'Undateable' Live: I Watched and Lived to Tell the Tale
When I heard Undateable was doing a live episode on Tuesday night, I decided I should watch. Then I heard that it was an hour-long Undateable episode. This is like being told that the 20 lashes with a whip you were going to receive from The Grand Torturer has suddenly been upped to 40.
Undateable is not my favorite sitcom, but, hey, live TV is live TV. The show led off with Ed Sheeran performing in the Black Eyes Bar on open-mic night, and (haha!) Justin didn’t recognize him. This set up a running joke in which everyone hit Justin as revenge “for Ed.”
And by “everyone,” I mean not just the core cast, but also guest stars Zach Braff, Donald Faison, Christa Miller, Neil Flynn (Undateable executive producer Bill Lawrence also ran Scrubs), Minnie Driver, Scott Foley, Dr. Drew, and Victoria Justice as a singer Justin and Chris D’Elia’s Danny fought over.
Oh my lord, it was tedious. Around the time Danny got a big laugh from the live studio audience for saying the line, “Oh yeah, you wanna bet, nerd?” I grabbed the remote to see what else was on.
Over on Fox News, Megyn Kelly was grinning with feigned excitement as Mike Huckabee announced his presidential candidacy on her air. Click.
On Deadliest Catch, the guys were battening down the hatches for Typhoon Nuri. There was a lot of engrossing talk about “off-loading crab” and “repairing their broken boom winch.” Alas, duty called: Back to Undateable.
Minnie Driver called Shelly “the black Winnie the Pooh.” Danny made grunting noises and moved around like a gorilla. More than once. Danny’s bet with Justin involved the loser — in the competition to date Victoria Justice’s character — getting his chest waxed “live, in front of everyone.” That line was one of the things that prevented this live-TV stunt from being engaging: Too often, D’Elia in particular played to the camera and to the audience, waggling his eyebrows and sometimes intentionally blowing a line — it was all too self-conscious. The only nice live-TV goof was when Foley called Justin “Danny,” an understandable error with a show this forgettable. Click.
Over on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Skye’s mom was yelling, “How dare you compare your scars to mine!” I lost the thread on what the hell is going on in S.H.I.E.L.D. a while back. Click.
On Deadliest Catch, I caught someone breaking an arm and someone else muttering, “We haven’t even gotten in the water and we’re already having complications with this scenario.” Wow: injuries and eloquence on this show!
Back at Undateable, Justin lost the bet, was sitting in a chair with his shirt off, and Danny yanked a waxing pad to reveal what appeared to be a clearly pre-waxed-before-airtime patch of skin. So much for spontaneity and taking one for the team.
All the guest stars returned to sing to us as the credits rolled. Hey, did you see the NBC ads for Aquarius? David Duchovny vs. Charles Manson? That looks really good.
Undateable airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on NBC.
