The star returns in an NBC show that mines laughs from generational differences.
The American multi-cam sitcom seems to forever live embalmed in a past that never was and a present that doesn’t really exist. There’s something about those flattened sets designed for its cameras and the two-dimensional characters they tend to house that cannot help but harken back to television’s origins, laugh tracks serving as a kind of haunting sound of how communal of an experience television broadcasts could and have been.
When we first meet Bobbie she’s reeling from the recent death of her father—well, both reeling from said loss and elated at the way she hopes to keep his memory alive: by continuing to run his tavern. Happy’s Place has been her life for the past decade and while its many employees may drive her a bit batty, she’s found her groove among them—and they have as well. Sitcoms, though, don’t thrive on things as usual.
Blending their two worlds—or rather, folding Isabella’s into Bobbie’s—is precisely what the show wants to do at every turn, even when in format and structure it remains stuck in a world where the realization that your father had a child you didn’t know about is nothing but fodder for a hissy fit designed to garner laughs.
Perhaps as the show evolves and eventually finds better uses for its talented ensemble ,will find a way to anchor itself in a present that doesn’t feel like it’s mired in the past. In the meantime, let this NBC sitcom join the ranks of the many amiable comedies out there reminding viewers that sometimes all you need is a winning, charming cast slinging equally earnest and cringey one-liners to get the job done.
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