Review: 'Traffic Light' - 'Pilot': Three-way calling
What did everybody think of the new FOX sitcom?
Kris Marshall, David Denman and Nelson Franklin in "Traffic Light."
Credit: FOX
I published my review of FOX's "Traffic Light" earlier today. Now it's your turn. For those of you who watched, what did you think? Was there enough there to bring you back for more?
Alan Sepinwall has been reviewing television since the mid-'90s, first for Tony Soprano's hometown paper, The Star-Ledger, and now for HitFix. His new book, "The Revolution Was Televised," about the last 15 years of TV drama, is for sale at Amazon. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com
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Login or create a HitFix account Login SignupJustin Hemmings
February 9, 2011 at 12:31AM EST Reply to CommentIt was
Justin Hemmings For an accident, that's pretty damn accurate and concise for what I thought.
February 9, 2011 at 12:32AM ESTkarn
February 9, 2011 at 1:16AM EST Reply to Commenti enjoy nelson franklin...otherwise...its a show that contains people and words.
DonBoy
February 9, 2011 at 1:27AM EST Reply to CommentHey, it's Ivy from Dollhouse! Who somehow managed to turn "it'll be like a gaaaaaaaaame" into a huge laugh. The guys are all pretty offputting though.
LJA
February 9, 2011 at 2:07AM EST Reply to CommentWhere is this supposed to be set? They were driving around Los Angeles, and yet that couple was moving into a brownstone. I've got news for ya, there aren't any brownstones in LA.
February 9, 2011 at 2:38AM EST Reply to CommentI agree that the show has some flaws, but I think I see more potential in it than you do, Alan.
To understand fully, I think you really have to look at the top half and the bottom half of the episode separately. The first half was focused on the premise, and at the end of it I thought the show had real potential. It had consistent tone and pacing that were also appropriate to the show's point of view, which is more than can be said of most comedy pilots. There were several laugh out loud moments; the traffic stop scene was well put-together, and I enjoyed all the performances save Aya Cash, which is more than I was expecting. A theme started to emerge of showcasing the depravity elicited from even respectable guys when trying to make a relationship work, in a way that was more cutting than Modern Family but less coarse and awkward than a Ricky Gervais vehicle, and I think theres a lot of quality mileage in that idea. The only bothersome thing to me was that that I'm a big Chuck fan, and found it awkward seeing Adam talk to his girlfriend with a speech pattern and manner identical to a nervous Chuck.
The trip from that to the second half, though, was a free-fall. It’s falls more on the execution side of things, and the execution here consisted of a half dozen of the lazier tropes from the classic sitcom handbook – including one that they used twice – before culminating with a forced and cheesy inadvertent summation speech a la the worst of Modern Family. I was also logically troubled by Lisa's overly caustic "in the doghouse" lecture after her cool and pragmatic approach to knowing her hubby stopped a block from home for some me-time. Just very disparate, with the latter being far more appropriate to the character and to the show.
That said, there were a couple of really good points to the back end, too. The traffic stop redux was a gamble but just as funny as the first. The scene where Adam just tries to be honest only to have Callie fess up she’d invented her own excuses was a really smart idea, it played well, and had they expanded on that and ditched the park dedication scene, they would have gotten the warm ending they were going for and left a very different final impression.
There are certainly some outstanding questions that will decide the fate of the show, primarily in writing. There is a workable idea here, with nuggets of heartwarming and nuggets of friggin funny, we just don’t know if they can grow them into 22 solid minutes. Single-cam needs a certain level of quality to work, and if the writing chops just aren’t there, the show will go down in flames. But if the pilot was made overly broad to get a pick-up, or if their focus was just in nailing down other areas to start, I felt like the foundation was there to make the show last.
Anonymous tl;dr.
February 9, 2011 at 3:29AM ESTSeriously, post your review on your blog. The premiere was mediocre. It's hard to see it ever going anywhere, but I suppose it's possible.
February 9, 2011 at 3:40AM EST Reply to CommentIt wasn't just bad, it was offensely, insultingly, skull-crushingly awful. I guess "Men are so awesome, doin' their Man Thing, and then women come along and RUIN EVERYTHING" is still funny to somebody out there, maybe? It was a collection of tedious, warmed-over battle of the sexes tropes that was asking us to sympathize with a guy who would rather sit in his car and hide out from his wife and kid, because, y'know, Women, amirite? It made me miss "Running Wilde," which, while badly written and not funny, was at least not actively vile like this thing.
Tammy "I guess 'Men are so awesome, doin' their Man Thing, and then women come along and RUIN EVERYTHING' is still funny to somebody out there, maybe?"
February 9, 2011 at 5:21AM ESTI'd love to live in your America.
Wacoshade Hahahaha, WORD Tammy.
February 9, 2011 at 10:48AM ESTYou know I had a similar thought when watching this show. Maybe because I had just watched No Ordinary Family. Every guy on this show was constantly lying to a woman. CONSTANTLY. Like the women couldnt be a part of anything. On the No Ordinary Family, it's a constant plot thing for people to be lying to each other all the time. ALL THE TIME, when there's really no reason to do it. Everyone knows the deal.
Col Bat Guano Since all three guys seem to hate spending time with the women in their life, maybe they should just move in together?
February 9, 2011 at 12:05PM ESTWell D One
February 9, 2011 at 4:51AM EST Reply to CommentI think I've seen the "Hello Friend my wife is in the car with me"-joke not so long ago in another show. Somebody else remember?
Sami Raine Yeah, it was driving me crazy because I couldn't think of where I had seen it before. But its from 'Til death, another Fox show with Brad Garrett (Robert Barone from Everybody Loves Raymond). You can watch the scene for free on amazon.com, its the "cold case" episode.
February 10, 2011 at 1:10AM ESTKinda sad that they can't come up with anything original...
Wacoshade
February 9, 2011 at 10:46AM EST Reply to CommentKind of a so-so show. I liked your comparison of this with Perfect Couples and that other show... all of which are an attempt to capitalize on the vibe of Modern Family's humor.
On another comment board somewhere, I mentioned that Perfect Couples seemed like NBC's attempt to copy Cougar Town, but slide in some Modern Family style humor and characters. Not a wholly bad thing, and I find stuff in Perfect Couples to laugh at. Not original.
Same thing here. Some sort of funny stuff. I liked the bookends of the guy being pulled over by the same police officer with his friends on the phone.
"Don't you show that baby Iron Man."
I also did like the fact that the father could never catch up on the movies he wanted to see. That is EXACTLY what happens when you have a baby. I also liked how his friends "spoiled the movie" by telling them "Iron Man wins." As if he wouldn't.
I did like that their one friend loved Chumbawumba so much. Although it being played there at end was telegraphed WAY EARLY, I liked it and smiled when it played.
Show's okay. I'd like to see if it has legs.
ColumbusRazor
February 9, 2011 at 12:18PM EST Reply to CommentHaving never subjected myself to either "Perfect Couples" or "Better With You," I found this show to be a decent enough 30-minute diversion. The premise is nothing new and we've seen all the characters before in other shows, but there were enough honest laughs to keep me interested through the Pilot episode.
At this point in my life, I've been each one of those guys, so maybe I'm a little more open to the show. Luckily I wasn't as irritating as Ethan, otherwise my friends would have killed me.
There's standard tropes galore, but the cast manages to deliver the laughs just by their visible angst (Nelson Franklin) or gleeful mischeif (Liza Lapira). I liked the 3-way bluetooth call, especially the traffic stops at the beginning and end. The female cop deadpanned very nicely.
It's not the Next Great Sitcom, but I enjoyed it enough to tune in again...especially reading that the show makes good use of future guest stars. Rob Huebel tweeted yesterday that he's in "several" future episodes. That's reason enough for me to keep watching.
February 10, 2011 at 2:57PM ESTColumbusRazor
February 9, 2011 at 12:29PM EST Reply to CommentPS: I failed to mention that I think the closing voiceover was a big swing and a miss (to quote Ron Swanson). The 29 minutes that came before it did not earn that feel-good "Modern Family" ending.
LJA
February 9, 2011 at 12:38PM EST Reply to CommentAlso, isn't this actually a ripoff of that horrific David Spade show Rules of Engagement?
Al C. Jordan
February 9, 2011 at 2:38PM EST Reply to CommentI'm on the fence, but Alan makes an error that is not his fault. The is supposed to set in Chicago (all the U of I references aren't subtle)...but Alan says the show is a couple of guys driving around LA. Exactly! The show is back lot and downtown LA. Worse than the fake Chicago that is NY on the Good Wife. The Chicago Code. Real. What was close? The police car. Even the cop lady's chicago flag had nine stars. Pathetic and insulting to Chicago and fans of comedy.
ajoop
February 9, 2011 at 4:08PM EST Reply to CommentI didn't hate it, for some reason. And I hate lots of things.
Lines that made me laugh include "Don't show that baby Iron Man" and "I'd rather have three weeks of something amazing than a life time of nothing special" or whatever the steel magnolias line was. i can see it might get better.