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FALL TV
THE
GOLDBERGS
premiered 9 p.m. EST
Sept. 24 on ABC
THE PREMISE:
Family life in the ’80s.
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: AP PHOTO/ABC, ERIC MCCANDLESS; VIVIAN ZINK/NBC; ADAM TAYLOR/NBC
WHAT IT SAID TO
ME: I’m sorry, I can’t
hear you, my ears
are ringing from the
sheer loudness of this
show. On paper, the show’s premise bears comparison to that of The
Wonder Years. In practice, this show kept telling me that it was going
to shout at me a lot, and I am not a fan of migraines. The Goldbergs
has a solid adult cast, but the whole thing leans heavily on broad
humor and cartoonish moments — and did I mention that it’s loud?
WELCOME TO THE FAMILY
premieres 8:30 p.m. EST Oct. 3 on NBC.
THE PREMISE: A teen finds out at graduation that she’s pregnant by
her secret boyfriend.
WHAT IT SAID TO ME: That everyone involved in this production
finds family life annoying and teenagers grating. None of the
strained culture-clash stuff between the white family and the
Latino family is funny (it’s actually quite musty and stale), and the
way the two fathers make the whole crisis about them is tiresome.
The bigger problem is, this show clearly has designs on being the
next Modern Family and yet it isn’t charming in the slightest. To
hook viewers, the pilot needs to make them care about at least one
person in this ensemble, and it can’t manage that.
SEAN SAVES
THE WORLD
premieres 9 p.m. EST
Oct. 3 on NBC.
THE PREMISE: A gay
single dad raises his
precocious teen and
works for a weird boss.
WHAT IT SAID TO
ME: That we have
entered the Wayback
Machine, and it’s 1995
and a bunch of Caroline
in the City writers got
too much money to
make the kind of semicrappy sitcom that
used to be slotted into
those gaps between
Friends and Will &
Grace or attached to
Frasier like an awkward
barnacle. The rhythms,
the “jokes” and the
pace are all stiff and
overwrought, and
priority seems to be
giving Sean Hayes
a huge number of
opportunities to mug
for the camera. Hayes
is a sharp, talented
comedic actor, but this
show doesn’t use him
well and it’s as false and
as brittle as they come.