This show started off much better than I expected, but it's been going downhill episode by episode. This is a disappointment--a good cast (including the two newcomer stars), a great concept, an interesting start; it should be a good show. But it's not.
The anachronisms don't bother me too much. But then I was in 6th grade in 1980, so the fact that the show looks and sounds more like 1984 isn't too much of a problem for me.
Even the fact that Do Over is rarely funny would be excusable if it had something else going for it.
I wish the writers could decide whether the show was aimed at 30-somethings or teenagers, but I know 80s music is popular among teens, so I understand.
The real problem is that the characters make less and less sense with each episode. Cheryl, is decent as a sitcom evil sister, and Isabelle might work as a more minor character, but the major characters are completely implausible and impossible to relate to.
Let's start with Joel. Why is he so interested in Holly? Wouldn't he realize that she was nothing special after spending five minutes with her? And wouldn't he feel like a child-molester chasing a 14-year-old girl? Even what you'd expect from a formulaic sitcom (Joel gives a chance to the perfect girl he passed up the first time around--maybe Isabelle?) would be better than this. (Of course realistically, someone with a 14-year-old's hormones and a 34-year-old's experience would probably be picking up college-age girls and getting laid every weekend, but that wouldn't make a good show.)
Now, on to Pat. Since there was no real punk community for him to hang out with at that time, it's plausible that he'd be the weirdo in a semi-nerdish group like Joel and friends (that's pretty much what I was in 1984). I'd like to be able to relate to Pat, but I can't even understand him. Def Leppard?!? I see why he wanted to get Joel to sneak off to a concert, but wouldn't it be, say, an X show at some small club? (And wouldn't a Nirvana-quoting 34-year-old like Joel also be more interested in seeing some classic alternative band that he'd missed the first time around than Def Leppard?)
The parents are completely inconsistent; I get the feeling that whenever the writers don't know what to do with Joel's parents, they decide to write for Red and Kitty Forman (from That 70s Show) instead. This laziness means that the characters haven't been developed at all--and really can't be. They're just Eric's parents with a couple of extra one-shot jokes thrown in.
And other than the Larsens, Pat, Isabelle, and Holly, there are no other real characters at all.
I wish the creators had spent more time watching Square Pegs (or even That 80s Show).
Then again, I suppose I shouldn't have expected much from the "Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place" team, another show that wasted good actors on inconsistent and un-fleshed-out characters.
The anachronisms don't bother me too much. But then I was in 6th grade in 1980, so the fact that the show looks and sounds more like 1984 isn't too much of a problem for me.
Even the fact that Do Over is rarely funny would be excusable if it had something else going for it.
I wish the writers could decide whether the show was aimed at 30-somethings or teenagers, but I know 80s music is popular among teens, so I understand.
The real problem is that the characters make less and less sense with each episode. Cheryl, is decent as a sitcom evil sister, and Isabelle might work as a more minor character, but the major characters are completely implausible and impossible to relate to.
Let's start with Joel. Why is he so interested in Holly? Wouldn't he realize that she was nothing special after spending five minutes with her? And wouldn't he feel like a child-molester chasing a 14-year-old girl? Even what you'd expect from a formulaic sitcom (Joel gives a chance to the perfect girl he passed up the first time around--maybe Isabelle?) would be better than this. (Of course realistically, someone with a 14-year-old's hormones and a 34-year-old's experience would probably be picking up college-age girls and getting laid every weekend, but that wouldn't make a good show.)
Now, on to Pat. Since there was no real punk community for him to hang out with at that time, it's plausible that he'd be the weirdo in a semi-nerdish group like Joel and friends (that's pretty much what I was in 1984). I'd like to be able to relate to Pat, but I can't even understand him. Def Leppard?!? I see why he wanted to get Joel to sneak off to a concert, but wouldn't it be, say, an X show at some small club? (And wouldn't a Nirvana-quoting 34-year-old like Joel also be more interested in seeing some classic alternative band that he'd missed the first time around than Def Leppard?)
The parents are completely inconsistent; I get the feeling that whenever the writers don't know what to do with Joel's parents, they decide to write for Red and Kitty Forman (from That 70s Show) instead. This laziness means that the characters haven't been developed at all--and really can't be. They're just Eric's parents with a couple of extra one-shot jokes thrown in.
And other than the Larsens, Pat, Isabelle, and Holly, there are no other real characters at all.
I wish the creators had spent more time watching Square Pegs (or even That 80s Show).
Then again, I suppose I shouldn't have expected much from the "Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place" team, another show that wasted good actors on inconsistent and un-fleshed-out characters.