Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Grand Crew’ On NBC, A Sitcom Where A Friend Group Navigates Love And Life Over Lots Of Wine

Earlier this week, we saw the new NBC sitcom American Auto, which was pretty decent but definitely needed time to find its comedic voice. Most sitcoms are like that; heck, even Seinfeld took about a half a dozen episodes to figure itself out. It’s hard to be that patient when there about 4,237 other shows to watch, but if a show is entertaining with the potential to get even better, it definitely has a leg up. American Auto is one of those shows, and so is Grand Crew, another new NBC sitcom debuting this week.

GRAND CREW: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Garrett Morris sits on a stool and talks about the black male stereotypes people have, and explains that the four men he gave as example have “layers, y’all! Our multitudes have multitudes!”

The Gist: Five friends are hanging out at their usual spot in Los Angeles. Noah (Echo Kellum) is dating the waitress there and he thinks she’s a keeper. His buddies, including his more closed-off sister Nicky (Nicole Byer) make fun of him because he seems to say that about everyone he dates. His life has been ruled by one rom-com after another, and he truly believes in its tenets, like the meet-cute and the pull of destiny.

Wyatt (Justin Cunningham) is happy he’s out of the dating world, but his marriage makes him believe the romantic notions Noah believes in. Roommates Sherm (Carl Tart) and Anthony (Aaron Jennings) are more cynical, thinking that “she must be breaking that back.” To his buddies’ chagrin, Noah says he’s going to ask her to marry him.

When that inevitably blows up in his face, they have to search around to find a new bar to drink in. In the meantime, Nicky, who doesn’t have the romantic notions her brother has, is concerned that the guy she’s dating is a Republican, after he snidely says “Thanks, Obama!” during a conversation.  Noah tries to hook up with someone at Wyatt’s anniversary party, but a call from the ex sends him running into a casual version of the relationship that he can’t stand. The group settle on a wine bar, where Sherm shocks everyone by giving tasting notes on a glass of cab.

Finally, Anthony starts getting annoyed that Sherm isn’t paying his share of the expenses and that he isn’t working. The two were introduced to each other through Noah, and Sherm tells Anthony that, because he’s sneaky smart but never went to college, he sometimes feels he has problems fitting in with the rest of the group, and Anthony felt that Sherm didn’t think he was Black enough. Before they talk it out, though, they get into some “slap boxing.”

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Grand Crew is a classic hangout show, along the lines of Happy Endings, Cougar Town, Friends and others.

Our Take: Created by Phil Augusta Jackson and his old Brooklyn Nine-Nine boss Dan Goor, Grand Crew gets off to a good start with its first two episodes. In the second episode, Sherm, Anthony and Wyatt try to get each other to cry, in order to see what they call their “emotional genitalia.” But the bigger piece of the episode is that, while Nicky tries to teach Noah some self-care, he keeps seeing a woman named Fay (Grasie Mercedes), and thinks it’s fate. But she becomes a part of the crew when she doesn’t even remember Noah, but she and Nicky become fast friends.

So even though the first two episodes don’t show the complete complement of the six-member main cast, there is enough evidence in those episodes to show that the show is going to be funny and the group has a decent chemistry with each other. It’s also a good antidote to the overly-white hangout shows that have been on network TV for the last 30 years. Every character has a distinct personality, and the funny stuff comes mostly out of characters’ personalities and decisions. That’s always a good sign in a new comedy.

Because the situation is still being set up, though — the wine bar in the first episode, Fay in the second episode — it’s hard to see if there are going to be actual stories or if this is just going to be six friends hanging out. Will there be some sparks between Fay and Noah? Will Sherm and Anthony start to become a bromance of the degree that Turk and J.D. were on Scrubs? There really doesn’t have to be much advancement in character arcs in a show like this, but without some kind of arc, the character-driven humor will start to grow old.

Goor is an old hat at this, having studied under Mike Schur. With his guidance, Jackson should be able to advance these characters the way the characters in B99 grew and changed. But even if there isn’t a ton of change during the show’s first season, that’s OK as long as the episodes are as funny and warm as the first two are.

Sex and Skin: It’s network TV. All sex is implied.

Parting Shot: Morris is back, with a glass of wine in his hand, saying “Let’s see where this grand crew goes, shall we?”

Sleeper Star: We’re not sure how many jobs Nicole Byer actually has, but she’s always fantastic no matter what she does. She’s especially funny in the second episode where she takes a Sherlockian approach to her brother wanting to have a “meet-cute” when he’s supposed to have lunch alone. We also liked to see her smashing stuff at the, uh, smashing stuff place.

Most Pilot-y Line: As much as we like Garrett Morris, we were happy that his narrator role didn’t carry over to the second episode.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Grand Crew, like its fellow freshman sitcom American Auto, has a lot to like but still needs some time to find its way. But at least the show will be entertaining to watch as it finds its comedic footing.

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 Grand Crew On NBC.com