Welcome to a new Wildcard Wednesday! This week, I’m looking at another single-season sitcom from the early 2010s — Matthew Perry’s follow-up to last week’s featured Mr. Sunshine…
GO ON (August 2012 – April 2013, NBC)
Premise: A recent widower is forced by his boss to attend a grief therapy group.
Cast: Matthew Perry, Laura Benanti, Julie White, Suzy Nakamura, Brett Gelman, John Cho, Sarah Baker, Tonita Castro, Tyler James Williams, Seth Morris, Allison Miller, Bill Cobbs
Writers: Scott Silveri, Jon Pollack, Lesley Wake Webster, Liz Bixius, Matthew Harawitz, Dennis McNicholas, Seth Raab & Nicholas Darrow, Bill Callahan
Thoughts: Matthew Perry’s next sitcom, following the failure of Mr. Sunshine (discussed last week), is a more memorable, uniquely designed show. For starters, it gives him more of a clear characterization, with comic traits and dramatic circumstances that are sufficiently individualizing. And he’s surrounded by an ensemble of affable, quirky players in a “grief therapy” group — a hangout construct that somewhat resembles Community in its voluntary congregation of unrelated strangers but is lacking a school-like setting as a workplace-esque venue for premised, story-suggesting trappings. Indeed, Perry’s Ryan has an actual day-to-day job as a sports talk radio host — a setup that’s sexy and straightforward but doesn’t yield much for the situation, especially because scripts have to toil to get those characters to mix and mingle with the members of his therapy group. And that’s really the challenge of Go On, for despite its more narratively precise situation, hangout constructs that aren’t either rooted in a workplace (like Cheers) or primarily set in homes/apartments (like Friends) have a harder time coming up with ideas that justify the leads’ personal involvement, especially given this higher-concept (Dear John-like) context. Go On exacerbates this issue by having many regulars and trying to feature them all every week, leading to B-stories and C-stories that are meant to strengthen their ties but simultaneously emphasize this inherent narrative strain, taking us further away from the initial hook of Perry’s character and his motivating reason for being sent to this support group.
To that point, the pilot is excellent — it sets up a rich character for its lead and finds real laughs plus emotional stakes by challenging him to get in touch with his feelings. That challenge is personified by the group’s counselor, Laura Benanti’s Lauren, who is everything Perry’s Ryan isn’t — she is touchy-feely, while he is emotionally guarded, using humor, sarcasm, and his job to deflect. It’s a rich conflict… but it’s quickly diluted as the status quo settles into an over-reduction in both sides’ extremes. And in the process, both the potency of their comedic clashing, and their regular ability to play to these direct premised concerns, evaporates. As that goes, the show becomes less funny and more, well, warm, as scripts also have to search outside them for story ideas… which, again, become difficult to cultivate inside this hangout-centered premise. Also, everything in the situation makes less sense the more the action leaves the specific place where it makes most sense for these characters to actually interact: the group. Accordingly, Go On is a disappointment — with a riskier situation that exhibits potential, but a practice of it in weekly plot that doesn’t mitigate those risks, instead emphasizing them at the expense of the most crucial elements. Ah, well. I appreciate the effort at least.
Episode Count: 22 episodes produced and broadcast.
Key Episode: #1: “Pilot” (08/08/12)
Why: The pilot is tops — Perry’s Ryan has a clear characterization, and his arrival into the grief therapy group is truly disruptive both comedically and dramatically, as he forcefully clashes against its leader (Benanti’s Lauren). After this, the series minimizes their oppositional qualities and the humor drastically reduces. And the show’s ability to derive weekly story from inside the group dries up, leading to ideas that are less specific, forcing the premise to reveal fatal strain.
Come back next week for a new Wildcard! And stay tuned Tuesday for more Modern Family!