Stars: 5 out of 5
Pros: Silly laughs and tender moments in one great show
Cons: Episodes aired out of order, low audience so already
canceled
The Bottom Line:
Army comedy
Filled with laughs, tender moments
Deserved audience
"Be a
Every so often, I stumble across a little watched gem, and I
just fall in love. That was the case
this last spring for me with Enlisted. I started watching because of a couple of
members in the cast, but I kept watching because I loved it. Fox aired it on Friday nights, and the
resulting ratings were poor, as expected.
But the laughs were rich.
The show focuses on the Rear D (that’s Rear Detachment) at
Fort McGee, Florida. These are the army soldiers
who might not make it in the field (at least that’s the case in this show), but
they are given jobs to help keep the base running smoothly. Unfortunately, they are extremely undisciplined.
The show starts when Sergeant Pete Hill (Geoff Stults) is
put in charge of one of these regiments.
He’s just returned from a stint in Afghanistan after almost being
killed. Honestly, he doesn’t think he
deserves this post. He’s just too good. Adding to his problems is that he is now over
both of his brothers. Middle brother
Derrick (Chris Lowell) is just lazy and doesn’t take anything seriously. Meanwhile, youngest brother Randy (Parker
Young) tries hard, but he’s just not that good at stuff. And these are the best people in Pete’s new
regiment. Even worse, their rival
regiment, led by the beautiful Jill Perez (Angelique Cabral) always beats them
at any competition. Overseeing both
groups is Donald Coby (Keith David), a family friend who has taken all of the
Hill brothers under his wings.
So what happens over the course of these thirteen
episodes? Pete has to break up with the
girlfriend he had before he left for Afghanistan. A break war between Pete and Jill’s platoons
gets out of hand. Meanwhile, Pete tries
to whip his soldiers into shape when an Inspection is coming. Derrick finds himself falling for the
bartender at the gang’s favorite watering hole, which leads to a several episode
sub-plots.
I haven’t gotten into the single camera comedy craze. Most of the times, I feel the shows try too
hard for laughs. However, I found myself
laughing at this one just after the pilot had started, and I kept right on
laughing as the series unfolded. Yes,
one or two episodes weren’t as good, but the writing and characters were so
sharp you couldn’t help but laugh.
But the show wasn’t just laughs. They still managed to provide tender moments
along the way that added depth to the characters. Honestly, that just made the jokes stronger. At times, the comedy could be pretty broad
and silly, but these tender moments kept the laughs grounded. And no, the more serious moments were never
forced. The writers managed to balance
those tones perfectly.
While this is a single camera comedy, this isn’t one that
has the characters talking to the camera.
The fourth wall is never once broken.
Frankly, I’m glad because this is something else that bugs me in most
shows that try it since it rarely works well.
The acting is uniformly great. The plots call for some pretty crazy things
at times, but everyone pulls it off and makes the absurd seem plausible and
believable. Even more importantly, the
acting makes the tender moments work.
The best writing in the world can fall apart with bad acting, but that’s
not the case here at all.
One thing I heard leveled at the show from the pilot is how
many mistakes they made with military life.
Personally, I don’t know anything about military life, so I never found
them. Still, I know some people were
turned off by this.
What did bug me is something I think has more to do with Fox
than anything else. In the multiple
episode sub-plot I mentioned earlier with Derrick and his girlfriend, the story
seemed to jump around in their relationship.
I have a feeling the episodes were aired out of order. It’s a shame because that is pretty much the
only thing that required an order to the episodes at all. If it weren’t for that sub-plot, I never
would have known. Even so, it really did
bug me.
Fox has released this as a MOD (Manufacture on Demand)
set. As a result, we get all 13 episodes
of the comedy, but no extras at all.
Honestly, for a show that was canceled after so few episodes, I’ll take
anything they want to give us.
Enlisted was wacky
and fun. It never took itself too
seriously, which allowed us to sit back and laugh along with it. Yet when it wanted to slow down and be
tender, it worked just as well. If you
missed this gem of a comedy, watch it today.
Episodes:
1. Pilot
2. Randy Get Your Gun
3. Pete’s Airstream
4. Homecoming
5. Rear D Day
6. Brothers and Sister
7. Parade Duty
8. Vets
9. Paint Cart 5000 vs. the Mondo Spider
10. Prank War
11. The General Inspection
12. Army Men
13. Alive Day
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