ABC might have found his next big family comedy and his secret weapon is a guy best known for a program about cock graffiti.
Domestic economy, which opens on Wednesday, is based on a simple premise: three brothers, each in a very different income bracket, navigate their complicated financial relationship to stay connected as a family. Topher Grace, echoing his career as endearing Eric Forman That show of the 70s, anchors this new series as a wet blanket, big brother Tom Hayworth. The incredibly likeable Jimmy Tatro, best known for his side turn as Dylan Maxwell American Vandal, plays Connor, Tom’s younger brother, who is madly good, while Caitlin McGee plays her older sister, Sarah, who, recently unemployed, is having financial problems. (It can be known because the apartment he shares with his wife, Denise, is narrow and painted dark green for maximum dinginess; in addition, his car has roll-up windows).
It’s fascinating to see this series debut on ABC about a decade after the network unveiled its juggernaut Emmys Modern family. Although it debuted at the height of a global financial recession in 2009, the fake documentary-style comedy (which was extraordinarily popular with wealthy audiences) focused on the recession-proof Pritchett family, and it became a reliable success for both critics and the public for years. . During the Mod FamDuring the reign, the sitcom genre seemed to remain the same, at least in spread, until Donald Trump’s 2016 election sparked renewed interest in the working class.
Unlike the Pritchetts, Domestic economyHayworths has to think about money. As Tom, a troubled novelist, rises to the occasion to ask his absurdly rich little brother for a loan, Sarah mocks the idea of her ultra-rich brother being quarantined in his old home. Seattle mansion, where his pool boy became an influential TikTok. The show handles its class tensions with a light touch and intelligently deploys its gender identity to intensify these awkward conversations with humor and humanity. Their first episodes generate promise, thanks in large part to the easy chemistry of the cast, who seem to understand their tasks perfectly.
It’s hard to imagine anyone but Grace, who is an executive producer in addition to starring, playing Tom with such friendly but unpleasant ease. (“I won the most promising debut novel at the 2009 Nantucket Book Festival, not fantasy or science fiction,” Tom boasts at one point. “I think I can make a wedding toast.”) Like Eric Forman, Tom is good-hearted, a little thorny, and deeply insecure. His wife, Marina, played by a delicious sardonic Karla Souza, is a retired lawyer who, despite the family’s financial problems, spends her time listening to murder podcasts and wondering out loud if she should return to to work. (I mean … probably ?!) The two share a daughter, Camila, and a pair of infant twins.
Meanwhile, McGee gets all the right comic notes as the unemployed big brother who just wants to prove he still knows the best (even when he doesn’t). Writers Michael Colton and John Aboud also know clearly what they have when it comes to supporting player Sasheer Zamata, who plays Denise, Sarah’s wife, an earth sign obsessed with astrology, who only wants his in-laws get cold. Her children, Kelvin and Shamiah, spend most of their time roasting Sarah when the jokes escape her.
But it is Tatro who, in each of the three episodes available for review, flees reliably with the show. The actor’s charisma guarantees that his one-hundred-percent character, who loves nothing more than remembering the people who bought his palatine home from Matt Damon, is too simple to hate.
It doesn’t hurt that Connor is also divorced, as we soon learned, forcing him to re-evaluate his life and find out things as tedious as what he calls “the custody sitch” with his daughter Gretchen. Tatro never loses sight of the heart of his clueless character, which causes scenes like one of his character to desperately sing his sadness to the melody of Flo-Rida’s “Bass,” as strangely charming as they are inductive.
The series unfolds in chapters as Tom clandestinely turns his family story into a book. Tom’s narration is, thankfully, sparse, which prevents the family trick from knowing the series. It’s unclear how long we’ll have to wait before Tom reveals his plans to the family, but given the investment he seems to be making to keep it a secret, it seems inevitable that a calculation will be made. Hopefully, as long as the larger clan finds out, Connor isn’t too angry; after all, he only lent Tom a considerable amount of money to keep his family afloat.
“It’s unclear how long we’ll have to wait before Tom reveals his plans to the family, but given the investment he seems to be making to keep it a secret, it seems inevitable that a calculation will be made.”
Which brings us to the only weak link in this series: although Souza makes the most of her role, Marina feels underdeveloped. It is unclear why, given the family’s apparent financial problems, the retired lawyer has not seriously considered returning to her consultation. The series points to Souza’s Mexican roots in allowing her husband to roast television and English in Spanish with her bilingual daughter — and showing her in-laws greeting her with broken Spanish — but we know little about Marina beyond. of their heritage and their apparent drinking problem. (As the episodes end, Marina’s only business card becomes the endless parade of wine glasses in hand, a tired troop that quickly becomes thin.) Hopefully, in future episodes, Souza you will have a more interesting job to do.
Sarah and Denise’s upbringing can also fall under a tricky light. While many of the jokes at her expense feel organic, such as Sarah insisting she doesn’t want to practice astrology while Denise counters, “This is a very‘ Capricorn ’thing,‘ other times, like when her kids ask to a cousin what pronouns their dolls use, feeling a little sharper. Overall, though, the two are the most attractive couple in the series, and McGee and Zamata bounce off each other easily, mostly because their characters skimp on the cultural value of Say Yes to the dress.
For now, it’s impossible to know if this charming silo comedy will rise to the fame of predecessors like Modern family. But his classy exploration with a gentle focus feels like fertile ground for a 2021 broadcast comedy, and the casting punishment, a specific but flexible premise, and focus on the heart feel good about money.