Should You Try Making It Through Surviving Jack?

What Is This Thing?

When a mom to two teens decides to enroll in law school in 1991, it falls to her very stern and heretofore-not-that-involved husband to take over most of the parenting -- which, considering they're teenagers, the kids seem to need a LOT of.

When Is It On?

Thursdays at 9:30 PM on Fox.

Why Was It Made Now?

You noticed that I said it's set in 1991? And that the dad is gruff and detached? So I'm not saying that the success of The Goldbergs led directly to Surviving Jack, but the timing does seem slightly suspect.

What's Its Pedigree?

Director Victor Nelli Jr. comes here from...directing three episodes of The Goldbergs (in addition to lots of other sitcoms, including Trophy Wife, Sirens, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and lots of Ugly Betty). It's based on a book called I Suck At Girls by Justin "Shit My Dad Says" Halpern, who's also a writer on the show. But the real all-stars are, of course, its parent leads: Rachael Harris as Joanne, and Chris Meloni as the titular Jack.

...And?

Oh my god, you guys, I'm so happy to see Chris Meloni in a comedy that I'm willing to overlook even the hacky 1991 things they make him do -- like, for instance, reading Jurassic Park and complaining about how unrealistic it is (though even that turns out to be a defensible choice, as Joanne later gets back at Jack for a parenting fuck-up by telling him how the book ends, hee hee). Jack could be a typically boring mad dad in the way of so many sitcoms, but Meloni imbues him with just enough weirdness to make you root for him. The first thing we see him do is catch his son, Frankie, intently watching a scrambled channel showing The Bikini Police, and practising negative reinforcement by making him run around the block. (Neighbour: "It's 3 in the morning!" Jack: "Hi, Tom!") He scoffs at Joanne's doubt about his fitness to take care of the kids by reminding her that he takes care of kids with cancer, and when she points out that the kids don't have cancer, he snorts, "Cancer's inside everyone, it's just a matter of whether or not it metastasizes!" When Joanne complains that their daughter Rachel got into a Sexual Situation with her boyfriend Doug and demands to know where Jack was, he deadpans, "Oh, I was out buying massage oil for them." And! Joanne gets to be funny too! Part of Rachel's punishment for getting caught with a boy in her room is that she and Joanne must do their homework together, and drift into rueful talk about Doug's technique and how it wasn't really working for Rachel. Joanne: "I dated this guy in high school -- I thought he was going to permanently change the shape of my boobs."

...But?

Rachel is kind of a zero so far. And our ostensible protagonist is Frankie -- at least, he's the one who gets to have his older self narrate the stories of his life (again: just like on The Goldbergs) -- who is presented to us as a helpless nerd -- awkward with girls, scared of driving, obsessed with all the sex he can't have. But like...putting a stupid wig and giant '90s clothing on Connor Buckley, who plays him, doesn't actually make him a dork. Exhibit A:

Yes, I felt like a pervert snapping that screen shot, but the actor's three years out of high school, apparently, so it doesn't actually make me a sex criminal, and ANYWAY, my point is, whitefro or not, a kid who looks like Frankie would have NO PROBLEM getting girls' attention, so if that's the main premise of the show, it requires a lot of suspension of disbelief.

...So?

Even the boring kids can't fully detract from the awesomeness of the parents, so it's worth sampling for them. Especially Meloni. In fact, stop reading this and go watch Wet Hot American Summer again.