Grand Crew

The writing and direction has a little ways to catch up with the cast, which comprises mostly unknowns who have already solidified into a slick ensemble.

“Grand Crew,” like “American Auto,” boasts actors who work well together. ... After a rocky pilot episode, “Grand Crew” has gotten better. The show makes the characters’ Black identity part of its fabric, without anyone stopping to deliver lectures. ... “Grand Crew” keeps the comedy front and center.

Amiable. ... The comedy is exaggerated but efficient, and like most of these series, and network comedies in general, it is not cynical or ironic.

Grand Crew, like its fellow freshman sitcom American Auto, has a lot to like but still needs some time to find its way. But at least the show will be entertaining to watch as it finds its comedic footing.

At this early point in the season, Grand Crew feels too chaotic to go down as smoothly as it should. But give it time, and it could yet mellow into a perfectly balanced glass.

This NBC comedy has potential thanks largely to the presence of Echo Kellum (“You’re the Worst”) and Nicole Byer (“Nailed It!”). Even so, the writing for Byer needs to be as sharp as she is – which in the two episodes made available for review, it’s not.

Quite the opposite of American Auto's sheer looniness, Grand Crew seems intent on redefining the word "tepid."