Grid Effect

As many of you know, ABC premiered two new sitcoms last night with Knights of Prosperity followed by In Case of Emergency. I wasn’t terribly impressed with either one, so anything I have too say is fairly limited.

Knights pretty much had the same style of humor as any typical sitcom, just without a laugh track. It doesn’t revolve around a family or four twenty somethings hanging around a regular locale, it was just five Jim Belushi’s, a college kid and an attractive woman who banned together to rob Mick Jagger. Of what? I have no idea. Why did any of them agree too such a hackneyed plan in the first place? Again, no idea. But one can point out insignificant plot holes in this show all day long. So I’ll just move on.

What makes it akin to the typical sitcom is not setting, but all the same techniques: double entendres, misunderstandings, bumbling and incoherent humor. It’s really difficult too take seriously or laugh with and I doubt I will ever watch it again, but it did have some high points:

-The montage that illustrated how they got a hold of Jagger’s apartment key, followed by all of the additional security he had beyond his front door (Several security guards, a metal detector, finger pad and alarm system). It wasn’t funny, but interesting none the less.

-The guy who played Murmur on the most recent season of The Sopranos and the CO from Rescue Me who did Lenny Clarke all the favors is in this series as the lead characters most trusted ally. At this point he is essentially a “That Guy”, and after two impressive and convincing turns in such critically acclaimed series, I am surprised he isn’t getting more notoriety with better work.

-The funniest character on the show, the Arab cab driver, had a thinly veiled jab at the Jimmy Fallon movie Taxi. There is more of a personal than a critical appeal. Whenever I am discussing the worst films I have ever seen, Taxi is on a very, very short list.

All in all, I like the effort from ABC, but the pilot did nothing for me. I am not sure who its target audience is, so it probably won’t be on the air much longer. I just can’t imagine it is this hard too find decent comedy writers somewhere in Hollywood, or the country, for that matter.

More on Emergency and Friday Night Lights later today.