Welcome to Flatch

Confident world-building, likable cast chemistry and just the teeniest touch of sweetness soon make Flatch feel like home, as familiar and welcoming as your own neighborhood.

While Welcome to Flatch isn't doing anything novel, its dedication to portraying a more authentic version of small-town life in the Midwest makes it a fine addition to a growing slate of shows that have reinvigorated the broadcast comedy.

“Flatch” could stand to be a little funnier at times, but the characters are goofily likable enough to make this another broadcast comedy worth watching.

The show is determined to be all heart to a degree that comes off as a little forced. Welcome To Flatch roughly clicks around episode six (“RIP Cynthia”), though, by honing in on the whole ensemble during an absurd funeral plot. It’s here that the show finally finds something of a comedic groove.

Straley, Holmes and Scott bear watching. But Feig and Bicks might want to make some changes before rolling out the welcome mat. In “Welcome to Flatch,” it’s often difficult to focus.

There’s plenty of comic potential here, but the writing struggles to home in on it, instead relying on its actors to elevate the material.

Is “Welcome to Flatch” mocking people who live in small towns or embracing their idiosyncrasies? After screening five episodes, I’m afraid that the answer feels too often like the former, and that this is a show made by people who have never lived anywhere near a heartland town like Flatch and probably wouldn’t visit there if you paid them.