Mr. Sunshine

As a man struggling to find where he misplaced his heart, Perry makes angst seem easy. His sense of timing isn't rusty. The sitcom has a few clouds: Alonzo needs an edge and the show should make Jorge Garcia's ("Lost") facilities manager a permanent regular. But Mr. Sunshine could be midseason's brightest ray of mirth.

What more could you ask? Sharper scripts, for a start, and a better sense that Perry's unhappy central character is strong enough to hold the center of the show. But there's enough promise here, and enough room to grow, that you can't help hoping Sunshine will follow the midterm-correction path set by the show it's replacing, Cougar Town.

It's a busy opening, including brief but satisfying guest appearances by Jorge "Hurley" Garcia and an elephant. The show is well played down to the smallest parts.

Watching Crystal fire off demands to Ben while working out on a treadmill wearing high heels and a business suit is wondrously, bizarrely funny. If Mr. Sunshine can relocate moments like that from the show's periphery to its center, it may stick around for a while.

Mr. Sunshine looks promising, with former Friend Matthew Perry playing straight man in a swirl of kooks, including an especially amusing Allison Janney, who deliver consistent laughs.

Mr. Sunshine isn't nearly as polished or original as "Modern Family," which precedes it on Wednesday night, but it has the talent and the potential to improve.

Unfortunately, things just never really gel in a pilot episode that falls flat and is only intermittently funny....In fact, only Janney, whose gleefully oblivious character spews un-PC zingers and keeps a huge self-portrait in her office, makes a truly fresh impression.

[Perry] needs to put on a smilier face without losing his sharp edge: sunshine with the ability to inflict a burn.