The Great Indoors

Both Joel McHale and Stephen Fry knows what funny looks like. Why did they join this project? Please, I want to know! What am I not seeing? This is like what Community or a modern Fry&Laurie would make fun of, this mindless millennial vs 80s kids laugh track.

It's not BAD, it's just bland. I expected more. Which is funny, as they endlessly tag my demographic for being entitled and bored. Thats, like, the tagline. But this pilot doesn't help me with either. It doesn't contribute to any reflection or understanding, and it doesn't entertain me.

I really hope it gets better. PLEASE, get better. Pretty please, I'll share it on lots of social medias. Like, all of them, I promise, for realzies.

I wanted to like this, I really tried, but it's impossible. Joel McHale was hilarious and incredible witty in both "Community" and as presenter of E!'s "The Soup". Why he accepted to star in this incredible dim-witted show is beyond me. The premise of the show is that McHale plays a former outdoor reporter, who now has to work in an office with a bunch of pampered millennials. Yes, it's the old, stillborn sitcom idea: the generation gap. So a typical joke would be that Joel (who is 40something, I guess), has no idea how to use an iPhone (cue to canned laughter) and then Christopher Mintz-Plasse (30something?) helps him out. Now, isn't that funny? Hell, NO! And then there is veteran Britishcomedian Stephen Fry. He plays Joel's boss. And, like him, is completely wasted on this show. I have no idea what leverage CBS used to blackmail them into this stale sitcom, but it must be something punishable by death sentence, because anything less would be the better option.

It's funny to read the reviews that take this series to task for its depiction of Millennials. And those who think the show belittles Gen-Xers. In reality, I think it does disservice to both groups, first by trying to define every character by one of those two groups, promoting stereotypes.

Almost all of the "humor" in this show stems from the generational skirmishes that occur between the two camps--the Gen-X lead character (Joel McHale) and the Millennials who staff the digital magazine. The comedy is treated like a zero-sum proposition, where one side can only gain laughs at the expense of the other.

Frankly, I think the Millennials take a worse comic beating, but that may just be my personal perspective. These "journalists" seem to know almost nothing about the subject of the magazine, journalistic methods, or even how to relate to readers (or anyone else).

At its core, I think the show should be judged, in part, by how funny it is, i.e. how many laughs it generates. And the first two episodes did not elicit many. There was a brief scene involving a bear cub that managed to feel real and connected to actual feelings (though it was nearly undermined by some weak jokes about the three-second attention spans of the Millennials). Maybe the show will have to reach for more of those moments and fewer laughs to be watchable.

After reading the other reviews on here I'm apparently the only person who thinks this show is hilarious. I'll just start by saying I'm an Gen X person and yes they make quite a bit of fun of our generation. That being said, they also make fun of millennial's as well. Of course they use stereotypes for both, but they make fun of each generation pretty equally. The premise of the show is about a outdoors adventurer type that is forced to work in an office setting with a bunch of people very much his junior. The humor is simple and this show isn't a thinker, it's a "turn off your brain and laugh" show. It seems most people disagree with me, but I like it.

Joel McHale tickles me, but miscast as outdoors stud.

Stephen Frye is good. The millennials suck, or blame the gawd-awful writing.

I would laugh a couple times per episode, but not worth the other 28 minutes of pain.