Should You Buddy Up With The Odd Couple?

What Is This Thing?

You know the story. It's in your DNA.

So this is that, minus the period costuming.

When Is It On?

Thursdays at 8:30 PM on CBS.

Why Was It Made Now?

With Two And A Half Men about to wrap its final season, CBS probably looked at the schedule and figured it could use another mismatched-dudes sitcom.

What's Its Pedigree?

GET COMFY. The Odd Couple started its life as a stage play by Neil Simon, starring Walter Matthau and Art Carney, which went on to win Tonys for Matthau's performance as Oscar; for the Simon's writing; and for Mike Nichols, its director. It was subsequently adapted into an Oscar-nominated movie and then a multiple Emmy-nominated TV series (with Tony Randall winning one in 1975 for his performance as Felix). This version features Matthew Perry as Oscar and Thomas Lennon as Felix, and was adapted by Perry with Danny Jacobson, some of whose credits are respectable (Roseanne, Mad About You) and some of which are Kirstie and Rob. Also present are Yvette Nicole Brown as Oscar's assistant; Wendell Pierce and Dave Foley as Oscar's buddies -- because make no mistake: this is a character who would call his friends "buddies"; and Leslie Bibb and Lindsay Sloane as Casey and Emily, sisters who are, like Oscar and Felix, also temporarily bunking up after Emily's recent romantic disappointment, and who live in Oscar's building.

...And?

On paper, the casting is solid. In his real life, Matthew Perry's been growing more and more Oscar Madisony with each passing year. If you interpret that to mean "unappealingly slovenly," then we understand each other perfectly. And I truly can't think of a better call than Thomas Lennon as Felix Unger: if you've seen him in I Love You, Man or What To Expect When You're Expecting (and...yes, I have seen the latter), you know he's been doing a version of this character type for a while. If you interpret that to mean "persnickety shading into coded gay," then, again, we are on the same page.

Of the supporting cast, I have to single out Sloane for special praise: the once and I certainly hope future Birdbones takes what she's given and makes the most of it; she and Lennon rise above the multi-cam corniness and find the emotional truth in what could be very cartoony characters.

But ultimately, what recommends this series above everything else is the solid material, which has been ripped off countless times and animates every mismatch-buddy-comedy that came after it.

...But?

I haven't seen the play, but I personally don't actually like the original movie or show that much? I realize this is pop culture blasphemy, this is a time-tested text that's been performed by everyone from Ethan Hawke and Billy Crudup to Pat Sajak and his old Army buddy from Vietnam (...really), but to me it rests on a foundational fallacy, which is that Oscar and Felix would ever be friends. I can sooner buy the bizarre cross-party marriage of James Carville and Mary Matalin than I can that a giant pig and a compulsive disinfecter would try cohabitating for more than a night -- and I say that as someone who can't enter her husband's disorderly office without rhetorically asking, "How can you live like this?" (But guys, seriously, there's still a scrap of paper on the floor from two podcasts ago. How.)

Even if you buy into the idea that their basic constitutional differences could allow for decades of friendship between Felix and Oscar, though, the question is how funny it is to see these types bashing into each other and playing out the same conflict in microscopically different ways. Felix makes a bunch of queer vegan snacks for Oscar's poker game, when Oscar himself is happy to eat a sandwich that's been sitting on the coffee table for at least days and maybe weeks! Felix is a raw nerve about his divorce because he's fruity enough to be in touch with his feelings, whereas Oscar has tamped his down with denial that he misses his ex-wife at all! Felix does yoga in a tight t-shirt and shorts, while Oscar shuffles off to get a cab for a beer run! (Two notes about that one: first, in Manhattan you can't walk a block without finding a place to buy beer, so the cab joke is dumb, and second, Felix is thoughtful and considered in everything he does, yet he sets up his yoga mat right next to the apartment's front door?!) You see the theme, right? Oscar is a "real man," in that he's a gross slob whose only exertion comes when he's trying to get Casey to bone him. Felix is a joke because, despite not sleeping with men (at least, not in the pilot), everything else about him is gay. Felix wants Oscar to take vitamins?! WHAT A HOMO, HAR HAR HAR.

...So?

If you liked Two And A Half Men, then you will probably also enjoy seeing the slob vs. snob dynamic play out in the original, and you will certainly enjoy seeing women being nothing more than sex targets and/or scolds! Otherwise, you don't need to make room in your life for this one. If you must, watch the pilot, and then write a better project for Lennon and Sloane to do when this shit is cancelled.