Partners on CBS

[FindingNamo]

I found the latest from the Will & Grace team much more entertaining than "The New Normal." Funnier pilot, better script, better acting. Yeah, it has the post-Friends James Burrows trademarks, set up set up joke, set up joke, exterior new location, etc.

BUT, the humor is not mean-spirited, you can understand why these people are friends, Michael Urie sells his character well.

[Jordan Catalano]

So theres no Karen Walker/Nana character? I don't know if I can watch a show without a mean middle aged woman making fun of everybody.

[Jay Lerner-Z]

I'm guessing the set designer worked on Will and Grace too.

Also, David Krumholtz has made quite an impression on me.

[FindingNamo]

There's a busty Latina supporting character. She's not stupid, so she's different from Karen in that respect.

[Jon]

The Latina secretary is the love child of Karen Walker and Rosario.

I know the lead characters are somewhat based on Kohan and Muchnick - the crators - one straight, one gay, longtime best friends, but to me it comes off as "Will and Grace - if Will were straight and Jack wasn't a moron."

[EricMontreal22]

But she does like to flaunt her breast, and Michael Uhrie is comforted by laying his head on them...

I... liked it actually, kinda despite myself. The other week Jordan said how he liked that Men with Babies (I think that's what it's called--such a generic name) was appealing partly because it was old school, and that's how I felt here--which yes, makes me a bit of a hypocrite as I complained in that case. Half the jokes fell flat, others could be spoted a mile away but were saved by good direction and delivery, particularly from Uhrie.

Uhrie seems to basically be a significantly more realistic take on Jack--which is fine. Braondon Routh once again shows he's not the best at TV, even if he still looks great (when he was on One Life to Live he was the worst actor I've ever seen on a soap, which is saying something), and he was stuck with some dumb jokes like the repeated heart-on/hard-on one. They still don't seem to quite define his character--I hope they don't make him too dumb (it felt like they were going back and forth about how clueless he is, but I admit he probably plays a loveable puppy dog type character better than a smart one). Sophia Busch and David Krumholtz were fine.

And yeah, the one thing I did appreciate about it was the humour really wasn't mean spirited. As hackneyed as the plot was (and really, I duno if Uhrie deserved to be dumped as a friend because he had heard that they were going to break up and was trying to comfort her), that's actually oddly refreshing.

Have the Will and Grace team had any other hits besides W&G? I can think of a couple of shows that died quick deaths... I wonder how this will go over.

[FindingNamo]

I was surprised to like it because I abhorred Will & Grace. At least in the pilot of Parnters it seemed as if they were interested in creating relationships that reflect the type that humans have, unlike those on W&G.

[EricMontreal22]

I watched Will and Grace (though it was never a show I would freak about missing), and while I think it had a few good years, I get what you're saying. To be fair to the creators of it, and this, David Kohan and Max Mutchnick the really bad years were the four years they left the show over that lawsuit (they returned to write the series finale). That's when what had bothered me about it, was at its worse--Karen and Jack seemed completely to be in some different sort of reality and you had no idea why Will and Grace tolerated htem, the humour was more mean spirited, and Will and Grace both got more neurotic and obsessive and you wondered why *they* were friends. Actually, it sounds like a lesser version of what bugs me with some Ryan Murphy shows.

I agree with you that, judging purely by Partner's pilotm, while all the characters seem to fit classic sitcom tropes, they do seem much more like characters I could actually picture wanting to hang around with in real life. Anyway, we'll see if the creators have more success than they had with such flops as Four Kings, Twins and Good Morning Miami (I liked the pilot more than those, anyway).

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

You guys, I just got done watching this and I was so worried opening this thread that I was going to be the only one who didn't hate it. For a show I thought had a lot going against it (it's on CBS, it's three-camera, it's called "Partners") I thought it was kind of delightful.

And, like Namo said, it's not mean-spirited. And even if it was a little predictable, I liked that the inevitable gay jokes were funny. The "girlfriend likes her liquor" line made me laugh out loud the second time. It didn't feel like it was trying too hard.

I love Michael Urie anyway, and I thought his character was the kind of tv gay I'd like to be friends with.

All four leads were appealing. It didn't feel like Will and Grace with dudes (please don't have a revelation that Michael Urie is hung up on David Krumholtz's character. EVER). Namo invoked Friends (what I consider the gold standard on this kind of sitcom) and I think like that show, all of them have an easy chemistry with each other that doesn't seem forced.

I feel like word of mouth was kind of blah on this, I'd preemptively say tell your friends to start watching now.

[EricMontreal22]

I wonder if this kinda show would have more of a chance on a station like TVLand. CBS' traditional style sitcoms are now much more snarky, mean spirited, or at least "clever" (in the case of How I Met Your Mother), and it does seem a hard fit. The critics were much more won over by "that other gay comedy" if metacritic is any barometer http://www.metacritic.com/tv/partners-2012 39% vs 60% for New Normal, but 3 camera sitcoms are hardly critical faves at the moment.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Alas, I missed this! But I was just looking at some stills online. Jesus H. Christ, did they sandblast David Krumholtz??? He hasn't looked this sharp and put together EVER.

[TheatreDiva90016]

"But she does like to flaunt her breast,"


She only has one? That's different.


And Michaels last name is URIE.

[Reginald Tresilian]

You need an apostrophe in "Michael's."

[strummergirl]

The Will & Grace team got stuck with Jeff Zucker's vanity project Good Morning, Miami and then when they went over to CBS they were responsible for adapting S#@* My Dad Says from a twitter feed into a sitcom that lasted a year. So this seems more based on their friendship then somebody else's idea.

[EricMontreal22]

Thanks for the corrections Diva... I think I was planning on typing bosom, as they phrased it in the show.

[songanddanceman2]

WHAT???

This was horrible, and judging by the terrible ratings won't be around long. The pacing was so fast, it felt like it stayed on a scene for 5 seconds then jumped to the next one. The jokes (when they happened) were terrible (Heart On....Really?...and twice), Routh still can't act, Michael was trying to make unfunny lines work but could not save it and the secretary was pointless.

I am shocked that anyone liked this. It was so sweet natured....and normally i don't mind that, but this just floated along, it was like a bad I Love Lucy but with men or something from 20 years ago.

Nobody had any chemistry, the scene change music is annoying and the character's are just not interesting.

The New Normal may not be ground breaking but i would take that over this in a heartbeat.

[EricMontreal22]

Ha, as I said in my first comment--I actually agree with most of your points. But still, I liked it enough that it won me over. I do think they have chemistry--Routh probably aside. Oh and I didn't like the clapping music either.

*shrug* The reviews seem to either say episode 2 is worse, or an improvement, so I guess we'll see. As for quick scenes though--I find New Normal plows through its show much faster.

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Even though they were both gay, the Jack/Will relationship in W&G isn't a million miles away from the pair in this show.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Except without the constant nastiness.

[canmark]

I just watched the pilot episode online. Not great. I'll give it a chance and watch a couple more episodes, but I much prefer The New Normal.

I'm finding it hard to care about the characters in Partners (although, it may take a few episodes to learn enough about them to know whether I care about them), and I have no sense of how they will grow and change. That they are established as best friends, who break up and then get back together in the first episode... well, that totally had no effect on me. Unlike, say, Will & Grace, who have a friendship breakup after several *years* of episodes--*that* had a big effect.

I do like Michael Urie, so I'll give it a chance. But the show does seem like a pallid rehash of W&G.

The New Normal, on the other hand, presents characters in a situation (having a baby with a surrogate, who, along with her daughter, is becoming part of their family) that you know will change them. Andrew Rannells' character is presented as self-centered, but you know he will be forced to change. Justin Bartha's character wants his life to be orderly, but of course having kids will disrupt all sense of order. And the surrogate mom (I forgot her name) is finding a family with the gay dads that she never had with her actual baby daddy.

[FindingNamo]

Her name is Reese.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

For what it's worth, I don't think we were supposed to be too invested in the break-up of this friendship. It was a plot device. I get that. I dunno, like we've said, I thought the characters were nice. I don't have to have it laid out for me how they are going to grow and change.

This is is making people downright vicious on other sites. I kind of understand though, because that's how I feel about The New Normal.

[EricMontreal22]

LOL. Poor Goldie.

My prob with the valid points you make Canmark, but that's another of my issues. As you say--we basically already KNOW where all of the characters are gonna go in New Normal.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Plus the the New Normal's reality is so cartoonishly over the top, it's hard for me to find any investment in that.

[EricMontreal22]

There's nothing to relate to--I agree. If it was biting satire (as I think at times it thinks it is) that would be different.

That said I admit I recorded today's episode... Not sure if I'll watch it (it sounds like, from the New Normal Thread it was the worst yet).

[FindingNamo]

I just remember how hard I laughed at the basset hound's name.

And Michael Urie making the break-up of the engagement all about him.