9JKL

The series isn’t breaking any comedic boundaries, but it does entertain.

[Mark Feuerstein] brings exuberance and a certain likability to the role as a good son who’s still trying to please his parents. But geez, what a grind 9JKL is. You’ll find more originality in the recipe for cream of boiled water soup.

It’d be easier to buy into the premise if the jokes were fresher, zippier and less worn-out. But like some flailing adults who move home, 9JKL appears to lack ambition.

On the show, family hijinx ensue; out in the audience, it's more like self-lobotomies with machetes.

The show’s one-joke premise--parents can be such buttinskis!--wears thin fast despite the likability of Ms. Lavin and Mr. Gould. A few jokes manage to land, but mostly it’s predictable dialogue about what a smothering mother Ms. Lavin’s character is. There’s also way too much information about the state of Mr. Gould’s testicles.

If you last the entire pilot, and your head doesn’t hurt, you’re a sturdier viewer than I.

The show gets off to a dreadful non-start. Old pros like Lavin and Gould are given no choice but to play their parts way, way over the top, because their characters have been brushed far too broadly, with jokes that are beyond stale.