PILOT REVIEW: Mulaney

MULANEY

Starring: John Mulaney, Nasim Pedrad, Seaton Smith, Zack Pearlman, with Elliott Gould, and Martin Short

Created by John Mulaney
Written by John Mulaney, Directed by Andy Ackerman

THE PREMISE: Mulaney is an old fashioned sitcom that is quite obviously trying to channel Seinfeld down to opening stand up bits by comedian John Mulaney. In the show, Mulaney plays a fictional version of himself. He's still a comedian though and living in NYC with his friends: George, Elaine, and Kramer. Just kidding. The friends in this one are roommates Jane (Nasim Pedrad) and Motif (Seaton Smith). Mulaney works for eccentric game show host and comedian Lou Cannon (Martin Short). Rounding out the main cast are wacky neighbors Andre and Oscar (Zack Pearlman and Elliott Gould).

THE GOOD: The cast is loaded with talent. John Mulaney is respected for his writing on other shows, but the supporting cast is really where there's strength. Elliott Gould and Martin Short are comedy legends who have been hilarious in many different shows. Seaton Smith and Zack Pearlman seem promising as well. The real high point of an otherwise bad pilot was Nasim Pedrad. She brought her funny tone and delivery from SNL and elevated the poor writing.

THE BAD: Seinfeld, it's not. If there are so many talented people, why was the show just so eye-rolling bad? It starts with John Mulaney. He may be well-respected as a writer, but it didn't show here and his acting was worse. His delivery was flat and he was so desperately reaching for laughs. Even his stand-up was not funny. The whole plot-line of the pilot elicited one big groan to me. And Martin Short - why?? He can be so funny and I've seen him be hilarious in so many things, but even he couldn't elevate the horrible material. They didn't even let him do his whole Martin Short shtick, they stuck him in some weird character. Ditto for Elliott Gould. If a show is going to channel Seinfeld so much, it better be at least halfway decent.

BOTTOM LINE: This is a huge misfire but I'm actually tempted to give it one more chance because of the talented cast. I really don't know what went wrong here, it's just a huge mess on every level despite looking good on paper. It's another blow to multi-cam sitcoms. There hasn't been a sharply written one since Everybody Loves Raymond, and it's making the entire genre a laughing stock. With his pedigree, John Mulaney should have done better here.