Back to You

I'd rather just watch Grammer and Heaton trade barbs in the newsroom. [21 Sep 2007, p.71]

Grammer and Heaton slip easily into characters who won't be easily mistaken for Frasier Crane or Debra Barone, the writing's professional, the supporting cast dependable (and in the case of Fred Willard, another "Raymond" veteran, dependably hilarious).

Still, even when Back is faltering, you flash back to the skill of its stars and to moments when the show succeeds in making you laugh out loud.

Absolutely nothing about it is original or seeks to transform the half-hour genre. Still, the fact that it is executed by sure-footed comedy veterans more than makes up for the sin of familiarity.

So many parts of the pilot, though, seem dumbed down or sacrificing character for punch lines, you wonder why things weren't retooled in time for launch.

Whenever the action drifts away from Heaton or Grammer, the show starts to feel slack.

Back to You stinks, shames the sitcom form, is written and directed with smelly gusto, and is not original, funny or redemptive by any universal standards known to science, creation or TV executives.