Should You Give Speechless Your Full-Throated Endorsement?

What Is This Thing?

The Dimeo family is moving into a new house -- and the Dimeo kids into their sixth school in two years -- for a very good reason: mother Maya has identified the public high school she thinks will best accommodate eldest son JJ. Placing JJ has been a challenge in the past because other public schools in the area are ill-equipped to meet the academic needs and logistical requirements of a student who has cerebral palsy, doesn't speak, and uses a wheelchair. But maybe Lafayette will be different? And maybe it'll be great for JJ's brother and sister too.

When Is It On?

Wednesdays at 8:30 PM ET on ABC.

Why Was It Made Now?

ABC hasn't been a ratings winner in a while, but that's been a boon to the discerning family sitcom viewer, because it means the network's taken some interesting risks in that genre. Modern Family has a lot to answer for comedically, but its success did open the door for a whole bunch of sitcoms with interesting premises: Fresh Off The Boat tells the story of a Taiwanese family settling into early '90s Orlando; The Real O'Neals explores the fallout from a gay teen son's coming out to his Catholic family; black-ish digs into issues facing contemporary African-American families. Speechless, portraying the challenges facing the family of a child with a disability, is the latest addition to ABC's family-sitcom portfolio.

What's Its Pedigree?

Since his work as a producer on Friends, Speechless creator Scott Silveri co-created Joey and Perfect Couples (the latter of which really did not get enough of a chance, in my opinion) and created Go On. Oscar nominee Minnie Driver -- who's previously headlined The Riches and About A Boy on TV -- plays Maya opposite John Ross Bowie (The Big Bang Theory) as husband Jimmy. Marin Hinkle (Once And Again, a credit I prefer to mention over her recurring role on Two And A Half Men) plays Dr. Miller, the principal of the kids' new school; Jonathan Slavin (Better Off Ted) plays one of JJ's teachers; and Cedric Yarbrough (Reno 911!) is Kenneth, a Lafayette gardener...at least at first.

...And?

Having been burned by many corny sitcoms before, it's very possible that I might not even have sampled Speechless if not for two gentlemen: Yarbrough and Bowie, both of whom I've loved for years. So it's no surprise that the two of them are among my favourite things in the pilot. Yarbrough gets to be pretty much the only person employed at Lafayette who isn't intimidated by Maya's passion and intensity; a fight she picks with Dr. Miller next to the garbage the principal wants JJ to use to get in and out of the school is perfectly accented by his dismayed line reading of "Oh, Doctor" (you'll know it when you hear it). The pilot ends with Kenneth accepting an offer that will enmesh him more tightly with JJ...

...and, by extension, the rest of the family -- and I'm excited to get to see more of him in the episodes ahead.

As for Bowie: as I said on the latest episode of the podcast, there's a through line directly from Jimmy to the irritated FBI agent Bowie played at the beginning of The Heat; here, he's so dry he's practically British -- which is especially funny considering that he's playing opposite a near-manic Driver (whom we'll get to in a minute). However, he also gets a mean-funny moment early on as he has a private moment with son Ray (Mason Cook), who's dubious that his experience at Lafayette is going to be any better than the last five schools -- a moment father and son enjoy parked strategically...

...the better to enjoy cars bottoming out at the bottom of a neighbourhood hill. The Dimeos couldn't be headed by two assertive nuts, so it makes sense that a person married to Maya might have, over time, sometimes receded, the better to let her get her way unimpeded. But getting fewer words in edgewise means Jimmy also learned how to pick his spots.

Maya will probably be a more divisive figure, because "assertive" is kind of a polite way to say "aggressive." But I appreciate that we're coming into JJ's story sixteen years in -- sixteen years that, presumably, Maya has been learning how to be his advocate. This is a family with limited financial resources; politeness obviously isn't going to get them anywhere, and Maya doesn't care who gets annoyed if she can achieve her objectives on JJ's behalf.

And speaking of JJ: he's played by Micah Fowler, who also has a neurological disorder and uses a wheelchair. Glee did lots of things to push me away, but a final straw was a sequence when Artie, the wheelchair-using student, has a fantasy about not just getting on his feet but dancing. I can imagine that it was frustrating for Kevin McHale, an actual dancer, to have his motions limited in the role of Artie, but maybe that's a good reason for the role to have been played by a disabled actor? Maybe...there are lots of disabled characters who could be played by disabled actors? Switched At Birth manages to find Deaf actors to play its Deaf characters, after all. Anyway: the fact that Fowler was cast in this role makes me hopeful that JJ will be treated with dignity and respect, if for no other reason than that Fowler himself will be in a position to speak from experience and object if he's not. (Given how much ABC gets right about the less Brady Bunch-looking characters in its family sitcoms, I'm optimistic that smart people behind the scenes are making smart judgments about how to handle questions of disabled representation on Speechless, too, so that responsibility doesn't fall entirely to an actor in the second big role of his career.)

...But?

So far, Dimeo daughter Dylan seems underwritten relative to the rest of the family: all we really learn about her in the series premiere is that she's a great runner, and disgusted by her new PE teacher's indiscriminate praise of her less talented classmates. Over the closing credits, though, we do see Dylan sharing her turn on a fair ride with Maya, both of them haranguing the operator to make it bounce more vigorously: maybe what will emerge in the coming episodes is more evidence that she takes after her hard-charging mother, and that if we don't see much of her angsting around, it's just because she's very confident and independent.

...So?

It's early days, but Speechless definitely has the potential to become my favourite ABC family sitcom. I don't think you'll regret giving it a shot.