Mr Sunshine: Pilot Review

“Remind me again though, what did she do, she lit a man on fire?”
“There was an investigation, but the evidence was inconclusive. Yeah.”
“But the guys ok though?”
“She did light him on fire… So… He’s not great.”

I’ve been getting really over excited about the premier of “Mr Sunshine” earlier this week. There have been quite a few TV spots and promo’s which showed some truly funny gags, and it looked like it was going to be a good move for Chandler (I know I know, but I refuse to refer to Matthew Perry as anything else).

After watching it, I’m not so convinced. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still going to watch and I really hope that it picks up, but the pilot didn’t make a great first impression.

“I see from the schedule that John is playing next Wednesday, 

I would very much like to make love to him.”
“I will see what I can do…”

There were a few funny gags, but most of them had been shown in the promos, or hinted at so the set up was really obvious for a supposedly big pay off later on in the episode. The humour just wasn’t as sharp as I’m used to seeing from Chandler. Friends he was very good, Studio 60 he was even better, and I guess I expected him to grow even further with this role.

However, just because it was a slow start with a lot of setting up to do, I am not writing this series off just yet. 

“What do you do in a situation like this?”
“You know what, I’m gonna run for my life.”
“Yeah I’m gonna do that too.”

I genuinely laughed out loud at a few of the jokes – mostly the ones I’ve quoted – and I really hope that as the series goes on, the actors settle in, the writing gets better, and the jittery edge that upset this episode, goes away.

The set up and characters are brilliant – now just use their strengths and make the most of them.