Pilot Review: "Marry Me" on NBC

Marry Me

NBC, Tuesdays at 9:00 PM E.T. 

Who's involved? Marry Me was created by David Caspe, who also created the dearly departed Happy Endings, one of the funniest shows I have ever seen. It stars Casey Wilson, one of the stars of Happy Endings, as well as Ken Marino, who's well-known in the comedy world for appearing on cult hits Party Down and Children's Hospital. Basically, this show is a love letter to diehard TV comedy fans.

What's it about? Technically, Marry Me is about a couple that goes through a series of engagement mishaps until they finally and truly decide to call it official. But once upon a time, Happy Endings was about a couple that left each other at the altar, and it abandoned that premise by its third episode. I expect Marry Me to similarly depart from its original premise, although I assume Annie and Jake's relationship will play a little bit more into the shows' proceedings than Alex and Dave's did. Still, the show introduced us to a pretty big ensemble and I'm sure before long, this will be a show that we watch to hang out with them every week.

Is it any good? Marry Me is one of the best comedy pilots this season, which isn't saying much given that it's been a pretty mediocre season for comedy pilots. But it's still a pretty good pilot, with a handful of genuinely hilarious lines and some decent character work. It is very obviously trying to be Happy Endings, which I have no qualms with given how much I miss that show, but I think it would be in the shows' best interest to develop at least something of a separate identity from that show because I spent a lot of this pilot thinking "well, this is good, but it's not as good as Happy Endings. Man, I miss Happy Endings". I would say the shows' first line of work would be to make its characters less like rom-com stereotypes - Casey Wilson brings a lot of good work to Annie to make her likable, but the character that exists on the page needs to be fine-tuned to be more relatable and a little less shrill. The same could be said of the supporting cast, who currently check a lot of stereotypical romantic comedy boxes ("free-spirited best friend!" "weird loner neighbor!" "overbearing mother-in-law!"). But compared to where Happy Endings was at this point in its life, Marry Me is actually ahead - Happy Endings had a pilot with bigger flaws and without the unique brand of humor that it developed and that is present in Marry Me already. So if Marry Me could improve as much as Happy Endings did over the course of its first season, it could turn into something really great. It's already got its sense of humor down pat, which is sometimes a difficult thing for a comedy to discover - all it needs to do now is make its characters a little bit more like people I'd want to spend time with.

Will I be watching again? Yes, absolutely. Other than Black-ish, this is my most anticipated comedy of the fall.