Critical Condition: Crashing

Crashing (SoHo,  9.00 Wednesdays)

“Comedian Pete Holmes has the kind of amiably innocent demeanor that would make him the perfect supermarket greeter but seems out of place in the cynical, cutthroat — and, at times, just plain coked-up — world of stand-up. That jarring disjunction fuels this New York-based show, a Judd Apatow-executive-produced, Holmes-created meta-sitcom in the tradition of Louie and Maron, which mines the personal history of the former Pete Holmes Show host with highly enjoyable results.” — Entertainment Weekly.

“Comedy need not be only the refuge of the cynic. It also has room for figures like Holmes, for whom the craft is less a burden than a blast. ‘I want to make people happy,’ Pete says, but his words feel almost redundant. If prestige TV has lately been home to some of stand-up’s prickliest denizens, Holmes bounds in with a smile, steadfast in a belief that laughter does more than serve as a bitter tonic.” — The Atlantic.

“When describing the content of cutting-edge half-hours, the adjectives ‘clean,’ ‘sweet’ and ‘mildly Christian’ rarely come up. But the measured optimism and reflexive kindness of Crashing are among this show’s chief recommendations … Crashing may be a bit slight, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing: It knows what it’s going for and more often than not, fulfills its modest ambitions in amusing and diverting ways.” — Variety.

“Although TV has no shortage of shows built around comics and their lives — or for that matter, pulling back the curtain on showbiz — this one captures that moment before success kicks in. Crashing doesn’t look like HBO’s next great comedy, but based on its opening acts, it has the makings of a pretty good one.” — CNN.

“Crashing is yet another comedy that is less interested in jokes than in wringing laughs out of awkward or humiliating situations, but it feels primitive compared with shows like, say, the FX series Baskets. As for fashioning a TV series out of the stand-up life, it’s not nearly as sophisticated as Louie or Seinfeld or most of the others. It’s pleasant enough, with enjoyable guest stars, but it comes too late in the evolution of this genre to make much of an impression.” — New York Times.