'The Carmichael Show': A Likable Laugh-Getter
No one is going to say The Carmichael Show is a groundbreaking sitcom, but it’s certainly a likable and, with some regularity, a funny one. It stars Jerrod Carmichael, whose stand-up comedy act is distinctively amusing. Carmichael has a calm, measured delivery on a stage, and frequently makes jokes with an absurdist edge.
On The Carmichael Show, he plays a version of himself, using his real name and appearing as a nice guy with a nice girlfriend, Maxine (the charming Amber Stevens West) and a couple of bumptious parents — the always wonderful Loretta Devine as his mother, and David Alan Grier as his father. Grier goes for a kind of Archie Bunker/Fred Sanford sort of grumpiness — after you get over the startling notion of Grier playing an old man, you appreciate his timing and modulated intensity.
Making his sitcom debut, Carmichael is required to act broadly, to be heard over the very loud Grier and Devine and an energetic studio audience (yes, this is an old-fashioned, “three-camera” sitcom). The increase in volume and necessity to emote more than he does on a comedy-club stage makes Carmichael seem a little awkward — he reminds me of Jerry Seinfeld in the first season of his sitcom, getting used to the format. But like Seinfeld, Carmichael’s sensibility still comes through, and overall, he makes a better sitcom debut than another first-rate stand-up, John Mulaney, did in his ill-fated, short-lived show.
By the second episode, The Carmichael Show gets into some interesting territory with a subplot about a Black Lives Matter demonstration. Because he’s grumpy and socially conservative, Grier’s character is against such protests; his wife avidly takes part in it, joining an equally enthusiastic Maxine. Here’s where The Carmichael Show is weak: It doesn’t give its star a clear point of view.
Jerrod should have been in the thick of that argument over the protest (and, it turns out, the looting), making his own position ringingly clear. Perhaps he and the producers felt they didn’t want the Jerrod character taking a political stance so early on in the show’s run, lest segments of the audience feel alienated. But these days, a network sitcom only gets a week or two to make its impression on viewers who will decide whether The Carmichael Show merits a position in its increasingly varied and voluminous list of shows to DVR every week.
I liked this sitcom, and hope it sticks around, but I fret that too many folks will tune in, find it too mild, and move on.
The Carmichael Show airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. at NBC.
