Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
The Grinder. No two words filled me with more irrational rage when the series was announced back in early 2015. Why did a new FOX show starring Rob Lowe as a television lawyer who returns to his hometown to practice law at his family’s firm (despite not having a law degree) make me so angry? Because I was in the process of developing a different television series about an actor who returns to his hometown with Fox.
So basically Rob Lowe was *dramatically into the nearest bullhorn* ruining my life! The two shows weren’t really all that similar once you got past the shared premise, but they were similar enough that it was fair to assume that there could only be one. The Grinder had Fred Savage and the aforementioned Lowe, while my show had me, a rookie scribe who won a writing competition. I can’t compete with Rob Lowe. Even I wouldn’t choose me over Rob Lowe, and I AM ME.
When the show premiered, I stubbornly refused to watch it. Rob Lowe already had The West Wing, Brothers & Sisters, Parks and Recreation, and those DirecTV commercials where he portrayed multiple people! It’s called sharing, Rob, and I don’t know if you’ve heard, but it also goes hand in hand with caring. Eventually, like a sheepish ex visiting his old girlfriend’s Instagram page, I begrudgingly decided to watch the pilot… and it was my favorite network sitcom of the year.
And then it was cancelled. But on the bright side, the entire series is now streaming on Netflix.
The Grinder was the most fun I’ve ever had while watching a sitcom. Rob freakin’ Lowe was brilliant as the delightfully delusional Dean Sanderson and Fred Savage excelled as the frustrated straight man attempting to thwart his eccentric brother’s over-the-top theatrics. The show truly had an embarrassment of riches when it came to comedic performances as Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Natalie Morales, Steve Little, and William Devane rounded out the supporting cast.
Most episodes began with a look at Dean Sanderson’s portrayal of Mitch Grinder on the fictional law procedural named, you guessed it, The Grinder. These glimpses into Dean’s old world not only helped us grasp the tenants of his legal sensibilities (he never, ever settles!) through expertly crafted satire of a typical CBS procedural, but it also set the stage for the rest of the episode. This is where the incredible chemistry between Lowe and Savage would shine. There’s nothing better than watching an exasperated Fred Savage struggling to make sense of the insanity that is his brother’s immensely popular show.
You know when you meet up with an old friend and they tell you about their new house or how that baby they made is doing? That’s the way I spoke about The Grinder after I frantically binged the first thirteen episodes. “It’s accessibly subversive,” I’d say towards a facial expression I can best describe as misery meets pity. My feud with Rob Lowe was officially over.
What I mean by “accessibly subversive” is that the series operated on multiple levels. The writing was so crisp and clever and the jokes flew at such a breakneck pace, that the show is best enjoyed through multiple viewings. Series creators Jarrad Paul and Andy Mogel assembled an incredible writing staff that included former Marry Me scribe Bridget Kyle, Derrick Comedy’s Dominic Dierkes, and Sean Clements and Hayes Davenport, hosts of the criminally underrated Earwolf podcast Hollywood Handbook. What elevated The Grinder to next level status was its nuanced use of meta humor. Not only did the cold opens appear to routinely mock network notes about declining ratings, character traits, and the overall complicated structure of the series, but entire episodes were brilliantly constructed around the lunacy of focus groups (episode 19, “A System on Trial”) and creating more viewer-friendly accessible plots (episode 20, “For the People”).
I cannot enthusiastically recommend The Grinder enough. It was such an unadulterated television delight that we need the equivalent of 1973 Elton John to pen a “Candle in the Wind-esque” song to commemorate its early demise. While Dean Sanderson may have worked his final legal case, Deadline reports that Fox has handed out a put pilot commitment to a new half-hour single camera comedy from Team Grinder. The new series will reportedly center on an “office culture that is thrown into upheaval when the startlingly un-PC CEO is pitted against a newly hired ultra PC ‘sensitivity specialist.'”
Thanks to Netflix, The Grinder will never truly rest.
