For a self-described comedy, it has fewer laughs than Suits, a drama with a few laughs.
The laughs per minute rate is too low. I watched whole episodes without laughing once and started to count the jokes. There's not that many of them. It's mostly a series of awkward moments, slightly droll anecdotes, nothing actually funny.
I saw this as a huge fan of Happy Endings. That show had it all and these solo acts ain't working. It's similar to the curse of Seinfeld. One Big Happy, Benched and Marry Me were all weak, while Happy Endings was amazing. I think they should've found a new home for Happy Endings or kept trying again and again (like "Freaks and Geeks" and "Undeclared" both cult classics) until it was successful (Happy Endings was already funny). In "Marry Me" Annie is the same character as Penny was on HE and here Nina plays a very similar role to Jane on HE, but with way fewer jokes.
Episode 1 sees her having a breakdown at work, insulting everyone and everything (just like Annie's extended "Why won't you marry me?" rant on Marry Me) and getting fired/losing her job.
There is not much humor here. They recycle jokes 3 episodes in - the smell of the public defendants' office, the smell of the courtroom and the smell of the meeting rooms for jailed prisoners. Not only are the jokes repeated, Nina keeps complaining the smell over and over. The bad smell is a big theme in the first 3 episodes. It wasn't funny the first time, keeping complaining about the smell does not make it any more funny and doing it every episode over and over just makes it annoying.
Another example of a show that does not have enough jokes to sustain itself. There's just not enough jokes in there, the ones that are there aren't that good and the story is not funny on its own. You just end up watching some light, slightly weird court drama.
The supporting cast is a backdrop for Nina - they just set her up and add little to the show.
All these things should've been noticed reading the screenplay. I don't know how something this half-baked made it out on TV.
The laughs per minute rate is too low. I watched whole episodes without laughing once and started to count the jokes. There's not that many of them. It's mostly a series of awkward moments, slightly droll anecdotes, nothing actually funny.
I saw this as a huge fan of Happy Endings. That show had it all and these solo acts ain't working. It's similar to the curse of Seinfeld. One Big Happy, Benched and Marry Me were all weak, while Happy Endings was amazing. I think they should've found a new home for Happy Endings or kept trying again and again (like "Freaks and Geeks" and "Undeclared" both cult classics) until it was successful (Happy Endings was already funny). In "Marry Me" Annie is the same character as Penny was on HE and here Nina plays a very similar role to Jane on HE, but with way fewer jokes.
Episode 1 sees her having a breakdown at work, insulting everyone and everything (just like Annie's extended "Why won't you marry me?" rant on Marry Me) and getting fired/losing her job.
There is not much humor here. They recycle jokes 3 episodes in - the smell of the public defendants' office, the smell of the courtroom and the smell of the meeting rooms for jailed prisoners. Not only are the jokes repeated, Nina keeps complaining the smell over and over. The bad smell is a big theme in the first 3 episodes. It wasn't funny the first time, keeping complaining about the smell does not make it any more funny and doing it every episode over and over just makes it annoying.
Another example of a show that does not have enough jokes to sustain itself. There's just not enough jokes in there, the ones that are there aren't that good and the story is not funny on its own. You just end up watching some light, slightly weird court drama.
The supporting cast is a backdrop for Nina - they just set her up and add little to the show.
All these things should've been noticed reading the screenplay. I don't know how something this half-baked made it out on TV.