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PILOT REVIEW: Free Agents

Enjoy this review and the Up All Night review below! The Thursday Fall Preview post will be up later tonight (Thursday). Sorry for the delay!!

FREE AGENTS











Starring: Hank Azaria, Kathryn Hahn, Mo Mandel, Natasha Leggero, Al Madrigal, Joe Le Truglio, and Anthony Head
Developed for American Television by John Enbom
Written by John Enbom, Directed by Todd Holland

I was feeling all encouraged after Up All Night about this fall season's shows but then Free Agents came on immediately after to quell that excitement. The show centers on a public relations firm and two employees, Alex (Hank Azaria) and Helen (Kathryn Hahn), who are in a fragile state of being. Alex's marriage was recently broken up and he doesn't get to see his kids while Helen's fiancee died a year ago and she drowns her sorrows in alcohol. Sound like a barrel of laughs? No, and it definitely wasn't. Rounding out the cast are the rest of the office employees - sassy secretary Emma (Natasha Leggero), "bro" Dan (Mo Mandel), nerd Gregg (Al Madrigal), and egocentric boss Stephen (Anthony Head).

THE GOOD: Um... it has a theme song, that's always a plus. Kathryn Hahn had a few moments early on in the episode when she was in self-assured mode but then became unbelievable when her character was drunk. That's about it for the good, I really didn't enjoy this show.

THE BAD: Let me preface this by saying that I don't think this is horrifyingly bad. It's not as bad as some of the worst shows from last year (The Paul Reiser Show, Running Wilde, Perfect Couples to name a few). But there is much to not like about this show. Hank Azaria just doesn't seem like a leading man because he can't carry this show. As I already mentioned, Kathryn Hahn has a few moments but loses major points with her drunk scene which didn't play well at all (nor did the lame joke about how many pictures of her fiancee she has up). The characters just don't seem like real people which is always a bad sign. They of course hit all the stereotypes in the office setting rather than letting the characters develop naturally. Basically it plays like another "sexual tension in the office" comedy that has been done to death. The biggest problem is that these characters are so miserable, it's nauseating to watch. I know that it's supposed to be a dark comedy, but this is veering too dark. I just felt sorry for the characters and was glad I didn't have to deal with their depressing state of minds on a daily basis. Finally, it was such a predictable pilot. Who didn't see Alex and Helen ending up back in bed together at the end of the episode? Because I certainly did.

BOTTOM LINE: As I mentioned in my Fall Preview, this was my pick for first cancellation of the season. Nothing I've seen so far changes that idea. In a killer timeslot without major star power to help and fairly unlikable characters, it's not going to work. Nor should it. Maybe dark comedies like this work better in Britain or maybe it's just a bad adaptation. Either way, it won't be around for long.

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  1. mccollumSeptember 15, 2011 at 10:35 AM

    Again, we completely disagree. I thought this was light-years better than UP ALL NIGHT.

    First, it is actually funny. Maybe not LOL, but still humorous.

    Second, the writing is far better than UP ALL NIGHT. In fact, just about everything about FREE AGENTS is far better than UP ALL NIGHT.

    Both series will, more than likely, fail. But it will be the fault of UP ALL NIGHT. If FA had a better lead-in, it may have a chance to succeed. If UP ALL NIGHT had a lead-in, it would still fail, IMO.

    ReplyDelete
  2. benjamonstertvSeptember 15, 2011 at 7:51 PM

    I think it's so interesting how two people can watch the same exact shows and have opposite opinions!

    Anyway, I do agree that both will fail, but I actually think that if "Up All Night" had a lead-in, it might have a chance. I also think NBC will try harder to make it work than "Free Agents." I really think "Free Agents" would have been dead in the water anywhere. Even for people who liked it, it's not very accessible or relatable IMO.

    ReplyDelete

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