It’s fun to spend time with a well-crafted, smartly paced, expertly acted comedy whose variation on Walter White, Martin Marvin, is a guy you don’t have to be a seething sociopath to root for.
It’s the superior of the two shows, in large part because of Weisz’s performance, which seduces the viewer with sensuality and humor, only to shock us with unhinged behavior. But what gives it the thematic resonance Rooster never reaches for is Jonas’ psychological insight into a place steeped in art and ideas that still gets bogged down in bureaucracy and appearances.
Mostly, though, Archie’s indiscretion serves as a conduit to character comedy about well-meaning screw-ups trying to make good. The ensemble is large and charming. .... The only remarkable thing about Rooster, really, is that it treats a campus rocked by teacher-student sex as just another backdrop.
DTF is a tricky show, one whose apparent inconsistencies might turn out to be deliberate choices. It has an offbeat, sometimes surreal sense of humor. The writing and acting alternate between stylized stiffness and heartwrenching realism.
Network TV’s first worthy heir to 30 Rock. What that show was to SNL, this one is to the NFL. The surprise is that it also smartly cribs from The Office’s playbook.
The plot gets a bit woolly towards the end, the mix of tones doesn’t always work, and I sometimes wished I could watch its central girlfriends do anything besides play amateur detective. Still, even if you’re over whodunits, McGee’s cleverly meta spin on an overdone genre and her genius for comedy, dialogue, and character development make for an altogether good craic.
This results in a surprisingly restrained fusion of The Crown’s later seasons and a Murphyverse obsessed with reframing 20th century American mythology—a story that contains many strong elements but doesn’t dig deep enough to avoid tedium.
The show finds a unique voice fast, revealing a sense of humor that is gentler than that of its influences and unusually nuanced in its take on suburban secrets.
