I never review television shows. Not really sure why, perhaps because there are a million other blogs out there that dedicate their entire existence to this topic. Nevertheless, there is a tech connection.

1. The show’s star is Zooey Deschanel who is wicked smart and an official nerd.
2. Fox premiered the show on iTunes with a free HD download. Click to get the deal.

Already it has nearly 700 ratings at 4.5 stars, not too shabby I’d say. For the first time, at least that I can remember, iTunes is premiering a show, two weeks before anyone else. That’s a pretty interesting technique but I do wonder how it will affect the numbers for the broadcast premier. Now to the review!

Leave it to Zooey Deschanel to make a sitcom, post 1990s about people in their 20-30s that is actually runny and doesn’t rely on a faux reality-camera a la The Office, Community, Modern Family, Parks and Recreation.

With the exceptions of How I Met Your Mother, there isn’t a network television show I can think of off the top of my head in this genre that has accomplished in an entire season, what this show accomplished in a single premier episode. It made me laugh, more than once in a single scene, hell a single episode!

Deschanel plays Deschanel and you can tell it. No overacting on her part which is common on these sorts of shows, especially those on CW/UPN. That being said, there area  few times that you go, “Wait, didn’t Tina Fey do that first?”

Even actors who typically scotch a good scene (sorry Max Greenfield) play well off Deschanel. Jake Johnson is new to me but seems pretty solid and Lamorne Morris Damon Wayans, Jr, while sometimes a little unbelievable, plays his character well. (My friend Jason pointed out that in the first episode, Damon Wayans, Jr played the part of “Coach” but will be leaving the show for another on ABC with Lamorne Morris taking his place)

While this show isn’t perfect, that last bit at the restaurant was pretty formulaic and there are some obvious borrowing of style from shows like The Loop and The League (wait, The New Girl? See a theme here?) it is the closest we gotten recently to good, new twenty-something network situational comedy and I welcome it.

Oh yeah, no laugh track. Thank you producers for that one. Sadly the trailer didn’t get the less is more treatment and turns a pretty decent premier episode into 2:41 minutes of meh.

So what do you think? To me the whole thing seemed to have this web series sort of vibe.

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