ABC Fall Pilot Review: Single Parents - Premieres September 26 - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

TJ · 09-26-2018, 12:04 PM

Single Parents - Wednesdays at 9:30PM ET/PT on ABC
Premieres Wednesday, September 26, 2018 at 9:30PM ET/PT

This ensemble comedy follows a group of single parents as they lean on each other to help raise their 7-year-old kids and maintain some kind of personal lives outside of parenthood. The series begins when the group meets Will Cooper, a 30-something guy who's been so focused on raising his daughter that he's lost sight of who he is as a man. When the other single parents see just how far down the rabbit hole of PTA, parenting and princesses Will has gone, they band together to get him out in the world and make him realize that being a great parent doesn't mean sacrificing everything about your own identity.

Read our review here:
http://blog.sitcomsonline.com/2018/0...e-parents.html

TMC · 09-27-2018, 02:20 AM

Single Parents doesn't break new ground with its easily predictable jokes

The ABC comedy that New Girl's Liz Meriwether created with her colleague JJ Phlbin has a whiff of overfamiliarity, like all network shows, says Tim Goodman. "Very few series know how to really be great in this genre — Amazon's Catastrophe is a brilliant example of how to do it with originality — but Single Parents feels like a comedy that goes for simple snark and believes it's a little more clever than it really is, but then had a bunch of network notes stuck to it about softening those right angles," he says. "The result is a kind of paint-by-numbers approach meant to be, uh, different? All the parents here are single — how they got that way isn't really confusing but neither is it really interesting."

ALSO:

Two things work to Single Parents' advantage: Its formula and characters, despite an imperfect pilot
The pilot is bogged down in haggard-parenting gags that are older than Hulu and Netflix lifespans combined
It’s refreshing to see a comedy that acknowledges a different experience than most hangout sitcoms do
Taran Killam immediately has the great sitcom dad thing locked down
Leighton Meester says playing a mom gives her "room to have a little bit more depth"
Creators Liz Meriwether and writer JJ Philbin explain how Single Parents came out of the New Girl writers' room
Why did it take Killam so long to star in a TV show after leaving SNL?

09-26-2018, 12:04 PM	#1
TJ Site Owner Administrator Forum Star Join Date: Feb 03, 2000 Location: Marietta, GA Posts: 10,648	ABC Fall Pilot Review: Single Parents - Premieres September 26 Single Parents - Wednesdays at 9:30PM ET/PT on ABC Premieres Wednesday, September 26, 2018 at 9:30PM ET/PT This ensemble comedy follows a group of single parents as they lean on each other to help raise their 7-year-old kids and maintain some kind of personal lives outside of parenthood. The series begins when the group meets Will Cooper, a 30-something guy who's been so focused on raising his daughter that he's lost sight of who he is as a man. When the other single parents see just how far down the rabbit hole of PTA, parenting and princesses Will has gone, they band together to get him out in the world and make him realize that being a great parent doesn't mean sacrificing everything about your own identity. Read our review here: http://blog.sitcomsonline.com/2018/0...e-parents.html

09-27-2018, 02:20 AM	#2
TMC Member Forum Idol Join Date: Jan 09, 2001 Posts: 124,387	Single Parents doesn't break new ground with its easily predictable jokes The ABC comedy that New Girl's Liz Meriwether created with her colleague JJ Phlbin has a whiff of overfamiliarity, like all network shows, says Tim Goodman. "Very few series know how to really be great in this genre — Amazon's Catastrophe is a brilliant example of how to do it with originality — but Single Parents feels like a comedy that goes for simple snark and believes it's a little more clever than it really is, but then had a bunch of network notes stuck to it about softening those right angles," he says. "The result is a kind of paint-by-numbers approach meant to be, uh, different? All the parents here are single — how they got that way isn't really confusing but neither is it really interesting." ALSO: Two things work to Single Parents' advantage: Its formula and characters, despite an imperfect pilot The pilot is bogged down in haggard-parenting gags that are older than Hulu and Netflix lifespans combined It’s refreshing to see a comedy that acknowledges a different experience than most hangout sitcoms do Taran Killam immediately has the great sitcom dad thing locked down Leighton Meester says playing a mom gives her "room to have a little bit more depth" Creators Liz Meriwether and writer JJ Philbin explain how Single Parents came out of the New Girl writers' room Why did it take Killam so long to star in a TV show after leaving SNL?