USA TODAY International Edition
‘ Man with a Plan’ forgot a plan for good writing
LeBlanc deserves better than this tired sitcom
Surely, with even a little effort, CBS could have found someone who could write for this man.
We know it’s possible, because most of us have seen what David Crane, Marta Kauffman and their staff at Friends were able to do for ( and with) Matt LeBlanc. Working together, they took a character that began as a stock Italian- American, leatherjacketed lothario and turned him into the sweet, dim- witted, sexually magnetized Joey much of America came to know and love.
Nor is Joey all LeBlanc can play, as anyone knows who’s seen what Crane and Jeffrey Klarik did for LeBlanc on Showtime’s Episodes — which cast LeBlanc as a fictionalized version of himself, starring in a mindlessly awful comedy called Pucks. What Crane and Klarik created is a humor- ously self- aware alter- ego for LeBlanc that plays off Joey while mocking the idea that LeBlanc was merely playing himself in Friends.
Oh, and along the way, they’re also mocking the kind of network cynicism and indecision that led to Pucks, a sitcom so dreadful it could actually be the model for Man With a Plan ( Monday, 8: 30 ET/ PT, egEE out of four).
So what character have writers Jackie and Jeff Filgo ( That ’ 70s Show) created for LeBlanc here? Well, he has a name, Adam Burns, and a job as a contractor. He also has a role in the sitcom universe: A married father of three stepping up to help with the children when his wife ( Liza Snyder) goes back to work.
Beyond that, unfortunately, there’s little to say and less to remember about Adam than that he’s played by LeBlanc.
There are reasons he’s a TV star, from his common- man appeal to his ability to make even the silliest line seem plausible. But he’s battling jokes and situations here that I Love Lucy would have rejected as tired.
A father who appears to be meeting his kids for the first time? Yup. A wife who outwits her husband at every turn? Yup. A sibling ( Kevin Nealon) who exists solely to be an even dimmer man and worse husband than the main character? Yup. And a plot based on a lie so obvious you can spend the first commercial break diagramming the inevitable collapse to come? Oh my, yes.
On the minimal upside, this version of Man is better than the original, if only because LeBlanc and Snyder’s characters no longer seem to hate each other. Given time, the two stars might even establish an acceptable comic rhythm between them, though that would require writing that actually counted as “comic.”
Look, of all the networks, CBS is the most natural home for a traditional sitcom, which is fine: The Big Bang Theory and Mom prove there’s still vibrant life in the format. Nor is there anything wrong with offering up a bit of escapist entertainment: Every comedy does not have to be as challenging as Atlanta.
But there is something wrong with the most popular and prosperous broadcast network churning out work that is this witless and lifeless. And of all people, LeBlanc must know it, because he’s worked with good writers and he’s seen good writing.
Maybe someday, he will again.