Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Ordinary Joe’ On NBC, Where A Man’s Decision On His Graduation Day Produces 3 Different Lives

Remember that movie Sliding Doors, when Gwyneth Paltrow’s character lived two different lives depending on whether she caught the Tube train she was waiting for or not? So, what if, 23 years later, there was a whole series that was about essentially the same thing, except we see what happens if the character makes one of three choices during a pivotal day in his life? That’s the idea behind Ordinary Joe.

ORDINARY JOE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: “They call graduation a ‘commencement’ because it’s not the end, but the beginning of something new in your life,” says Joe Kimbreau (James Wolk). We see him in an orange cap and gown at Syracuse University’s 2011 graduation ceremony.

The Gist: As Joe runs into the ceremony, late as usual, he bumps into another late arriver, Amy Kindelán (Natalie Martinez), who hit it off. She’s a poly sci major, and Joe says he wants to be the “next Billy Joel.” Speaking at the lectern is Joe’s friend Jenny Banks (Elizabeth Lail), with whom he’s had an on-again-off-again (mostly off) thing going since freshman year. Also there is Eric Payne (Charlie Barnett), Joe’s best friend since kindergarten, who persuaded Joe to go with him to Syracuse.

After the ceremony, Jenny tells Joe that they need to talk, and they should meet in private. Eric encourages Joe to get to know Amy better. But also waiting is his mother (Anne Ramsay) and NYPD uncle Frank (David Warshofsky). As he decides which path to take (literally, as we see from a shot from above), we see how his life would be, depending on what he chose.

If he goes out with Amy, we see Joe as a massively successful rock star, with thousands hanging on his every word during a concert. He’s married to Amy, who is a campaign manager for Bobby Diaz (Adam Rodriguez), a promising congressional candidate. They’re also trying to have children; the latest round of IVF is successful at first, but Amy miscarries the twins she’s carrying. When Diaz finds out that he has early stage Parkinson’s and decides to drop out, Amy thinks about running in his place. Eric, whose marriage just fell apart, wants Joe to play the reunion; he arrives with a new song about new and old friends. He sees Jenny at the reunion, where he finds out that she was pregnant and she decided to have their son placed for adoption.

If he goes with his family, we see Joe as an NYPD officer, talking to Eric on the phone about the reunion. He’s on security detail for a Diaz press conference; when he sees a gunman, he chases the guy and shoots him. He’s labeled a hero, and is up for a promotion if he can help detectives with the case. He’s single, living at home, and when he sees a picture of Amy with Diaz, he remembers her from graduation and agrees to ask her some questions. He also tells her she should go to the reunion and they’ll find each other there. Jenny is a single mother with a disabled son Lucas (John Gluck); Jenny and Joe reconnect at the reunion.

If he goes to meet Jenny, we then see Joe as an ER nurse; after getting shot, Diaz comes into the ER and Joe helps save his life. He’s married to Jenny, but their marriage is on the rocks; they alternate days at their house to care for their son Chris (Gluck). But Eric and Amy, who are married to each other, take them out to dinner and still see them as the couple every married couple should strive to be.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Because we’re dancing between timelines in this show, Ordinary Joe is not-so-subtly reminiscent of This Is Us. Which makes sense; NBC has been trying to clone their hit drama since it became a hit five years ago, and with its departure in 2022, they want a replacement, stat.

Our Take: Ordinary Joe, created by Garrett Lerner and Russel Friend, is certainly ambitious in its scope. Three decisions, three different lives. But it suffers from a premise that not only hems it in, but confuses viewers as it hops from one alternate universe to the other.

Wolk, who is more known for being on the other end of “Not great, Bob!” than any of the numerous leading man roles he’s been plugged into over the past decade or so, is game to play these three versions of Joe. All of them have a sense of humanity and a modicum of warmth; the cop version sings “Piano Man” with his uncle and buddies at the cop bar; the rock star version is deeply in love with Amy; the nurse version wants to save his marriage to Jenny.

In effect, he makes his handsome blandness work in his favor, as he can take on all of these personalities while keeping the fundamentals of what makes Joe the person he is. We’re more intrigued about the people around him though; for instance, Martinez, who can match Wolk for the sheer number of failed series that she’s starred in over the past decade, finally shows what she can do as Amy, who is strong and independent, no matter what timeline we see her in. Lail also stands out as Jenny, who is trying to be strong for their son. Barnett is the supportive buddy no matter what Eric’s circumstances are.

But we got confused by just which timeline we were in during certain parts of the pilot, despite the visual cues we’re given.  We see nurse Joe’s glasses and the green hues lighting everywhere he is; rockstar Joe has scruff and is lit in orange and other warm tones; cop Joe looks closest to Joe from graduation, and he’s lit in blue tones (natch). If we’re confused in the pilot, despite the visual cues, how are we going to keep all of these storylines straight as we get through the season.

And that is ultimately what bothers us about Ordinary Joe. How do you continue a show about three hypothetical lives for more than one season? Are we going to go back into the characters’ childhoods? Will one life turn out better than the others, or will they all be messy in their own way? Are we working towards a common outcome, where Joe is with Amy? Or will we just see these parallel lives continue endlessly until NBC cancels it or the creators decide to end it?

None of the lives in This Is Us are theoretical, at least in the fictional world the Pearsons inhabit. But here, it’s all theoretical. Should we be rooting for one life over the others? The idea of a full season of Ordinary Joe, much less six, seems so incomprehensible to us that we just can’t buy into any of Joe’s lives, no matter how joyous or messy or both they are.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: We see all three versions of Joe. “It’s only natural to ask ‘What if?’ But I’ve learned it’s more important to ask ‘What’s next?’,” he says in voiceover.

Sleeper Star: John Gluck as Chris/Lucas. In both timelines he’s in, he seems to be the smartest and wisest character on screen.

Most Pilot-y Line: We see so many shots of the “End of Watch” certificate for Joe’s dad, who died on 9/11. We get it; it’s a heavy legacy for Joe to carry on, especially when he’s a cop in the one timeline.

Our Call: SKIP IT. We don’t fault any of the acting on Ordinary Joe for this show’s issues; the actors are doing the best they can, but are stuck in a premise with a limited shelf life and already signs that it might collapse under its own weight or get too clever for its own good.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream Ordinary Joe On NBC.com

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