The Grinder: Pilot

September 30, 2015 8:24 AM - Season 1, Episode 1

When his long-running hit series comes to an end, Dean decides to move back to his small home town to take over his family's law firm.
posted by 2ht (12 comments total)

I was pretty amused by it. It really does have a Remington Steele vibe with "no one cares if he's a fake lawyer as long as he's charming about it." Also, they had a "You can't handle the truth!" moment--snerk.

And you certainly feel for Fred Savage having to deal with all of that.

So, I think I liked it.
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:38 AM on September 30, 2015 [2 favorites]

This and Grandfathered were two of the best sitcom pilots I've seen in awhile. Chuckled a lot during both shows, and they are full of likable characters (and actors). Really looking forward to where they take us.

I love William Devane, but his character just kind of smiled and nodded with everything happening. He had nothing to do. Hopefully they can figure that out soon and give him a good role.
posted by 2ht at 10:07 AM on September 30, 2015

Oh. Fred Savage and Mary Elizabeth Ellis played a terrific sitcom married couple. Fun, funny banter between two intelligent, loving, equal partners.
posted by 2ht at 10:11 AM on September 30, 2015 [2 favorites]

I LOL'd at "hashtag teen life" and the piggyback ride. This was really well done. I''ll check the rest of Fanfare in a sec but is anyone watching Rob Lowe's new Comedy Central cartoon "Moonbeam City"? I watched the first ep last night and liked it quite a bit.
posted by Clustercuss at 10:18 AM on September 30, 2015 [1 favorite]

Of course Moonbeam City is on Fanfare

link 1

link 2
posted by Clustercuss at 11:30 AM on September 30, 2015

I clicked into this thread to see if I should give this a shot. Read "Remington Steele vibe" and immediately had my answer. ("Yes, of course.)
posted by MCMikeNamara at 12:43 PM on September 30, 2015

Glad I could help out, McMikeNamara!
posted by jenfullmoon at 5:37 PM on September 30, 2015

I didn't expect to laugh as much as I did. Rob Lowe is great, and his character is this fully actualized, cartoonish-but-not-a-cartoon person. But what really got me was every single line by the father. I don't know what it is, but his amiable excitement about everything is just infectious. When I heard about the plot, I expected him to be the stereotypical grumpy older lawyer, but he's so much better than that.

I didn't think I was going to enjoy this much, but so far, it's great.
posted by meese at 7:50 PM on September 30, 2015 [1 favorite]

I watched this and "Grandfathered" together, and after the total humorless wasteland of "Grandfathered", I was really afraid this show was going to suck, but it was actually cute and charming and funny (though not LOL-funny). I think Rob Lowe succeeds because he is totally self-aware about himself (even those unfortunate DirecTV ads reflect his own self-knowingness). And Fred Savage has been off camera for such a while that he doesn't have a well=established "type" and can be the struggling younger brother without losing any ground on his persona.

This is never going to be my favorite sitcom, because I like 'em more on the surreal side ("Raising Hope" was one of my favorites in the last few years, and I adore "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt"), but I'll probably DVR this.
posted by briank at 8:35 AM on October 3, 2015

I really liked this and can't wait to see how it turns out. Fred Savage was terrific and stiff, and Rob Lowe basically played his super hot charming self, but the premise is really original and the actors are interesting, so I will stick with it
posted by elvissa at 12:32 PM on October 3, 2015

I went in with decent expectations, after reading some comments here, and it's fun. The characters are all pretty solid (except for the kids, who feel like props, but kid actors can be tricky, and it's only the first episode), and my wife and I laughed a number of times. I think Fred Savage is the best so far, but he seems to have a more nuanced character to play. Still, everyone else did a good job.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:21 AM on October 5, 2015

I feel like I could watch Fred Savage fall into the jury box all day.
posted by purpleclover at 12:40 PM on October 7, 2015 [1 favorite]