There's something magical about surreal comedy done right, as seen of late in both Inherent Vice and the new FXX series Man Seeking Woman. Despite popular belief, it's more about approach than ideas, and this is, thankfully, something the latter series knows and achieves in stride.
Jay Baruchel leads the new sitcom as Josh Greenberg, a down-on-his-luck, unemployed and utterly hapless 27-year-old man who has just been dumped by Maggie (Maya Erskine), his girlfriend of four years — though, he would like to think of it as six. Through the help of his womanizing friend Mike (Eric Andre), Josh slowly attempts to reconnect his life. It's not a new premise, to be sure, but as seen by the walking cloud of rain and dead birds pouring solely on his head during the episode's cold-opening, this series is wholly in its own surreal world.
As such, this is where the beauty of the pilot comes in. The new series, exploring everything from Josh blind date with a troll to discovering his Maggie has rebounded him for Adolf Hitler — whom she calls "Dolfy" — is unapologetic in its weirdness but broad enough in its ideas to be accessible to a wide audience, or at least one's willing to bite. It's a show that already is filled with imagination and charm, and, unlike a majority of its predecessors, achieves an equilibrium in its wild card variety that makes it both relatable and enjoyably alienated.
Baruchel plays this part to a T. It's the kind of role he's needed to play for years, but could never quite find. Josh plays into all his strengths as a performer, but Baruchel's performance is portrayed with such warmth and sympathy that it instantly warms you up to him, even past his skirmish insecurities and sheepishness. While he may be a couple years too old for the part, his well-graced demenour makes it all click, and he knows how to work through the budding listlessness of the modern-day 20-something year-old.
Created by Simon Rich, based on his book The Last Girlfriend on Earth, Man Seeking Women tone falls somewhere between the lines of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World meets the earlier works of Woody Allen. It's quick-paced editing and sharp writing gives the show a good bouncy tempo, and its the kind of quirky show that's off-kilter and bizarre in all the right ways. Every seemingly random action serves a purpose, and they all have great payoffs as they go along. It's clear Rich is swimming with ideas, and if the pilot is — and should be — a sign of thing to come, this may be one of the most entertaining and engaging new comedy series of the new year. Much like Louie on FXX's sister station FX, it flourishes on being abstract and unhinged as its wants. Thankfully, however, it never overdoes its sensibilities, nor does Man Seeking Woman become obnoxious or too cutesy about its oddities.
As another SNL writer getting his own series thanks to the help of creator Lorne Michaels, its hard not to compare this series to Fox's Mulaney, which falls under the same situation. Where John Mulaney seems hellbent on being as annoyingly persistent about sticking to the formulas of sitcoms past, Rich finds great ways to take old conventions and rom-com tropes and make them his own. As seen by the examples listed above and another key scene where the media and even Barack Obama applaudes Josh's abilities to score a random girl's number, it takes familiar ideas and spins them on their head, touching the same themes, but giving them life again by expressing itself and its unorthodox line-of-thinking.
Man Seeking Woman is not without is faults so far, notably that it still does quite have its heart properly aligned and it's still a little too sporadic for its own good, but it's definitely a very promising start, and a show that'll likely (or at least hopefully) getting more surefooted and contained as it progresses. As such, it's a super sweet and instantly likable little sitcom, and one that's going to creep you and continue surprising as it goes along.
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