2 Best Releases Similar to How I Met Your Mother on Peacock Premium

As a fan of the gone too show—and mistreated while it was here—Happy Endings, the primary cast has so much goodwill built up it’s difficult not to be reflexively excited when one of the actors gets another chance. That’s why I could not resist reviewing Mr. Throwback, a mockumentary about Danny (Adam Pally), a low-grade memorabilia pusher who has never outgrown the central trauma of his childhood. It also stars perennial All-Star basketball star Stephen Curry. A tired format with an athlete in a prominent role doesn’t exactly make one’s heart racing. But the Pally factor could not be ignored. Thank goodness for that. Mr. Throwback isn’t anyone’s idea of a superstar sitcom, but it proves a sneaky addition to Peacock’s lineup. Danny and Stephen (Curry plays himself) grew up together, along with the third member of their trinity, Kimberly (Ego Nwodim). Somehow, Danny, not Steph, dominated all comers on the courts of their middle school years. That is until the authorities figure out Danny’s father and coach Mitch (a very welcome Tracy Letts) lied about Danny’s age. Turns out he’s 14 and a half, not 12, hence why he towers over his teammates. Continue Reading →

Peacock’s claymation sitcom is at its best when it skips the satire for the strange, but “best” is grading on a curve. To its credit, In The Know resists dropping the term “woke” to describe its characters. Unfortunately, in a fairly disastrous opener, that’s the only “those silly sensitive liberals” signifier it lets go past. The premiere’s big joke, one it repeats OFTEN, centers on the proper terminology for someone without a place to live. Because, of course, it's a goofy waste of time to worry about language. Only Zach Woods’ ever-increasing profane frustration at being corrected by Fabian (Caitlin Reilly) saves the bit. His voice performance as “NPR’s third most popular host” Lauren Caspian is just sly enough to make it unclear if his anger comes from his inability to remember the correct term, someone having the nerve to interrupt him, or the thought that someone in the office might be more progressive than him. It isn’t that mocking blowhard radio hosts can’t be a rich comic vein. Just check out the original Frasier series, a show with a strangely intense cross-generational appeal that persists even over 19 years after the final episode aired. It’s centering that mockery on NPR, particularly an NPR that has more in common with a conservative’s fever dream of what the company is like rather than anything resembling reality, feels like a weak tea. Fortunately, things improve for In The Know as it quickly moves beyond what initially seems like an exercise in sticking it to those caricatures of public radio employees. Continue Reading →