Photo: Prashant Gupta / FX
What Is This Thing?
Russ and Lina have been married for a while and produced three daughters, but the demands of their lives have started to encroach upon their sex life -- to wit, he's still interested, but she's kind of over it. Since neither of them considers this a big enough issue to break up over, she suggests that they continue enjoying the aspects of their relationship that work, but that he seek sexual fulfillment outside their marriage. BUT WILL HE?!
When Is It On?
Thursdays at 10 PM on FX.
Why Was It Made Now?
FX's two biggest live-action sitcoms -- It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia and The League -- (a) are getting to the point where their stars probably have less and less time to spend making them (particularly Charlie Day, Mark Duplass, and Nick Kroll), and (b) have been shunted off to FXX anyway. So it's probably smart for the network to start developing projects that could eventually replace them. Married and its time slot neighbour You're The Worst (the latter created by friend of the site Stephen Falk) are probably good prospects.
What's Its Pedigree?
Oscar-winning screenwriter and Ben & Kate alumnus Nat Faxon plays Russ; Lina is played by Judy Greer, of...everything. Series creator Andrew Gurland is new to TV and has kind of an eclectic film CV, having written both The Last Exorcism and The Virginity Hit. Range!
...And?
Starting a series with a wife who proposes what is essentially a one-way open marriage is pretty bold; however you may feel about polyamory, it's not the kind of thing that a lot of sitcoms have explored. And if Lina were a shrew or Russ a sexual predator, this would be a lot cringier and harder to watch. Fortunately, Greer and Faxon are kind of...really perfect in these roles individually, and together they have great chemistry; you buy that they're even considering this cockamamie sex idea not just because they're too bored or scared to take the step of ending their marriage but because other than this one thing, they still like each other. Here's a great example of their natural rapport.
Also very good are Brett Gelman and Jenny Slate as AJ and Jess, friends of Russ's who commiserate with his marital travails because they have problems of their own: AJ's apparently in the middle of a divorce, and Jess has married a much older man whose pills she has to organize for him. (Also also: he's Paul Reiser. Though as of the pilot, we don't know that yet.)
...But?
Less good is John Hodgman as Russ's bigmouthed buddy, which leads me to the biggest problem with the show -- like, maybe Lina would have more discretionary time to spend fucking Russ if Russ wasn't always out having drinks and tacos with his other friends and leaving her to do all the parenting and household maintenance? I understand that sitcoms require their protagonists to have sounding boards. But in my experience, people who have three young children don't get to spend that much time dicking around in bars asking waitress Alexandra Daddario to be their mistress.
...So?
While the pilot is heavy on exposition, it also has genuine laughs, and while Russ's character has stuff to do in it that could make him really despicable in the hands of...well, pretty much anyone who ever darkened the door of any Entourage soundstage, Faxon brings the role a mix of befuddlement and sneakiness that's charming, and I definitely want to see more of that bouncing off Lina -- particularly if subsequent episodes give her more to do, which I have to think they will.