'9JKL' review: Mark Feuerstein’s life makes for a boring sitcom
CBS' latest sitcom, "9JKL," stars Mark Feuerstein and premieres Monday, Oct. 2, 2017. Credit: CBS / Cliff Lipson
COMEDY SERIES “9JKL”
WHEN | WHERE Premieres Monday at 8:30 p.m. on CBS/2
WHAT IT’S ABOUT Linda Lavin deserves another series, right? Probably also Elliott Gould. Good guy Mark Feuerstein, too. So put them all together, and what do you get?
A meddling mother (Lavin), a screw-loose dad (Gould), and their ex-Hollywood TV star son (Feuerstein), who tries to rebound by moving “temporarily” into the Manhattan apartment next door to his folks. Guess who lives next to next-door? His surgeon brother (David Walton, “About a Boy”) and bro’s pediatrician wife (Liza Lapira, “Super Fun Night”). There’s even a wisecracking neighbor kid (Albert Tsai, “Dr. Ken”).
MY SAY Oy, the guilt! Jewish guilt here, but could be Catholic, Korean or Martian, for all it matters. It’s sitcom guilt, with a biiiig laugh track, to reassure us these hoary stereotypes remain hee-larious.
Poor Feuerstein. He’s been trying to turn the half-hour trick for 20 years now (“Fired Up,” “Conrad Bloom,” “Good Morning, Miami”). And all he has to show for it is an eight-year run of USA’s Hamptons hour “Royal Pains.” This new lump of live-audience boilerplate shouldn’t change things. At least he gets to work with his writer wife, Dana Klein (“Friends”), with whom he created the show. (They say based on their lives. I say, condolences.) Representing her in the pilot is a guest love interest, thus allowing mom to prove her meddle. Mettle. Whatever.
BOTTOM LINE If you last the entire pilot, and your head doesn’t hurt, you’re a sturdier viewer than I.
