From the mind of Anthony Q. Farrell (writer for The Office, Overlord and the Underwoods), Shelved is a pretty expected single camera mundane and lighthearted workplace sitcom, centring around a small public library in Toronto, Ontario. The single season 8 episode series introduces us to all the library employees and a few of the regular visitors, and while quite enjoyable ultimately feels too short and relatively superficial. More of a trial season so far, I do hope future seasons get more episodes and flesh out character dynamics a bit more, but the writing was decent, the acting was decent, the set (basically just inside a library) was decent. A surprising amount of political and social issue commentary for a family sitcom, I didn't mind it, let out at least three audible laughs during its run, although I do wish they went a bit more of a nuanced route. It seems like most of the jokes basically wrote themselves, and they didn't go out of their way to create anything particularly clever, with any clear vision or passion, nor with any significant depth. Many are comparing this to The Office, however I'd say its much closer to Parks & Rec or Abbott Elementary in tone, and even closer to the likes of Superstore in quality and feeling like a daytime, innocent sitcom. Like Superstore again and unlike the others they spend no time justifying the existence of the camera and abandon the sort of "documentary" structure the others use, which is a totally fine if not preferred artistic choice from my point of view, however they now no longer have justification for the talking heads scenes, so these are missing and are missed. All said again its short so if you like these style of shows I would certainly recommend. I didn't love it, but I certainly didn't hate it.
