I Feel Bad (Thursdays at 9:30 on NBC, beginning October 4)
There are quite a few things to like about I Feel Bad, a new comedy from executive producer Amy Poehler based on Orli Auslander's memoir of the same name. It features an Indian lead and is created entirely by females (as producers, director, and writer), all great things for the television landscape. It's relatable. It's cute. It has a voice.
But it's also pretty standard sitcom schlock with an unappealing cadre of supporting characters.
Sarayu Blue (No Tomorrow, Blockers) is a sweet, likeable lead as Emet, yet another sitcom mom who's just trying to have it all: marriage, kids, parents, work. She's worried that she's turning into her overbearing Indian mother; she worries that her young daughter is being sexualized by her dance team; she worries that, as a video game designer, she needs to represent women positively in a male-dominated arena. Emet is a worrier (which is where the show's title comes from, as each of these worries is compounded by the guilt Emet feels for not being better at any and all of these things that worry her). She feels bad about having sex dreams with other men when her husband (Paul Adelstein, Private Practice) is so supportive. She feels bad for hating her mother (Madhur Jaffrey).
In other words, she's human. Refreshingly so, actually, in a world of sitcoms where characters often seem like caricatures and cartoons. Aseem Batra (The Cleveland Show, Scrubs) has written Emet honestly and relatably, even when the situations we are meant to laugh at are less than unique: meddling parents, kids growing up too fast, goofing-off co-workers, etc. Even so, had I Feel Bad's pilot focused mostly on Emet and her family, even the more cringeworthy parts (there's an extended joke about a nine-year old girl farting) would have been tolerable, because Blue is a charming leading lady and her guilty conscience for things she should feel no guilt about are the exact things that make sitcoms digestible; there is humor in our shared humanity and common ground, and all the moms watching who have to make it work, even when their subconscious is telling them they're failing, can relate to Emet and her parents and her husband and her kids.
But then we get to Emet's workplace, and it all goes to hell. As I already mentioned, Emet designs video games. If you are unfamiliar with the gaming world, as I am, you may not know that it employs few females and features even fewer female characters, largely, in its products. You may also not know that the gaming community has a propensity toward misogyny, sexism, and anti-feminism. Just go ahead and Google "gamergate." Are you back? Good. That's the world Emet occupies, though stereotyped, of course. Her co-workers are all young, socially awkward men who tell Emet her female characters aren't "bangable" and then use drones to hit on women at bars. Each character comes across like an entitled, spoiled, self-centered brat. There's no realization there, either; the characters are played for laughs because they're so awful, and we're even meant to sympathize with them at one point when they all gather to discuss Emet's parenting situation. It's a woefully misguided scene where we're supposed to laugh at a bunch of single geeks because they are invested in their co-worker's personal life.
It's not fun to laugh at casual misogyny, so it's odd that so much of I Feel Bad takes place with Emet's co-workers. They get more screen time than Emet's husband or even the daughter they're all talking about throughout the episode. It's a bizarre choice for Batra to have made. Emet's distinctively female perspective in a culture that is majorly white, heterosexual males is necessary and could have been the bones for a more interesting, nuanced comedy. But Batra instead gives these caustic nerds their own voice, too, and it tends to dampen that of Emet along the way.
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