“These slices of life that flash by,”
says James Brolin’s character near the end of the “Pilot,” which summarizes
Life In Pieces. Life In Pieces tells four short stories in an episode, every
week, and each story concerns members of the same family. Early reviews compared
the series to Modern Family. The Daily Beast wondered, “Is it the next Modern
Family?” No, it’s not. Life In Pieces compares better with NBC’s recently ended
Parenthood if Parenthood went for the tears from laughter instead of the tears
from sadness. The four short stories represent the slices of life that flash by
and which remain with the family forever. Brolin’s short monologue’s played
over shots of scenes earlier in the episode. The premise, as all pilots do,
came together in the final act.
Life In Pieces
follows the formula of every network sitcom from the past year. Goofiness,
comic gags, silliness, a touch of the absurd, awkwardness turned into humor,
only for the moment of heartwarming sentimentality to come in the last act of
the series. The audience laughed (maybe). By the third act, the audience wants
to feel the feels, as my peers and young millennial folk tend to say whenever
they feel emotion—whether it be a napping cat or Dianne Wiest to utilize her
Oscar winning chops when the absurd funeral-birthday celebration becomes grave
and morbid for the wife married to her husband for the last 49 years. Yes, one
day they will die. The scene of starting mortality precedes the scene in which
James Brolin’s John asks to make love to his wife in the coffin. The reader may
never believe me, but the coffin shut when Joan tried to climb in for sex in a
coffin. That’s high concept comedy.
The “Pilot”
probably played better to those who did not see a single preview. CBS, and
every other network, gives away the entire first episode in the teaser. Prior
to the start, CBS ran a final preview that showed every gag and every essential
character beat. The first story—“First Date—introduces a sad sack ex-fiance
character (played by Jordan Peele). Matt and his date search for a place to
have sex. They further scar his date’s ex-fiance. They try to have sex at his
parent’s house, but they’re home. John doesn’t know how to pause the TV due to
the endless number of remote controls. Their evening ends with a scoop of
vanilla ice cream, sex, and an instance of mistaken prostitution. The next
scene for Matt is at the mock funeral. His father won’t let him finish his mock
eulogy. Two essential things about Matt: he values sex more than human decency,
and his father sort of thinks little of him.
The second
story, which concerns the delivery of a baby, has a solid two laughs. The new
parents feel unprepared to take their baby home to raise. They wondered why the
hospital would let them, two individuals without parenting experience, take the
baby home so soon. The rest of the story is full of post-labor vagina jokes. If
you watched but one preview you heard the comparison to the predator joke.
Colin Hank’s Greg bemoans the new direction his baby-filled, suddenly sexless
marriage took. Justin Adler and the writers have a ready-made couple weeks of
new baby comic fun that’s likely all trope and cliché.
I liked the
third story. Adler established a family’s dynamics, the broad, essential beats
of the individual family members, the dynamics of the married couple, while
telling a story about a mother’s struggle with the truth about her kids growing
and maturing. Her son gets drunk during his college tour. Her youngest daughter
learned Santa Claus doesn’t exist. The middle child had her first period. The
mother, played by Betsy Brandt, instinctively tries to breed with her self-aware
free husband. The husband character’s my kind of stock sitcom character: aloof,
terrible at advice, without depth, unable to recognize social and verbal cues, and
a near buffoon. He blows his chance at sex after commenting about the age of
his wife and the possibility of her infertility.
The final story
puts a button on the episode, brings the stories together under the umbrella of
capturing the slices of life flashing by. Will the finale reveal the stories as
the memories of each member on their deathbed? These snippets of their life
meant the most to them. No way that’s the way the end of series. Maybe the
series ends in two weeks because no one watched. Life In Pieces has a great
lead-in. I think it’ll get a full season, but what the heck do I know?
Will I watch for
a full season? I’m curious about the short story format. Life In Pieces tells
the full story of a particular character within the act. It may change. Stories
may begin in the first act and end in the last act. Writers, executives, and
studio heads want to stand out however they can. Life In Pieces’ structure
separates it from Modern Family, The Middle, Fresh Off The Boat, etc. Overall,
it’s an average sitcom.
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