What we have here is a comedy about a man whose wife passed away. In film-land, dark comedies generally elevate both comedy and drama-tragedy genres. In TV-land, dark comedies rarely find the right balance. However, with "Go On", I am optimistic solely because of Matthew Perry in the lead role of Ryan King, a sportscaster. In over 15 years of TV sitcoms and light comedy film roles, he has always been able to deliver a sarcastic comment in lieu of actual advice, and successfully make us laugh, over and over again.
Ryan's boss forces him to attend group therapy to help deal with the loss of his wife. As can be guessed, group therapy is filled with all different people from all different walks of life with all different depressing issues to deal with. It has been compared to "Community" in the regard that we have group of people with different ages, racial and cultural backgrounds. While it's very clear that this series isn't going to go in the same direction at all, it should also be noted that this group won't be able to make many people laugh. There's around 10-12 members in the group therapy, which is way too many for us to get to know. Based on the pilot, it looks like one member might be able to make me laugh, which means approximately 10 won't.
The next big issue with "Go On" is who is going to be able to take Perry's sarcastic comments and throw them back at him for the extended punch-line? There's no Jennifer Aniston, Allison Janney, Sarah Paulson, David Schwimmer, or Bradley Whitford. And I really don't have faith that any of the sports stars can deliver a scripted joke.
What we have here is failure to communicate. Just like most dark comedies attempting to grace the small screen.
While I liked "Mr. Sunshine", "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip", and "Friends" a lot more than the few laughs I got out of the pilot for "Go On", I will remain optimistic. If the writing is good, the jokes will follow.
Ryan's boss forces him to attend group therapy to help deal with the loss of his wife. As can be guessed, group therapy is filled with all different people from all different walks of life with all different depressing issues to deal with. It has been compared to "Community" in the regard that we have group of people with different ages, racial and cultural backgrounds. While it's very clear that this series isn't going to go in the same direction at all, it should also be noted that this group won't be able to make many people laugh. There's around 10-12 members in the group therapy, which is way too many for us to get to know. Based on the pilot, it looks like one member might be able to make me laugh, which means approximately 10 won't.
The next big issue with "Go On" is who is going to be able to take Perry's sarcastic comments and throw them back at him for the extended punch-line? There's no Jennifer Aniston, Allison Janney, Sarah Paulson, David Schwimmer, or Bradley Whitford. And I really don't have faith that any of the sports stars can deliver a scripted joke.
What we have here is failure to communicate. Just like most dark comedies attempting to grace the small screen.
While I liked "Mr. Sunshine", "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip", and "Friends" a lot more than the few laughs I got out of the pilot for "Go On", I will remain optimistic. If the writing is good, the jokes will follow.