Given that I’m a huge fan of NBC’s The Good Place and I enjoy Superstore, it was no surprise that, when watching those two shows on Thursday nights, I inevitably checked out the show that’s smack-dab in between them in the lineup — NBC’s new half-hour comedy Perfect Harmony.
A quick synopsis: Arthur Cochran, a retired Princeton music professor (played by Bradley Whitford), becomes depressed after his wife’s death, and — while attempting suicide — stumbles across a small-town church choir in desperate need of some fine tuning. In deciding to become their director, he begins to establish a new purpose for himself and make new friends — even if he’s not all that jazzed about it.
So, after watching the first four episodes…
Would I recommend Perfect Harmony? Sure. Why not?
The good:
While it’s still in its infancy as a show, I think it’s hit the ground running pretty well. In comparison to the first few episodes / first season of The Office, 30 Rock and Parks & Rec, this pilot and first three episodes are a few miles ahead of those shows’. The pilot itself is a bit rough, as it throws a lot at you in pretty quick succession. I mean, the first minute of the pilot/entire show is a depressed guy who’s high and/or drunk almost committing suicide, asking for a sign, and then hearing the nearby church’s choir sing off-key. But, I guess that’s also a good thing, because it’s a very trim and efficient pilot. Everything matters, and it’s all packed in real tight.
So far, the performances that have really shined are Whitford’s and Anna Camp’s, who plays Ginny, the choir member Arthur has the most interaction with. They do very well in their scenes together, and equally well playing opposite other actors. Whitford gets to go through a whole spectrum of stuff just in these first few episodes — grieving, disinterested, annoyed, pleased, relieved, etc. Overall, he can effortlessly play a total grouch who’s somehow still lovable. Meanwhile, Ginny is a wife and mother who’s going through a divorce with her soon-to-be-ex-husband (who’s also in the choir), while trying to hold it all together for their son, Cash. The tween who plays Cash does a pretty good job, considering he has to frequently act opposite the show’s two big stars (Whitford and Camp). The other cast members have been great in the limited screen time they’ve had so far, and I imagine we’ll see more of them in the coming episodes.
For the most part, the comedic bits are well executed, to the point where a few of them have made me laugh out loud. And the singing — when they actually do it — is pretty good. I mean, it has to be. 1) The show is about a choir; and 2) it needs to be good for NBC to sell the songs on iTunes afterward. *insert eye roll here*
One more thing is that the show pretty much nails the attitude and overall disposition of a choir director. One of the reasons the show caught my interest at all is because I’ve been part of a somewhat high-profile choir in Denver on-and-off for three years, so I know how wacky and weird the ‘choir life’ can be. And the show succeeds in showing how choir directors are not the friendliest of people toward their choir members. Despite everyone in the room being adults, they somehow have the ability to make their singers feel like schoolkids who need constant direction. I guess it comes with the job. To be a choir director, you have to be vocal, commanding, detail-oriented, and a huge perfectionist. And Arthur’s characterization very much nails that in the scenes where he actually gets to direct his choir.
The bad:
To be quite honest, I’m not sure how long it’ll be until I get tired of the ‘intellectual outsider has to deal with backwoods hicks’ premise. I’ve spent plenty of time in small towns, and you’d be surprised at some of the high-minded conversations I’ve had with their residents. It just depends on the people you meet. Sure, there are small towns where people are very poorly educated, and whose priorities are more on the day-to-day things rather than big-picture issues that effect a larger portion of the population. But, I think it’s unfair of the show to paint with large brushstrokes when it comes to small-town people. But, I do recognize, as we get farther into the show, these characters should become more three-dimensional by virtue of spending more time with them and seeing them in different situations.
And given that so many of the jokes in the show (thus far) are predicated on Arthur being too stuffy, intellectual and high-maintenance to understand ‘small town culture’ or whatever… or the reverse where the small-town folks don’t understand his sophisticated references, etc. … the whole thing can get a bit old pretty quickly. So, let’s hope the writers figure out they can’t dip into that well forever.
The show also gives Arthur House-like superpowers of being able to tell everything about a person based on their body language or whatever. He also does the Sawyer from Lost treatment of giving everyone little cutesy nicknames when he first meets them, but I think that was mostly in the pilot.
The in-between:
One more thing I’ll note is that, despite the entire show being centered on a church choir, I think NBC tackles it in a way that makes it approachable for both people who are religious/spiritual and those who are not. So far, the songs performed on the show haven’t been super-religious or anything. They reference Ave Maria and Handel’s Messiah, but what would normally be a very religious premise is treated with a more secular approach, making it available to more people. Which is fine. I mean, it’s a church choir. You think they’d be singing more hymns and whatnot. But, again, it’s less ostracizing this way.
On the whole, I have to say that the entire ~church~ / religion conversation is tackled in a very weird way. Arthur does seem to have a bit of contempt for the whole thing, but it’s not clear whether that’s because it’s a church or because it’s a church in a small town where people tend to be simple, small-minded and ignorant (which he prides himself that he is not). While at the same time, those characters on the show who are believers and church-goers tend to talk about their faith in platitudes and jokes. There’s very few moments (so far) where a character’s beliefs are treated seriously, and they get to voice some complex issues about their life, their challenges, their goals through the lens of their faith.
Thus, it’s not clear whether the show’s creators / writers are trying to make fun of church-goers (or people who live in small towns, for that matter) or whether it’s trying to approach the subject of religion in a way that’s fair but also keeps the plot an arms-length from the subject’s complexities. It is a half-hour comedy that’s supposed to appeal a very diverse audience, so I don’t blame them if they’re trying to do the latter.
So, in answer to the question “Should You Watch Perfect Harmony?” I say: Yeah.
Ultimately, it’s pretty harmless. Its premise isn’t as unique or spectacular as The Good Place is, nor is it as funny as 30 Rock was. But, then again, this is a show in its infancy. Maybe it’ll get better as goes.