The New Normal: Series Premiere

I’m here to talk about NBC’s The New Normal, but let’s backtrack a few months ago to when I was tricked into attending a Husbands web series panel at San Diego’s Comic Con. (Tricked isn’t the right word, but the program description was misleading. Instead of a general look at writer Jane Espenson’s career, she was actually there as the co-creator of Husbands, alongside director Jeff Greenstein and the cast.)

For those who haven’t YouTubed it, Husbands is the tale of two gay men who get drunk-married in Vegas and try to make the relationship work. Hijinks and Whedonverse cameos ensue. With similar archetypes—the sports-loving, slightly dorky guy partnered with the more flamboyant, fashion-oriented spouse—and the same sharp flippantness, The New Normal is like Husbands past the honeymoon phase and into the paying off the mortgage years.

When the question arose regarding the upcoming gay-couple centric Ryan Murphy project, the diplomatic (i.e. cheek-biting) answers began. Although they were gracious enough about comparing shows, it couldn’t erase the overwhelming sense of “we’ve been there, we’ve already done that.”

From the creative standpoint, I can see the frustration of having a similar idea premiere after yours. But as a viewer who resides in a pop-culture harem of cops, doctors, and vampires, we live in a more-the-merrier land that doesn’t so much celebrate artistic diversity as acceptable homogeny. In the case of Husbands verse The New Normal, let’s just call it the shades of gay.  

By the nature of the still uncharted wilds of the Internet, a web series draws less controversy. No network affiliate can drop it, and a few thousand moms probably won’t raise their angry fists in protest. Weeks before it arrived, however, this was the landscape facing The New Normal. With all that hype, you’d think the show was NBC’s answer to Queer As Folk.

One episode down and it seems that whatever the new normal is, it’s just as mundane as the old normal.

For as much precursory attention as it received, The New Normal debuted with one of the most chaste bedroom scenes on network TV. Out of Murphy’s short but growing filmography, it’s easily the safest. Even Popular back in its WB days had a tangier bite.

At its most transcendental, The New Normal is a look at the growing number of households no longer living off of the mom + dad = 2.5 kid model.

As it progresses the series will follow the relationship between couple David (Justin Bartha) and Bryan (Andrew Rannells) on the journey to fatherhood with the help of their surrogate, Goldie (Georgia King), a twenty-something looking to finally get her life started. Goldie, along with her daughter Shania (Bebe Wood), are now intertwined with the lives of David and Bryan, even if her cranky grandmother Jane (Ellen Barkin) has a thing or two to say about it.

When it isn’t trying too hard—and avoids the Aaron Sorkin Pedestal of Preachy Woes—The New Normal inches toward clever. Comparing a man’s exposed penis to a Gherkin pickle or a woman’s vagina to a tarantula face seems stale on paper, but actually pop when delivered by Barkin and Rannells respectively. Another great moment: After David makes an offhanded Simon & Garfunkel reference and Goldie sweetly but unknowingly asks if those are his coworkers, Bartha’s woeful exclamation deserves the biggest laugh of the episode.

When it premiered, Modern Family’s unique disarming quality gave it a wide crossover audience appeal, and it would be smart for Murphy (if he’s so intent on playing it, ahem, straight) to remember that you’ll probably catch more of middle America with honey barbeque chips than salt and vinegar. Both tones are fine, but avoid sermons.

The desire to play up the anti-stance, mostly in the form of Jane, is exaggerated to the point of lampoon. She’s supposed to represent the portion of the audience who doesn’t agree with a two-men-and-a-baby scenario—the same section of the population not actually tuning in. She’s the funny bigot, the ultimately harmless TV caricature who wraps herself in salty gay punchlines the way Sue Sylvester wraps herself in tracksuits. She can be humorous, but easily overplayed.

Drawing from the sitcom structures of other current shows—the dart-pan documentary style, the non-sequitur flashes—the show has a “tell then show” mix of styles that doesn’t always work to its benefit.

In an early scene, as David and Bryan sit on a bench at a playground discussing their situation, there are a series of “abnormal” parents speaking directly to the camera about their experiences. Are they talking to David and Bryan? Have we as an audience broken through the fourth wall and onto the same playground? A little later Goldie conjures up an odd fantasy sequence where she’s a lawyer, àla The Good Wife, as we jump to her in a courtroom spouting lawyer gibberish and winning the case. Somewhere in the middle of the episode Seth MacFarlane started producing and I must have missed it.

Recent seasons aside, Murphy’s Glee pilot had a pitch-perfect voice right out of the gate. The New Normal looks like it’s going to need Goldie’s first trimester worth of episodes to find its voice, but I think it’s on track to discover the perfect balance of sweet and zingy storytelling—and if the showrunners remember to keep putting out both chip bowls for the party, everyone will get a taste of something they want.