Kathy Bates gets ‘Disjointed’
Humans have been laughing at jokes about inebriation at least since Romans wrote comedy. Once it was drunks who were funny — Otis on “The Andy Griffith Show,” Foster Brooks, Dean Martin — but drunks just seem like alcoholics now. Marijuana, meanwhile, has moved in — pot jokes long ago entered the mainstream — and with “Disjointed,” it now has a whole sitcom of its own.
The series, new on Netflix, was created by David Javerbaum (the wonderful show “No, You Shut Up!”) and “Two and a Half Men” man Chuck Lorre, the co-creator of CBS’ “Mom,” a comedy about substance abuse and recovery. To some degree, this wants to be the stoner “Cheers” — James Burrows, who co-created that series, directed the “Disjointed” pilot.
There are “budtenders” here; a central workplace flirtation; and a coterie of comical regulars who want to go where they almost can remember their name. As on “Cheers,” the door to the street is on the left, the one to the office is on the right.
Kathy Bates plays Ruth Whitefeather Feldman, partnering with son Travis (Aaron Moten) in a Southern California pot dispensary. Ruth is what you would call an old hippie; Travis has returned from college with an MBA, which his mother refers to as “a trip to the dark side.” (His father, “a Black Panther who became a corporate for a big pharmaceutical company,” is not in the picture.) Travis wants to build the business; Ruth just wants to “healp” people, her special word combining “help” and “heal.”
“Like cronut or labradoodle,” she explains. “I’m trying to make it a thing.”
Building out the workplace are growmaster Pete (Dougie Baldwin), who grew up in a commune, sometimes unconsciously affects an Australian accent and is uncomfortably close to his plants; and various employees such as Jenny (Elizabeth Ho), the “tokin’ Asian,” and Olivia (Elizabeth Alderfer), who finds herself drawn to Travis; and security guard Carter (Tone Bell), an Iraq vet with PTSD, who turns the series serious from time to time.
Hanging around, like Norm and Cliff and Frasier are Maria (Nicole Sullivan), a middle-aged housewife looking for relief; and Dank (Chris Redd) and Dabby (Betsy Sodaro), who have a pot-themed webcast, and make various loud noises. Antagonistic neighbor Tae Kwon Doug (Michael Trucco), barges in from the martial arts studio next door.
Apart from its subject matter and the rougher language a streaming network allows, “Disjointed” is very much an old-fashioned, filmed live and/ or laugh-tracked situation comedy; its rhythms will be familiar to anyone who has seen even two other such shows. Attempts have been made to push beyond the form, it is true. As might be imagined from the names attached, “Disjointed” is a thoroughly professional, overall pleasant, largely painless piece of work.