NBC likes to bill itself as the place for comedy, even going so far as to resurrect its 90s slogan of Must-See TV Thursdays recently. That's certainly the case for some of its shows, like recent Emmy nominee The Good Place and the well-received revival of Will & Grace. But the high-profile acquisition of Brooklyn Nine-Nine didn't translate into viewers or awards (its first season on NBC and its sixth overall was also the first in which it received no Emmy nominations, even in Creative Arts categories) and though it's much-loved by its relatively small core audience, Superstore has never been more than a steady performer that regularly appears on lists of underappreciated shows. By the end of this season, both lauded comedies will be ending, and NBC is on the hunt for some freshmen to take up the mantle.
So how well do the two newest additions to this "must see" lineup fare?
Perfect Harmony (Thursdays at 8:30 on NBC)
First up to the plate is Perfect Harmony, an unlikely mash-up of a church-y Pitch Perfect and an alcoholic, self-destructive Mr. Holland's Opus. Its premise would have likely worked better as an hour-long comedy in the vein of its most obvious inspiration, Glee, but instead we have a 21-minute pilot that forces two-or-three too many plot points into its run time, all while leaving time for a couple choir competition performances.
In the first episode. It took Glee an entire season to get there, and they already had 43 minutes to work with each week.
Those plot points include former Princeton music professor Arthur Cochran (the incomparable Bradley Whitford, who just won an Emmy last month for The Handmaid's Tale) relocating to Kentucky to bury his wife, where he happens upon a choir rehearsal at the Second First Church of the Cumberlands during a botched suicide attempt. Their leader, Ginny (Pitch Perfect's Anna Camp), wants Arthur to help whip the choir into shape so they can beat their arch rivals at the next competition. Arthur shows no interest until he learns the leader of the rival choir, Pastor Magnus, is the same man who denied Arthur's wife a place in his church's cemetery, her dying wish. Meanwhile, Ginny tries to outrun the advances of her ex-husband Wayne (Will Greenberg) and his best friend Dwayne (Geno Segers), who's secretly in love with her, all while dealing with her underachieving, foul-mouthed son (Spencer Allport).
It's fun, but it's a lot. Whitford is charmingly crotchety, Camp is shiny and upbeat, and Rizwan Manji (Schitt's Creek) gets the best one-liners in the ongoing joke that he was raised by missionaries who renamed the films they showed him (Philadelphia becomes Don't Get AIDS, etc). The cast is universally wonderful, even those who have barely anything to do, like Tymberlee Hill as a woman who thinks she's more talented than she is. (That's it, that's her entire character in the pilot.) The dialogue is fun and punny. It's a fine introduction.
But everything you'd think would take a season to resolve (Dwayne admitting his feelings to Ginny, the choir competition, solving the social anxiety Ginny's son has) happens in the first episode. Where the hell does the show go from here? Perfect Harmony's pilot felt more like a super rushed film than the beginning of a series. The end of the pilot doesn't really set up anywhere for the story to go, because it feels kind of like it's already over.
Sunnyside (Thursdays at 9:30 on NBC)
And then there's Sunnyside. I don't even really know what to say about this one. It's such a bore, with almost nothing truly funny about it and with a heart that, while big and in the right place, is barely beating.
Kal Penn plays another variation of his famous Kumar character as Garrett Modi, a disgraced former New York City councilman from Sunnyside, Queens who was once full of promise and hope but eventually became jaded and lazy. Forced to get a job despite his lack of motivation (and talents), Garrett ends up tutoring a group of immigrants in civics so they can earn citizenship.
It's a straight-forward premise, and there are humorous moments within it. The group of would-be citizens includes a dopey white guy named Brady (Moses Storm, Conan) who always thought he was a typical American idiot until he discovered he was actually born in Moldova and brought here by his mother; Griselda (Diana-Maria Riva, Dead to Me), a Dominican with the best running gag that she works literally everywhere in the city; and brother and sister Jun Ho (Joel Kim Booster) and Mei Lin (Poppy Liu) playing spoiled rich brats. Each of them gets a moment to shine in the pilot, and they're really where the show is at its best.
It's in the moments where we're meant to care for Penn's Garrett, a slacker and alcoholic who loves baseball but who also has a penchant for being an opportunistic dick. He takes advantage of people, even in the pilot's later moments when his conscience awakens. But the worst part? Penn is simply not funny. His monotone, stumbling, stoner-esque delivery worked in the Harold & Kumar films because of John Cho's anxious energy next to him. In Sunnyside, he just comes across as flat.
There's an admirable show somewhere in here about optimism, hope, and the American Dream beginning with helping your neighbors. That message often gets muddled by Garrett's messiness, despite its topicality, but there's definitely room for Kal Penn's political experience to inform a more thoughtful show going forward, if they can just fix how unlikable and borderline-unwatchable he is as this character.
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