I am – Hercules!!
It’s a laughtrack-happy sitcom, created by the husband-and-wife writing team of Josh Goldsmith & Cathy Yuspa (“The King of Queens”), about two neighboring couples – one’s been married 12 days, the other nearly a quarter century. It stars Brad Garrett (“Everybody Loves Raymond”), Joely Fisher (“Desperate Housewives”),” Eddie Kaye Thomas (the “American Pie” series) and a pretty girl named Kat Foster.
Obvious and trite, and chock-full of “observations” that were tired when the Three Wise Men explained them to Jesus, “‘Til Death” is 22 minutes of tedium and my formal pick for worst new series of the season.
But what matters Herc’s opinion?
USA Today gives it one and a half (out of four) stars and says:
… The main structural problem for the show is that neither the couples nor the contrast makes any sense. No long-married pair would be jealous of these newlyweds: They're too dull and daft to be good for anything but mockery. And no younger couple would worry about the example set by this pair of elders, who were probably just as miserable on their wedding night as they are now. Still, this being a comedy, the more troubling problem is that no one is funny, starting with Garrett. Like too many other former sidekicks promoted to star, Garrett doesn't seem to realize that the spotlight now belongs to him; he no longer has to scream and stamp to get it. And yet he pushes every line and every scene, which forces Fisher to push back just to keep up. It may not be exhausting for them, but it sure is for us.…
Entertainment Weekly gives it a “C-plus” and says:
… If you miss Raymond, you're in luck: The bickering couple is working straight from the Barone bible. Still, sometimes what should be dark comedy is just plain depressing. …
Variety says:
… Brad Garrett was a hoot tossing one-liners from the sidelines on "Everybody Loves Raymond," but he's less appealing thrust to the center of this by-the-numbers sitcom about unhappily wedded bliss, which has one or two moments but generally hews toward the overly broad. Put it this way: Any comedy that milks multiple jokes from a character being named "Woodcock" is pretty much running on fumes. … there's nothing remotely fresh here, the younger couple is painfully vanilla, and Eddie actually says there's "a reason why china rhymes with vagina." …
The Hollywood Reporter says:
… Judging solely from the pilot, " 'Til Death" can be counted on to deliver some pointed and perceptive observations about human nature. Its characters, though, are too broadly drawn to be relatable and the lone story in the pilot was not particularly compelling. … The script from creators Josh Goldsmith and Cathy Yuspa has more than a few well-written jokes but it fosters the impression, at least initially, that Eddie is bitter about his own marriage. In fact, Eddie has to walk a fine line between deprecating marriage in general and still showing, deep down, his affection for Joy. I think Garrett pulls it off, though I can understand if others may be less convinced. …
The Washington Post says:
… steals two jokes from "Seinfeld," which is par for the course in comedies that aim to be at least semi-intelligent. One is the concept of "make-up sex," an outbreak of coital bliss following the resolution of a big fat argument. The other involves the physical gags resulting when a pool table is installed in a room that's too small, as happened on "Seinfeld" when Mr. Costanza tried converting son George's bedroom into a billiard parlor and ended up, yes, behind the old eight-ball. Serenity now! … for all the stooping for laughs, Garrett and Fisher maintain an admirable dignity, so that even their bickering and feuding has a kind of classicism to it, as if in tribute to all the bickering TV and radio couples who have gone before, and who kiss and make up before the final credits roll. " 'Til Death" is all that it's cracked up to be, mainly because advance word had it cracked up to be minor and crude -- and yet it still has moments that are engagingly amusing. …
The New York Times says:
… To be sure, many of the “’Til Death” gags are part of what I’m coming to think of as whiteface, that dubious persona affected by comedians like Dane Cook who want to hit their line drives right down the middle of everyday frat bro culture. The hallmarks of whiteface are: big Caucasian guys, loud voices, muted ethnicity and those “Don’t you hate it when ... ” one-liners. Women are like this. Men are like this. Men want pool tables. Women want herb gardens. What’s an herb garden anyway? I don’t get enough sex. It’s pretty easy to loathe this stuff if you like your comedy more ragged, drug-addled and confrontational. But there’s an easygoing red-state pleasantness to it too, a celebration of timeless and consoling suburban inertia. …
The New York Daily News gives it two stars and says:
… as they car pool, the elder man dispenses crushing advice to the newlywed. "Men want to have fun," he warns the young adult, "and wives want to walk that fun deep into the woods and shoot it dead." Garrett has fun with such lines, and he and Fisher play well against each another. Thomas and Foster, though, are outmatched if not mismatched, and "'Til Death" plays like a tired reworking of "Married ... With Children," but without the children.…
8:30 p.m. Thursday. Fox.
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