Sitcoms need a workable, believable premise. Ensembles need characters with some depth to play against the premise and each other. The combination of elements leads to comedic combustibility. Well structured, well thought out sitcoms are like fireworks. They have a limited life, but as they explode, they reveal layers of light, color and magic.
"Good Morning, Miami" is a firecracker. Pop, it's gone. In the first episode, a new producer arrives at a failing TV morning show as a candidate to turn it around. (Actually, he just wanted the free ride to Miami to visit his grandmother. He's taking another job.) He meets the show's hairdresser and falls in love. She doesn't know. She's with the male anchor, a recovered substance abuser who credits their relationship with turning around his life.
Okay, a good setup. A great comedic triangle. Except: there's no chemistry between the producer and the hairdresser. At all. His attempts to get her attention generate sympathy for the anchor, who is drawn as the villain vis-a-vis his dismissive attitude toward the producer. Sadly, there's not much more chemistry between the hairdresser and the anchor. (There is unexplored chemistry between the producer and the anchor, but that would be another show.)
The weakest link in the triangle is the hairdresser. There is no character there. She's nice. She's pretty. She's...? Now weeks into the series, we still know nothing substantive about her.
Other characters are broad caricatures of religious people (the weather nun), and Hispanic women (the female anchor). There are also two workers whose functions on the show-within-the-show are as unclear as their functions on the show proper.
The grandmother works, but then, she's been road tested. She's an aged version of Karen Walker from "Will & Grace". We don't see much of her except in some repartee with the grandson-producer. She's like a Greek chorus, commenting on the action but removed from it. Too bad.
Sometimes a show can turn around a few episodes past the pilot. This one has not. It has no idea what it wants to be past getting the designated romantic leads together (which is what every episode is about). It's a lesson that should have been learned from the one-note sitcom "Cursed", or the child who asks at the end of a fairy tale, "and then what happens."
"Good Morning, Miami" is a firecracker. Pop, it's gone. In the first episode, a new producer arrives at a failing TV morning show as a candidate to turn it around. (Actually, he just wanted the free ride to Miami to visit his grandmother. He's taking another job.) He meets the show's hairdresser and falls in love. She doesn't know. She's with the male anchor, a recovered substance abuser who credits their relationship with turning around his life.
Okay, a good setup. A great comedic triangle. Except: there's no chemistry between the producer and the hairdresser. At all. His attempts to get her attention generate sympathy for the anchor, who is drawn as the villain vis-a-vis his dismissive attitude toward the producer. Sadly, there's not much more chemistry between the hairdresser and the anchor. (There is unexplored chemistry between the producer and the anchor, but that would be another show.)
The weakest link in the triangle is the hairdresser. There is no character there. She's nice. She's pretty. She's...? Now weeks into the series, we still know nothing substantive about her.
Other characters are broad caricatures of religious people (the weather nun), and Hispanic women (the female anchor). There are also two workers whose functions on the show-within-the-show are as unclear as their functions on the show proper.
The grandmother works, but then, she's been road tested. She's an aged version of Karen Walker from "Will & Grace". We don't see much of her except in some repartee with the grandson-producer. She's like a Greek chorus, commenting on the action but removed from it. Too bad.
Sometimes a show can turn around a few episodes past the pilot. This one has not. It has no idea what it wants to be past getting the designated romantic leads together (which is what every episode is about). It's a lesson that should have been learned from the one-note sitcom "Cursed", or the child who asks at the end of a fairy tale, "and then what happens."