- Network: CBS
- Series Premiere Date: Sep 26, 2013
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Critic Reviews
- Critic score
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[The Crazy Ones and The Michael J. Fox Show] have great, always likable stars heading up solid ensemble casts in well-written and mostly plausible shows. Who could ask for anything more?
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The subtext of loss and longing, which sometimes isn’t all that sub, makes The Crazy Ones a tightrope act. But Kelley gets tremendous support from his cast. The madcap Williams has never been better, and Gellar’s performance is a magnificently winning mixture of quiet desperation, mounting rage and wistful yearning.
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This workplace comedy comes out of the gate with instant appeal. Mr. Williams is never less than formidable in his delivery; the writing is never less than crisp and sometimes it's crisply hilarious.
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Williams's humming energy is charming (and more softly winsome than it used to be.) The challenge is to surround him with actors with enough skill to play off or with him. Gellar, as his daughter, doesn't quite pull it off. Hamish Linklater, as an art director, does. [4 Nov 2013]
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Ultimately your enjoyment still depends on whether or not Robin Williams' patter--which needs to be dialed back about 20 percent--makes you crazy.
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They [Robin Williams and James Wolk] seem to be having a blast playing off one another, and their comedic energy is infectious.
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Williams signature brand of comedy and big personality dominate the show, but with an ensemble of Sarah Michelle Gellar, James Wolk and Hamish Linklater, it's less one-note than expected.
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As an eccentric genius, Williams is in familiar waters, and he's found a playmate in James Wolk, who's somehow able to keep up with an actor whose streams of consciousness can be Class V rapids. Gellar's playing it straight, but a scene in which she has to sing in front of Kelly Clarkson suggests she's game for anything.
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Wolk provides just the sort of casting ingenuity The Crazy Ones needs, especially as a counterbalance to Williams, who, it goes without saying, will motormouth his way through any scene he can. ... But watching [Gellar] play Williams’s dutiful and comedy-challenged daughter is a dreary primer in the pitfalls of big-name casting.
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You'd be hard-pressed to find better actors than Crazy has gathered, and despite their show's abrupt shifts from frantic to torpid, there are moments when they make the relationships work. What they're less likely to do is make you laugh.
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Williams is a treasure, leapfrogging through voices, characters, and puns.... He's also the only reason to watch, because the show's premise is so limiting.
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It is buried in whimsicality and paeans to "feeling" and leaping into the void. And the stars do feel out of sync. (Williams is more comfortable riffing with James Wolk--"Mad Men's" Bob Benson--as... some other guy who works there.) We will give it some time.
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The Crazy Ones has its charms. It also has yet to find the balance between Williams’s shtick--his solos, basically--and the good ensemble comedy that would keep viewers coming back.
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The product tie-in is tiresome, but Wolk in particular, with his winks and grins, adds warmth as Williams’s cocky protege. He also rescues a few scenes in which Williams starts to drift into the nonsense stratosphere.
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It shows the most potential as a buddy comedy focused on Mr. Williams and Mr. Wolk. By comparison, Ms. Gellar’s character is a wet blanket.
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Kelley is no stranger to writing comedy, even if it’s traditionally been in service of hourlong shows, and between his gifts as a wordsmith and Williams’ frenetic energy (best displayed in a closing-credits outtake sequence), The Crazy Ones has potential beyond what the pilot demonstrates.
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Watching Mr. Williams return to the kind of improvisation-style routines that made him famous in the 1970s is bittersweet, like watching Jimmy Connors play tennis again: they are still impressive, but audiences can’t help recalling how much more elastic and powerful they were at their peak.
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The talented cast and upbeat pilot work in the series’ favor, but if the half-hour is to be more than a platform for Williams’ improv, the story will have to go deeper. And make us care.
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The result is a mostly wan workplace sitcom hamstrung by the premise of yoking Williams to a wet-blanket daughter as business partner (Sarah Michelle Gellar, not exactly in her element). The co-star who really pops is James Wolk.
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Simon, Sydney and their colleagues work in a giant office that seems much too underpopulated, just as the first episode feels like a rough draft.
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The episode has the propulsive pace of a CBS hour-long, but that can leave the fun parts of a single-camera sitcom (like the jokes) behind in its dust. Above all, The Crazy Ones is safe.
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When Williams can rein in his hyper qualities, he can be an effective presence. And at least he knows his way around a joke, unlike Gellar, who, post-"Buffy," still hasn't risen above the level of the writing she's given (and the writing for her here is flat and one-dimensional).
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As a sitcom version of herself, the onetime “American Idol” outshines Gellar, which is not a good omen for the show. Williams seems exhausted. So is this show.
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You hope for a laugh, pray for one, then give up. To be fair, tonight's pilot runs fast (19 minutes) and feels more like a "sizzle reel" than a fully formed show. Williams, at least, is a genius, and maybe he'll get the time to turn this into something worth watching.
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The Crazy Ones may not be fall’s worst new comedy series, but its premiere episode easily is the biggest underachiever.
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It's not an unlikable show, but right off the bat I feel like I can't trust it.
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The Crazy Ones is part manic and part maudlin, neither emotion effective.
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The whole thing is so poorly conceived and executed.... It’s a misfire for an undeniable TV talent.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 65 out of 109
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Mixed: 27 out of 109
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Negative: 17 out of 109
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Sep 27, 2013
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Sep 27, 2013
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Oct 7, 2013