PILOT REVIEW: Animal Practice

ANIMAL PRACTICE

Starring: Justin Kirk, Joanna Garcia Swisher, Bobby Lee, Kym Whitley, Betsy Sodaro, and Tyler Labine

Created by Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka
Written by Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka, Directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo

Animal Practice is a new sitcom on NBC with the unique setting of an animal hospital. The show centers on Dr. George Coleman (Justin Kirk), a brilliant vet who doesn't care much for people. His vet hospital is given to the granddaughter of the former owner, his ex-girlfriend Dorothy Crane (Joanna Garcia Swisher). Rounding out the cast are other employees of the hospital including the timid brown nose Dr. Yamamoto (Bobby Lee), sassy Juanita (Kym Whitley), bizarre Angela (Betsy Sodaro), and Dr. Doug Jackson (Tyler Labine), who is friendly but unlucky in love. Also in the cast is George's monkey Rizzo (Crystal the Monkey) who is basically his right hand man.

THE GOOD: Well, Crystal the Monkey is funny. Monkeys are always a hit because of their personalities (look at Marcel on Friends) and this is no exception as Crystal has better acting chops than most of the cast. Joanna Garcia Swisher is solid in her role but isn't given enough to work with to help her truly shine. She needs the right vehicle (same goes for Tyler Labine, who was better in Mad Love than this but also needs better material). Finally, I really like the setting, it's a very unique place to set a sitcom.

THE BAD: If only things were better written and acted to make the unique setting work, we might have a fun quirky new comedy. Instead we got a mess of a pilot that didn't come together. The main problem for me was Justin Kirk. I didn't like him at all in the lead role and I don't feel like he can carry a sitcom as the central character. His delivery and timing seemed off. While Garcia Swisher, Labine, and Whitley are ok in their roles, Lee and Sodaro are almost unwatchable. Their characters are written poorly and their acting is even worse. When are sitcom writers going to realize that they need to write real characters with real personalities not just quirky caricatures? It never works when they do that and it happens all the time.

BOTTOM LINE: This show got a lot of bad press when the trailer was released in May and it's easy to see why. I'm surprised NBC chose to sample this show with the Olympics lead-in because it seems destined to fail. It's certainly not a mainstream hit and I don't see it becoming a cult favorite like Community. It seems like a candidate for an early cancellation. Too bad they didn't make more out of an interesting concept.

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