Man Seeking Woman

The result is something refreshingly new, and bafflingly different.

In the three episodes I’ve seen, the literalization of Josh’s subconscious fears, hopes, and dreams works pretty well. The show is rarely laugh-out-loud funny, but it’s always engrossing and smart.

If you haven’t figured this out yet, Man Seeking Woman is plenty weird. But it’s also wild, wily, and, depending on your taste for high-risk jokes that don’t always fly, wonderful.

As a comedy series, Man Seeking Woman is more inspired than it is flawlessly funny. But what it lacks in consistency of tone and laugh-out-loud one-liners it makes up for in sharp writing, acute cultural commentary, gleeful weirdness, and sheer creative balls.

Convincingly mounted and splendidly played, the show packs in a lot without seeming to, moving from one weird scene to another while maintaining a kind of emotional integrity.

It’s a live-action comedy that often moves and thinks like a cartoon, to great effect.

One marvels at how the writers and actors keep each succeeding segment so fresh and surprising.

Some of [the often simple but absurd comedy] was lighter in spots than others, but the series has a very distinctive comedic voice and a striking visual approach that it keeps up through the episodes

Man Seeking Woman is a rare and unique comedy, but raises the bar so high with its initial episodes that it will have to work extra hard to keep up this pace.

I liked enough of "Man Seeking Woman" to stick around and see what other crazy ideas Rich has for Josh. But I'm also prepared to spend long stretches of episodes watching through my fingers like it's a horror movie.

What makes Man Seeking Woman so promising is that it’s such a strong showcase for Baruchel. It’s hard to say whether Rich and his writers will be able to keep coming up with new trolls and aliens for Josh to disappoint, but it seems unlikely that they’ll ever exhaust the comic tension between the sunny Josh and cold, cruel dating world he finds himself exploring.

Once you surrender to the surrealism, the comedy works, but in the long run, what makes the show itself work is the cast, especially Baruchel and Andre.

Man Seeking Woman will be a love it/hate it proposition. It's worth a date to decide. [16 Jan 2015, p.70]

In the first few episodes made available for preview, not every bit worked--it may always be too soon for jokes about Hitler, for example. But the tone never gets mean.

The show's passionate aberrance can be charming and sweet, menacing and creepy, sometimes enchanting and sometimes deeply off-putting.

There’s no question that Man Seeking Woman is not run-of-the-mill entertainment, but whether its weirdness will appeal or repel will depend largely on the openness of viewers to new, strange TV experiences.

The sheer acid-trip-style quirkiness coupled with Baruchel’s perpetual confusion make this a worthy addition to the FXX lineup, with the disclaimer that even the FX networks’ most-admired comedies (see “Louie”) haven’t gained much traction ratings-wise, certainly compared with the dramas, perhaps because of their off-kilter tone.

Man Seeking Woman possesses a devil-may-care creativity that marks it as a series to follow even as it occasionally stumbles. At its best, it turns the ritual humiliations of modern romance into a hilarious pop-culture pastiche, refreshing for its willingness to go for the hard laugh even if the result is a resounding thud.

When you do sketch-style comedy, though, you’re only as good as your next idea, and in two subsequent episodes the situations aren’t as distinctive. Jay Baruchel gives Josh an appealing blend of desperation, gallantry and squirming calculation. He’s carrying all the weight, though: The cast includes Eric Andre as Josh’s pick-up-artist best friend, Britt Lower as his sister and Maya Erskine as his ex, but none of their characters are more than foils.

One viewer’s bad taste is another’s comedy gold. And Man Seeking Woman arguably has just enough going for it to merit a further investment in its remaining eight episodes.

Conceptually, Man Seeking Woman has moments of brilliance.

Sometimes it’s funny, but most of the time it’s just bizarre.

Intriguing but unsatisfying.... The sketches aren’t thought out well enough; the lead, Jay Baruchel, lacks presence on-screen; and the drama lacks stakes. But above all, what struck me is that it’s a story that we’ve seen a thousand times.

The main problem is, Man Seeking Woman tries for the kind of weird, imaginative wit you find on "Archer" or "Louie" but the new show doesn't have the craft, ideas or skills to back it up.

The first episode leads us into a series of Hitler jokes, which proves once again that even 70 years after the Allies liberated the concentration camps, Hitler jokes are really really hard to make funny.... On the upside, Man Seeking Woman still has promise. It needs to head in that direction.