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I don't usually like cable news shows, but I thought that this American spin on the venerable UK panel show was surprisingly likeable and funny. Roy Wood Jr does a great job as host, and co-captains Michael Ian Black and Amber Ruffin are fun and good-natured, if a little stiff in the first outing. By the third or fourth episode, everyone has gotten more used to the format, and MIB and Ruffin get faster on the jokes and better at expounding on each topic. The show is at its funniest when it lets the guests and hosts really go off on tangents, like a hilarious bit about an early acting gig of MIB's in the fifth episode. They could definitely dig a little deeper on the jokes; I think they're a bit afraid to get 'mean' given how early the show is in its run and CNN's centrist reputation. Overall, however, the show has consistently improved each week, and I'm excited to see how it continues to evolve as it establishes itself.

As a mega-fan of The Wire, I really wanted to like this show. However, I could barely make it through the first episode. I found most of the performances to be either flat, overwrought, or aping previous performances from The Wire. An ironic exception is Trey Chaney, formerly "Poot" on the Wire. However, the overall effect is that this show seems less documentarian and more 'American Crime Story'.

Additionally, while the writing is of course significantly tighter than most shows on television, by the standards of Pelecanos and Simon, it's quite evidently phoned in. Between hokey bouts of over-exposition and non-sequitur Trump jokes, there is no room for the quiet realism and humanity of The Wire.

Overall, WOTC is decent enough television in an era where decent television is sorely lacking. However, it simply can't overcome the shadow cast by its predecessor, by comparison to which WOTC is sadly trite, flat, and disappointing.