A to Z
NBC, Thursdays at 9:00 PM E.T.
Who's involved? A to Z has an appealing lead couple in Cristin Miloti of How I Met Your Mother and Ben Feldman of Mad Men, two very likable actors that I would certainly not mind watching pretend to be a couple. It's run by Ben Queen, who doesn't have much on his resume - just the screenwriting credit to Cars 2. (Yes, really.) Rashida Jones and Will McCormack also serve as executive producers.
What's it about? "A to Z" is a romantic comedy that tracks the relationship of Andrew, a whimsical employee for an internet dating site, and Zelda, a no-nonsense lawyer. If you think that sounds cliche - you're right! This is a show that takes every single romantic comedy trope and makes out with it in a big, climactic kiss under a fountain. (By the way, that actually happens in the pilot). The catchy tagline that the show thinks make it stand out is that it tracks every minute of their relationship "from A to Z", but it's unclear what that actually means, except that this show is apparently confident that it's totally going to last 26 episodes.
Is it any good? There is very little to like about this pilot, which produces zero laughs, creates one of the most annoying characters in recent television history in Henry Zebrowski's Stu (the wacky, bearded best friend is apparently a new sitcom archetype and it needs to stop, now), and follows every rom-com cliche in the book without even attempting to subvert them. The characters are all shallow sketches - he's a mans' man but he also loves to sing Celine Dion! Isn't that just quirky?! She's a super-serious lawyer who doesn't believe in anything magical because her childhood sucked! Oh, boy, these two characters are sure going to be fun to watch together, aren't they?! They're like, opposites! And the lead characters are a minefield of depth compared to the supporting characters. Andrew's best friend Stu - who, once again, is the worst character ever - has little to him other than "says bad punchlines at inappropriate moments and lies to women for no reason" (god, he is seriously the worst), and Zelda's sidekick Stephie's only personality trait is "inherits the interest of whatever guy she's currently dating". That's literally all we find out about her! This script is a total mess, but it's to Miloti and Feldman's credit that the pilot is actually not unbearable. They're incredibly charming both together and apart, and they're both so clearly putting their all into this. It's literally the only thing stopping this from being a trainwreck, and although it's not enough to make this a good show, it elevates what could've been a truly regrettable pilot into something that's mostly just kind of bland and unremarkable. That's actually a pretty big improvement, and if the writing can just step up even a little bit, Miloti and Feldman could be enough to save this thing and turn it into something worthwhile.
Will I be watching again? I won't go out of my way to seek this one out, but Ben Feldman and Cristin Milloti are compelling enough that I wouldn't mind checking it out again if I'm home on a Thursday night with nothing better to do.
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