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Review:
Everything's Relative
Written
By Rick Ellis,
April 12th, 1999
Most viewers
don't realize it, but the majority of people writing for television
sitcoms are young. Very young, in fact. In the sitcom game, twenty-somethings
rule and if you're thirty--and not running a show--you might as
well be collecting Social Security.
Which may explain
a show like NBC's new sitcom Everything's Relative.
The show is
the latest in a series of sitcoms that feature general nice guys
being tormented by their self-obsessed and/or possessive parents.
The lead actors always try to do the right thing, but their lives
are always being disrupted by the "family."
But like the
earlier NBC series Conrad Bloom, this doesn't end up being
enough of a concept to build a show around. While twenty-something's
(particularly successful tv writers) may feel hemmed in by family
obligations, a genial whiner isn't the kind of character that motivates
rabid viewership.
Most viewers
will probably sample the show to check out Jeffrey Tambor, who has
managed to now experience both ends of the creative spectrum by
moving from the magnificently funny The Larry Sanders Show
to this disappointment. Tambor's Jake is supposed to be slightly
sexually over-eager divorced Dad, but unfortunately the writing
only provides him with the ability to be stupidly arrogant and oblivious
to everyone around him. While Tambor's Larry Sanders character was
flawed but ultimately likeable, in this show he's just flawed to
the point of being annoying.
The series revolves
around newcomer Kevin Rahm, who plays Leo, an L.A. comedy writer
who can't get a decent date or distance himself from his family.
While I'm sure that Rahm has the potential to be interesting, he
manages to blow through every scene in this series like a gentle
summer breeze. Despite being a writer, he doesn't seem to be particularly
funny, or even captivating. And as a guy who's spent a lot of time
around comedy writers, I find it hard to believe that he can't figure
out some way to get some privacy from his relatives.
His family is
rounded out by Jill Clayburgh, who plays his mother Mickey, and
his self-absorbed brother (played by Eric Schaffer). Clayburgh should
fire her agent after being saddled with a character that makes absolutely
no logical sense. She's supposedly a psychologist, but seems entirely
divorced from her feelings, and the world around her. She deserves
better, but I don't think she'll get it in this show.
The pilot's
flimsy plot follows Leo as he attempts to find a way to tell his
family to give him some space. His latest girlfriend has left him,
and he blames the relatives. So he dawdles, walks around some department
store with his father (several times), spends some time convincing
his Mom not to move closer to him and finally decides to unburden
himself in front of his family at his brother's pre-wedding party.
In the end, he makes nice, for no logical reason other than the
episode is over and it's time to go.
In the end,
we have a show with no center, little substance and damn few funny
lines. In fact, the pilot only had one laugher, when Leo made the
observation to his mother that, "Believe me, the fact that
you wrote the book on obsession hasn't escaped me."
And the lack
of character development won't escape the audience.
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