 |
| Source: IMDb |
This week NBC's newest comedy, Mr. Robinson, debuted. Leading up to the premiere, I read other reviews online, and I found that they were extremely negative. I don't always agree with critics though, Mulaney was hated by critics, and while I wouldn't recommend the show to anyone, I found it good enough to keep watching. After watching the trailer for Mr. Robinson I didn't think "I can't wait for this show!" like I did for Fresh Off the Boat on ABC this last season, nor did I think "I guess I'll give it a try", like I did for The Carmichael Show, which takes over Mr. Robinson's timeslot in three weeks, I thought more along the lines of "I really think this could be good." But was it good?
S1E1 "Pilot"
The episode started on a good note with a funny song about preheating the oven, but the scene went downhill from there. The rest of the opening scene included many attempted jokes that failed to make me laugh. At school, however, things got better, and while none of the jokes were outrageous or all that original, there were a few laughs. We were introduced to many of the teachers, who were very strange, but funny. The gym teacher was the most funny; early on he became my favorite character.
Then the show got worse again when we got introduced to the very unlikable principal. She provided absolutely no humor. Another teacher who had heard Craig perform the previous night referred back to the oven preheating song, which was still the funniest thing the show has done. Eventually, almost two-thirds of the way through the episode, we got introduced to the problem, which completely lacked originality: Craig had to be in two places at once on Friday night, a back to school night and a gig for his band.
"Magnum PE" continued to be by far the most entertaining character on the show, and even the jokes made about him were great, such as the kids talking about how he tweets at them like twenty times a day. And while I enjoyed him and the jokes about him, most of the rest of the episode was pretty boring, and extremely unoriginal. Maybe if the other teachers were more involved in the episode and the kids were funnier I would enjoy the show more.
S1E2 "Flesh for Fantasy"
The show's second episode seems to be following in the footsteps of the first as it starts with a funny song. If this is going to be an element in every episode I would really like that. After this we are introduced to a rock star who could potentially give Craig and his band a record deal, who was very high and pretty funny.
In the next act, the only laugh I got was when the one student who Craig had called in the previous episode a "mini me" said "that's rich for bitch," and seeing Craig's brother's reaction. Other than that, it was very boring with no humor at all.
The sub-plot of the teachers with the stock came up again about halfway through the episode, and it could have easily been forgotten about. These teachers are funny (except the girl that Craig is interested in), and they are being underutilized in this episode. Craig convinced the principal to get back together with the rock star, and I really did not care. This plot is boring.
After a bunch of boring scenes that I did not care about, the principal and rock star were lead into the bar, where Craig sang a song, but this song wasn't funny. The episode had what was supposed to be a sweet ending where the principal decided to stick with her teachers instead of following the rock star, and then there was a repeat of an unfunny joke from the first scene.
While there were good moments, and funny characters, I thought that the first two episodes of Mr. Robinson were bad, and episode three will need to be good or I will be turning off the television at 9:30 next week.
What did you think of the premiere of Mr. Robinson? You can share your opinions in the comments!