Jump to content

Type keyword(s) to search
Forum Reorganization

Alex, Inc. - General Discussion

ElectricBoogaloo

By ElectricBoogaloo
in Alex, Inc.

Recommended Posts

ElectricBoogaloo

ElectricBoogaloo

  • Author
Quote

At the office, Eddie and Deirdre compete for Alex's time and butt heads, causing them to almost quit. As a result, Alex tries to be a good boss by coming up with a solution to split his time between the two. Meanwhile, Alex does not like Rooni's handmade costume for Ben's class project on famous people, so they come up with a surprisingly different choice

luna1122

luna1122

I'm really fond of Zach Braff, too, tho it's totally not cool to like him, but whatever. My guy and I still watch Scrubs repeats literally all the time. This was very pilot-y, as in trying to fit too much in too quick, a little too precious, a lot of trying too hard. But there are elements I really like, and I hope it can live up those moments. I'll keep watching.

Skyfall

Skyfall

Reviewers have said this is the worst episode of the three they got.

1 hour ago, joanne3482 said:

I didn't dislike it. I like the family part. I just don't know what a podcast company is supposed to be. Is he making his own podcasts? Producing and working with other artists to make their own podcasts? I'm glad (so far) the show isn't going the sitcom trope of wacky hijinx over a married couple with different ethnicities. 

In the real world a podcast company distributes multiple podcasts, secures sponsors, has a single web presence, etc. Right now it just seems like he’s starting his own podcast and may build a company from there? With a 1.1 already (since ABC didn’t use Roseanne properly) it better hope it can retain that rating or it’s one and done.

  • Love 1
biakbiak

biakbiak

3 hours ago, joanne3482 said:

I didn't dislike it. I like the family part. I just don't know what a podcast company is supposed to be. Is he making his own podcasts? Producing and working with other artists to make their own podcasts? I'm glad (so far) the show isn't going the sitcom trope of wacky hijinx over a married couple with different ethnicities. 

If you want a "spoiler" (quotes because I imagine the show is going to diverge from it) this is the Wikipedia on the company the real Alex started.

  • Love 2
Philip

Philip

I saw this series on YouTube and said to myself 'It's that guy from Scrubs!" so I watched the trailers available and then regretted immediately. Good god, the comedy aspect in that is terrible, not once did I even smile, chuckle or laugh like I used to in Scrubs. I'm already expecting it to be cancelled.

 

The wife and kids don't seem too interesting either nor the podcast thing.

  • Love 2
thebigboot

thebigboot

My biggest issue is it played off of the usual tropes and cliches. No attempts to make it any different. The minute he brought up the 401k you knew it was a matter of time before he hit it. The martyr trope as he violated several federal laws to approach the plane. Literally the entire episode was this. I know we’re supposed to suspend belief for things like this but I’ll tell you the biggest BS part of this show. 10,000 for three months in that size place in NYC? Nope! Too cheap.

  • Love 3
Skyfall

Skyfall

6 hours ago, thebigboot said:

My biggest issue is it played off of the usual tropes and cliches. No attempts to make it any different. The minute he brought up the 401k you knew it was a matter of time before he hit it. The martyr trope as he violated several federal laws to approach the plane. Literally the entire episode was this. I know we’re supposed to suspend belief for things like this but I’ll tell you the biggest BS part of this show. 10,000 for three months in that size place in NYC? Nope! Too cheap.

Incubator so a lot of companies are paying the leader of it for the space.

  • Love 3
Beezella

Beezella

(edited)

I tried this because I like Michael Imperioli, but he was pointless in this. I liked the kid's magic show. Liked the fake out there. What were his wheels under that robe? At first I thought he had a segway, then maybe those wheelie shoes. At the airport it looked like he a round platform there with wheels on it.

Edited by Beezella
Ah! Hoverboard!
Pop Tart

Pop Tart

(edited)
51 minutes ago, Beezella said:

I tried this because I like Michael Imperioli, but he was pointless in this. I liked the kid's magic show. Liked the fake out there. What were his wheels under that robe? At first I thought he had a segway, then maybe those wheelie shoes. At the airport it looked like he a round platform there with wheels on it.

Pretty sure he was on a hoverboard. 

I think my biggest roadblock with this one is that it follows so soon on the debut of RISE. I so hated that middle-aged, white guy going through some kind of mid-life career crisis and his making major, life-changing decisions that would adversely and exponentially affect his family, that it's hard for me to get past Alex doing the exact same thing here in this pilot.

I actually liked the family and the dynamic the husband/wife have - where they seem to actually be in a partnership with each other. There was a smidge of the usual sitcom trope where he's just a lovable, screwup, happy-go-lucky charmer and she's the scolding "mother", but it was relatively muted. So there's that. But I did find myself thinking as I watched, "do we really need another family sitcom about a white guy trying to figure out life and stuff?" 

All this said I will give it another episode at least mostly because I know a lot of my reaction was actually still due to RISE and not this show. 

Edited by Pop Tart
  • Love 2
Cherry Cola

Cherry Cola

My very first opinion from opening scene was...Chris Sacca? I hate it already.  I cannot stand that dude from when he was on Shark Tank.  I assume he is only in this episode, but big turn off.  

I thought Alex was going to go into a dream scene like JD from scrubs when he looked up when he was thinking.  

Not the best, but it has potential and I do like Zach. 

iMonrey

iMonrey

Quote

Reviewers have said this is the worst episode of the three they got.

So that's . . . encouraging? Man, I really wanted to like this but I don't think I laughed once. I really like Zach Braff though so I'm sure I'll give it another episode or two. But, ouch, it needs to be funnier by a mile. I think the only time I even smiled was when the investor asked him what his secret weapon was and he did the jazz hands.

Quote

10,000 for three months in that size place in NYC? Nope! Too cheap.

And why does he even need an enormous office space if he's just starting out? He can do a podcast from home. Really dumb plot point.

  • Love 1
bros402

bros402

This was much better than the pilot, but that is not saying much.

Did anyone else groan/cringe when the JD-esque narration started? I mean, it was good in Scrubs and it makes sense in this show, but, ugh, it felt a lot like a Scrubs voiceover. 

Also, with the meetings... why not have the producer interview the CEO - or have the producer & 2nd cousin go to the sponsor/ad meeting? Do they just want to blow through every single major sitcom trope in the first few episodes to get it out of their system?

  • Love 2
joanne3482

joanne3482

5 hours ago, 17wheatthins said:

 

I liked it. I find the family scenes very charming and the work scenes funny. 

 

I agree. So far I really like the family. I'm okay with him learning how to be the boss of his own company. I presume it is vastly different than being a middle manager. I loved the notes the daughter left. They made me smile. And I liked that the Eleanor Roosevelt costume won and was treated with dignity. I'm glad he didn't a - chicken out of wearing it or b - get bullied for it. 

 

8 hours ago, bros402 said:

Also, with the meetings... why not have the producer interview the CEO - or have the producer & 2nd cousin go to the sponsor/ad meeting?

I did wonder about this. There are 3 total people in the company. Surely one of the other two could have done the other meeting. 

  • Love 2
iMonrey

iMonrey

Ugh. OK, it's bad. I wanted to give it a fair shot but aside from the two times Alex was ejected from the broken chair there was nothing even remotely amusing going on. The family scenes are cloyingly, sickeningly sweet, and the work scenes are trite and predictable. There's just no talent in the writing room. Too bad, it's a great cast and a lot of wasted potential. 

Quote

Did anyone else groan/cringe when the JD-esque narration started?

It was really dumb that they did a voice-over when he was reading his daughter's note. Hey guys . . . we can read. Boy, they're really not taking anything for granted, are they?

  • Love 1
Skyfall

Skyfall

3 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

Ugh. OK, it's bad. I wanted to give it a fair shot but aside from the two times Alex was ejected from the broken chair there was nothing even remotely amusing going on. The family scenes are cloyingly, sickeningly sweet, and the work scenes are trite and predictable. There's just no talent in the writing room. Too bad, it's a great cast and a lot of wasted potential. 

It was really dumb that they did a voice-over when he was reading his daughter's note. Hey guys . . . we can read. Boy, they're really not taking anything for granted, are they?

What if you’re not paying attention of you’re too far away to read the writing or you’re out of the room? I don’t mind them reading it.

  • Love 1
Whimsy

Whimsy

1 hour ago, iMonrey said:

Ugh. OK, it's bad. I wanted to give it a fair shot but aside from the two times Alex was ejected from the broken chair there was nothing even remotely amusing going on. The family scenes are cloyingly, sickeningly sweet, and the work scenes are trite and predictable. There's just no talent in the writing room. Too bad, it's a great cast and a lot of wasted potential. 

It was really dumb that they did a voice-over when he was reading his daughter's note. Hey guys . . . we can read. Boy, they're really not taking anything for granted, are they?

 

58 minutes ago, Skyfall said:

What if you’re not paying attention of you’re too far away to read the writing or you’re out of the room? I don’t mind them reading it.

I actually appreciated that because I was squinting at the screen trying to read it.  Good thing I have an eye exam tomorrow, because my tv isn't that small.  I also am frequently multi-tasking so I hate when I have to read during shows. 

I guess I didn't hate it as much as other people.  My main question is who the heck wants to listen to that boring podcast?  No one knows who he is.  It's not like he's already a household name.  I don't mind the show, but I would never listen to that podcast. I hope they start lining up others soon.  

  • Love 1
TheRabbi

TheRabbi

I'm in the minority here, in that I thought the pilot was serviceable enough and had potential, but I thought this episode was just dreadful. That Mrs Doubtfire setup was painfully bad and done to death.

The pilot at least got me to record the second episode (I can't say the same for the other newbie on ABC, Splitting up together), but I'm only giving this show one more.

  • Love 2
bros402

bros402

13 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Ugh. OK, it's bad. I wanted to give it a fair shot but aside from the two times Alex was ejected from the broken chair there was nothing even remotely amusing going on. The family scenes are cloyingly, sickeningly sweet, and the work scenes are trite and predictable. There's just no talent in the writing room. Too bad, it's a great cast and a lot of wasted potential. 

It was really dumb that they did a voice-over when he was reading his daughter's note. Hey guys . . . we can read. Boy, they're really not taking anything for granted, are they?

I actually liked the voice over of the daughter reading the note.

JasmineFlower

JasmineFlower

I thought the second episode was much better. Thought it was more fleshed out than the first in showing what it wanted to be. Not great, but something I can work with.

Now, I think I'm alone in this, but Michael Imperioli is so rarely the right choice to me outside of more caricature performances. I did find the knitting stuff amusing and I liked the interplay of jockeying for position with the co-worker, so maybe there's hope, but in general, not a huge fan of that casting. Think a different choice would've helped the show more.

Now, another minor problem I have that I'm likely alone on is these kids - why do I constantly see parents on these shows let their kids run roughshod over them? Hey kids, dial back the attitude, dad's starting a new job, lay off the guilt trips, we'll adjust to his new schedule and your world will not end. And I think this is ringing particularly false on this show as I don't honestly buy that this Indian-American mother would be like, yes, it's okay to say or write snarky messages to your dad and I won't say a word. That would be a hard sell for me with any POC really. The son was a bit annoying, but he at least handled it a tad better, but he was still very me, me, me, and I didn't need him talking as much trash about his mom as he was. So yet again, problem with kids on a show for me, though honestly, as is happening more often, it's the writers I really take issue with.

  • Love 1
Philip

Philip

The boy that plays the son of Zach Braff was on Mr. Robot. He did a pretty good job so he's obviously talented yet if someone is given a crappy script then he/she will have a hard time making that stuff believable.

 

I've tried to watch soap operas from around the world but they're so unbelievably bad (a few are good) I don't know how anyone can watch it every single day and surprisingly, it isn't cancelled. It takes talent and skill to make a series but not a soap opera.

ItCouldBeWorse

ItCouldBeWorse

(edited)
On 4/5/2018 at 4:49 PM, TheRabbi said:

I'm in the minority here, in that I thought the pilot was serviceable enough and had potential, but I thought this episode was just dreadful. That Mrs Doubtfire setup was painfully bad and done to death.

The pilot at least got me to record the second episode (I can't say the same for the other newbie on ABC, Splitting up together), but I'm only giving this show one more.

I much prefer Splitting Up Together.

The things I objected to in this episode:

1) The chairs: at least twice they showed  Eddie and Deirdre sitting in the 2 green chairs in front of Alex's desk, so don't bother me with this "one good chair" nonsense.

2) The Wax Museum, which requires a fairly elaborate poster, is on Wednesday and Ben is just choosing his character (and costume) on Tuesday?  In real life, the character would have been chosen weeks ago so that the child could do his research, which is the actual point of the project, not the costume.  Thus, there would be no picking out the costume at the last minute.  And we are to believe that Ben did the research and the poster by himself the night before the presentation.

3) All the elaborate costumes bothered me.  Except for the mis-matched sock beard, Ben's homemade Lincoln costume was much closer to what his costume should have been like then a rented costume.  Anyone with money can buy or rent a great costume.  It's much more instructive to approximate the costume by putting together bits and pieces of clothes and objects that are around the house.

4) Rooni is a full-time lawyer who dumped her Tuesday afternoon case on an inexperienced attorney to go costume shopping?  And then took off Wednesday afternoon to go attend the Wax Museum?  Who's her employer?

5) Unless Alex's daughter goes to bed remarkably early (and assuming his commute is within half an hour), Alex had to hang around his office until at least 7 pm two nights in a row just to listen to Eddie and Deirdre argue?  Who does that?  That does make him a rather lousy father since he made the commitment to read to her.

6) Maybe Rooni is always joking when she talks to Alex (with a completely serious expression), but if she didn't know that kids need frequent baths, or many of the other things that she didn't seem to know about her kids, then she has been a fairly absent mother, even if Alex was the primary caretaker.  (I would say the same thing if a father commented that he didn't know that kids smelled bad.)

7) FINALLY: the entire premise of his podcast bothers me.  Bringing the mic into bed at night?  Worse, telling the kids to forget the mic is there, taping their family breakfast discussions and playing the results on the air for strangers to hear?  Why should his children lose any semblance of privacy?  And Rooni agrees to it?  Terrible parenting.  That's just an aural version of those E! reality shows where celebrities exploit their children.

Edited by ItCouldBeWorse
  • Love 2
ElectricBoogaloo

ElectricBoogaloo

  • Author
(edited)
12 hours ago, ItCouldBeWorse said:

FINALLY: the entire premise of his podcast bothers me.  Bringing the mike into bed at night?  Worse, telling the kids to forget the mike is there, taping their family breakfast discussions and playing the results on the air for strangers to hear? 

Plus who wants to hear someone just narrating his day? "And now I'm pouring my coffee" is not exactly the interesting kind of podcast that I would listen to. If I were Rooni, I would have kicked his ass out of bed for recording while I was trying to sleep. Although we haven't seen every room in the house, I know that there has to be at least one room in the entire place that doesn't have sleeping spouses or kids in it. Go record in the kitchen, the living room, the bathroom, or hell, inside your car if you feel that your thoughts are so profound that they MUST be recorded right now while everyone else is asleep.

Edited by ElectricBoogaloo
  • Love 3
ElectricBoogaloo

ElectricBoogaloo

  • Author

NOTE: This episode is airing on Tuesday. The show will return to its regular Wednesday night timeslot on the following night.

Quote

Alex thinks he fired their part-time babysitter, Rosalba after he and Rooni find her sleeping on the job, but the situation gets more complicated when Rosalba shows up for work. Meanwhile, Ben takes over as babysitter and watches Soraya after school; Rooni loses cell service and gets nervous about the kids being left home alone.

joanne3482

joanne3482

It's probable I'm the only one who likes this show, but I liked this episode. I can understand Alex's frustration with his cousin (somehow I missed they were cousins).   I think they should have said to the incubator that the sound booth in the main space is a value add for them because they could rent it by the hour to others in the incubation space who may need privacy or recording time. Alex Inc can't be the only group who periodically needs quiet.  

I loved the son learning guitar on YouTube. That's how I learn new crochet stitches.  It really has revolutionized learning for people. 

You knew the moment they talked about the rare butterfly it was going to die, but as I recall, those butterfly pavilion type places are basically death traps for butterflies because of the number of people going through constantly (and butterflies don't have the longest life span to begin with apparently adults live 1 - 6 weeks)

  • Love 2
ElectricBoogaloo

ElectricBoogaloo

  • Author
Quote

Rooni's mother, Joya, comes to New York and Alex tries too hard to impress her, including a disastrous celebration of Holi which makes him look worse. But a conversation between the two leads to a surprising development for Alex's new company. Meanwhile, Ben wants to learn more about his heritage from his grandmother to impress a girl in school

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...