PILOT REVIEW: Working the Engels

WORKING THE ENGELS

Starring: Andrea Martin, Kacey Rohl, Azura Skye, Benjamin Arthur

Created by Katie Ford and Jane Cooperford
Written by Katie Ford & Jane Cooperford, Directed by Mel Damski

Working the Engels is a new Canadian family sitcom airing on NBC this summer. Ceil Engel (Andrea Martin) is a widow who finds out that her family's financial situation is in bad shape because of her husband's bad business dealings at his law firm. She enlists the help of her children to keep the law firm and family afloat: small time crook Jimmy (Benjamin Arthur), reformed party girl Sandy (Azura Skye), and overachiever Jenna (Kacey Engel).

THE GOOD: I was curious about this show because of Andrea Martin, who I saw on Broadway in Pippin last summer and she is certainly the best part about this show. She brings her usual wit and charm to the part and elevates pretty lame material.

THE BAD: I just didn't like this show at all. It all felt stale and tired. A huge pet peeve I have with so many sitcoms today is how they need to be blatantly obvious with the expositions at the beginning of their pilots. Each character was introduced with a freeze, noise, and caption explaining the character. Good writing doesn't need that. I can't think of any show before 2000 that introduced its characters that way and even strong current sitcoms like Modern Family can be much more subtle and interesting in introducing their characters without having to spell it out for the audience like we're a bunch of idiots. Aside from Martin, none of the characters are memorable or enjoyable.

BOTTOM LINE: Unlike Welcome to Sweden, there wasn't anything in this pilot that made me mildly curious to see the second episode. The characters are broadly drawn and I don't this show going in any interesting directions. Andrea Martin shouldn't have left Pippin for this.