Carol's Second Act

Heaton brings a giddy charm to the “what if” role and gets great support from a cast just waiting to break out.

Heaton nails the role because she's had so much practice at this, but "Carol's Second Act" does her — and the trope — one better, by ever-so-slightly inverting our Heaton expectations. ... Heaton is back in another "family" sitcom. As expected, a good one.

The joke-telling isn't particularly sharp — a lot of punchlines revolve around slapstick mischief and the rookies' fear of killing their patients — but Heaton's veteran comic timing and Jalees' sardonic delivery keep the energy afloat. Carol comes across as the dorky mom who sends you "chin-up!" memes on Facebook: groan-inducing, but sweet. ... There's potential here, but first Carol needs to stop tripping over her own compassion.

Carol's Second Act could use more punchlines and less impassioned wisdom.

The age jokes are in the CBS wheelhouse, and some of the gags are occasionally funny, but the whole endeavor seems predictably rote, from the cold, aloof chief resident to the uber-confident intern (Jean-Luc Bilodeau, “Kyle XY”).

Literally nothing jells in this ham-handed first half-hour, and it may already be too late for full-blown emergency surgery. Still, Carol’s Second Act could well get a decent tune-in due to Heaton’s mere presence.

Unfortunately, the writing is terrible. One-liners like “Turns out Caleb’s not a woke bae” are only legible as jokes once the laugh track kicks in. It’s all especially disappointing coming from co-creator Sarah Haskins and Emily Halpern, the team behind ABC’s underrated one-season wonder Trophy Wife. Even the always-welcome presence of Kyle MacLachlan, as Heaton’s love interest, can’t save this mess.

I've watched each episode so far in order to give it a fair chance. I really want to like it but haven't been able to find enough reasons to. Heaton is pretty good and a refreshing change of pace from her previous roles. However the supporting cast, especially the other interns, are unimpressive. The one liners are weak but the worst thing of all is the horrendous laugh track....ruins the show for me. One highlight is Dennis, the nurse, and I think they would make major improvements by adjusting the rest of the supporting cast and getting rid of the laugh track. I'll watch through a few more episodes to see if it improves but I don't have high expectations it will at this rate.

I wanted to watch another couple episodes after I saw the pilot. As bad as the pilot was, the subsequent episodes I watched were worse. The writing is poor, the premise is worse, and even Ms Heaton can't make up for that. No matter how hard she tries. It is difficult to determine whether the supporting characters are suitable for the roles they play, as they seem to be over-acting to make up for the poor writing. If the producers really think this show is as funny as they try to project via the laugh track, then I'd say that someone might as well seek an alternate career opportunity.

I have watched all episodes so far I was so wanting this to be good. I think the story line could be funny. From Patricia Heaven to Lucas NeFF and especially Jean luc Bilodeau do not know how to deliver funny lines they are forced and predictable. I wanted this to be good but it’s not, the only bright spot is the one actress I didn’t know before now Ito Aghayere. I think her character comes across believable and smooth her arrogance seems genuine to the show. Am very disappointed.

The writing is horrible. The humor is forced and lacks even the slightest bit of subtlety. The acting is over the top, the characters are caricatures. There is nothing entertaining about this pathetic attempt to be funny. It would be more effective if the actors squirted each other with seltzer and threw pies while falling to the ground. Any possible talent is completely wasted reading a script that is less than sophomoric.

Not good. Unfunny, laugh track is terrible, jokes about old people, they have an older doctor there who seems to do nothing but be a love interest for the old doctor. Sterotypical cast. Nothing funny. Too much competition from cable for this to be even remotely interesting. Too bad. Heaton was great in THE MIDDLE.