1600 Penn

I read the discouraging reviews on here and saw the abysmal ratings for this show. Based on those criteria, I almost didn't bother watching at all. But the first two episodes were on the DVR, so we thought we'd give it a try.

The first scene of episode 1 reminded me of something like "Animal House", not a good recommendation from my point of view. However, we persevered, and actually found it to be quite enjoyable. We then watched the second episode, and enjoyed it more than the first.

1600 Penn is fast-paced, quirky entertainment. With a bit of time to develop the characters, it might be more than that.

Just another reason cable is out doing network television. We were quite excited to see Bill Pullman in this role. The first couple of minutes gave us a chuckle or two. Then it was downhill from then.The premise of the show sounded appealing and the teaser commercial looked very comical. All the comedy is very cliché and predictable. I sometimes wonder if they actually have a look at these shows before they try to air them in prime time. The funniest of the whole show was the monologue at the end. And even that wasn't that funny. All in all we will give it a second look but I don't hold out a lot of hope. Bill, you should stick to major motion pictures.

I really wanted to like this show because of Bill Pullman. As it turned out, he was the only light in an otherwise dull and murky program. Same old American sit-com with a few special moments (the Cabinet sharing family problems instead of deciding the future of the Nation.) Trivial jokes. Extremely irritating first son. Extremely annoying and ingratiating first lady. You can see the network hacks selecting jokes from a really old joke book then trying to modernize it with some misplaced hip language. It could have been much worse. As it is, 1600 Penn is an out-of-the-box network sit-com with little new to offer. Bottom line, occasionally amusing but over-whelmingly boring. Sorry, Bill. I really wanted to love this one just for you.

I actually like the way that the show is coming together, but this Skip character is SO distracting and off-balance with all of the other, very very good actors (including the great Rene Auberjonois), that it makes many moments of the show frankly unwatchable. The writers really need to make the Skip character more of an occasional visitor - send him to boarding school. And don't make the baby daddy a total idiot like Skip. He's good as his own brand of not-so- smart but lovable. If NBC allows this to stay on for a while, then I think it will grow a nice audience. We need another really smart comedy to replace the departing 30 Rock and to accompany the ailing Community. Or perhaps we can just get NBC finally to support production on Community once and for all instead of continuing to dangle it over a cliff.

I found this show to be very amusing. It isn't meant to be super serious or super funny it is a typical sitcom in terms of content spread. There are parts that are extremely funny, parts that are uncomfortable, and parts that make you actually feel bad for the characters. There is nothing drastically wrong with the show although it may not be everyone's cup of soup. On the scale of Sitcoms it would fall somewhere between Cougar Town and Everybody Loves Raymond and is definitely not garbage.

The primary concept of the show is following the family of the President through the trials and tribulations of day to day life. As with most TV comedies there are of course a smattering of character flaws that exist which cause unusual situations to come about at a higher than usual pace. The core building blocks of this show are tried and true and while most shows are a little rough around the edges at first as well this one will develop quickly as the actors/actresses become more used to their characters.

It is worth a watch especially since you can see it for free on IMDb/hulu.