Review: Marry Me (Pilot)

Ken Marino and Casey Wilson of Marry Me

Ken Marino and Casey Wilson of Marry Me

NBC has cracked the formula of how to get me to actually watch a romantic comedy: Make a member of The State one of the leading characters!  Fill the show with other comedians I also find funny (Casey Wilson, Tim Meadows), and you’ve got me in for at least a couple episodes.

The setup of Marry Me is that Jake (Ken Marino) and Annie (Casey Wilson) have been dating for six years.  The pilot starts with them returning from vacation, where Annie was sure that after so long, Jake was finally going to propose to her.  When he says he’s going to bed, she explodes on him, going through her cupboards looking for something while tearing him a new one.  Little does she know that he’s down on one knee behind her, waiting for her to turn around and propose.  They showed part of this scene in commercials, and the full scene is hysterical, awkward humor at it’s finest.

I laughed a lot during the pilot.  I think the awkward comedy is great in the show.  The problem is, the story felt choppy to me.  Every scene stood on it’s own, almost like a skit, rather than scenes of a cohesive story.  Hopefully this is simply a matter of most pilot episodes aren’t a show at the top of it’s game.  It takes time for most shows to click, and find their groove.

Many times, pilots of shows are plain awful, which thankfully is not the case here.  Marry Me has potential for the brand of humor I like, and I am optimistic that episodes will become smoother over the next couple of weeks to become something that can find a decent size audience.  If I were in charge, I’d tone back slightly on the awkward humor (even though I love it) and add a little bit more to the story.

Marry Me airs Tuesdays at 9pm on NBC.

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