The Carmichael Show Season 1 Finale Review

OK! Magazine

It's only the third week of The Carmichael Show, but as it was aired two episodes at a time and NBC only ordered six episodes for the comedy's first season, this week will be the last for now, or last completely if it isn't renewed (I am predicting that it will likely be renewed). So far, the show has been up and down, with two episodes that were good and two that were more mediocre, with one of those leaning towards bad. In these final two episodes of the season, Maxine finds out that Jerrod owns a gun in "Guns" and Maxine not saying "amen" results in conflict in "Prayer". Were "Guns" and "Prayer" good like "Pilot" and "Kale"?


S1E6 "Prayer"

This episode started with what was by far the show's funniest opening scene yet. The family is about to have dinner with their reverend, and Cynthia told Jerrod and Bobby to keep their sins to themselves. Of course, the first thing that Jerrod did when the reverend showed up was tell him that he and Maxine are living together.

The dinner got more uncomfortable for the Carmichaels, meaning funny for us viewers. Maxine made the dinner uncomfortable when she said she didn't say "amen". In the next scene, Joe continued to deliver a lot of funny lines. In the teaser there was the lines about lying, and in this scene there was even more funny lines that he delivered, like how he pictured God to be like the guy from the Allstate commercial. The scene also introduced the issue that Jerrod and Maxine had never discussed their religious beliefs.

In the next act, the first two scenes were mostly plot and not as many laughs, but it was still entertaining enough. Jerrod and Maxine felt very unsure of their relationship, and Jerrod went to the reverend where he discovered that his parents had trouble when they first got together because Joe wasn't religious. Jerrod confronted his parents, which resulted in another scene of hilarious Joe lines. The episode ended with a hilarious tag scene where Maxine teaches the Carmichaels to meditate and when Cynthia sneezed and Maxine said "God bless you." This was a very entertaining episode.


S1E5 "Guns"

This episode didn't start out as well as the previous one. While it wasn't very funny, though it tried with Jerrod claiming he was the leader of his and Maxine's relationship. It did however quickly introduce the episode's conflict. Maxine found Jerrod's gun, and she is very anti-gun. This resulted in a debate in the entire family where Joe revealed he also had a gun, which Cynthia was angry about. This debate included a few good laughs, such as how Joe hid his gun behind a picture of Jesus and the lines that Bobby's ex-wife said. Joe decided to stay with Jerrod because they wanted to keep their guns, and Maxine stayed with Cynthia. The plot was then advanced when Jerrod accidentally shot Joe in the foot.

Things weren't going much better with Cynthia and Maxine, when they hear someone break into the house. Joe then decided to lie about his foot injury, and when Joe and Jerrod went back to Joe and Cynthia's house, Joe prepares to shoot the intruder, but it turns out to be the ex-wife getting leftovers. This scene was very funny and had a great resolution, where Joe and Cynthia decided they were safer with a gun in the house and Jerrod and Maxine decided that they were safer without one. "Guns" wasn't as good of an episode as "Prayer", but it was still good.


I thought that "Guns" was a pretty good episode and "Prayer" was a really good episode. If The Carmichael Show returns for a second season, as I think it will, I am excited to see the episodes that the show provides us with.

What did you think of "Prayer" and "Guns"? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

The Carmichael Show S1E3-4 Review

GlobalTV

After last week's good pilot and mediocre second episode, both of which showed potential, I was excited to watch more of The Carmichael Show, a vast improvement on its timeslot predecessor, Mr. Robinson. Similar to last week, it looked like both of tonight's episodes would talk about real issues, while the 9:00 episode talks about a much less controversial issue of health, and the 9:30 episode aims to tackle an even bigger topic, gender roles and sexuality.

S1E3 "Kale"

While the previous two episodes took a little bit to get funny, the third was funny right off the bat. Jerrod and Maxine were actually entertaining without other characters in the room, which is something I was very glad about. When the parents entered, the four characters played off of each other really well. The brother also came in, and he really wasn't that funny, but it was alright because the other four were so funny.

The plot of the episode advanced at a good pace, as about a third of the way through the episode Joe started to not feel well after eating kale. They then went to the hospital, which wasn't as funny as the dinner, but I did love the line "he's trying to Empire us!"

While the first half of the episode was great, the second half wasn't quite as funny. Jerrod was a little too focused on making sure his father ate healthy, though there was some funny moments, mostly involving Cynthia. Eventually in a confrontation Jerrod said that he wanted his father to take care of himself because he loved him, which was a really great moment. The episode ended with a lot of funny moments, concluding what has been the best episode of The Carmichael Show so far.


S1E4 "Gender"

The plot of the second episode took a while to progress. For the first third of the episode Jerrod was just talking about how he was going to be a big brother to a kid and he was meeting that kid. It was a third of the way through the episode when the kid told Jerrod that he was gay. After that, Jerrod talked with his parents about it, and when he decided what to say he talked to the kid again, who told him that he wasn't actually gay, but he was transgender. The first half of the episode progressed too slowly in the plot, and wasn't very funny.

While the episode's plot seemed like one that could be really great, it didn't deliver. As I said last week, the show wants to tackle serious issues, but it is having trouble doing it. The show does better with less controversial issues and when it uses a lot of humor. Also I didn't enjoy this episode as much because it seemed like there wasn't very much focus on the supporting characters, just Jerrod, while the previous episodes had a lot of the other characters. This episode did not meet my expectations for it.


I thought that "Kale" was a very good episode, while "Gender" was bad. I appreciate the fact that the show wants to tackle serious issues, but in both of the episodes that attempted at being more serious so far, it did not go well.

What did you think of the episodes "Kale" and "Gender"?

The Carmichael Show Series Premiere Review

Splitsider

Thanks for reading my first review of The Carmichael Show! Before I begin my review I just wanted to let anyone interested know that if you would like to review any shows this fall, or contribute to The TV Ratings Guide in other ways, to contact theratingsjunkie. And now, my review.

While I was very unimpressed with NBC's other end-of-summer sitcom Mr. Robinson, I still was interested in watching The Carmichael Show. While the original trailer made the show look good enough to try out, but not all that great, the advertisements that NBC has aired since then look better and I really thought that the show could be better than its timeslot predecessor. And this is what I thought of the first two episodes of The Carmichael Show.


S1E1 "Pilot"

The start of the first episode was pretty good. It set up the plot of the episode well, though it didn't have too many laughs. The most entertaining part of the first scene was Jerrod's trying to get off the topic of Maxine moving in with him. After that the show got a lot funnier when Jerrod's parents were introduced. Jerrod gets his parents to debate so that Maxine can't tell them that they moved in together, and it was hilarious. The personalities of the two parents were just hilarious.

But the episode was only halfway over, because this is a sitcom, which means that the problem can't be resolved easily. Jerrod of course realized how important it was to Maxine that they are honest with his parents, so they went back to their house to tell them the news, which gave the parents more opportunity to be hilarious.

It was a pretty good pilot, and while the parents provided most of the funny and the rest of the cast didn't, the show definitely has potential.


S1E2 "Protest"

The second episode started similarly, starting with Jerrod and Maxine, and then Jerrod's brother and his ex-wife entering. While the show attempted at some jokes at the beginning with Jerrod not liking his gift very much, it wasn't funny. Then, the brother's ex-wife introduced the episode's main plot, a unarmed black person was shot by a police officer and as a result people are protesting.

This episode wasn't very funny. The episode talked about a serious issue, and as a result it was taken seriously and the attempted jokes fell flat. I didn't really laugh until almost halfway through the episode when the ex-wife came in a with a stolen TV. It handled the serious issue fairly well, but it just didn't feel right for the show, at least at this point. Many sitcoms in the past have tackled serious issues, but usually it wasn't this early on.

There were a couple of good jokes when Jerrod and his dad were talking, but after that the episode wasn't as funny. It wasn't serious though either, it was just trying to be funny, but not doing it well.


Overall, I thought that the first episode was good, and the second was mediocre. The parents are very funny, but the other characters need to be funny too. Also, it seems like the show wants to tackle serious issues, so I hope they can do that well, they did it alright in "Protest".

What did you think of the series premiere of The Carmichael Show? Leave your thoughts in the comments!