Pilot Review: "Mulaney" on FOX

Mulaney

FOX, Sundays at 9:30 PM E.T. 

Who's involved? Mulaney is created by...yes, John Mulaney. Solid guess. There's also an all-star cast here, from legends like Martin Short to Eliott Gould to promising SNL alumnus Nasim Pedrad. This show arguably has the most pedigree out of all of the new sitcoms premiering this fall.

What's it about? Uh, good question. Apparently, Mulaney is about the life of John Mulaney, an aspiring comedian and newly hired writer for big game show host Lou Cannon. Also, a bunch of people are friends with him and some of them live in his apartment and hang out with him and stuff, I guess...? Mulaney has pretty much no premise to speak of. It's just "here's a bunch of talented people acting together for some reason." Supposedly, the original pilot that NBC passed on centered around Mulaney waking up after a particularly embarrassing night of blackout drinking and deciding to quit alcohol and drugs and get his life back on track. It's a shame they didn't stick with that, because that's a fine premise for a show...at least, it's better than nothing. 

Is it any good? ...sigh. I wish I could tell you it was. I am a huge John Mulaney fan - he's one of the best stand-ups in the game right now, and his "New in Town" special in particular is incredible, something I've watched hundreds of times by this point and am still not sick of. When I heard that he had landed a pilot with NBC a few years ago, I was ecstatic, because his style of humor is the type that I would've assumed could translate into a good television show pretty easily. And supposedly, it did, at least initially - the NBC pilot was apparently well-recieved even though NBC ended up passing on it (for the likes of Welcome to the Family and Sean Saves the World, mind you), so much so that FOX scooped it right out of their hands, much to the delight of the John Mulaney-loving internet. So just what the hell happened? The pilot we were presented with is an absolute mess, with no semblance of a story, no proper introduction to any of the characters, and seemingly no reason to exist at all. There is no plot to speak of whatsoever here, which isn't usually a big deal for comedy pilots (they tend to be plot-light and exposition-heavy) but I at least expect a good pilot to introduce me to a world of characters that I can see myself becoming invested in. Mulaney didn't even really bother to introduce us to anything. It just drops us off in the middle of a lukewarm rehash of one of Mulaney's best stand-up bits, which does not translate well to the constraints of a network television show. If I wanted to watch Mulaney's stand-up, that's what I would do, not a reheated mish-mash of it in multi-camera sitcom form. (A side note on multi-camera sitcoms - there was a lot of ire directed at this show just for choosing to be multi-cam, and while most multi-camera sitcoms made in the past 10 years have been pretty terrible, I don't think the format as a whole is completely flawed and I would like to see someone give it its proper due at some point). Still, I really do think that if it's given the chance (which it won't be), this should could turn into something. There's just too much talent at the helm here, and a lot of the problems are easily fixable (it's not that hard to just make your show have a purpose, and while Mulaney's a little wooden of an actor, plenty of comedians-turned-TV-actors have started out that way and improved). The show's humor is fairly solid, even if too much of it feels like watered down stand-up, and if the show could just sit down for a second and figure out what it wants to be, I really think it could all come together. Unfortunately, last night's ratings were dire, and it's unlikely that viewers will be kind enough to stick around and watch a work in progress. Here's to hoping the process of putting together a failed television show leads to some great stand-up bits, at least.

Will I be watching again? I will probably watch this hoping it turns the corner until FOX finally pulls the plug. So maybe we should hope that's sooner rather than later, for my own personal sanity.