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Reba McEntire deserves more than this
I so desperately wish to be glad that Reba McEntire is again on community TV.
The nation singer and actress anchored some of the pleasant sitcoms of the 2000s with “Reba,” a few single mother who works too laborious, loves her youngsters and by no means stops. The WB present ran for six seasons and 125 episodes, with its dysfunctional however lovable Hart household on the coronary heart of each story Reba and co-stars Melissa Peterman, JoAnna Garcia Swisher, Steve Howey and Christopher Wealthy instructed.
So you’ll suppose {that a} new sitcom starring McEntire and Peterman set in a Tennessee bar (hiya, “Cheers” aspirations) and with one other very dysfunctional household dynamic could be a assure of one other “Reba”-style good time. Alas, NBC’s “Glad’s Place” (Fridays, 8 EDT/PDT, ★★ out of 4) isn’t any “Reba.” It is simply one other low-rent sitcom with stale jokes, bland characters and a limp plot. It isn’t a lot that it is unhealthy, it is simply so boring, banal and blah. And that’s merely not ok for the likes of three-time Grammy winner McEntire, 69. She deserves scripts that sing simply in addition to she does.
Because the sequence opens, Bobbie (McEntire) has inherited the Glad’s Place tavern from her late father. The 2 have been shut, however after his demise, she will get to run the bar the best way she desires to with its quirky employees (together with Peterman because the overly acquainted waitress Gabby) and Tennessee espresso, aka whiskey.
However Bobbie’s world is shaken by the sudden look of younger Isabella (Belissa Escobedo), Bobbie’s half-sister, and thus co-owner of Glad’s. After a blink and a authorized doc, Isabella is now working on the bar, and Bobbie is compelled to hearken to phrases like “bussin'” and settle for enter from this strolling proof of her father’s infidelity. In the meantime, Isabella is a fish out of water amid the Southern accents and standoffish attitudes as she tries to discover a place for herself. We all know she desires to actually “discover a place” at Glad’s Place as a result of she repeats it a number of instances. (This present is something however refined.)
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As an idea, a cussed lady in her 60s who’s compelled to collaborate with a 20-something and redefine her family is a fruitful setup for sitcom plots and deep characters. However “Glad’s” decides to hurry by means of the macro-level implications of Isabella’s arrival and as an alternative strikes straight into dumb office jokes and drained generational jabs. It is seemingly seconds between the information of Isabella’s paternity and her changing into a punching bag for jokes about youngsters nowadays. The speedy plot may offer you whiplash if it wasn’t so tedious as to place you to sleep.
Along with not spending almost sufficient time on the plot, “Glad’s” avoids crafting characters price caring about. Bobbie is, effectively, Reba McEntire in a sweater. Two episodes in and there is not way more to her than her love of whiskey and hatred of Isabella’s intrusion into her life. Isabella is a Gen Z stereotype. And Gabby is seemingly modeled on Peterman’s pure over-the-top gregariousness and her solely expression is a squinty smile. Accountant Steve (Pablo Castelblanco) and waiter Takota (Tokala Black Elk) are outlined one-dimensionally: Steve is a germaphobe and Takota is stoic. None of them really feel remotely human.
Solely two episodes of “Glad’s” have been made accessible for assessment, although the very best sitcoms can run for greater than 200. However by the second episode of “Mates” you knew who the six major characters actually have been. By the second “Cheers” the tone was established. Heck, by the second “Reba,” you had fallen in love with the Hart household.
“Glad’s” might discover its footing deeper into the season, nevertheless it’s laborious to argue that anybody stick round that lengthy. Not when there is a distinct lack of happiness to be discovered to this point.