Up All Night: Pilot

I love Will Arnett. I know for many people who check out Up All Night, the big draw will be Maya Rudolph (who's just coming off of this summer's smash hit, Bridesmaids.), but I'll be watching for Will Arnett. As I mentioned in my introduction, Arrested Development was the third show I ever loved enough to watch over and over and learn practically everything about it. One of my favorite characters was Will Arnett's GOB. Will Arnett was just perfect as the sleazy magician. The thing is, after Arrested Development ended, most (if not all. His character on Running Wilde was some what different) of Will Arnett's roles since have been some variation on the sleazy, clueless GOB-esque character. And, while a lot of those roles have been great (his recurring role on 30 Rock as Devon Banks stands out in my mind), it's refreshing to see him as something completely different from GOB. So as you might guess, Will Arnett as the overwhelmed stay-at-home dad Chris was my favorite part of the Up All Night Pilot.

As for the rest of the pilot, it was pretty good. Not the best, but the thing about a pilot is the show's always bound to improve from it as the writers get a better grip on the characters and on how to write the show. The premise is pretty good. Reagan (played by Christina Applegate) and Chris (Arnett) are a pair of young married go-getters who learn in the opening scene of the pilot that they're expecting. The show then picks up a couple months after the baby is born as Reagan goes back to work as the producer of Ava, an Oprah-esque talk show, where she has to meet the whims of the host (played by Maya Rudolph.), while Chris stays home with the baby all day. The pilot involves them trying to get a handle on their new life, while realizing that there are some things they can no longer do (A running gag involves them trying not to cuss around the baby, which they find hard to do). There's some other plot-type stuff in there as well, including them trying to celebrate their 7th anniversary and Ava getting her whole staff to go on a cleanse in preparation for an upcoming show (This soon takes a turn when the cleanse turns out to be dangerous to one's health.).

Again, the pilot is pretty good. There are some solid laughs in there and Arnett and Applegate have great chemistry. Plus baby Amy is adorable. All the stuff dealing with them being new parents is pretty The main issue is that while the baby/new parent stuff is pretty solid and grounded, the workplace stuff at the moment is a lot wackier in tone, as if they combined two different shows together. It's also not as funny as the baby stuff (not yet anyways) and is reminiscent of 30 Rock (Which is a great show, but I'd hate to see Up All Night become "30 Rock clone but with a baby". It has to be it's own show). The workplace stuff isn't bad though (Rudolph is funny as the over-the-top Ava), and hopefully will get better, once the writers get a handle on tone.

All in all, Up All Night is solid enough that I'll probably keep watching. I'm not going to talk about it every week at first, but I may change my mind in a couple weeks. As long as they handle it right, this could be a great show. And hopefully, it'll keep Will Arnett on TV for some time.

Grade: Enjoyable Enough (Pretty Good)

Memorable Moments

-Again, not much to mention that I haven't already mentioned but the best scenes in the episode involve Will Arnett's character getting freaked out during a trip to the grocery store. As I mentioned before, I love Will Arnett.

-Also the climax when Chris and Reagan try to have a late anniversary dinner and wind up partying all night is pretty funny, especially in the aftermath, when the baby monitor forces them awake.

So all in all, a pretty good episode. That's it for now. I may get my Survivor recap up tonight, but more likely, it will happen tomorrow. Keep on rockin'.