'Up All Night' - 'Pilot': Baby, let me sleep on it
What did everybody think of the new Christina Applegate/Will Arnett comedy?
Christina Applegate and Maya Rudolph in "Up All Night."
Credit: NBC
I offered my review of "Up All Night" yesterday. Now it's your turn? What did you think of Christina Applegate, the newly rehumanized Will Arnett, Maya Rudolph, baby humor, etc.? I know (virtually) none of you have seen the previous version of the pilot where Applegate and Rudolph were in celebrity PR, but do you think the new talk show setting is fertile ground for stories, or just an excuse for Rudolph to do Oprah? And do you expect to make a habit of the show?
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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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September 14, 2011 at 10:54PM EST Reply to CommentI Kept waiting for gilbert gottfried and rhonda shear to talk about alien from la or dynaman.
sepinwall I would say the expiration date on that joke came with the show's premiere, but I intend to keep making "Smash: The Brian Williams Story" jokes for months, maybe even years to come, so I'm in no position to judge.
September 14, 2011 at 11:08PM ESTodessasteps That was going to be my last one and then you went and tweeted a smash picture this morning. :)
September 15, 2011 at 12:33PM ESTMatt
September 14, 2011 at 11:00PM EST Reply to CommentI liked it, but the workplace stuff needs more retooling. I think I'd prefer to see a season about the time that Applegate's character was on maternity leave.
September 14, 2011 at 11:05PM ESTrdc1214
September 14, 2011 at 11:05PM EST Reply to CommentIt started slow. I did enjoy the conservation where they were talking about who was asleep and who was awake.
Cy
September 14, 2011 at 11:23PM EST Reply to CommentTotally missed it. I guess I've gotta stop fast forwarding through commercials.
amg
September 14, 2011 at 11:24PM EST Reply to CommentI would have preferred something less obvious than the blurred mouths--even the blatant blocking they did on AD which felt less forced. On the other hand, the joke wasn't that funny the 2nd or third time, so they could just let it go now.
Overall, yeah. Not a funny pilot. But there seems potential. I did like the laidback dynamic between Arnett and Applegate. Hoping for rapid improvement.
Dennis
September 14, 2011 at 11:25PM EST Reply to CommentLot of potential here. I will definately give this some time to figure out where it's going.
Jason
September 14, 2011 at 11:56PM EST Reply to CommentRudolph's Ava character reminded me too of Penny from Happy Endings. Not that I don't love Penny, but rich and famous Penny isn't as funny. Loved the rest of the show.
Scott Rosenberg
September 15, 2011 at 12:43AM EST Reply to CommentI chuckled at a couple of moments, but they were ones where they were really aggressively pushing for the laugh. There was some humor in a couple of the co-parenting jokes (aside from the running gag about cursing), but it all needs to fit together better for those jokes to land. I thought the biggest problem lied in the details of the Ava show. I didn't have a problem with the Rudolph character itself - though the aloof/snobby personality aspects will get old quick if not handled properly. However, the idea that an Oprah-like show would only plan it's episodes a week in advance, or that an Oprah-like public figure would go out for a 2AM karaoke bender, is entirely ludicrous, and in a sitcom that's not really asking for any suspended disbelief by its premise, it was a fairly hard pill to swallow. Either they have to steer the mythology of the show towards a struggling regional broadcast, or (like TGS on 30 Rock) a show we're supposed to understand just isn't very good, that being a really bad Oprah clone is part of the joke, or they have to change the way they're going to present it. The show can become genuinely funny, but not if it tries to be so-grave-and-sad-its-funny and so-ridiculous-and-farcical-its-funny at the same time. The show has to decide what it wants to be and then be that show, or else any humor will continued to be lost in the muddled mess of a premise.
sepinwall The karaoke scene was unchanged from the original version of the show where they were both in celebrity PR. The whole pilot is kind of a Frankenstein monster because of all the changes, so I wouldn't worry too much about consistency of the universe until at least next week.
September 15, 2011 at 9:16AM ESTklg19
September 15, 2011 at 7:40AM EST Reply to CommentI found it a lot funnier than I'd expected to after reading your pre-airing comments, Alan. Applegate and Arnett have wonderful comic timing and presence, and the absence of the dreaded laughtrack allowed the joke to float on their own without feeling forced. I was laughing to the point of tears at some of them (I'm not a parent, but I am an aunt who spent all but two weekends of my twin nephews' entire first year helping out, and there was a lot I found familiar--even the cursing, which I found funnier than others did, I guess).
I don't think Maya Rudolph is the weak spot--far from it--but I agree that the talk show scenes were the weakest. The timid assistant, the deadly cleanse: it felt like the show was trying too hard there, like it was playing to that laughtrack that didn't exist.
I agree with Scott that Ava at karaoke was odd, but do we know that Ava really IS as big as Oprah, or are we just assuming she is because Rudolph is evoking SNL Oprah? Regardless of whether she's Oprah or small potatoes, though, there's no way the shows are planned so close to the wire, and that rang false.
But I will absolutely keep watching. Lots of promise and three stellar performances.
amg My impression that she is a "big, national" talk show star came from the comment that they had stolen a guest away from "Ellen" and seemed to see that as their primary rival/competition.
September 15, 2011 at 8:45AM ESTtheoncominghope
September 15, 2011 at 7:55AM EST Reply to CommentI think it has potential. It wasn't as funny as I'd hoped, but at least the characters feel somewhat real. If anything, they're too real.
blingbling
September 15, 2011 at 7:59AM EST Reply to CommentBig fans of Arnett and Rudolph but Applegate's the uphill battle for me somehow. Of course, in the midst of a recession they have a comedy about people with too much money dealing with the pesky little challenges of having a kid, so I wonder how that's going to play out. This show's got a lot going against it, so it's all about the stars and how they rescue it.
velocityknown
September 15, 2011 at 8:38AM EST Reply to CommentI was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Reading all the reviews I kind of expected to like it, but just not laugh much, but it kept up a good energy throughout the whole 30 minutes.
I think Emily Spivey's continued involvement in this show is really going to make the difference. If she were departing after the pilot I'd be worried, but she's a TV vet, been a part of great shows and casts so even if this pilot was uneven in spots, I think she'll find a good balance.
Also Will Arnett and Christina Applegate were perfect together. And who would've thought human Will Arnett is just as funny as "Gob/Gob-esque" Will Arnett?
They've made a regular viewer out of me, I hope the case is the same for Nielsen viewers, these two leads deserve a hit.
Big D
September 15, 2011 at 10:24AM EST Reply to CommentVery disappointed. On to other shows.
Ken Raining
September 15, 2011 at 10:41AM EST Reply to CommentMissed it (Community arrived from Netflix yesterday, and that trumped), but I did hear Will Arnett talking about the show on NPR yesterday. I'm intrigued that the dad's the guy staying home with the baby, since I did the same thing when my daughter was born. I don't like their choice of professions for the characters: lawyer and tv producer? These people wouldn't get a nanny? Why can't their jobs be a bit more mundane? Like, maybe a librarian and a priest, like me and my wife? There's a show.
Ray Your wife is a priest?
September 15, 2011 at 11:11AM ESTJessamyn I'm betting he's the priest - if he were a librarian, he would have gotten the grammar right. I hope. ;^)
September 15, 2011 at 2:04PM ESTgmoneychan
September 15, 2011 at 11:24AM EST Reply to CommentAs a parent of two young kids, I related a bit. But it wasn't that funny. Plus Maya Rudolph's diva act actually annoys me. There's too much talent to give up so soon though, I'll give it a few more chances.
dishdude
September 15, 2011 at 11:25AM EST Reply to CommentDidn't like the show. Made it half way thru and gave it up. Was looking forward to the show, but parents arguing about how much sleep they got just wasn't funny to me. Just not my cup of tea.
Andy
September 15, 2011 at 12:13PM EST Reply to CommentConsidering how many talented, funny people are involved, my wife and I didn't laugh once. I'm not even sure we cracked a smile. Amazingly, I have two young kids and couldn't relate at all. I think the main problem is most first time parents have about 9 months to prepare for how much your life will change but this show conveniently skipped that part so they were acting as if this was brand new information. And while it's true that no one can prepare you for the lack of sleep, their lack of sleep was primarily caused by partying which just came off as selfish.
theKoala
September 15, 2011 at 4:26PM EST Reply to CommentI have two young kids. My wife and I saw ourselves in many of the situations portrayed in the pilot. Yes, some of that stuff would have lost its "newness" after 6 months or so, but some of the reviewers aren't taking the daily grind into account. I had to admit to my wife that I get lost in the supermarket. If I go by myself, I'm fine. If I have one or two kids in the cart, I panic. I've walked up and down this row 5 times. It's clearly marked "Soap." Why can't I find any g**d**** soap? That, and my wife and I are surly sailors. The cursing joke hit home.
brian4
September 15, 2011 at 8:36PM EST Reply to CommentLost interest 2/3 of the way through, though the opening was sort of funny. But if you can already see the jokes running thin in the pilot...I think for people looking for more TV this would be fine, and for people already on TV overload (me), it's one less thing I have to DVR.
chairthrower
September 16, 2011 at 10:40AM EST Reply to CommentWatched this last night. Interestingly, my wife thought it was quite funny,and then suddenly realized that if it went on long enough,they could just have another baby. I have a soft spot for Will Arnett, and Christina Applegate has fantastic comic timing (although her eyebrows are strange).
Jenn
September 16, 2011 at 10:42AM EST Reply to CommentI will give it a chance, I liked the three leads and I thought some (not all) of the parenting jokes were so true. The "who got less sleep" fight was one that my husband and I actually had last week.
I also liked that Maya Rudolph's character wasn't mean about the baby/Reagan as new mom, it just seemed more like she missed her trusted co-worker and friend and she's clueless about babies.
And I did like the message that you can love your baby and miss your old life.