One classic TV sitcom setup is when a disparate, diverse group of people come together over the very flimsiest of reasons. Community is the ur-example of this, and Sunnyside seems eager to follow in its footsteps, albeit in a much more realistic way. The show is about Garrett Modi (Kal Penn), a disgraced Queens city councilor who works with a group of immigrants to help them become American citizens in a scheme to get re-elected. Sunnyside has a lot going for it: It feels very timely given the immigration crisis, though becoming a naturalized citizen has always been full of bureaucratic bullshit. There’s also its pedigree. One of the creators is Matt Murray, a producer for Community, Parks And Recreation, and The Good Place. It’s executive-produced by Michael Schur, who previously wrung tons of drama out of a city council—the races, the politics, the re-election schemes!—on Parks And Rec. It also happens to be a starring vehicle for series co-creator Kal Penn, co-star of the Harold And Kumar movies, and as a former member of the Obama administration, someone with political bona fides.
Despite that onscreen and offscreen talent, Sunnyside arrives undercooked. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t moments of charm and wit; one of the great things about an ensemble show, and the convoluted way they come together, is that there’s lots of room for surprise. Garrett Modi (Penn) loses a local election to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez lookalike Diana Brea (Ana Villafañe). Modi’s election loss is partially attributed to years of partying over making policy, but the dealbreaker seems to be a viral video of him drunkenly trying to bribe a cop. It’s cartoonish and over-the-top, while simultaneously being pretty tame compared to the bad behavior of many real-life politicians these days. It’s not overtly funny, but Garrett’s decision to begin his re-election “campaign” by earning money from people who want to meet him after he acted like an idiot, is. That’s how he meets the study group—er, the people studying to become citizens.
None of the other players gets enough to do in the pilot, which is a shame. These shows are only as good as their ensemble, and the one thing Community pulled off in its pilot that its contemporaries too often omit is giving real introductions for each character. But there are enough quirks among them to invite further viewing: Jun Ho (Joel Kim Booster) and Mei Lin (Poppy Liu) have glimmers of being delightfully snobby rich people (who pay Garrett enough to stick around). Kim Booster’s stand-up is the main reason to be hopeful about these characters becoming more fun to watch in any episode that’s not a pilot. Hakim (Samba Schutte) is in a classic “doctor in my country, cab driver in the U.S.” immigrant story, but, again, he barely gets to show any personality. The beyond industrious Griselda (Diana-Maria Riva) has the best gag on the show so far—she has all the jobs, all the time. In the pilot, she works as a mail carrier, server, librarian, ballpark food vendor, and apparently, an Apple Genius.
Brady (Moses Storm, another stand-up gem) is a unique example among the others in that he was brought over from Moldova at age 2 and didn’t realize he wasn’t a citizen. He spends most of the episode annoyed by fellow Moldovan Drazen (Tudor Petrut), who insists they are brothers. Drazen is adorable, like a kind but silly uncle, putting too much relish on his hot dog and playing his music at random moments, and it’s very upsetting when he gets taken by ICE.
Which brings us to the least effective member of this group: Penn as Garrett. Penn’s tenure in the Obama White House provides an interesting meta element to the series’ political bent. But shows like Community and the bands of misfits they center on are usually able to rally around the main character, who is almost always a jerk—albeit a really charming one who starts to temper his nonstop bullshit and open up emotionally, which leads him to a freakout and maybe even tears. Although everyone from Garrett’s sister, Mallory (Kiran Deol, another delightful surprise), to Griselda insists that Garrett is a convincing, charismatic talker, those traits don’t really translate. Garrett does give a few speeches, but they’re the weakest part of the show, especially compared to how Community’s Joel McHale easily mixed sarcasm and sincerity in his lectures. Instead, Penn is goofy where he should be smarmy, and when he does sell the jerk element, it’s a little gross instead of funny. He (and the show) strain the most at these times; Penn’s best moments are when he steps back and reacts to the ensemble, especially because he has a natural warmth that comes across easily, like when he banters with his sister.
As has increasingly become the case, only the pilot was available for review, so it’s hard to gauge how Sunnyside will grow. If it leans too hard on Garrett’s supposed shtick, the show might drag, leaving little chance for survival. But the rest of the ensemble has a lot of potential—Kim Booster, Storm, Riva, and Deol in particular—and if the show focuses on them more, it could really have something special. If Sunnyside leans into spontaneity and surprises—just as Community quickly turned away from Britta and Jeff to focus on the most chemistry-laden couple on the show, Troy and Abed—then it could evolve into a show worth sticking with.
85 Comments
This does not read as a “B” review.
This reads as a hopeful “B”. As in, if this show gets it’s act together and Kumar becomes more like Jeff Winger, it’ll earn that “B”.
That’s fair. Love the people involve, but I think the premise sounds hacky and semi-limiting.
Self-limiting? Maybe, although presumably if they ever do become citizens they’ll have other problems. But I wouldn’t call it hacky.
But it’s the literal definition of hackneyed? I watched the trailer after reading the review thinking that sounds like a maybe, and quickly pivoted to lol oh yeah network comedy is still pretty awful.
The show being hackneyed doesn’t mean the premise is.
You have to remember…they’ll almost certainly cut reviews for this after a couple weeks, because the AVC has to prioritize reviews of BBT and thinkpieces about how no one ever reviews shows starring actors of color.
because the AVC has to prioritize reviews of BBTOh my god, I thought it was dead forever. Don’t tell me it’s coming back.
Ah, fair – should have gone with Modern Family!
BBT?
I read it more as forcing less Penn and more playing to the strengths of the supporting cast.
i’m having an incredibly hard time not reading these descriptions and feeling like this must be the hackiest show to premier in years. granted, the creative level of show runners have a solid track record, but everything described might as well be cliche 101
I feel like Community did too though – smarter than thou lawyer; overachieving A student; sassy black mom; weird kid; dumb jock; and overly involved protester. Those are all kinda tropes too, but it built. Having just re-watched all six seasons, growth really happened.
Stock trope characters was sort of the point with Community. Now you could say that this show is doing the same thing, but Community came out a decade ago. It’s not exactly cutting new ground.
I mean, if you just read a description of The Good Place before season 1, that didn’t that original either, really. And sometimes a show starts out as one thing, and then once it realizes the strengths of the cast, becomes something else.
What something’s about doesn’t matter nearly as much as it how it’s about it.
i get that, it very well could be charming. it has showrunners who have a good track record and it sounds like a largely positive cast. i hope it is charming- i could use another parks and rec in my life.
i just wonder if this sort of hack character is going to be able to be funny in this world we currently live in. i’m not sure i can have a gentle and uplifting chuckle at people trying to immigrate to the US (the same way some of my great and regular grandparents did) and bumping against the silly stuff we make people jump through in an era where we’re throwing kids in cages because their parents are fleeing horror. or where we are throwing allies from the middle east under the bus and hanging them out to dry.
i wish i could ignore the real world ramifications of this stuff and just have a gentle laugh. it probably would be good for my mental health overall…. but i can’t. and it doesn’t sound like this show even addresses that, let alone overcomes it
I bellowed with laughter at Lydia and Schneider going through the citizenship process in ODaaT – along with Jessica in FOtB – because of the garbage going on in our country, right now.
I watched the pilot and it was SO HACKY. I couldn’t believe this actually got on TV in the shape that it was and that Schur put his name to this. It was very disappointing.
I really want this show to succeed, it has so many good people involved in it (Schur, Penn, Booster etc), I’m sure if given enough time it’ll become a great show. Remember how different the first and second season of Parks & Rec was?
And how much it sucked in its final days!(Disclaimer: I have not in fact watched Parks & Rec, I am channeling the opinions of dearly departed members of the commentariat (that I saw relatively recently over on Twitter, because they aren’t dead, just not here anymore).)
If they hold that opinion, they’re dead to me.
It wasnt nearly as good as the middle seasons, but compared to the last few seasons of the Office, it was damn good
I never get this. I think going out with Jim and Pam getting married was the perfect time to end the show.
To be fair, that is not a comparison likely to be unflattering to any series with even half of a soul left.
I think it pulled off it’s last season and final episode really well. Definitely so much better than the first and second season.
Friend of mine recommends people start with the third season. I didn’t know any better and started from the beginning. Even S2 grows, but man. What a show it becomes in S3.
I tried it when it first started because cool a new Amy Poehler show. I stopped after a few episodes and eventually got back to it season 4 midway after someone told me it got really good.
I want to go back to s1 soon and see how different it plays from the majesty that is 3-6.
Also, I really enjoy season 7. It’s one hell of a victory lap, even if a touch saccarhine at times. But I’ll take that over the way a lot of shows end… plus: JOHNNY KARATE!!!
They should recommend S2 as the start line.
I mean, I’m glad I started from the beginning. They reference the hole for the whole show’s run.
Interestingly, I also finally came to the Office in the past eight months. I think I lost interest somewhere in season 6. Going directly from the Office to Parks & Rec with maybe a month inbetween was jarring, and I ALMOST quit on Parks because jesus. Those first two episodes are entirely “The Office, but in local government.” And I could entirely see any viewer wondering why they should bother. We already have the Office. That said Leslie isn’t entirely a Michael Scott clone. From the start I felt the key difference is that she really does give a damn and do her absolute best. She just becomes a much better character starting in s2 and beyond.
Seasons 6 and 8 of The Office really just aren’t good.S7 is worth watching, though.
Which season does Michael leave? I didn’t necessarily stop enjoying it, just as it was a LOT of the Office. Got busy and watched something else (probably Archer. Again). But I also come to it knowing people aren’t super fond of the later seasons… *shrugs*
Michael leaves toward the end of S7.I watched it as it aired from S6 onwards…but I’ve seen 4 total episodes of Season 8, before returning for S9. Shit was unwatchable.
Much as I love Ben/Adam Scott, and hate Brendano-quitz…S2 of Parks is fucking awesome.
I liked when I went back eventually, but it’s not as great.
For my blood, S2 is leaps and bounds better than S5 and S6…and I honestly prefer it to S4, as well.
Season 2 is their best season. I love Ben (Chris was a one-note character who stayed too long), but he didn’t have to be there for the show to be good.
I’ll probably take S3, but it’s pretty damn close – the Andy and April story is just so perfect!
Well, they’ve certainly gone to a better place.
Plot twist: it’s actually the bad place.
Yep, I’m willing to give some rope to a promising comedy in hopes theyll sort out the kinks in due time. Parks, Office, Seinfeld, Always Sunny, the sitcom landscape is filled with greats that needed time to figure it out, so hopefully it can. As long as it keeps dangling potential, I’m willing to give it a chance.
I enjoyed the first season pf Parks and Rec. Generally I enjoyed most of the show until it fell apart around late season 4/early season 5.
I did too! But I think there was a drastic difference in tone and increase in quality starting s2
I’ve been listening to Kiran Deol on the hysteria podcast for over a year and seeing her on TV is giving me a sense of happiness and pride like she’s one of my real life friends.
Needs more Yakov Smirnoff…….
What a country!
Said no one, ever
Having watched it, it does have that level of stereotyping!
Given the track record of everybody involved, I’m going to guess that it will develop a cult following and possibly even become a critical darling. But it will continually struggle in the ratings because no laugh track to mark the jokes and the boomers need those desperately. (Plus in this case, we have a show about humanizing immigrants so you can write off the Fox demo.) Because of the pedigree involved behind the camera, NBC will give the show two or three seasons then they’ll cancel it and the show will move to a third rate streaming service (“Come visit Sunnyside at its new home at Redbox!”) It’ll last there for about a year then that will be it.
I have confidence that this show, like other great Michael Schur shows, will hit it’s stride and make people love it, about five minutes before it gets cancelled.
Eh, I’m holding out hope that this is successful like The Good Place, where it doesn’t turn into a train wreck and has a clear endpoint. I’m perfectly happy knowing that when I watch TGP I know this is the final season. Most shows shouldn’t have an infinite timeline (looking at TBBT as a perfect example), but oddly I’m fine with some shows going on forever. Archer, The Venture Bros, Rick & Morty, but I also realize that these are all animated and tend to take a few years off in between seasons, so perhaps this is a moot point. tl;dr. What it comes down to is that I like a lot of the people involved with this and am keeping my fingers crossed that it is still around in a couple years and goes on for a few more.
Plot twist: in Sunnyside, season 1 is the gas leak season.
Garrett does give a few speeches, but they’re the weakest part of the show, especially compared to how Community’s Joel McHale easily mixed sarcasm and sincerity in his lectures.This is a pretty good sign that Schur, even as EP, is too close to the writers room. This is a good setup for a sitcom, but if Schur meddles too much it’s going to turn into schmaltzy bullshit. He’s almost completely incapable of handling the balance between absurdity and sincerity. I miss the days when he was Mose and had Greg Daniels around to salt his more saccharine impulses.
I do not agree with this and honestly his focus seems to be on The Good Place. He may have some input on this, but I’m guessing not a ton.
You’re probably right, but this sort of balance issue is what always ends up souring his shows for me so I’m wary. Parks and Rec was basically The Care Bears by the end of its run. And I gave up on both B99 and TGP for similar (thought not as pronounced) issues after three and two seasons respectively after enjoying their initial development.
I read that more as a criticism of Penn. I don’t know that he can pull off the Winger cynicism. Joel McHale has this uncanny ability to be a smug self-centered bro while likeable at the same time. That was really important, especially in the early stages before Pierce became the group’s internal antagonist, and I don’t think McHale gets enough credit for how well he stuck that balance.I just don’t know that Penn has that ability to be a likeable jerk in his acting repertoire. He’s just too likeable.Hopefully they find a balance that works. I thought Glenn Howerton skewed too far the other way in AP Bio, but after half a season that show clicked and became something I really enjoyed. Maybe this will do the same.
Totally agree that McHale was underrated. Penn’s got the chops so I hope he can make it work. But I really think that if they crank the twee dial it’s gonna undermine their ability to tell a story about immigration. Doesn’t gotta be a Todd Solondz movie or anything. Just needs to not sound like it was written by an upwardly mobile youth pastor.
Not only was McHale really good at that, but he had some amazing supporting cast in Brie and Glover (among others).Parks and Rec grew as the cast developed, because again a ridiculously strong supporting cast.Hopefully this show quickly learns to not push Penn too hard on the viewers and plays to the strength of it’s supporting cast.
One classic TV sitcom setup is when a disparate, diverse group of people come together over the very flimsiest of reasons. Community is the ur-example of this…Community is a recent example of it, which is the opposite of what the prefix “ur” means. I’m not familiar enough with shows of the time to suggest what might be an ur-example of an ensemble sitcom, maybe The Andy Griffith Show?
Not just an ensemble, but an ensemble of misfits/mismatched characters. That doesn’t really describe Andy Griffith, where the characters were mostly small town archetypes. I don’t know if it’s the earliest example, but Gilligan’s Island is a better fit as an antecedent to the modern version of this type of show.
If I was wanting to have a successful sitcom, Community would probably be the show I’d want take as few lessons as possible from.
It’s not about being successful. It’s about being good.
The point still applies.Community was a show which was wildly uneven at the best of times an had just as many moments which fell flat as there were ones which were successful.Given the appalling backstage politics and actions of its creator and the end result of what made it on screen, it’s not a show which is particular an exemplary model for a great sitcom.
Now this is some revisionist bullshit.
Hey now…the first three seasons varied WILDLY on an episode to episode basis.Some episodes were great, others were transcendent, and some were merely very good!
wildly uneven at the best of timesThis suggests that even the best episodes were wildly uneven, which sounds like revisionist bullshit to me!
Oh, I was agreeing, lad.
My fault for doing Kinja early in the morning lmao. I didn’t even read your second line!
I don’t agree with any of what you wrote.
Yeah, this review was kinda baffling to me. I don’t really understand negatively comparing Penn to McHale, because McHale was always the weakest part of the ensemble, and I don’t think he actually succeeded at making Jeff a likable jackass until the back half of the first season (and that came mostly from the plots that had unfolded earlier rather than anything McHale was doing).
With streaming taking over and Nielsen system collapsing (hopefully), there’s very little likelihood of there being another smash-hit (albeit horrible) sitcom like TBBT or Modern Family. What we then need and should appreciate are shows that try to see and display comedy as the art that it can be and not just as background noise. And for that, taking inspiration from an endlessly inventive and ballsy sitcom like Community can hardly be a folly. If this show displays even half the balls that Community did in its creativity and story-telling, it’d be worth watching, in my opinion.As for the inconsistency, it was quite inevitable in the last 3 seasons but that was more due to behind the scenes problems. The first 3 ‘normal’ seasons of Community hardly have any overtly bad episodes.
Out of curiosity, how long do you think the average sitcom runs?
But what would someone who thought Community was overrated think of Sunnyside?
This reads more like a low C, I guess the B is for potential?
That premise really is amazingly close to Community’s, they have to know that right?
I was kinda disappointed that there was no small article on this site especially regarding 10 years of Community. (Or maybe I just missed it because of Kinja)Anyway, the supporting cast would really have to elevate this show to reach the highs of Community and fill that now ageing hole in my heart.Joel Booster is quite promising. His turn on HarmonQuest was probably the best episode of that show in ages, maybe ever.
The odd thing to me is that everyone already has a Green Card. That’s the toughest point to get to in the immigration maze. After you get the GC, then it’s a matter of waiting (5 years for most; 3 years if married to a US citizen), keeping your nose clean and then filling out a bunch of paperwork/doing the in-person interview with the pretty simple quiz. Getting from Green Card to citizen is pretty basic & a couple of brush up sessions is all that most people will need to succeed. It’s like picking up Community in their last semester of school. The Brady case also doesn’t make sense. He sounds like a classic DACA “kid” and they aren’t eligible for Green Cards yet. There isn’t a clear path for someone like that to get to a GC.
Agreed, for all the research they did do (form numbers, etc.), the general premise isn’t really workable. Also, in New York, a “citizenship test” is generally mostly a formality, I can’t imagine studying for it for more than a couple days if fluent in English (I say that as someone that’s gone through it)
“The Brady case also doesn’t make sense. He sounds like a classic DACA “kid””He is, and I’m so glad this show has a character who’s a culturally assimilated white Dreamer that looks and sounds like your average American Gen Zer. It makes me crazy when people just assume that all undocumented immigrants are people of color from third world countries. Years ago I knew a tall, leggy, blonde, blue-eyed German woman who was here illegally, and a hot Slovenian dude who I don’t recall ever having any fixed address. I remember Sunnyside, Queens in the 90s as an enclave of Irish immigrants, and heavily Russian and Eastern European parts of Brooklyn, where I’d be willing to bet hundreds of undocumented immigrants lived and worked. Not once did I ever hear anyone tell a thick-accented white person to ‘learn English’ or to ‘go back to where they came from’.So I commend Sunnyside for Brady’s character serving as a reminder that not all Dreamers are brown.
I’m glad this show was buffered from the one about singing with the Good Place because their premises are just so similar. Bradley Whitford and Kal Penn’s characters and personalities are so much the same that I honestly wouldn’t notice if they swapped roles.It was a bit too quickfire for me, but I will keep watching to see how it goes. Slow down a bit, bring the seriousness and the sincerity up a bit, as it’s why I liked Parks and Rec.
I wanted so badly to like this because Sunnyside is my favorite neigborhood in Queens, I’ve gone through the immigration process, great cast, etc. But it was SOOOOOO badly done. Agree with the review completely. It’s badly written, paced, and directed and Penn is awkward most of the time. It is innovative in that the NYC apartment size was realistic, I’ll give them that 🙂
I like this show a lot. I do find the tropes and the knowing where the plot is going. IT is a pilot. It has one job, the hardest job, introduce everybody and let you know what to initially expect. I am looking forward to next episode. What I don’t like about it is how obvious it seems, but that is my feeling while watching it. I watch a lot of television and pilots and it’s politics align with mine. But I need to realise that it isn’t pitched at me. This is a network television show and the majority of people watching will be hopefully inspired by the show. my thoughts are that it at times seems “too Worthy” but sometimes that’s exactly what we needAgain this an my opinion, and if that wasn’t actually again, we are on the internet IT is an opinion unless the multiple times we do have facts. but this is entertainment so it is just an opinion 🙂
With all the solid TV shows out there, why are people “hoping” this will be a success and “giving it another try” when the first episode was so unfunny? Low-rated, too. How long will Mike “White Privilege” Schur keep getting to make ratings stinkbombs? He’s the new Bill Lawrence.
…and it’s cancelled