It’s time for yet another Friends alum to get a television series. Historically this has not turned out well, but with recent greatness from LeBlanc in Episodes perhaps the former friends are poised to shed their 90s characters for good. Mr. Sunshine, which stars and was co-created by Matthew Perry, has some potential to continue the new trend. The secret may not be in trying to eradicate any semblance of Chandler Bing from the series, but to instead twist the character into something slightly new. Perry’s constant bewildered eyebrows are often so reminiscent of Chandler that you wonder when Monica’s going to show up to nag him; but Ben is a man who is completely self obsessed.
And that’s where the heart of the story for Mr Sunshine lies. Ben oversees the Sunshine Center in San Diego, an arena that puts on sporting events, circuses, monster truck rallies, and all the other wonderful things people go to huge enclosed arenas to witness. The man is defined by his inability to remember any employee's name, even immediately after being told. He’s in a “friends with benefits” noncommittal relationship with the attractive marketing director of the center. And his boss, the owner, is a possibly mild racist woman who is afraid of clowns and has a son she never spoke with or cared to check in on. Allison Janney plays the role of Crystal with infectiously crazy abandon, and makes an otherwise dull pilot enjoyable.
While the show has a well of comedic fodder to turn to with whatever groups may pass through the Sunshine Center, the pilot episode resorts to hamfisted jokes about elephants in the room when there are actual circus elephants in the room. Or one character’s fear of clowns results in children being used as protective shields. The clowns are made more scary because they're carrying axes around, having been tasked to break up the ice. Besides being an ineffective method to get the job done, it’s clearly written into the script as a way to have Allison Janney throw children around for comedic effect.
None of it works. When Ben decides that maybe he’s going to try and make a real connection with Alice (Andrea Anders) he finds out that she’s not choosing him. So now Ben has to start to get to know everyone who works for him so that he can be a nicer and sunnier guy.
There’s some core talent with Mr Sunshine that can be built upon. Perry is as charming and witty as ever, but the story and dialogue are sub-par. In a time when single camera comedies like Modern Family are redefining the classic sitcom, there is little room for a show to put forth such a half-assed effort.
Mr. Sunshine premieres Wednesday, February 9 at 9:30 pm ET.
