Welcome to a new Wildcard Wednesday! This week, I’m sharing some brief thoughts on the single-season Marry Me (2014-2015, NBC), another single-cam created by Happy Endings’ David Caspe and starring his wife Casey Wilson, whom he’d met on the earlier series.
MARRY ME (October 2014 – February 2015, NBC)
Premise: A long-time couple of opposites finally make plans to head down the aisle.
Cast: Casey Wilson, Ken Marino, John Gemberling, Sarah Wright Olsen, Tymberlee Hill, Tim Meadows, Dan Bucatinsky
Writers: David Caspe, Erik Sommers, Jackie Clarke, Jordan Cahan, Andrew Guest, Daniel Libman & Matthew Libman, Dannah Phirman & Danielle Schneider, Erica Rivinoja, Vicky Luu & Bridget Kyle
Thoughts: This couple-comedy about an unlikely pair headed to the altar looks to be, in the pilot, another show in the “wacky dame, supportive guy” vein — you know, what I Love Lucy is lazily summed up to be by those who ignore all the personalization. The better comparison is the Lucy-wannabe I Married Joan, where the wife is looney tunes for no reason. Versions of this have permeated the genre ever since the vaudeville-rooted Burns And Allen, all with varying degrees of character-based individualization. Marry Me actually moves away from that setup after its debut, though. In addition to enjoying the narrative hook of a pair preparing for marriage (which naturally suggests stories), this sitcom actually proves to be less about one lady making a mess for her man and more about a general collection of oddballs. It’s the same phenomenon I discussed with regard to Happy Endings, which also starred Casey Wilson and was created by her eventual husband David Caspe, who apparently crafted a semi-autobiographical premise for her here. Just like on that show, every lead on Marry Me is an assorted collection of detail-oriented quirks that allow for jokey dialogue from every angle. This is instead of having clear, strong personality traits that are comedically applied and then used to motivate story. Indeed, the regulars on Marry Me have much less innate comic definition than even the regulars on Happy Endings. Yes, I can ascribe labels to a few ensemble players — e.g., a sassy lesbian and a divorced loser — but their application in story is a lot less precise and explicitly inspired. Accordingly, this makes for a more idea-driven form of situation comedy, less predicated on the regulars than the fly-by-night jokes that the writers happen to conceive. Unfortunately, unlike Happy Endings, I’d say there’s also less character support to those jokes, which are as random and uncreative as the loglines. For that reason, I can’t, unlike with Happy Endings, call Marry Me a good sitcom. I just don’t think it well-establishes or knows how to use its regular elements consistently enough to directly earn laughs and stories based on expectations cultivated as a result of their continuity.
Episode Count: 18 episodes produced, 14 of which aired on NBC. | Episodes Seen: All 18.
Key Episodes: #10: “Spoil Me” (01/13/15)
Why: The most specific comic detail in all of Marry Me is that Casey Wilson’s Annie was raised by an interracial gay couple, and both of her dads (who are regulars) are also named Kevin. It’s a quirky arrangement that the show also uses to explain Annie’s overly emotive and flamboyant personality (which is part of Wilson’s natural comic persona, also observed on Happy Endings). But there’s no episode that spotlights them that’s worth spotlighting here. So, instead, I’ll say that I think the funniest half hour — with the most amusing comic idea — is “Spoil Me,” which concerns a feud between Annie and her fiancé Jake over who watched the season finale of their favorite series without each other. It balloons into a big standoff — a lie detector test is involved — and it’s probably the most memorable half-hour of the whole series.
Come back next week for a new Wildcard! And stay tuned Monday for a musical treat!