Running Wilde

I bet you didn’t know this show existed. Well, neither did I. But there were a few things that drew me to it. Not the least of which is the name Wilde, which I have a particular affinity for. For reasons that are personal to me, so probably not germane to this discussion. But who doesn’t love Keri Russell? Honestly, I missed out on Felicity. Mostly because I was a twenty-something male human during its run who would have been the only male human to watch that show should I have engaged. I also refused to watch The Americans, despite Ms. Hipster’s insistence, because I couldn’t stand looking at Matthew Rhys’ dumb face. A stance I have softened on considerably since. But then I watched Russell in The Diplomat and realized I’d been a fool. She’s delightful, and I’d been missing out! So I started to look back on her oeuvre and decided to start with this, the lowest bar. A Fox sitcom that ran part of one season whose poster looked every bit of stupid 2011 goofiness.

But then there’s the Will Arnett factor. He can be… annoying. Honestly, his schtick is pretty much his schtick. Blowhard. Which is the role he played on a great show, Arrested Development, and the role he plays here. Is it a coincidence that Mitchell Hurwitz created each? No, it’s not. Is it a coincidence that Running Wilde resembles that show in many, many ways? It is not. Is it an issue that Arnett goes from a supporting character to the main character in this series? It is. The man cannot carry a show. He’s a good pop-in. Like in 30 Rock. But so dreadful in shows where he leads the thing, like Flaked. Or maybe that show was just dreadful (it was). But watching a dude on eleven always is a rough slog. He just can’t seem to dial it down. Which I guess is an acceptable way to be in a 30-minute sitcom on Fox about a blowhard, out-of-touch rich guy. He basically meets the material. Which is not even close to as clever or as well written as Arrested Development. Like not even in the same universe. Even though the setup with its voiceover narration — in this case done by a child, Stefania LaVie Owen, and not by a sardonic adult in Ron Howard — and wacky character thing plays out in both.

As mentioned, I tuned in to see what Keri Russell could do here. But her cardboard character is overrun by Arnett, another supporting character from Arrested Development, David Cross, and this completely bonkers dude, Peter Serafinowicz. Here’s the thing. Russell’s Emmy Kadubic character feels like it should be the Michael Bluth character portrayed by Jason Bateman. The straight-man in a gang of wackjobs. But instead they kind of make her young daughter, Puddle (LaVie Owen), that audience sub. But not really. And therein lies the issue. We have no anchor. Russell’s character is supposed to be this do-gooder hippie who, at first, resists the wiles of Steven Wilde (Arnett) but then realizes that living in a mansion rather than in a hut in the jungle with her long-time fiancee, Andy (Cross), is actually pretty cool. In other words, she abandons all of her principles within about a week of being back in her hometown where her mom was a maid for the Wilde family. I don’t know. It’s all really dumb. But, essentially, Steven Wilde is a ne’er-do-well asshat who has never worked a day in his life and lives in a bubble of rich-guy excess and cluelessness. Emmy and her daughter come back into his life and they make him want to be a better man. Even though, again, she’s engaged to David Cross. Whom she seems to completely forget about a few episodes in. Honestly, the whole thing is kind of a mess narratively. It seemed mostly like they only had Cross on and off for shoots, so he just kind of conveniently vanishes with weird excuses. Oh, did I mention that Steven Wilde’s dad is played by… wait for it… Jeffrey Tambor. We’re barely trying here, folks.

Along with the utterly repetitive jokes and situations, we had some seriously clumsy product placement. So much so that the Emmy character drives a Chevy Bolt (or maybe it’s a Volt) and then in the next episode Steven presents her with a gift / bribe of a Chevy Bolt (or maybe it was a Volt). They either filmed these things in an order different than how they aired, or they didn’t hit their Chevy allotment and had to be more obvious about it? Nobody seems to care. There’s also a whole thing around KFC and some other really obvious sponsorships that I just didn’t have time to log. I just feel bad for Russell here. Her character is a scold and little more. But like a wishy-washy scold. There are just so many jokes you can make about an out-of-touch rich guy before you’re like, “I get it, he’s a clueless jerk who was raised poorly and doesn’t know how much milk costs.” Which leads to constant jokes about his butler / manservant, Migo (Mel Rodriguez), ripping him off by telling him things cost 1000x what they actually cost and pocketing the difference. Har har. Anyhow, this is definitely not the showcase for Russell I’d hoped for. Nor was it some sort of cool Arrested Development artifact I could claim I discovered. Nope, it’s just a lame sitcom that pretty much displayed exactly what it looks like on paper.