MAYBE it’s all because of global warming, but seri ously, has everyone suddenly gone dumb?
If the new TV season so far is any indication, the answer is a resounding “yes.”
Take Fox’s new workplace sit-no-com “Do Not Disturb,” for example. Set in what is supposed to be an NYC hotel, this series is a disturbingly unfunny bit of fluff that nonetheless manages to hit you over the head with its heavy, leaden jokes.
The hotel, called The Inn, is supposed to be the hippest spot in New York, but is nonetheless filled with the characters as old school as “Three’s Company.”
There’s sex-crazed hotel manager Neal (Jerry O’Connell); HR supervisor Rhonda (Niecy Nash doing her best Jackee); neurotic gay man Larry (Jesse Tyler Ferguson); regular guy Gus (Dave Franco); sexpot Nicole (Molly Stanton); and chubbette office worker Molly (Jolene Purdy).
Mostly, the workers all seem to be stuck in what looks like a basement in a scary-looking gray room where they get to say smarmy things to each other.
In the premiere, Rhonda calls everyone together because an anonymous ex-staffer has written an article about an oversexed employee of the hotel whose promiscuity knows no bounds. Of course, this leads to all of the above trying to put all their moving parts in check.
Oh no! But that’s almost impossible isn’t it?
All kinds of smarmy, not to mention seriously unfunny, situations ensue.
Hey! What’s HR Rhonda of the skin-tight low cut blouses doing in the electric closet with that handsome security guy?
Hey -whose legs are those that are wrapped around Neal as he tries to make it to the electrical closet? This, mind you, right after he’s admonished his colleagues for thinking he’s just “. . .some horndog boss running around with his fly open,” and has pledged to keep it all locked up.
You’ll be happy to know that the young executive women at NYC’s hippest hotel must be at fault because they wear uniforms that make them look like schoolgirl hookers – micro mini dresses with knee socks and spike heels. Right.
What stands out in this low-rent show is the cast. Most of them are very good, particularly Jolene Purdy who has such good comic timing that she deserves better than a stay at The Inn.
Much better.
“Do Not Disturb”
Tonight at 9:30 on Fox