I have quite a few reviews to write still and it is presently 5:57 p.m. AND my family and I are about to eat dinner in a few minutes while watching Little House on the Prairie, so I’m going to keep this short.
Netflix’s newest multi-cam sitcom, Pretty Smart, starring two veteran Disney Channel stars, the ever-talented Emily Osment (Hannah Montana) as the straight woman of the series, Chelsea, and eye-candy Greg Sulkin (Wizards of Waverly Place, The Runaways) as Grant, the airheaded beefy stud with surprising random nuggets of wisdom, with newcomers Olivia Macklin as Claire, Chelsea’s estranged happy-go-lucky sister who quite literally only sees in [adult] rainbows and butterflies 9she isn’t so childish as she seems), Cynthia Carmona as Solana, the vegan, hippie best friend who provides that dynamic to the weird group (and it almost always works), and, finally, Michael Hsu Rosen as Jayden… the… uh… oh boy… We’ll get to Jayden insert intense eye emoji here.
Spoilers from here on out.
Okay, going to speed through the “generic review talk,” Pretty Smart is a show that tries to be just that, but often falls flat in many areas that the show tries to tackle. To me, Pretty Smart feels like someone sat down as asked what an adult Disney Channel show would look like, which is unfortunate because this show centers around two former Disney Channel stars. Don’t get me wrong, I wanted this show to work SO bad… but all I got was… well, a show that was SO almost really bad… I don’t think I can say this show is bad. No, by all means, I cannot, because it’s not true. One of the main characters (Jayden) is bad, the directing is bad, and the writing just needs a second then a third and final draft, then you have a solid concept/premise – oh, and more than just ten episodes, Netflix… Stop being stingy…
Okay, let’s start with that issue while we are talking about it. Netflix’s need to limit themselves to a low episode count for their Netflix shows. You see, that format may work when your shows are one-hour-long episodes (forty-five minutes to one hour-ish) like Living With Yourself (season 2, please), Squid Game, and Good Girls. Comparatively, the same can be said with half-hour-long episodes (twenty-three to thirty minutes) for dark comedies because they aren’t the traditional sitcom, like Santa Clarita Diet (BRING IT BACK, PLEASE) and Sick Note (oh dear heaven, STOP CANCELLING GOOD SHOWS, NETFLIX). However, if you’re going to produce a traditional style sitcom, that being either multi or single-camera format, half-hour, laugh track, etc. – “ya got ya whol’ shebang, ya feel meh?” – you might as well have the traditional twenty to twenty-three episodes for a season. When all you have is twenty minutes to tell a complete story but still leave a lingering storyline for the remainder of the episodes to follow, you might want all the episodes you can get to tell an evenly paced story. Pretty Smart suffers greatly from pacing issues. I get why. This is a classic, almost cliche, best friend sitcom set in modern-day times. This show feels ultra familiar… and that’s because… it kind of is. We will talk more about that when we get to it, but for now, just know that this show will hit you in all the different feels and, trust me, they’re all confusing because they’re all so familiar.
This show wants to hurry up with the romantic-triangle plotlines, it wants to jump the gun with character development (or lack thereof), it wants to skip ahead to sympathizing with a “type” character (Jayden) without giving us a real reason (Jayden) to care about (Jayden) Jayden. Ten episodes were simply not enough episodes to carry the overall pacing of this show. I mean, at the end of episode four Chelsea suddenly decides she’s in love with Greg Sulkin (understandable, honestly)’s Grant after only having lived with them a couple to a few weeks at MAX… and after having been dumped via letter the moment she arrives at her sister’s house where said grant and others all live… and after knowing that Grant also had a previously ended relationship with Claire… Chelsea’s sister… yup. You see, this would be interesting if it didn’t ALL happen (AND MORE – b-plots, yo) in four episodes… at that point, I felt I missed episodes, as if I fell asleep binging and woke up at like episode 13 or episode 14, but not episode four. That storyline continued to feel rushed by the end of the season with Chelsea, who had JUST rejected Gran’s advancements and goes on to date Jake from Statefarm (he’s always a delight to see wherever he pops) but then realizes in one or two episodes that she is in love with Grant and she does want him while being vague about love with Chelsea in their “SBFF bonding times,” kissing Grant with Claire coming to tell Chelsea that she and Grant want to be a thing, since to their understanding Claire was over Grant and nothing would happen there.
You have now basically seen Pretty Smart. Feel confused and like you just got hit in the face with something and you’re not sure what? That’s how I felt. This how is a great concept, but it genuinely needs reworking. It has the potential to be a great show; I am chalking this all up to a classic case of the terrible first season syndrome and hope it gets better from here! Nowadays, that’s tough to say. Netflix loves to produce things with no promise of a future. If the show isn’t a 100% hit every single time, don’t you dare waste your time, because Netflix ain’t having it. HA, Netflix is that one parent that expects 100% all the time so much even a 101% is bad! In any case, I really want this show to succeed! It’s not truly baaaaaaad, it’s just… not great. It’s doable, but it’s confusing. Like I said, this show feeeeeeeeels so much like other shows before it, and that’s not because the world is running out of creativity. I believe because the world is running out of original creators. This show was created by people who have worked on well-known shows like How I Met Your Mother, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, and The Simpsons. Of course, there will be similarities… but in a world that is 2021, you can’t help but wonder what went wrong with the storytelling of this show. Here is what I mean.
The show’s biggest, and frankly root problem, comes in the form of supporting character, Jayden Jay- whatever, nobody cares.
Sigh… Okay. I find no issue with representation in your work if you so choose. What I don’t like is when representation is handled poorly. For example, Modern Family gorgeously handles a gay marriage without being stereotypical toward gay men. They even feature Cam and Mitch’s friend circle that has a plethora of different types of gay without ever going over the offensive gay stereotype (that being what a “gay best friend” would look like). Speaking of, that trope can be handled well, i.e. John in season 4 of The Good Place or Titus Andromedon in The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. But the way his character is handled in this show is… well… offensive doesn’t cover it? Let me explain.
This character’s sole purpose is to remind the audience that he is gay and that this show supports LTGBQ+ members. IN FACT, to show that they support this community, they went ahead and gave the traditional rich, egotistical, selfish, uncaring, highly annoying, and always playing the victim card that usually ditzy women have in sitcoms to this guy… essentially, they think gays can only be what you see this person be, which is almost like the rest of the cast minus Chelsea. The point of this cast is that the four original members of the house (not Chelsea) are the exact same, but completely different. It is a very interesting concept that… hasn’t taken off the ground yet because… well… you watch each character in their own situation but you can’t help but feel like you’re watching the same character just four of them… the concept does not pan out all the way. But that’s where Jayden comes in because he’s gay and therefore aaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll of his jokes are gay-related… and every single joke that he says falls flat. The actor, and I feel sorry to say this, is a poor one. His performance feels like a … and follow me on this… “gay Neil Patrick Harris doing Barney from How I Met Your Mother, but not necessarily a gay Barney from How I Met Your Mother… because it’s definitely a gay Neil Patrick Harris which is Ironic because Neil Patrick Harris is gay, but Barney wasn’t.” That’s the best I can describe it? It’s weird. You hear an immaculate impression of Barney… but gayer… and poorly. The actor also can’t seem to make more than one expression, the same expression that Kylie Jenner makes all the time – the pre-duck face. His vocal variety is great, but his acting never matches his tones and it is very off-putting. Jayden’s character is also incredibly self-centered, rude, quite raunchy, and annoying as all frick. He is an influencer – so, I guess it pans out. However, the fact they gave this unbearable character type to the only gay character in the show… feels a little on the verge of offense territory if I were to say so myself. If Jayden’s character can have a BIG and FAST character growth for season 2, his moments where he actually contributes to the tender wiser moments will seem more genuine. Also, gay characters don’t always act the way Jayden does. Again, it’s just treading the line of offense, at least, in my opinion anyway. They even have an episode (episode 4, actually. I was about to skip it because of how ridiculous it was when the next episode revealed a previously on and I had to go back and watch the rest for the love triangle storyline, UGH) where Jayden goes to a Laura Dern drag party/contest and Jayden is forced to take Claire with him, but he doesn’t because HE feels… oh boy… I am not sure what to say because of reasons, but when he spoke, I felt that the show was way off and had not gotten it. I’m sorry, but Jayden being in this show adds nothing but suffrage for the show’s growth; if he is not reworked significantly or taken out entirely, I just don’t see this show doing well.
All in all, this show isn’t entirely terrible. The jokes at times truly can be funny, the buddy-best-friends living in the same house are welcoming, and the familiar faces of Disney Channel stars do ease the sitcom during the watching experience. This show is okay at best. Yeah, it’s alright. I mean, it’s good if you like this sort of thing. It just feels entirely incomplete and rushed. If it had even 13 episodes, it would have helped the pacing; eighteen would have been the better minimum, but I digress. The show is a great time in the end and I would love more seasons, so I do urge you all to watch this show, please, haha. Just ignore Jayden, and you’ll be fine.
In the end, the main issue is this show is written by people who are older – out of this generation’s main circle – and made a show based on what they think this generation is like. Yes, it is a funny premise, but with everything going on at the moment, Prety Smart is just plain confusing? I am sort of in the middle with this show. I hope there is a second season because Greg Sulkin in a multi-cam format show is everything and Emily Osment is hilarious, but her acting in this – as well as everyone else’s – feels held back. Whenever Emily is allowed to be Emily is when her character shines. Again, with better writing, directing, and more episode count, Pretty Smart will have a right future ahead of it. For now, only time will tell if this sitcom will return for a second season or will suffer the same fate as the likes of Very Merry Christmas, Dad, Stop Embarrassing Me!, and Jupiter’s Ascending. I am giving Netflix’s Pretty Smart a 6/10.
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