'Mulaney' episode #5 review: 'In the Name of the Mother, and the Son, and the Holy Andre'

Mulaney has had a bumpy road in its first couple weeks, to say the least. The first four episodes have not been good, and the ratings haven't been much better. So much so that they have caused Fox to trim its season from 16-to-13 episodes.

There are some positives however. Ratings went up from 0.9 to 2.01 million and, while not quite good, this newest episode, "In the Name of the Mother, and the Son, and the Holy Andre," wasn't terrible either. These are baby steps, yes, but they are at least signs of improvement.

This would be such a better show if it wasn't so stubborn on sticking to familiar comedy set-ups and tired, predictable story-lines. This episode, centered on the arrival of John's mom (Nora Dunn) to his New York backdrop, getting his boss, Lou Cannon (Martin Short) unintentionally smitten with her and having to lie about his lack of faith, lacks the spark it deserves. This is particularly a shame because it's those little moments that seem to be clicking this week.

For instance, Mulaney's opening stand-up not only contains some original matter, but actually has some zest, from a delivery standpoint. Rather than regurgitating old material, John gets to go on an inspired bit about having his dates get into Roman Catholicism. It's no "The Salt and Pepper Diner," but it's a start. Similarly, an out-of-the-blue animation segment of Motif's (Seaton Smith) persecution of birth control's inner workings is unexpected and highly amusing, not to mention clever. Even a Lou Cannon joke about John's boss indirectly wanting Mulaney's dad dead earns a chuckle. If the overarching jokes were at least at this level, the show would at least earn the title of "amusing."

Alas, a great portion of the episode's center focuses on an uncreative segment with Jane (Nasim Pedrad) having adverse reactions to her birth control. Despite actually making decent use of Andre (Zack Pearlman), for once, this subplot fills its time with Pedrad overacting, and oddly passive commentary on feminism. Because by now, it's becoming more and more apparent Pedrad is the show's biggest on-screen weak link. Which, considering her talent on SNL and even in the pilot, is fairly discouraging and telling of the show's draining after-effects.

But Mulaney's biggest weakness is it just can't figure out how to make its characters lovable, instead of narcissistic. It's all-so-evident the show is mimicking Seinfeld's blurring of character assertiveness and social commentary. However, because Mulaney fails to have any overarching commentary, even on little things, it just makes all the main characters feel like selfish jerks.

All their problems steam from their own misgivings, conceited politics and poor actions. So it's hard to really sympathize with them for trying to fix their own problems. This is all the more evident this week, as the two biggest problems of the episode come from the characters just not owning up to their problems. John just won't tell the truth to her mother, and Jane won't tell the truth to her new boyfriend. So we have to watch them going to extremes to keep their lies accelerating.

Still, there are at least signs of improvement here. This episode, written by Karey Dornetto, is probably the most consistent teleplay to date, and contains some fairly clever ideas along the way. The tone of the show is still too ho-hum to shine, but the writing is getting better throughout the weeks. Additionally, the cast seems more comfortable than they were before, and even John seems to be getting more flexible in his mannerisms and performance.

Mulaney still has some ways to go if it truly wants to be a good sitcom, but the nuts and bolts of a clever show are present, and this week they're more apparent than they were before. It's still a bumpy show, and it still needs to figure out what to get rid of (Lou Cannon) and what to incorporate more of (Oscar, played by Elliott Gould). It is trying, god bless it, and maybe — just maybe — there will be some sort of silver lining for this entire production.

Image courtesy of INFphoto.com