(with all due disrespect to Charlie Sheen and Matthew Perry, the therapy-comedy was mastered a while ago)
NBC premiered the latest star vehicle for Matthew Perry — aka This Generation’s McLean Stevenson — earlier this evening, with the Tampa Bay Times Eric Deegans warning “Go On” might be a ratings stiff because the comedy’s endless Olympics promos, “are a) not particularly clever and b) so ubiquitous they’ve left some viewers — okay THIS viewer — feeling exhausted with the shows before they even hit the airwaves.” And then there’s the small matter of the show sucking.
The series features Perry playing the cynical quippy version of himself we’ve seen in most every other role he’s taken — this time as sports radio host Ryan King, a workaholic struggling to deal with the death of his wife. Sounds sidesplitting so far, don’t it?
But his boss, played by Star Trek/Harold and Kumar alum John Cho, insists King attend 10 sessions at a therapy group before he can return to work, prompting the quippy host to unleash the Perry magic. When the therapy leader shows up late to his first session, King gets his new, super-dysfunctional pals to rate their problems in a twisted, NCAA-style bracket of pain, upsetting the future love interest/Type A controlling therapy leader.
The pilot is a predictable, if well-made adventure — zipping through the set up of King’s problem and his resistance to the therapy with a speed required for today’s attention-challenged TV audience. But Perry is essentially playing the same, self-centered, nice-guy-struggling-to-show-it character he embodied in ABC’s failed comedy Mr. Sunshine — another game effort that struggled to connect with viewers.
The extra pathos of Go On may solve that problem for Perry and NBC. But if the audience is so tired of seeing the show’s snarky one-liners plastered all over Olympics coverage, it may not matter much.
The real shittyness of this show is that since Perry’s character is more ‘cynical’ than the Chandler roles he always plays that his performance is supposed to be deep and meaningful, even sympathetic. The wife and I already hated the show before it even premiered tonight, but that one scene where we’re supposed to give a shit about him going home to an empty bed just made us laugh out loud. Nope, I still just want to punch him in the face.
I’m just amazed that it took nearly a decade of CSTB before the introduction of Rog’s wife to the conversation. Top that, “Go On” script doctors.
Yeah, glad I tuned in today for that introduction.
The photo above had me thinking there must be a lame attempt afoot to bring back the funny cavemen guys from the Geico (?) ads. Now that I know it’s Perry’s show, the cavemen guys don’t seem so lame.
Check the archives because I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned her before. She has a brilliant take on sports because she hates sports. My personal favorite was her blurting out “what the hell is that guy talking about?” during one of McCarver’s more aimless ramblings.
the Elias Koteas Sports Bureau is gonna have to earn their stipend with this one.