PILOT REVIEW: Whitney

WHITNEY

Starring: Whitney Cummings, Chris D'Elia, Rhea Seehorn, Zoe Lister-Jones, Maulik Pancholy, Dan O'Brien
Created by Whitney Cummings
Written by Whitney Cummings, Directed by Andy Ackerman

Whitney is a new comedy on NBC that feels like a 1990s sitcom with a live studio audience (as they proudly declare at the credits). It was promoted regularly throughout the summer which took a lot of the unknown out of the pilot episode. It is based on Whitney Cummings' life and comedy routine and features Cummings and Chris D'Elia as a committed couple that is not interested in marriage at this point. Rounding out the cast in true sitcom fashion is their wacky set of friends including Neal and Lily (Maulik Pancholy and Zoe Lister-Jones) who are still in the honeymoon phase, the cynical divorcee Roxanne (Rhea Seehorn), and the womanizing cop Mark (Dan O'Brien).

THE GOOD: Well, it's not a terrible thing to have an old fashioned sitcom back on Thursday nights on NBC. I just wish this one had better quality. It had a few little moments - particularly towards the end in the hospital scene between Whitney Cummings and Chris D'Elia. In fact, those two have a decent amount of chemistry between them. I also found the roleplay scene with the "paperwork" funny when I first saw it in May, but the incessant promotions dulled me to that scene. That's about all I can say in this category.

THE BAD: First of all, every single scene felt tired because I feel like I've been watching this episode all summer in promotions. The actors seem to be more amused with themselves than the audience is at times and the characters don't feel like real people. There were some real sitcom joke clinkers too - the cavemen joke from Dan O'Brien and the blackface joke from Chris D'Elia stand out as two of them. And what is going on with the hands? Whitney Cummings seems to have an odd way of talking with her hands and then I saw Rhea Seehorn doing the same thing. I don't see people actually talk like that which to me then, seems like overacting. Of course the whole show was overacting, delivering punchlines, and not being real people. Multicamera sitcoms with a live studio audience certainly have a place on TV today but they need to be high quality. This one isn't, not in the least.

BOTTOM LINE: I will never understand why NBC paired this show with The Office and sent Up All Night to the wolves on Wednesday night. This show sticks out like a sore thumb in NBC's Thursday lineup. As someone who really likes multicamera sitcoms, I get really frustrated when ones like this come out that recall the days of the late 1990s where a million stupid sitcoms were coming out. It's an old genre, but it doesn't need old ideas.