With Intelligence, Peacock provides David Schwimmer with an uneven return to TV comedy
TV Reviews Pre-Air
The last time David Schwimmer had a full-time gig in a TV comedy, George W. Bush still had a full-time gig at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Not that Schwimmer hasn’t kept busy over the course of the past 16 years: Since Friends wrapped its 10-season run in May 2004, he’s done films as a leading man (Duane Hopwood), a voice actor (the Madagascar franchise), and a director (Run Fatboy Run), appeared on the London stage (Neil LaBute’s Some Girl(s)) and on Broadway (The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial), scored an Emmy nomination for playing Robert Kardashian in FX’s The People Vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, survived the short-lived, critically maligned AMC drama Feed The Beast, and—most recently—turned up on Will & Grace as one of Grace’s beaus. But a full-fledged full-time TV comedy gig? Nope, nary a one.
As such, you’d like to think that Intelligence, the new Peacock comedy that marks Schwimmer’s proper return to the genre that made him famous, would immediately make you go, “Ah, yes, I see precisely why, at long last, he decided to have a go at another sitcom!” And it does. But that doesn’t mean that you don’t also sometimes wish it were a bit less… Schwimmer-y.
Created and written by Nick Mohammed, a very funny gentleman whose profile is decidedly higher in the U.K. (though Americans might possibly recognize him from The Martian, the Ab Fab movie, or Bridget Jones’s Baby), Intelligence takes place within the U.K.’s Government Communications Headquarters, where agents do battle against international cyber criminals. They’re a socially awkward bunch at best, as one might expect from folks who are rarely required to leave the confines of their computer desks: Tuva (Gana Bayarsaikhan) is tall, intense, and oozes a slightly threatening sexuality; Mary (Jane Stanness) lives with her mom, dresses frumpily, and freely admits that she looks older than she is; and Joseph (played by Mohammed) has a habit of blurting things out before contemplating either their accuracy or appropriateness. Their boss, Christine (Sylvestra Le Touzel), tolerates their eccentricities because they have a history of getting the job done, but when they’re abruptly joined on their team by Jerry Bernstein (Schwimmer), a fiery, arrogant NSA agent, it’s like throwing a grenade into their midst, blowing any sense of order to smithereens.
There’s no doubt as to why Schwimmer saw Intelligence as a prime opportunity to return to comedy. As Jerry, he has a plum part, getting a chance to be the lone American in an office full of Brits and playing that American as uglily as humanly possible. Seeing his unabashedly American comic sensibilities thrust into the middle of a series with an otherwise utterly British tone does provide a lot of amusement, particularly when Jerry is paired in scenes with Christine. It must be said, though, that this is not a role that finds Schwimmer playing against type: A lot of Jerry’s reactions come across as pure Ross, and there are certain moments where it feels like he’s actively leaning into the similarity. Which, of course, is precisely what most Friends fans would want him to do, so it’s hard to begrudge him that choice. It’s just nice to see him shifting into different gears.
Fortunately, Schwimmer and the rest of the cast get a chance to do just that over the course of the six-episode season of Intelligence, but that brings us to the greatest drawback of the series: Six episodes is just long enough for viewers to get a bit more insight into each of the primary characters, but not much else. In one instance, a potentially significant storyline—Jerry sleeps with someone in the office—is unexpectedly introduced at the beginning of one episode and is seemingly concluded in the same episode. Meanwhile, there’s a tantalizing premise (Christine’s office crush) that’s casually thrown into the mix during a closing-credits scene, only to be left dangling for the duration without another mention. There are also intriguing characters who deserve the opportunity to shine further, most notably Christine’s boss, Rupert Fleming (Colin Salmon), who’s apparently climbed the ladder of success within the organization despite being more than a little bit of an alcoholic.
As TV comebacks go, Intelligence doesn’t have anywhere near the same impact for Schwimmer as American Crime Story did, if only because he’s not really breaking any new ground as an actor. That said, the old ground he’s treading is still pretty damned funny—Schwimmer remains a master of taking a slow burn and turning it into an explosion of annoyance. If you liked it back then, you’ll probably like it now.
43 Comments
Man, it’s weird seeing this stuff on here as “pre-air” when it’s already aired in the UK. This and the Dave Bautista movie. Anyway, it was very likeable.
But… Ross is objectively the WORST.
Why would he lean into acting more like him?!
Could you LEAN into acting any more like you?!
I mean they’re all objectively the worst, with the possible exception of Joey, but relatively speaking I’d say Rachel is the worst of the worst. All of Ross’s pettiness and vanity combined with profound intellectual incuriosity.
Phoebe was the best, but I also always assumed she wasn’t around as much as the others because she had a much better set of much cooler friends elsewhere.
I don’t think Phoebe had other close friends. She is too much of a free spirit to bond with many people. People that value freedom in relationships like to drop in and out whenever they feel like it. When the pregnancy placed strict limitations on her life, Phoebe was forced to confront how much she actually cared about her friends. After giving birth to the triplets, she was obsessed with never being left out of the loop. This eventually led her to being open to the idea of commitment and marriage.
I know that it wasn’t made for binging, but man, I have little hope for Ross and Rachel and their poor, poor child.
“The character was a horrible human being” is not the same as “Schwimmer wasn’t funny in that role.”.
Ross is hard to watch for me.
But I love Chandler, so who am I to judge.?
Actually, a lot of people like Chandler. I fell into a YouTube rabbit hole a few weeks ago watching Friends clips and the comments about Chandler were consistently positive. Still, they also admit that his treatment of Janice (the best recurring character) was often harsh.Chandler and Monica ended up being a power couple nobody expected but made perfect sense. It felt so natural. They complemented each other in all of the ways that mattered. They were able to overcome their personal issues and habits that would sabotage all of their previous relationships.The predestined nature of Ross and Rachel wasn’t nearly as satisfying. It was so full of drama that it was a relief to have them pair up just to isolate themselves from the rest of the world.
And why does Ross, the largest of the friends, not simply devour the other five?!
Ross is the most popular F•R•I•E•N•D•S character in the UK.https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/friends-british-fans-love-the-one-character-most-people-hate.html/
David Shwimmer is uneven. It makes no difference what Intelligence Peacock provides him!
Just re-watched Band of Brothers, where Schwimmer is excellent at playing a priggish, incompetent martinet. If “low-key asshole” is Schwimmer’s ideal typical role, I say go for it. Early on he had some success as a mopey sadsack romantic lead, but that 90s shit was already played out by the middle seasons of Friends.
Salute the rank, not the man.
No love for Greenzo? I see how it is.
Greenzo out!
Interestingly, this is a British import. The entire season aired in February on Sky One.
Yeah, given that it was set in the UK with a primarily British cast and only had six episodes that wasn’t too hard to guess. Which is why I found Will’s “why did they make so few episodes?” criticism a little odd. Like, have you ever watched any UK TV?
As a Brit I found Tahani’s line about British sitcoms in The Good Place hilarious.
It ran for 16 years, they did nearly 30 episodes!
“It ran for 16 years on the BBC! They showed almost 30 episodes!”(Sorry – just saw that I was beaten to it).
I did like the alternative take on the UK’s short season model. I see far too many posts here advocating such a thing. Don’t get me wrong, American seasons can get far too bloated, especially back in the days of everything having to be 22ers. However because it tends to be the best of our work that people use to explemify this it means people tend to overlook the shortcomings of the model
Oh, it’s definitely a valid criticism; it was just weird that Will was framing it as some deliberate stylistic choice and not the standard model.
For me personally, I feel 12-14 is about the right number.
Yeah, I guess I didn’t really flesh out my thought well enough on that. I knew it was a UK import, but what I was really thinking was that it was surprising that they’d put it on Peacock after only one series had aired in the UK, especially since it’s been renewed for a second series. Knowing the average US viewer, I would’ve expected them to wait until they had more episodes knocked out. But they probably figured, “Eh, it’s Ross from FRIENDS, they’ll watch anyway.”
With the big Friends reunion special on HBO Max, they must have figured it might be a good time to roll it out. Of course the special was a little less than special, but you can’t fault them for trying to catch some wind.
I’ve seen this as it was on in the UK a while back and I pretty much agree with everything Will says, it’s not a terrible show by any means but it’s a fairly average one which often fails to deliver on ideas and promise shown.
Also, it’s great to have Will back here doing something else other than Random Roles (though I love those too), please hire him on a more regular basis.
A lot of Jerry’s reactions come across as pure Ross, and there are
certain moments where it feels like he’s actively leaning into the
similarity.
It’s less a lean and more of a pivot. Pivot. Pivot!
It’s odd that an actor who, if not transformative, is muuuuch more versatile on stage seems to be so straitjacketed on TV and film. He founded a major theater company in Chicago and has done major productions everywhere, but whenever he’s on TV or film he’s an extremely contemporary putz.He was fine as Kardashian (nowhere near the portrayals of Clark Darden and Cochran) but was hamstrung by being treated like a dopey angel instead of a complicated person whose relationship with OJ simply MUST have been more complicated than it was shown.
I’ve always considered David Schwimmer more… comedy adjacent.
he’s not talented-typical.
How the hell can you use or encourage the use of “Peacock” as a descriptive adjective. It’s obscene.
“A Peacock comedy” indeed. Indeed.
It seems the one thing that actors want most is to get cast in a hit TV comedy. And the one thing actors fear most is getting cast in a hit TV comedy. Friends premiered more than a quarter century ago and there isn’t one of the cast who has entirely escaped from beneath its shadow. Schwimmer seems to be following Jillian Anderson and Kate Catrall who both fled to the UK to continue their careers away from Hollywood.
Once you turn Sobel, there’s no going back.
As someone who had worked in tech for the better part of 2 decades, this idea that the tech folk are all dysfunctional nerds is extremely weird- drunken ex military guys, combined with bro’s and college kids who had weird majors but want to make a solid wage, yes. Immigrants looking to get a leg up, sure. But anti social nerds? Maybe 2-5%, tops
Just swung by for the CPT Sobel/”Band of Brothers” mention.
And was sorely disappointed.
“ But that doesn’t mean that you don’t also sometimes wish it were a bit less… Schwimmer-y.”Not I. As you point out at the end of the review, Schwimmer’s qualities as a comedic actor are wonderful and it’s great to see him dabble in such form again.
When given the opportunity he’s a wonderful physical comedian.
As I’ve said before – his cameo as himself in Episodes was great.
“…though Americans might possibly recognize him from The Martian, the , or Bridget Jones’s Baby”I’m a bit shocked Ted Lasso isn’t the go-to reference here.The first thing I saw him in was Martin Clunes’s painful remake of Reggie Perrin.
So this site can’t even handle copy & paste anymore?