Matt LeBlanc Is Stuck in ‘Man With a Plan’
It’s difficult to imagine why Matt LeBlanc wanted to do Man With a Plan, the new CBS sitcom premiering Monday night. He must have enough money left over from Friends, right? And he’s heading into the final season of a quality series, Showtime’s Episodes — for which he won much praise, Emmy nominations, and a Golden Globe — so it’s not as if he needed to prove he had a second act in him post-Friends. So why sign on to a show that puts him on a level slightly below Kevin James in Kevin Can Wait?
In Man, LeBlanc stars as Adam Burns, a contractor who agrees to take on daily childcare duties when his wife, Andi (Yes, Dear’s Liza Snyder) decides to go back to work as a lab technician. It’s one of those sitcom-only family/life/work decisions: “Since I’m a contractor, I’m my own boss,” says Adam in explaining how this clan can juggle the two-job, no nanny, no daycare thing. I wonder how many full-time contractors double as full-time parents … to say nothing of the fact that this show assumes Adam is a pip of a fellow for, shall we say, allowing his wife go back to work.
Anyway, those are the least of this show’s problems. The lines aren’t funny: There’s a running joke about one of the kids always having his “hands down his pants,” and when Adam brings the kids to school, he’s dismayed to learn he’s been signed up as the “room parent” for the year. This manly man has to do tedious school-project chores: Isn’t that a riot?
Jenna Fischer (The Office) played LeBlanc’s wife in the original pilot; maybe she found an escape clause in her contract after shooting that first episode. In the premiere, Snyder is perfectly good as Andi and holds the screen alongside LeBlanc, who in turn remains a charismatic funny-guy. But he’s not, as his character calls himself, “Daddy Fun-Times.”
The Man pilot was directed by the legendary James Burrows; perhaps at his suggestion, there are a few more scenes with physical-comedy business than in the original pilot I recall. Believe it or not, a bit about Adam locking his kids in the pantry so that he and his wife can have an argument in peace is one of the better moments in this silly series. The show is well-staged; it’s just that there’s not much of a show. But wedged between Kevin Can Wait (which is showing signs of being a solid performer for the network) and Two Broke Girls, LeBlanc might be a man who can plan to stick around for a while.
Man With a Plan airs Mondays at 8:30 p.m. on CBS.
