Partners

When I first read that Max Mutchnick and David Cohan, the creators of Will & Grace, were working on a new comedy, I got super excited since it is one of my favourite shows. But I have to say, I'm a bit disappointed.

 

The premise of the show is some-what drawn from the lives of the creators and some say it is very much like another comedy with the same name which aired during 1990's on CBS starring Jon Cryer and Tate Donovan, but Mutchnick and Cohan only say that they were fans of that show, not that they copied it. Well anyways, this new Partners is about two friends, Joe and Louis, who have their own architect business. Louis lives with his boyfriend Wyatt and Joe gets engaged to her girlfriend Ali right in the first episode. The name of the show refers to both the partnership between the two friends and to the relationship between them and their partners.

 

Though all of the main cast is pretty well know, they aren't that big of stars.  Louis is played by Michael Urie, who gained fame playing Marc in Ugly Betty. I definitely see a resemblance between Louis and Jack from Will & Grace, which could be a good and a bad thing, since Jack was one of my favourite characters but I don't think they should copy his personality. Joe is played by David Krumholtz who I recognize best from his appearances in Harold and Kumar film series, but he became better know to the mass audiences after playing lead character in Numb3rs for 6 seasons. His character I didn't particularly like either, he seems so nervous all the time, I feel like I wanna slap him and yell him to relax! The show focuses mainly on these two characters but their partners get a fair share of screen time too.

 

Louis' boyfriend is played by none other than Superman himself, Brandon Routh. His was the name I first recognized from the production and I thought he was a bit odd choice for a comedy, but he almost pulls it off. His character is a bit monotone and slow so he doesn't  have to be an excellent actor anyways, but he plays the sort of naive and child-like aspect of the character very well. Joe's fiancee Ali is played by Sophia Bush who was part of the regular cast in One Tree Hill. I haven't watched that show at all, so to me she is a totally new face. She has some rom-com credits to her name too, but nothing major. Her character on this show is kinda sassy, but not in a way that it would grab your attention, so she ends up a bit bland.

The first two episodes that have now aired both follow the same basic plot:  Joe tells Louis something about his relationship with Ali, Louis tells Ali, Ali gets mad, Joe gets mad at Louis, Louis redeems himself, everything is good, Wyatt goes to gym. And there you have it; Partners.

I don't really hate the show, but it just has no wow-factor and nothing new. The writing is good, but the actors don't quite deliver their script. I guess they both are to blame. This is such a shame, since I expected so much from this show, but now I doubt it will even get picked up for a full season. Second season seems almost impossible.