The Michael J. Fox Show : “Teamates” Review

The Michael J. Fox Show is an unfunny show about terrible people. This issue isn’t that the show is in the vein of Seinfeld or It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia and I just don’t get it. The Michael J. Fox Show wants to be a family show about a family, but fails miserably.

In “Teammates,” Mike and Annie spend the whole episode arguing. Annie likes to confront rude people, which Mike finds uncomfortable because he just wants to move on from the situation. Unfortunately, Annie won’t let him, even when she should. It’s not a smart idea to confront people who live in the same building as you. While Mike tries his best to make amends with the psychiatrist that Annie yelled at because he was rude in the elevator, Mike makes a major misstep: he told the psychiatrist Annie has bipolar disorder.

Annie doesn’t. This wasn’t a very special episode where we learn about Annie’s struggle or as she put it “when she goes all Claire Danes.” Mike just used bipolar disorder as a way to explain Annie’s extreme sense of justice. At first Annie is offended, as she should be, but she also ends up using it as an excuse. She figures, “Why be nice to someone when they think you have a mood disorder and they understand?” Of course, that’s not the way she should have handled it. The man is always going to think that she needs her meds adjusted, when she’s actually being a jerk.

Mike was in the doghouse for most of the episode because Annie also took his instant diagnosis of her non-existent bipolar disorder as an affront to their being a team. She felt betrayed and would purposely say things to go against whatever Mike felt. Annie specifically tells their daughter, Eve, that she could go to a concert because Mike doesn’t want her to. She also drags Mike to his boss’s yearly karaoke party, which Mike thinks they both hate. It turns out Annie secretly loves karaoke and was making sacrifices for Mike. Doesn’t this family ever be honest with each other? If Mike had known, he wouldn’t have made such a big deal about hating the party and they wouldn’t have made excuses all those years.

As for the rest of the family, Ian and Leigh are still irresponsible. Ian likes to torture his younger brother Graham because he has Ian’s old room, which is much bigger than the one Ian currently has. He also thinks his website idea will be huge, despite the fact that he never develops it past the “I have an idea” stage.

Leigh gets a dog named Icebreaker, which she doesn’t take care of and eventually finds out she’s allergic to it. However, Icebreaker does prove to Mike that Eve is responsible enough to go to a concert because Eve opts to take care of the dog and miss out on the concert. Since this is television, Eve doesn’t miss the concert and Mike adopts the dog from Leigh.

The Michael J. Fox Show is a mess. When the most sympathetic and interesting character in a show is the 8-year-old, who is completely normal and rarely feature more than 5 minutes in each episode, the show has a major problem. The Michael J. Fox Show should’ve been canceled after the third episode, but NBC committed to a full 22 episode before the show ever hit the air, so it looks like the show will suffer a long and painful death.