Monday, April 28, 2014

The Crazy Ones (2013-Present)


I was late to this show; the extreme Robin Williams-ness of the promos put me off.  Robin Williams is a comic combustive most effective in controlled doses, and the show’s ads didn’t instill confidence.  Luckily, I caught it on a whim one day and realized my mistake.  This workplace sitcom, set in an advertising agency, cultivates a great mix of humor and heart, with a quirky sensibility that reminds me a bit of Better Off Ted.  While I could go on about the dialogue, plotting, and direction, I’m going to focus on the show’s best asset:  its characters.
 
Simon is the maverick, the advertising legend with decades of experience.  He lives for flashes of creative brilliance, complete with unorthodox methods and deadline-skirting urgency.  A typical day at his office comes with quips, novelty toys, and impromptu musical compositions.  Unlike the old days, he’s now running the operation sober, and he isn’t always sure he can still capture the old magic, but he’s out to prove otherwise.  This role is probably the best use of Robin Williams since Aladdin’s genie, and while he leads, he doesn’t overwhelm the rest of the cast.
 
Simon’s daughter Sydney is the agency’s newest partner.  With a hyperactive recovering addict for a dad, she grew up fast, and it shows.  She’s an incurable workaholic who’s often plays bad cop, grounding more fanciful ideas for practicality’s sake, but she clearly loves and admires Simon as a father and a business partner.  She sometimes wishes she had his madcap ingenuity and could unwind.  The show initially struggled to make her more than just a straight-man, but Sarah Michelle Gellar has always done a fine job playing the team’s persnickety handler.
 
Andrew, an art director, is smart and sarcastic but more than a little insecure.  Any praise from Simon is hard-won, and he’s not as smooth with the ladies as he’d like to be.  However, he and Sydney are best friends with an amusing will-they-won’t-they dynamic on a slow burn.  He also has a fondness for German board games and has been known to quote Pride and Prejudice in casual conversation.  Hamish Linklater (who I first saw as a jockey on Pushing Daisies,) endearing in a goofy way, delivers his lines with a slightly sleepy deadpan that lands every time.
 
Copy writer Zach lives a charmed life.  The charismatic golden boy is Simon’s right-hand man, and with his Disney-prince good looks, he can get virtually anyone he wants.  His past life as a bar mitzvah DJ comes in handy; he’s a natural showman with no qualms about schmoozing.  Though he could easily seem cliché, James Wolk (previously unknown to me, but a real find) keeps him thoroughly likeable and manages to keep up with Robin Williams at every turn.
 
Last is Lauren, Simon’s assistant.  She’s a bit of an enigma, dropping hints about her background in tantalizing asides.  We know she’s been a spoken-word poet and a stalker, and she knows someone who runs an actual rat race.  She has ambitions beyond fetching coffee, and if her intelligence and dash of ruthlessness are anything to go by, she’ll achieve them.  Amanda Setton (lately of The Mindy Project, where they evidently weren’t taking advantage of her talents) is a riot as this offbeat character who is always surprising.
 
Warnings
 
Language, some sexual content, drug/alcohol references, and a little sitcom violence.

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