Yesterday I watched the pilot episode of FXX’s Man Seeking Woman, a new show that has been hailed by Rolling Stone as “the next cult classic comedy.” The writing and producing team is loaded with talent, including Lorne Michaels of Saturday Night Live, Ian Maxtone-Graham from The Simpsons, Jonathan Krisel of Portlandia and Kroll Show, Robert Padnick from The Office and Dan Mirk of the Onion News Network. It has been heavily featured in advertisements leading up to its debut. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the show is (somewhat) set in Chicago.
After watching the first 12 minutes it was evident that the show simply serves as a reminder that even the biggest names in the business can take a swing and a whiff when concocting a new show.
The pilot begins when we learn that the protagonist has just been dumped by his girlfriend, who now has to go forth and kind love, thus immersing himself in the dating world. The main comedic device of the show is to metaphorically heighten the highs and lows a guy goes through while dating, i.e. ‘having a date with a troll’ in the show translates as a real 4 foot green troll shows up for the date. The whole thing about ‘your ex now dating the worst dude ever’ becomes a reality when she actually dates Hitler. The elated state you feel when you grow some balls to ask for that pretty girl’s number on the train and you actually get it results in a congratulations call from the president.
Unfortunately the heightened elements fall flat in lieu of underdeveloped characters and a shaky premise. The entire time watching it I kept thinking ‘Is this a surreal world or a normal world we are viewing?’ The world of the show lacks consistency.
Ok, although I’m not a fan of this genre where sketch meets sitcom, Let’s say I rolled with the novelty and semi-enjoyed it.
Other problems came upthe plot was riddled with problems for me as an audience member and an improv actor. Many unanswered questions came up:
Why is Josh (the protagonist) wearing an eskimo coat when the lady behind him is walking by in a short sleeved shirt?
Why does Josh need to go to Pilsen of all places (used as a plot device)? What 27 year white guy lives in Pilsen?
Where are these random hills popping up in Chicago? Have I not been there?
In Man Seeking Woman the characters are normal in all aspects. I couldn’t buy in to the fact that suddenly an actual troll is biting someone, or Hitler is alive and no one is punching him in the face. It would work if it was really, really funny, but it’s not. To sum up the show, it gave me the feeling of watching a few bad SNL sketches which were loosely tied together by plot.
I did laugh a couple of times during the show. And totally did not even recognize Bill Hader as Adolf Hitler.
But I won’t be watching Man Seeking Woman again and I would be truly surprised if the show makes it past the first season.
And this wouldn’t come as a surprise. Many male dating shows have come and gone in the past year:
–Undateable, which was moved to a 9 pm spot after its primetime debut because of low ratings
–Mixology, which was canceled after the first season (although it is up now on Netflix).
I respect the producers for trying to breed a totally new genre, where the real meets the surreal and the audience simply accepts it. But I didn’t see enough ‘funny’ to make watching worth it.
What all of these male-oriented dating shows lack is 1) depth of character, even for the minor ones and 2) a coherent, followable narrative. Although men seem to always be light-hearted and jokey about dating, there is a serious aspect around dating and relationships in your 20s that is yet to be explored.
So when’s that show coming out?
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