Two New

I'm not going out of my way to see every new fall series--I watch too much TV already--but a couple sitcoms debuted on Fox last Tuesday and I had nothing to do, so...

First came Dads, a multi-camera show featuring Seth Green and Giovanni Ribisi as successful business partners who develop video games, and, of course, their dads, played by Peter Riegert and Martin Mull.  The basic business of the pilot was having the fathers move in with their sons, even if it means two sets of odd couples.  There are also a few women sprinkled in, both at work and home.

The show comes from Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild of Family Guy, and it features a lot of Family Guy's trademark offensive humor, which seems to work better once-removed in animation.  The cast is game, and reasonably appealing, but the sons are essentially hipster douchebags and the fathers a collection of bad and unpleasant habits.

The work situation sort of plays, but the dads moving in and messing with their kids' lives is a tired cliche, and the jokes are even more tired.  If this show wants to find an audience, it needs to move in a better direction quick. (Though look at 2 Broke Girls--there may be hope.)

Considerably better is Brooklyn Nine-Nine, a one-camera show starring SNL alum Andy Samberg as a murder detective. (His first case is who killed his movie career.) It also features Andre Braugher as the new, no-nonsense captain. Creators Dan Goor and Michael Schur come from Parks And Recreation.

Samberg's detective is a smart-ass, but one who gets the job done.  He's also got a relationship with his more serious female partner, played by Melissa Fumero.  There's also a fairly decent cast of supporting actors, each with their own quirks, filling up the precinct.

While it may not have been laugh-out-loud, many of the jokes landed, and the performances were sharp yet low-key enough that characters commenting on the action, a common comic trope these days, was less annoying than usual.  I'm not thrilled with mixing cops and comedy--though it's certainly been done before--but as long as the crime-solving is mostly in the background I think the show could be fun.