PILOT REVIEW: Back in the Game

BACK IN THE GAME

Starring: James Caan, Maggie Lawson, Ben Koldyke, Griffin Gluck, Lenora Crichlow, JJ Totah, Kennedy Waite, Cooper Roth

Created by Rob Cullen and Mark Cullen
Written by Robb Cullen & Mark Cullen, Directed by John Requa & Glenn Ficarra

Back in the Game is a new baseball themed comedy centered on former star college softball player Terry Gannon (Maggie Lawson) returning home with son Danny (Griffin Gluck) after a messy divorce. They move in with her outspoken and estranged father "The Cannon" (James Caan), who was a star baseball player himself. Despite Terry's disgust towards baseball and the way it messed up her life, Danny wants to play because he has a crush on Vanessa (Kennedy Waite), a baseball loving girl at school. However, Danny is not very coordinated and doesn't make the team until Terry steps up to coach a team of misfits. Rounding out the cast is Terry's sassy new friend Gigi (Lenora Crichlow) and her flamboyant son Michael (JJ Totah), and league president Dick (Ben Koldyke) and his jerky son David (Cooper Roth).

THE GOOD: This show isn't one of those laugh out loud shows but it's very charming and enjoyable. It's fun to have a movie legend like James Caan on a TV show and he's well cast as the cranky but proud old man. Maggie Lawson is solid in the lead role as well and has good chemistry with Caan. They really do seem like they could be father and daughter. The kids are really enjoyable in this show. Griffin Gluck makes Danny a real character to root for and the ragtag gang of misfits was the closest the show came to a laugh out loud moment especially with the twins. Lenora Crichlow has a few nice lines in the pilot too and there is no cast member that stands out as a weak link, which is always promising.

THE BAD: This show can get by a lot on charm but I do think it needs to up the humor a little bit.
The characters were great, the writing was solid, and the premise is interesting. It needs to find a way to pepper the show with a few more jokes while keeping the heart it already has. This isn't really negative but I'm also interested to see how the show is going to expand beyond baseball because it surely can't make that the focus of every episode.

BOTTOM LINE: It looks like ABC has a winner in Back in the Game, which is a perfect fit out of The Middle and another solid family comedy for ABC this fall making them 3 for 3 in that department (not counting the odd fitting non-family comedy Super Fun Night). I'm looking forward to seeing where they take this show.