PILOT REVIEW: The Cool Kids

THE COOL KIDS

Starring: David Alan Grier, Martin Mull, Leslie Jordan, and Vicki Lawrence

Created by Charlie Day and Paul Fruchbom
Written by Charlie Day & Paul Fruchbom, Directed by Don Scardino

IN SHORT: The Golden Guys and Girl

THE PREMISE:
Hank, Charlie, and Sid (David Alan Grier, Martin Mull, & Leslie Jordan) are all buddies in a retirement home. When their buddy Jerry dies, they have a seat open at their table. Margaret (Vicki Lawrence) comes in and sits with them at what she proclaims the "cool kids" table and upends their way of life.

THE REVIEW:
There's so much of The Cool Kids that feels tired and not because it's set in a retirement community. This is just a throwback show through and through. It's not as cringe-inducing as some multi-camera sitcoms can be and have been in recent years, but it continues to bother me that we just don't have very smartly-written sitcoms in that format and haven't had them for quite some time. The Cool Kids is obviously trying to channel The Golden Girls, bit it doesn't have the wit of that retirement show.

The cast is a group of established veterans and the most enjoyable of them was Vicki Lawrence, who did a good job as the woman upending the boys' club. The other three were okay but nothing special. David Alan Grier usually annoys me and still did a little bit, but I found him tolerable. I'm not too familiar with Leslie Jordan's brand of comedy, but he seemed a little put-on despite getting some decent lines off. Martin Mull didn't have a ton to do, but he was significantly improved from his last outing on FOX (the terrible Dads).

Coming from the creator of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, I think this had a chance to be a more sharply written sitcom but it too often resorted to typical cliches (dropping the ashes of a dead character, getting pulled over with a stolen car). Nothing here felt new and it could have with a decent cast and a plot that has been done before, but is not done very often. Maybe things will settle in and this show will finds its groove, but I don't think I want to stick around to see if that happens.

BOTTOM LINE:
This show felt as old as the characters in it. It felt like a show that I could find on youtube that had a short lived run from 1993-1994. That's not a complete slam, I think it's okay to have shows like that, but it's just not for me.