Review of “ United States of Al ”

Executive producer Chuck Lorre continues his comedic exploration of the immigrant experience in America with this series about a former combat sailor and the Afghan translator who moves in with him.

Since Mom premiered in 2013 and proved that a CBS multi-cam comedy can contain a multitude – or at least both largely silly back row elements and serious addiction thinking – sitcom mogul Chuck Lorre has broadened its brand in the direction of sharper, often dramatic performances.

One thing Lorre hasn’t changed, however, is his desire to have that new half-hour head start with the often loud laughs before he matured, forcing critics to suffer from lukewarm first installments of shows like Bob Hearts Abishola and Plan B before something more nuanced happened. And this is generally the case! These are both good shows that mix complex tones and positive intentions.

To prove the disservice this approach can do, look no further than United States of Al. The new comedy was neither favored by Lorre and the show’s creators nor by the CBS promotional team, which sparked a backlash after the release of a series of tournament-related trailers. of the NCAA that are, at most, barely representative of the show’s voice. So again I’m stuck saying if the audience sticks to United States of Al Through the four episodes sent to critics, they could begin to see a show that is surely well-intentioned and aspires to admirable cultural understanding. But considering the start here is even more bumpy than other recent Lorre shows, I really can’t recommend waiting. Trying to be harmless is better than trying to be offensive, but it opens the door to its own kind of stereotyping and laziness.

Actually created by David Goetsch and Maria Ferrari, United States of Al focuses on former Marine combat veteran Riley (Parker Young), who, after three years of effort, is finally able to secure a travel visa for his Afghan translator Awalmir (Adhir Kalyan), called “Al ” by all. Al has saved Riley’s life on several occasions and he is greeted with reverence by Riley’s father, Art (Dean Norris), his sarcastic sister Lizzie (Elizabeth Alderfer), his ex-wife Vanessa (Kelli Goss) and their daughter Hazel. (Farrah Mackenzie). Finding himself in Ohio after a life in Afghanistan leads to a lot of fish-out-of-water culture shock for Al, who is about to discover that all of his new American clan have their own wounds and traumas.

If you stick with United States of Al Across three episodes, you’ll see that he aspires in many ways to be a (less funny) version of Parker Young’s still beloved Fox series. Enlisted, with comparable empathy for the challenges facing returning veterans and their families. Young is an expert at playing this kind of lovable child, and the series reaches considerable complexity when it comes to portraying Riley’s refusal to seek advice and the destructive impact it has on her marriage and her. to come up. He has a good chemistry with Alderfer, who after stealing the stage on Lorre Unstitched and the last seasons of AP Bio, is probably ready for a vehicle featuring a character I would describe as “Live-action Daria”. Alderfer’s scenes with Art in the third episode, in a subplot tied to Lizzie’s own heartbreak and a metal detector, are the best in the series, helping Norris find the right volume for his character after two episodes of scream nonstop in Archie Bunker mode.

The show’s problem – and it’s especially troublesome, given the first controversy – is Al.

The first point to make, especially with the content of the commercials that CBS cut for the series, is that everyone on the writing team – which includes several Afghan and Afghan Americans – has taken care to ensure that the jokes are basically never directed. at Al. Yes, there are cultural and linguistic misunderstandings, but the punchlines emphasize the need for Americans to listen and learn more. Still, is it funny when Lizzie asks if the language they speak in Afghanistan is “afghanistan”? No! It’s not! The lingering comic frame here is that while Afghans can play a sport using dead goats and eat things that confuse our American taste buds, it’s much more important to recognize the critical role they have played in our long-standing war. date and how badly we failed. by helping the civilians who helped us. It’s a similar “Let’s start our story on how immigrants make America great by centering Americans who need magical immigrant intervention.” Bob Hearts Abishola invoked in its first episodes.

By smoothing out all of Al’s edges, the show essentially turns him into an indescribable collection of model minority tropes. He’s hyper-respectful and hyper-patriotic. There are moments of uniqueness in her religious and cultural identity, but the show always stops at “explaining” rather than “exploring” these details. And while Al is presumptively funny – a lot the trailers suggest are character jokes are, in fact, the character’s attempts to tell jokes – he’s not a personality, and it’s in. that sea of ​​imprecision that writing staff constantly goes adrift.

Take, for example, a second episode in which Al’s encyclopedic driving knowledge is undermined during his license exam by an examiner in shorts. The cartoonish treatment of his stuttering discomfort is still infinitely better than the way Raj has been treated for the entirety of the The Big Bang Theory, and take-out ends up being more than just a lesson in ultra-religious views on sexuality. But what people will remember will be: “Ha ha, the Muslim panicked with his legs so much that he backed up into a tree.” On every occasion, United States of Al leads with the all caps version of the joke and hope you pay enough attention to hear the grace notes. It is asking both too much and too little of the public.

The fact that Al is the least interesting and least developed character in a series that bears his name does not favor Kalyan, who played a better version of almost the same archetype on The CW’s. Aliens in America (although this character is Pakistani). Should United States of Al have you found an afghan or an american afghan in mind? Probably, which doesn’t mean that a performance with more consistent accent work or a more direct connection to the ethnicity or nationality represented would have worked either. Kalyan’s choices aren’t funny, and neither are Al’s writers’ choices. It’s a bad mix.

Nothing is really funny in the pilot, and I had three or four episodes United States of Al before I start to see where the good show was here. Sadly, it’s the one built around Young, Norris, and Alderfer. So what you have is a series that isn’t as bad or offensive as Twitter’s knee-jerk reactions suggest, but also a series with an Afghan protagonist who isn’t played by an Afghan actor and a series that would probably be better. without this character entirely. It’s bad in its own way.

Interpretation: Adhir Kalyan, Parker Young, Dean Norris, Elizabeth Alderfer, Kelli Goss and Farrah Mackenzie

Creators: David Goetsch and Maria Ferrari

Airs Thursdays at 8:30 p.m. ET / PT on CBS starting April 1.