Having watched The Wonder Years as a kid, I thought I would give Fred Savage’s new show, The Grinder, a shot. Big mistake.
When the first episode ended, I wasn’t looking forward to next week; instead, I was telling myself, “You just wasted 30 minutes of your life, and you’re never going to get it back.”
The Grinder centers around Rob Lowe’s character Dean Sanderson, an actor; and his brother, Stewart (Savage), who is a lawyer in Boise, Idaho (there was ONE shot of the REAL Boise). Dean has played a lawyer on a just-ended eight-year run of the “successful” TV series The Grinder and come home to find a new direction in life (“I’m just driving down the highway of ‘What the hell is my life?’ looking for an off-ramp”).
Dean decides his time as a TV lawyer qualifies him to be a real lawyer (“Let’s say you’re at a restaurant, and Noah Wyle is two tables down,” Dean says in an attempt to enlighten Stewart through analogy. “You go into cardiac arrest. You don’t think Noah Wyle could step in and help?”) and joins Stewart and their father (Dean Sr., played by William Devane) in the “family business.” You can probably guess the rest.
As comedy shows go, the end result was a rarity in that there was not a single “laugh-out-loud funny” moment. Why does a successful TV star need to move in with his brother? Do the writers know anything about the Idaho legal system, because none of the “legal” aspects of the show would be possible in Boise.
Much like Fox’s, “The Last Man on Earth,” I have no idea how this show even got past the concept stage. It is terrible.
Agree? Disagree? Let me know in the comments below.
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