The Millers

Arnett is a master of fluster, and Bridges is befuddled charm personified. The revelation, though, for those who only know her from her Emmy-winning dramatic work, is Martindale, whose comic timing rivals the best in the business.

There’s plenty to sustain The Millers over what could be a pretty long haul. The show has both star quality and stars who know how to work the material.

The humor is driven mostly by a relentless slapstick vulgarity, particularly concerning the flatulence and sex habits of parents. If you’ve got a high tolerance for those sorts of jokes, it is funny indeed.

Together Bridges and Martindale pretty much steal the pilot from everyone around them.

The dumb-laugh ratio is surprisingly high. Much of the credit goes to pros like Beau Bridges and Margo Martindale.

The Millers won’t be confused with highbrow entertainment but taken on its own terms and thanks to a talented trio of cast members, it’s a welcome addition to CBS’s Thursday night comedy block.

It’s goofy, but fun.

[The pilot is] very much a patch job on a project that needed more than a quick fix, but the direction it takes is encouraging.

Everyone works so hard--including Arnett, even if he never lets you see him sweat--that this comes very close to succeeding. [21 Oct 2013, p.48]

Ms. Martindale sucks up most of the oxygen on the show. Beau Bridges, who plays her bumbling husband, Tom, barely gets a word in edgewise. But even in the basic ensemble sitcom, Mr. Arnett’s suppressed lunacy seeps though, mostly in the inane local news reports that Nathan delivers with smoothie aplomb. It doesn’t hurt that his cameraman is J B Smoove, who was so great as Leon on “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”

Someone put this baby in a corner and teach it to be smarter, fresher, and funnier. [4 Oct 2013, p.60]

The show suffers from the same banal characteristics of most paint-by-numbers network sitcoms.

The show has its moments, but almost all of them belong to Martindale.

It’s wearying to watch actors of this caliber try to fluff laughs out of this dreariness.

[The actors'] experience and timing makes the writing work better than it is written, but they are working overtime to get that to happen.

There’s too much talent involved to write off The Millers completely, but it’s one of those pilots only a mother--or at least, close friends and family--could genuinely love.

As much as I don't like it, I pretty much love the whole cast.

Series creator Greg Garcia has been responsible for some truly special TV comedies, including My Name Is Earl and Raising Hope. This isn't one of them.

The first half-hour of The Millers is so banal, it’s just sad. There’s no promise lurking anywhere in the setup, nothing that could get better and become more central as the writers find the show’s voice.

Beau Bridges and Margo Martindale are the ones yelling and making sex jokes while Will Arnett looks on in (justified) horror, which may move The Millers out of "unfortunate" into "unforgivable."

One of the worst shows of the new season with its very best performance [by Margo Martindale].

You've never seen a sitcom more desperately in need of comic relief.

The show gets some credit for acting, because the veteran cast members have good comic timing and coax the most out of their lines. Trouble is, that’s like coaxing maximum flavor from a bowl of lawn clippings.

The only thing I can think about when I watch the Millers is that Margo Martindale deserves so much better than this, and I wish she was free of this show's hackneyed, overly broad "humor."