The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins: Season 1

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There have been many attempts to re-create the magic of 30 Rock. The machine-gun jokes, the wacky characters, the wry social commentary. But none have reached even close to that series’ heights. The two subsequent Robert Carlock / Tina Fey joints, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Mr. Mayor were variably successful and a total dud, respectively. Here, in another entry, is The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins, which sees Carlock striking out sans Fey. Which, unsurprisingly, means the show is about half as funny as 30 Rock. Or like twice as funny as Mr. Mayor. Whatever the case, there are moments of LOL, but your joke-to-laugh ratio will obviously be dependent on you and your ability to pick up on Carlock and his new partner, Sam Means’, pop-culture references and just their general goofy senses of humor. The thing that’s missing, though, is the ruthlessness that Fey brings to the table. The ruthless and biting parody of a Jack Donaghy and the absolute ability to put aside any sense of pride in a Liz Lemon. This, like Carlock’s other less-great series, is a softer-gentler absurdity.

The first ridiculous thing about this series is that we have to believe Tracy Morgan — a man whose build, even in his prime, could best be described as late-career Maradona — as a Hall-of-Fame caliber running back. The show understanding, of course, that this conceit is funny on its face. The inversion of the usual “rise and fall” to “fall and rise” in the title tells you all you need to know about where his life was, where it is now and where he wants to get. Banned from the NFL — where he starred for the Jets, of course — for gambling on himself, Reggie lives in a palatial estate in New Jersey with his much-younger fiancée, Brina (Precious Way), son, Carmelo (Jalyn Hall), and best friend and ex-teammate, Rusty (Bobby Moynihan). He has a close relationship with his ex-wife / agent, Monica (Erika Alexander), and pretty much lives out his days hanging in his house and trying to figure out how to get himself into the Hall. To that end Reggie hires famed documentarian — who is also suffering from his own, recent scandal and really needs the gig — Arthur Tobin (Daniel Radcliffe), which gives us the whole mockumentary filming excuse, as well as plenty of fish-out-of-water jokes with this uptight, but quirky Brit basically living with Reggie’s definitely-not-British family. Har har.

If you’ve ever seen anything with Tracy Morgan in it, you know what you’re getting here. Like his 30 Rock character, Tracy Jordan, he’s a childlike man who built his way up from nothing to success and riches, and in doing so has made himself completely detached from everyday reality. Granted, Reggie is a little more grounded and self-aware than Tracy Jordan, but he still lives in a bubble of adoration and fame that has made him soft. Though, the hatred he now gets from his neighbors and ex-fans for getting booted from the league just when the Jets were on a run has brought him back down to Earth quite a bit. And it’s been years, but the vitriol hasn’t seemed to subside. It doesn’t help that his nemesis, Jerry Basmati (Craig Robinson), uses any and all of his public appearances to bash Reggie to try to keep him out of the Hall and remind people that Reggie was a degenerate gambler who blew the Jets’ chances to get to a Superbowl. So, basically, we’ve locked two men, Reggie and Arthur, in a project that they need to succeed to get redemption for both men in the eyes of the public and their professional peers.

Okay, so that’s the setup. I think Carlock was hoping the Arthur’s interactions in the Dinkins’ house would provide that fish-out-of-water experience of Kimmy Schmidt and that perhaps they could expand the universe a bit with Monica and her business. But without the workplace sitcom expanse (that 30 Rock handled beautifully, but fizzled when attempted with Mr. Mayor), this thing just couldn’t quite reach launch velocity. It’s too narrow. And, while Morgan can be hysterical at times, he’s best used as more of a featured player that hits a couple verses and exits than he is the primary artist. The rest of the cast is mostly asked to react to him, so the casting and usage has to be perfect. And, in this first season, it just isn’t quite there. Moynihan is mostly asked to play the loyal, dumb clown. Which seems to be his thing. And while the rest of the cast is there to humanize an otherwise rather robotic Morgan — whose stilted acting style, again, is both a strength at times, but a weakness in others — they don’t always get a ton to do. Other than Radcliffe, who seems, at times, to struggle with the material, but also seems to relish some of the more physically comic stuff he’s asked to do. Frankly, I think the writers weren’t quite sure what to do with his character psychologically and had him doing some pretty silly, not particularly funny things at times. Including this whole really unfunny gag where he carries around a potted plant to blend in and not call attention to himself as a subject in a documentary where he’s supposed to be invisible. Though the visual and awkwardness of having him flirt with and pursue Megan Thee Stallion (who looks to be at least twice his size) is one of the more memorable gags in the season.

Given the rather straight-line narrative and mid-season entry into the NBC line-up — including a weirdly scheduled premier, followed by nothing for months — it makes me wonder where they’ll take the show next. The nature of series in the ten episodes that did air hems it in a bit in terms of its universe and doesn’t provide for a ton of space to operate. We spend the vast majority of the show in Tracy’s house, which could presumably change should this get a second bite — and a guaranteed budget — at the apple and a longer runway to get the story out of the gate. Again, there are some hearty laughs, which you’d expect, but there are also some situations that feel a bit forced and a bit muddled. Especially with the Arthur story and his crisis of confidence and professional collapse. They’re obviously trying to parallel his and Reggie’s experiences and compare and contrast how they deal with it, but it just hasn’t quite gotten there. Hopefully, with a season under their belt, the two actors and the writers can kind of right the ship there and tighten up the dialogue / gags and the interplay between the two. You can see the Angie Jordan character in both Monica and Brina, where they kind of took her character and split it between the two women. Which actually works quite well here. The young, influencer fiancée who certainly craves fame, but also loves Tracy. And the intelligent, savvy first wife who was once on top of the sports agent world, but is now struggling with relevancy as she moves further into middle age, has lost her cache and finds herself behind the times. Both actresses are great in their roles and do manage to round out the joke machine with a little heart and warmth. Even when they’re also making jokes.

Look, perhaps the day and age of the network sitcom is behind us. But I admire Carlock and Means for trying to keep it going. There is a place for shows like this. Ones that are, ultimately, feel-good programming that is made for adults. Adults who don’t mind the immaturity that the characters on screen are allowed to explore. Not everything has to have a dead body or be a dark comedy. Sometimes fun and light make for both decent and necessary entertainment. There is certainly a core here that just felt a bit rushed in a shortened season. As if they were writing on the fly at times, with some of the jokes just missing their mark. As if a few more weeks of development, tightening and rehearsals would have moved this closer to the 30 Rock pantheon. Though nothing will ever be that show. It sounds like the ratings for this series were good, so I’m hoping it gets a relatively early renewal and they can get to work sharpening some of the writing and making sure the words sound great coming out of the actors’ mouths. I’d really like them to figure out the Arthur character a little better and possibly get Morgan to mix it up a bit. His schtick is his schtick, but imagine if you tuned in and the dude suddenly pulled something or some things from his bag you didn’t know he had? Some other gear that we hadn’t witnessed to this point? That would be cool, right? I’d also say to lean into Alexander’s Monica character. She’s terrific. We shall see. But whatever it is, I’ll be there because I can’t not be.