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Do Not Disturb: Work Sex [series premiere]

By fred | September 10, 2008

(S01E01) Some time ago I got to watch a screener of what was going to be the pilot of this new “sitcom”. Since then, Fox decided to use another episode to debut the show, because they thought, rightly so, that the original one wasn’t very good.

Now the problem is, you could clearly tell it wasn’t the episode that was flawed, it was the show itself. Now that I’ve seen the new pilot, which will air tonight at 10.30 on Fox, I can only confirm that statement : it was not, it is not, the episode that sucks, but the show.

It is possible that every once in a while, or maybe even every season, there’s a show that stands out from the rest. Not because it is so good, but because it is so bad, because it sucks so much, maybe it looks like an old cliché that would have been done 30 years ago, and already then people would have thought it sucked. It’s the show that you watch and then get worried about television and the future of television, you question yourself : is that the media I love so much ? It can’t be…

This season, this show is called Do Not Disturb, and no, they shouldn’t have disturbed us for such a piece of crap. The show, the characters, the plots, everything is utterly cliché, it’s all been done so many times before, it incredibly predictable, and while the whole point of the show is how Neal (Jerry O’Connell) is a sex addict, pretty much, they made sure to end this episode with a very politically correct “reveal” about the sex life of one of the characters, just so everyone is pleased.

Yet the sad part is, this was still better than the crap they came up with for the original pilot episode. This episode’s plot : an article about the sexual life of one of the employee. Of course we got then the usual seminar with that stupid video about sexual harassment, all under the supervision of the one girl, Rhonda (Niecy Nash), who is above it all and trying to teach Neal a lesson. So of course, she’ll now get herself into a bit of a sexual relationship at work just then, and get caught evidently, because that’s funny and no one saw it coming.

And in another typical plot, some guy is wondering whether he lost his flirting skills because he’s in a long-term relationship, so he goes out to flirt a little, with a stranger who is not a stranger but his partner’s best friend, co-worker, whatever.

The worst thing about Do Not Disturb is simple : it’s a comedy, but it’s not funny. At all. Not even a little. Unless when someone tells you he knows a blond girl who’s smart you laugh because, you know, it’s so unrealistic it’s funny…

You also have to wonder why they didn’t take the opportunity of being set up in a Inn to have a new guest every week and have their weekly plot around that one guest… because the same six people or so in the same two rooms will eventually get pretty old.

Or it would, if you would actually be watching for more than 10 minutes or so, which really is unlikely. Even more unlikely is that Fox won’t pull the plug on that one within two weeks, tops. And for once, I won’t even complain, because the mistake here was to put it on the air in the first place.

Repeating myself: I know many didn’t like Unhitched last season, and it wasn’t really good, in fact I hated quite a few things starting with that stupid doctor character or any plot he’s ever been in, but at least there was some potential there. Re-tweaking it, letting the show grow into its full provocative, silly, absurd even at times, form, might have resulted in a funny show. Do Not Disturb might not be as bad as The Return Of Jezebel James was, or it might be even worse, I can’t even tell.

Either way, neither should have been put on the air, neither will have stayed there long, so don’t bother.

Posted in Reviews
Shows: Do Not Disturb