‘The Crazy Ones’ review: Has Robin Williams’ series improved since the premiere?
When “The Crazy Ones” premiered earlier this season, it suffered primarily from a problem that we never imagined that it was going to have: Too much Robin Williams. It was like almost everyone gave him way too much leeway to run around and riff, and that led to chaos for the entire show. Everyone was trying so hard to be funny (or more so letting Robin Williams try to be funny), but it wasn’t always working out in the way in which they hoped.
For the first episode back in January, though, it is starting to feel more and more like this show is starting to find its way to being one of the better new comedies of the series. Williams was reigned in this week, and in a pretty nice change of pace, it was actually Sarah Michelle Gellar who ended up stealing the show more this week. She became hooked on the latest product (a video game), and took it to extreme, hilarious levels. Gellar is better in this zany role than we expected going in, and while we wish there was more of Josh Wolk in it, the story was still worth it.
The struggle with “The Crazy Ones” at times is that the premise alone doesn’t always allow for comedy, and what the show really could benefit from at this point is adopting a sort of serialized feeling similar to “Parks and Recreation,” where they worked on a singular project for a lengthy period of time. Otherwise, seeing the same team work on a different project every week, save for some of these, ahem, crazy moments, can often get tiring. But “The Crazy Ones” is a much better show than it once was, and it at least now is worthy of a few viewings here and there. Grade: B.
What did you think about this episode of “The Crazy Ones,” and do you think that the show is starting to head in the right direction? Be sure to share below.
Emmett
January 7, 2014 @ 4:12 am
Great show. It’s improved a crazy amount since the premiere. Really hitting it’s stride. Spirited, rapid fire dialogue and top notch performances.
Pat H
January 3, 2014 @ 2:51 am
I gave up on it after the 2nd episode! Maybe I will try again!