A part of me really wants to love NBC’s new Matthew Perry comedy Go On. A month ago, when the series originally premiered, I wasn’t expecting much — and sort of, kind of liked that episode. It made me laugh. That’s what comedies are supposed to do. This time around, there were fewer laughs than the premiere. Like, significantly fewer. I think, for the most part, that it’s trying a bit too hard.
Don’t get me wrong; it’s not trying New Normal hard (though, I don’t not like that show either). But it all feels very sitcom-ish while trying to navigate the fence with heartwarmth. Except, it’s not doing it excellently like Cougar Town perfected in its third season. It feels a bit wonky. It’s almost as if Ryan’s leading two completely lives and we’re watching two different shows as well; there’s do-something Ryan and then there’s the Ryan with feelings. And I can’t figure out whether or not its narrative genius or just a narrative hiccup.
They tried to help alleviate this when they brought Sonia into the workplace. But at the same time, there are so many characters in this show and we barely know any of them. This episode tried to service four different ones at once, and it came off a bit softened over for the supporting characters. We find out that Sonia is a crazy cat lady. But didn’t we already know that based off the pilot? She is at the group meetings because her cat died, after all. Same with Ryan, who is in denial. Carrie wants a social life. George is blind. Got it. There were practically four different stories to get through in half hour, and there just wasn’t enough time.
Take, for example, the George Is Blind plot. What could have been a hilarious gag (the basketball not being in the case) just whimpered because there wasn’t enough amping up about the storyline beforehand. In fact, when George told Ryan to come over, it was basically an afterthought. I didn’t even think they’d show that scene — but they did, and the episode then ended with an emotional lesson from George as well.
So, no, I didn’t really laugh. But I will say one thing: this show kind of nails that heartwarmth aspect. I can’t say I didn’t absolutely enjoy the scene where Ryan and Carrie set ground rules for their weird relationship (especially, having someone to be thinking about you…and then that text!) or the final scene that cut to black.
I think Go On could be an extremely good comedy; it just has to ground itself a bit and be more deliberate with storylines for them to mean more, to give us that impact it wants to give us. Of course, this is just episode two. Cougar Town took a long time. And I’ll give Go On some time as well.
Michael loves TV. You can find him at home, where he spends all of his time watching TV with his best friends couch and cable access.