A silly, “Scrubs”-like new NBC sitcom from Alessandro Tanaka & Brian Gatewood (who also wrote the big-screen Jonah Hill vehicle “The Sitter” -- which garnered 23% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes), “Animal Practice” follows folks who work in a veterinary hospital.
Its cast includes the great Justin Kirk (who’s also on “Weeds” tonight as it wraps its final season), JoAnna Garcia Swisher (“Freaks and Geeks,” “Reba,” “Privileged” “Better With You”), Taylor Labine (“Invasion,” “Reaper,” “Sons of Tucson,” “Mad Love”), Bobby Lee (“Mad TV”) and Crystal (the monkey who plays Annie’s Boobs on “Community”).
Nobody can sell a line like Justin Kirk, and he sells some truly terrible material here. And some mediocre material and some decent material. Swisher is super-cute, as are many of the other mammals (and a penguin) that inhabit the series.
I’m grateful to the series for bringing Kirk to an Olympics-ish-size audience tonight, but I don’t believe I’ll be checking in with future episodes. I have every expectation that Kirk will quickly land a better job after NBC mercifully has “Animal Practice” destroyed.
... People laugh at monkey business, but there's only so much you can do even with a pro like Crystal. For this show to work long-term, its human characters have to become richer — and funnier — so that they can evolve with the audience long post the point where the writers have run out of tricks that Crystal and her various winged or four-legged co-stars can do. .…
... The pilot doesn't allow the supporting characters to do more than play somewhat grating stereotypes, but I'll keep watching to see how they develop … I'm not made of stone; more often than not, the funny monkey made me laugh. …
... the show is pretty darn terrible, derivative and tired, co-starring a monkey (never, ever a good sign) and chockablock with characters we have seen too many times before. …
... Keep that remote control within arm’s reach if the thought of a monkey in a lab coat driving a tiny ambulance doesn’t tickle your funny bone, because “Animal Practice” has lots more where that came from. Cats, dogs, tigers, tortoises, snakes, penguins — they’re all mined for laughs in this so-so sitcom …
The San Francisco Chronicle says:
... For the humans, nothing ensues that can't be predicted by a comatose cockatoo. … Considering that it will be going up against "The Middle," in its fourth season on ABC, "Animal Practice" is going into a ratings battle with very little comic ammunition.
... viewers will get an automatic buzzkill from the pilot episode of “Animal Practice,” a middling, trying-too-hard comedy … a forgettable show sloppily built from comedy cliches, but it can be fixed by firing most of the cast and rebuilding the show around the monkey. …
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:
... The show may not be comedy gold, but it generates enough laughs to make it worth checking out before hitting the sack Sunday night. But is it a keeper in the long run? We'll see. …
... a lot like ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy,” except it’s furrier and it’s a lot less funny. … Weeks before the new TV season officially begins, NBC offers a candidate for the first show to be canceled. That’s a howling shame.
... maybe it will become less shrilly madcap and more character-based. It’s unlikely, but stranger things have happened in the world of NBC’s sitcoms … Kirk and Garcia Swisher give it their best, but they fall prey to the inevitable banalities of the story line. …
... It’s the humans, and the situations they’re set up in, that I already feel we’ve seen too much of. There’s not a dynamic on the show that doesn’t feel transplanted from another donor sitcom. … For now, the diagnosis I’d give Animal Practice is much like the way Dr. Coleman sees his patients. The animals are fine—it’s the humans who can use fixing.
... I'm sorry to report the animals don't talk, but the people do. … The caricatured supporting cast includes a mewling Asian stereotype, a grotesque nurse and perennial TV sidekick Tyler Labine as a lovesick bumbler of a, well, sidekick. Yes, Animal Practice is just that inspired. But if you're content to watch a monkey in a doctor's coat wreaking havoc, welcome to the zoo. …
... Kirk and his cohorts quickly get taken down by the barrage of stupidity the show sends their way. If the broadcast networks want to send good actors running, screaming, to cable, there's no better way than wasting them in embarrassments like this. …
... one of those tired-old-mutt sitcoms that could benefit from a few new tricks. …
... Like a lot of pilots, Animal Practice is messy, and if you don't like the monkey, well, you're probably not coming back. Again, you don't really know what can happen in another four or five episodes, but that's asking a lot in a crowded television universe. …
10:38 p.m. Sunday. NBC.
