S01.E01: Pilot

[ohjoy]

Kenan thinks he's adjusted to life as a busy single parent, but after everyone confronts him about denying his grief, he realizes it's time to make some changes. Gary thinks it's time for Rick to move out of the house.

Originally aired 2/16/2021

[Quickbeam]

The “This Is Us” joke was funny. The rest of the show is just painful.

[DanaK]

I liked this somewhat, but it seems kind of messy. The ending with the “outtakes” of Kenan and his wife playing his mother from his failed show was funny. I’ll see how it goes with the next few episodes

[mtlchick]

39 minutes ago, Quickbeam said:

The “This Is Us” joke was funny. The rest of the show is just painful.

Agreed.  I snickered at the gambling at plot twists part.  The rest was...I don't know.  I like the family (Kenan's faces will never not be funny) but there was parts of the work place where it seemed the energy dropped.  

[MBJ]

52 minutes ago, mtlchick said:

  I like the family (Kenan's faces will never not be funny) but there was parts of the work place where it seemed the energy dropped.  

Yeah, is there really a need for another bitchy woman character like Tammy on TV?  I swear it's written into contracts that every show has to have at least one character like this.  I don't get it.

[juno]

For a pilot this was pretty good. There was no laugh track so that was a plus. Kenan is funny and has a lot of energy. His kids are great; funny and smart. Don Johnson is okay, seems a bit out of place in that he doesn't have chemistry with the family yet. Chris Redd is funny and has good chemistry with the family.

The workplace is cringy so far, probably because he is working out some of his trauma there. I have never liked Fortune Feimster in anything she has done so I hope her role is limited.

Going to try a few more and see where it goes.

[Tachi Rocinante]

Not bad for a pilot, but Kenan being on SNL for so long might hamper it.  Playing himself and not a wacky character or doing an impersonation will take some getting used to.

Pretty sure the daughters were on Brooklyn 99 as Terry's daughters.  Both Chris Redd and Don Johnson are fairly one-note so far.

I'll give it a few more.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Oh, Kenan. It looks like the advice you need most is to do all that lunch packing, backpack gathering, and outfit choosing the night before! When you're waking up before 4am, every minute counts. If you do those three things before bed, you can sleep in another 10 minutes!

This wasn't bad for a pilot. I loved that there was no laugh track. It felt like the show put Go On, The Unicorn, and the grandfather from Mixed-ish into a blender with a dash of Robin Scherbatsky's early early early morning show.

The cast all seems good, but I wish the taller daughter would enunciate more. I had to rewind every time she had a line. The kids are smartasses without being too precocious and his brother has just the right amount of irresponsible adult without being too over the top about it.

The show's big selling point is Kenan. His easy charm really helps.

[SoMuchTV]

32 minutes ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Oh, Kenan. It looks like the advice you need most is to do all that lunch packing, backpack gathering, and outfit choosing the night before! When you're waking up before 4am, every minute counts. If you do those three things before bed, you can sleep in another 10 minutes!

Mom?  Is that you?

I haven't watched it yet, but now I'm prepared to be triggered by early-morning stress.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

1 hour ago, SoMuchTV said:

Mom?  Is that you?

Hahaha, I am not a morning person so by the time I hit high school, I was already doing every possible thing I could the night before so that I could hit the snooze button one more time the next morning!

[MBJ]

But only an extreme version of a morning person would ever agree to be a morning talk show host, so I'm not sure they need the same advice that us night people do.

[tennisgurl]

Is it me, or does it sound like there used to be a laugh track or a studio audience and it was edited out for some reason? I guess its just because this reads as a very classic style laugh track sitcom, but it feels like the actors are pausing for a beat after each joke to wait for the laugh to finish before they moved to the next line. 

The This Is Us plot twist joke was hilarious, and I have always liked Kenan, but this was mostly not very great. I guess I cant be too surprised, pilots are usually rough, especially for comedy's, but this one was really rough. 

[Snapdragon]

11 minutes ago, tennisgurl said:

Is it me, or does it sound like there used to be a laugh track or a studio audience and it was edited out for some reason? I guess its just because this reads as a very classic style laugh track sitcom, but it feels like the actors are pausing for a beat after each joke to wait for the laugh to finish before they moved to the next line. 

The This Is Us plot twist joke was hilarious, and I have always liked Kenan, but this was mostly not very great. I guess I cant be too surprised, pilots are usually rough, especially for comedy's, but this one was really rough. 

Yes, I thought the same thing!  The rhythm of everything in the show felt like there should have been a laugh track.  In shows without laugh tracks, the dialogue is faster paced and there's a lot more back and forth.  This was very Person A says something, Person B gives a jokey response, pause for audience laughter.  It was just weird.

Also, I'm not sure how Kenan has had such a long career because he is literally doing the same impressions/acting that he did in All That almost 30 years ago.  

[seacliffsal]

Overall I enjoyed this.  However, I felt like they put every stereotype possible in the work environment.  Don Johnson really seemed out of place.  As long as a pilot is not insulting to me I will give a show a few more watches and see how it develops.  I have high hopes for this show.

[Mario500]

I had found some of the language in this "Pilot" to had been vulgar, unnecessary, detrimental, and disappointing (especially after having often enjoyed whom I had believed to had been the "Kenan" in this "Pilot" in various other movies (including certain TV programs named "All That" and "Kenan & Kel"). 

[BusyOctober]

I think the writing needs improvement.  I love Keenan, I like Chris Redd.  Never a Don Johnson fan, but he was OK.  The only coworker I like is Fortune Feimster’s character (but I like her comedy).  The Producer woman talks waaay too fast, and the pitch of her voice bugs.  Blonde up tight twit character needs to go ASAP.

I will give it a few more tries because I want Keenan to do well. I am hoping for a 70-30 split of time between the home life and work life.  I’d prefer 90-10 to be honest. Don’t like the coworkers much and the sad 10 person “studio audience” is a useless out of place prop.

[Trini]

I guess I'm used to seeing Kenan in over-the-top comedy sketches and I might have to adjust my expectations here. There was a lot of talk about The Dead Mother that I guess they felt they needed to get out the way up front, but it didn't help the comedy. This wasn't horrible, but my only real laugh was at the end with the clips of his former show. I want this to do well for Kenan.