Series premiere review: 'Animal Practice' - 'Pilot': Would you like to buy a monkey?
What did everybody think of the new NBC sitcom?
Kym Whitley, JoAnna Garcia Swisher and Justin Kirk are some of the humans in "Animal Practice."
Credit: NBC
I posted my review of NBC's "Animal Practice" yesterday. Now it's your turn. What did everybody else think of the sitcom? Were you able to forget about Annie's Boobs while watching Crystal the Monkey play Dr. Rizzo? Did you find any of the human characters a tenth as interesting as the monkey or the python?
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 SignupJim
August 13, 2012 at 12:05AM EST Reply to CommentWell, I think I laughed at literally every scene with the monkey, and maybe 1 time total in all scenes not involving the monkey. The monkey was good, though! Relationship backstory totally dull.
Jack
August 13, 2012 at 12:13AM EST Reply to CommentTwitter is united in it's hatred with Animal Practice
Joe Mozzarella
August 13, 2012 at 12:30AM EST Reply to CommentIt matters not how good or bad this show might be or become. NBC bumped The Who for this crap. After being spoiled by the Internet, I had kids waiting up. I'm never watching this, and I'm swearing off the today show. I'll take Last Resort over Revolution, and I'll catch Parks and Rec and Community in syndication on my local Fox affiliate. I hate NBC.
Stan I feel the same way. Ironically, I actually wanted to give this show a chance when I saw the previews. But then, after sitting through the entire closing ceremonies waiting for the climax with The Who, only to be told by Bob Costas that we'd have to wait ANOTHER hour before getting back to the Olympics, I was done. And I didn't really have a lot of problems with NBC like most people, but this just shows how little they care about their viewers.
August 13, 2012 at 1:52PM ESTI checked my DVR, the only two NBC shows I have are Community and P&R. Community ends this year, P&R maybe has a couple of years before it gets the ax, and then I'm done with the network for good.
oliver Just remember that it's not Costas' idea to make the audience wait another hour for the Who. And although it's annoying as he11 what NBC did, I'm not shocked they did it because they desperately have to hype their fall programs during the one time in four years when the masses are actually watching their network. I believe they did the same thing four years ago in Beijing, cutting away from the closing ceremony to slip in a new show (although for the life of me I can't remember what the show was).
August 13, 2012 at 2:38PM ESTScott Rosenberg
August 13, 2012 at 2:52AM EST Reply to CommentHaving now seen the show, I think it's future looks brighter than I had guessed.
To be fair, every aspect of the back story is completely awful, from the notion of a 12-story animal hospital with animal ambulances, to privately owning the same, to inheriting and deciding to run it, and to the backstory between Coleman and Dorothy and the exposition of Coleman's social skills.
On the other hand, the show was exceptionally well-made for a pilot. The production never felt rusty or off-tempo. The direction and cinematography was polished, the banter and comedy beats all hit the way they were supposed to, the score was complementary without being noticeable, and the comedy was well-spaced throughout. And while ridiculous premise points and verbal exposition cease to be relevant (or even remembered) after the first handful of episodes, the benefit of being a well-made show continues to carry weight.
Notwithstanding these observations, it all comes down to the cast and the writing. Earlier I suggested this was a gaping hole because Kirk couldn't be a true lead and Garcia-Swisher can't act. However, Justin Kirk accorded himself a little better than I expected, and Garcia-Swisher, while still low on talent and one-note, at least had enough chemistry with him to build on. The supporting cast was even stronger than I'd previously thought, and was a more consistent source of humor than suggested. Lastly, for all the talk of Crystal/Annie's Boobs by Alan and others, the monkey that would be vet was mainly used for sight gags, and so long as we don't see her holding clamps during surgical procedures, her use will be a benefit to the mass-appeal single cam this aspires to be.
I have no familiarity with the writing staff itself, and while this certainly wasn't great writing, it's hard to judge quality based on the chaotic blend of untested ideas, over writing, focus-grouping and network ass-kissing you find in a pilot episode. What I do know is that there is a deep and talented cast, a first-class crew, and several snippets of genuinely funny banter. I can certainly see how the show could go on to be a success for NBC.
OnlyMe Agreed, the show isn't nearly as bad as it could be. But the little things don't make sense. (Someone built a multi-story, privately-owned animal hospital and then bequeathed it to someone else? A place that size with that scope doesn't already have business manager? They service exotic animals, zoo animals, and cats? Someone one who spends all day on their feet wears heels as high as Garcia-Swisher's heels?). And I noticed all of that stuff. In a better show, I wouldn't have noticed.
August 13, 2012 at 3:08PM ESTBut it was ok enough not to turn off in disgust.
Exit8A
August 13, 2012 at 7:31AM EST Reply to CommentWow, does NBC just not get it? Did they learn nothing from the backlash they received two years ago from The Marriage Ref fiasco? They preempt The Who for this garbage? The worst part is, we are stuck with NBC for Olympic coverage for the next 8 years.
The past two weeks clearly show why nobody watches NBC anymore, when they do finally get an audience, they anger them by pulling this off AGAIN!
Brubarian
August 13, 2012 at 10:06AM EST Reply to CommentWhat could NBC have done to unite the entire country against a single show more? Well... obviously there are things, but this just absolutely floors me. I was angry when they switched programming, but I did at least give Animal Practice a shot. I turned it off after about a minute and a half. Can't imagine I'll return.
Flip Flop
August 13, 2012 at 11:03AM EST Reply to CommentWho talks like these people--snappy replies on the tip of their tongue before the other person finishes speaking? Maybe that's why I liked the monkey best, and I hate monkeys.
I'd like to add that Newsroom and Bunheads also suffer from too cutesy and too fast dialog. For an intimate medium like television, they feel unreal.
AndreT_NY
August 13, 2012 at 11:36AM EST Reply to CommentI watched about 10 minutes or so and honestly thought that this was a massive joke. I thought honestly that it was a show from Cartoon Network's Adult Swim content that got on NBC. It was just so bad. Since it was on NBC is was not so bad it good funny. Just dreck.
BigTed
August 13, 2012 at 12:44PM EST Reply to CommentYes, the monkey was funny. But I think the well has run dry with the lead in a comedy being the guy who's "great at his job but not so great at life." Plus, the show doesn't know whether it wants to make Justin Kirk a curmudgeon who can't get along with with people or a charmer who has his staff's loyalty and can pick up women at the drop of a hat.
As for his relationship with Garcia, it's hard to get past the back story -- she said she loved him, he didn't say it back, so she immediately left him without another word. Do human beings ever actually behave like that?
Dezbot Really immature human beings, maybe.
August 14, 2012 at 11:02AM ESTSteve
August 13, 2012 at 12:47PM EST Reply to CommentI was watching it and thinking of all the shows NBC has cancelled for this crap. The monkey was cute, but I will never watch the show again. It made it easy to fall asleep last night.
Matt
August 13, 2012 at 12:49PM EST Reply to CommentAlan, this review makes me wonder how many episodes you watch for new sitcoms. Do you just watch the pilot, because most sitcom pilots aren't nearly as funny as the rest of the show (Community, Seinfeld, Parks & Rec, etc). This is mainly due to needing to spend too much time establishing characters and setting and not having enough time left for comedy. In fact, the only pilot I can think of that is remotely as good as the rest of the show is Arrested Development.
Matt
August 13, 2012 at 1:17PM EST Reply to CommentThis show seemed to have promise. Sitcom pilots are never as funny as subsequent episodes (think Seinfeld, Community and Parks & Rec, just to name a few), mainly because of the large amount of time that needs to be used introducing characters and setting. In fact, Arrested Development might be the only sitcom that has a funny pilot episode.
Haik Mendelovich
August 13, 2012 at 5:55PM EST Reply to CommentYears ago, the National Lampoon had a comic about The Nazi Dr Dolittle ("He *made* the animals talk!").
The way NBC is trending, I fully expect to see that pilot next summer.
loeblaw
August 14, 2012 at 8:29AM EST Reply to CommentAwful, awful show....didn't laugh once.
David Sanders
August 14, 2012 at 11:43AM EST Reply to CommentFor a pilot, it wasn't bad. Tyler Labine was wasted. Hopefully the writers can develop the character. I think people are prejudiced against NBC comedies. Other than P&R and Community there seems to be an automatic backlash aginst NBC.
That being said, they missed the boat on Bent. They should have given it a better chance and gotten rid of the awful awful Whitney.
Oliver
August 15, 2012 at 6:07PM EST Reply to CommentThis was just awful, even for a pilot. I predict a quick death.
It made the alright-but-flawed Go On pilot look great by contrast. Perhaps that was NBC's plan all along.