon Valley. He is the younger brother of actress and singer Vanessa Williams.
Pilot Plot:
"Pilot" (Airs October 27 at 8:30PM ET)
Jack Gordon (Joel McHale) is an adventure reporter for an outdoor magazine, and he loves his job... but things are about to change. Magazine readership is on a steep decline these days, and everybody is turning to digital content. Specifically, they are turning to digital content that can go viral, much like what Buzzfeed does. The news is even worse for Jack: his outdoor adventures don't exactly fit into the new digital media mode, so the magazine founder, Roland (Stephen Fry) is taking him out of the field and bringing into the office where he is now the boss of the digital content staff, a group of young millennials who wear their Patagonia clothing for style and fashion, not for function, and know absolutely nothing about the "outdoors." Even more awkward for Jack is that his new boss, Brooke (Susannah Fielding), also happens to be an ex-girlfriend. His challenge now is to survive this new position, without constantly being summoned to meetings with human resources.
"Dating Apps" (Airs November 3 at 8:30PM ET)
Jack's co-workers are all in the dating world, but it should come as no surprise that as millennials, dating comes in the form of swiping left or swiping right on your smartphone. Initially, Jack mocks this new style of dating, but secretly decides to try to get in on it himself. It doesn't take long for the crew at work to find his profile, and of course to make fun of his it, but they're willing to help him make some improvements and he finds the perfect match... and in the end, she may be matching his identity as well.
Analysis:
Like many series before it (and certainly many more after it), we have another workplace comedy. These tend to be hit or miss, and while it's really too early to tell which one this will be, the first two episodes hold up well enough to give it a shot to see how the series develops. The series does deal with one thing that is a somewhat new dynamic in sitcoms, though, and that is how it deals with the much younger millennials who were born in the 90s. Thinking about other series that focus on "younger generations," their younger people tend to be those born in the 80s or even the 70s. Even though it may seem the same to those who are much older, people who born in the 90s grew up in a much different way, particularly in regards to technology and social media. For example, many of those born in the 70s and 80s perhaps didn't own or use any technology devices until the late 90s or early 2000s, and were first introduced to social media either in their college years or shortly thereafter. But those born in the 90s were using computers extensively before they even started kindergarten, and were thrown into social media as soon as they were old enough to use it (if not earlier), and as they are becoming adults, they are less familiar with life without technology. This series relies heavily on that dynamic, and what the "modern" workplace is like with those younger people.
One problem, though, is that there isn't really a whole lot of laugh out loud comedy in the series. There is some, but there isn't a lot. That, in and of itself, isn't exactly a problem. A sitcom doesn't have to get big laughs to be a great series if it can compensate with great script writing. Family Ties is a classic that often comes to mind, there were never big laughs but it more than compensated with great script writing. But I'm not really sure that this one compensates well enough, at least not in the first two episodes. However, it does take most sitcoms a little while to find their footing, especially since you can't really do much in earlier episodes as you have to introduce characters and settings, so it remains to be seen how it will all pan out.
There is one somewhat of an oddity that I noticed in the pilot: some of it felt a lot like the pilot episode of the ABC sitcom Last Man Standing, where Tim Allen's character Mike Baxter returned to the office at his employer (oddly enough, a sporting goods store) after being "in the field" and found that the way things worked at his office were much different than what he expected, particularly in dealing with the younger generation. In that series, though, much more of the emphasis is on his family life, whereas The Great Indoors seems to focus on a character who appears to have no evident on-screen family life.
Conclusion:
Watchability: 4/5
Funniness: 3/5
Overall: 3.5/5
Discuss the show after you watch it on Thursday, October 27, 2016 at 8:30PM ET/PT on our message board.
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Preview:
TBS's late-night show Conan will be heading back to New York City for the first time since 2011 for a week of shows airing Oct. 31 - Nov. 3. Joining host Conan O'Brien during the week will be special guests Louis C.K., Ryan Reynolds and Tracy Morgan, along with comedian Rory Scovel, the band The Sugar Hill Gang and more. Taped at Harlem's legendary Apollo Theater, the week of episodes will kick off the beginning of Conan's eighth year on TBS, a division of Turner. It will also continue O'Brien's string of innovative road show broadcasts from cities across the United States and around the globe. Additional guests and musical performances to be announced soon. Conanin NYC marks the show's sixth out-of-the-studio trip in the past 18 months and its second excursion to New York. Previous trips have taken O'Brien overseas to North Korea, Armenia and the United States Air Force Base in Doha, Qatar, where he was accompanied by First Lady Michelle Obama. In spring 2015, O'Brien made headlines as the first American late-night host to shoot in Cuba in more than 50 years. During its eight seasons on TBS, the Los Angeles-based Conan has also been broadcast from such U.S. cities as Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta and, for the past two years, San Diego during Comic-Con(R) International. TBS's late-night series Conan, hosted by Conan O'Brien, airs weeknights at 11 p.m. (ET/PT). The show, which draws the youngest audience of any hour-long late-night program, is produced by Conaco LLC, with Jeff Ross serving as executive producer.
Sitcoms Airing Tonight
Sunday, February 5
none scheduled
Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of January 30)
Friday, February 3
- Eddie Murphy (The PJs) - Watch Eddie on a repeat of Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
- D'Arcy Carden (The Good Place/Barry) - D'Arcy appears on a repeat of Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
- Tyler James Williams (Abbott Elementary/Go On/Everybody Hates Chris) - Tyler is a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
- Kenan Thompson (Kenan/Kenan & Kel) - Kenan appears on a repeat of Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
- Will Arnett (Murderville/Arrested Development/Flaked/The Millers/Up All Night/Running Wilde) - Will is a guest on a repeat of The Late Late Show with James Corden at 12:37am on CBS.
- Harrison Ford (Shrinking) - Harrison talks about the prequel series 1923 on NBC's Today some time between 7-9am and on LIVE! with Kelly and Ryan, so check your listings.
- Wendell Pierce (The Odd Couple/The Michael J. Fox Show/The Weber/The Brian Benben Show/The Gregory Hines Show) - Wendell unpacks the new TV series Accused on LIVE! with Kelly and Ryan, so check your listings.
- Craig Robinson (Killing It/Ghosted/Mr. Robinson/The Office/Lucky) - Craig is a guest on The Kelly Clarkson Show, so check your local listings.
- Jennifer Grey (Red Oaks/It's Like, You Know...) - Jennifer talks about taking on the controversial role of religious leader and Christian diet guru in her Lifetime film Gwen Shamblin: Starving for Salvation on Tamron Hall, so check your local listings.
- Rita Moreno (One Day at a Time/Happily Divorced/9 to 5) - Rita appears on The Jennifer Hudson Show, so check your local listings.
- Connie Britton (SMILF/Lost at Home/The Fighting Fitzgeralds/Spin City) - Connie talks about Dear Edward on CBS Mornings some time between 7-9am.
- Anthony Anderson (black-ish/Guys with Kids/All About the Andersons) - Anthony discusses his "Get Real with Diabetes" campaign on Access Daily with Mario & Kit, so check your local listings.
New on DVD/Blu-ray (November-February)
11/08 - Frasier - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
11/08 - Young Rock - Season Two (Blu-ray) (DVD)
11/15 - The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet - The Complete Season Seven / The Complete Season Eight
11/22 - That '70s Show - The Complete Series (Mill Creek)
11/29 - Ghosts - Season One (Blu-ray) (DVD)
12/06 - The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet - 70th Anniversary Ultimate Christmas Collection
12/13 - And Just Like That... - The Complete First Season
12/13 - Hogan's Heroes - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
01/03 - Andy Richter Controls the Universe - The Complete Series (2023 Release)
01/27 - Master of None - Season Three / The Complete Series
02/21 - The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet - The Complete Season Nine / The Complete Season Ten
02/28 - Growing Pains - The Complete Series
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