Sullivan & Son

Sullivan & Son

Episode 1: Pilot: Last, Best, and Final

By: Carlos Uribe

Sullivan & Son is about a corporate attorney from New York City who decides to quit his job and run a bar in a working-class neighborhood in Pittsburgh.

Spoilers Ahoy!

The few regular readers of my blog might now that I currently review the television show Cheers on a regular basis. Cheers is a television show set in a bar in Boston. Sullivan & Son shares a similar premise with Cheers and the pilot also has some similarities. There is a character who comes from the intellectual world (corporate attorney in this show's case) who visits a bar. This character eventually decides to become a part of the bar. In Cheers, Diane becomes a waitress. In Sullivan & Son, the main character, Steve, buys the bar from his father. There's some circumstances that are different, but I wouldn't be surprised if Cheers was a big influence on this show. It seems as if TBS decided to create a modern-day Cheers. The problem is that Sullivan & Son is nowhere near as funny as Cheers and neither does it do a good job as setting up the characters as the first episode of Cheers did. In effect, Sullivan & Sons is a cheap imitator of Cheers. Even without comparing this show to Cheers, this show would fall short.

That's because this show is simply not funny. While there is great diversity in the cast, including an Asian American in the lead, many of the jokes are based on race. The show even has a resident racist within the bar that is accepted and liked by the rest of the cast. There's many other jokes that are supposed to be edgy but which aren't actually funny. I didn't see the second episode that aired, but the cold open had a character realize he killed someone and then shrug it off. This is a show that doesn't know the difference between what is funny and what is just shocking. Sullivan & Son is going to need serious work in the writer's room to make an actual comedy appear since the only people laughing are the characters within the bar and the people in the laugh track. Sullivan & Son sought to create the atmosphere of a real neighborhood bar. While it's likely that they succeeded, it ultimately doesn't lead to an actually funny show.

There's also a problem with the main character. Steve is introduced as a big-shot corporate lawyer who is about to get promoted to Vice-President. He's visiting his father because it's his dad's birthday. That's when he finds out that his dad is selling the bar and Steve decides to buy it. His sole reason for doing so is because he likes the rest of the characters. He ditches his current girlfriend, quits his job, and restarts his life as a bartender. The problem with Steve is that he's never developed to be an actual character. I'm not sure if he was ever given an actual punchline, and his character seemed all too willing to laugh at the other bar patrons. This is meant to show his love of them and why he would quit his job, but the viewer will never question that because they're to busy trying to figure out who Steve is. The show is so busy setting up the premise, that it fails to set up the main character. It's a really bad sign when his girlfriend is more developed than he is-and she's a stereotype of a city girl who only appears in this one episode.

There's the side characters. Jack Sullivan is Steve's father. Jack is Irish and I presume served in the Korean War. Jack's character loves to bartend because he loves the people, but wants to retire to give his wife some financial security. Jack is never developed beyond those points. While it's great to see the father from the Wonder Years on television, it would be so much better if he was in a show that was at least decently-written. His wife, Ok Cha, is nothing more than a stereotypical Korean. The only redeeming part of her character is when she reveals that she didn't fall in love with Jack until after seven years of marriage. There is Steve's sister, Susan Sullivan who doesn't like Steve for no discernible reason. The bar regulars are Owen, Hank, and Carol-all who are characters and make actual impressions. The final character is Melanie, who is a love interest of Steve. She's just as blank as the main lead is. It's clear the show is hoping for the Cheers formula of will-they-won't-they but there is no chemistry between Melanie and Steve.

Sullivan & Son thinks that it's going to be the next Cheers, but it won't be. The series is simply not funny, has an undeveloped protagonist, and believes that it's grittiness makes it endearing. There may be a lot of characters on this show, but none of them are going to win over the viewers. There is no reason to check out Sullivan & Son-there is no redeeming quality that this show currently has. That might change in the future, but I don't see any promise that this show is going to improve anytime in the future.