REL

Even though Howery is saddled with having to be the standard sitcom protagonist around which the rest of the show revolves, it still offers him a chance to indulge in the crowd-pleasing charms that made him a “Get Out” breakout.

It's a big, sometimes over-the-top sitcom like Good Times, The Jeffersons or the other black comedies that dominated the Nielsen ratings for much of the 1970s. But its ambitions to be something more are sadly unfulfilled.

There are occasional glimpses of “Seinfeld”-style humor. ... But the pilot is neither as funny as that NBC classic nor as topical as “The Carmichael Show.”

The generalities are in place for a workable comedy. It's the specifics that are often hacky and generally unfunny, yet they're frequently rewarded by what feels like a surplus of audience approval, which always ends up being one of the elements that make multicam haters cringe.

Likable lead and cast, but Rel otherwise feels like a tepid, tame commercial network sitcom.

The whole thing comes off as uncomfortably clownish and insulting to viewers of any color, let alone African-Americans who have every right to cringe at such off-putting, clownish portrayals in times when FX’s immeasurably superior Atlanta has charted such bold new territory.