If you’ve been listening to my blog posts over the past couple of weeks, you know that in my sign-off, I reference the old saying about the difficulty of comedy. And I’ve never quite kept it a secret that I’m something of a comedy snob. Most sitcoms especially that get very popular are, at best, fast food comedy. They quell the hunger in the moment, but the lasting feeling is one of dissatisfaction and usually a bit of bloat as well. But there are good comedies out there. In the past, I’ve sung the praises of shows like Going Dutch for being unexpectedly funny and well written (and the second season is even better than the first) and while shows like Abbott Elementary and St. Denis Medical aren’t having their best seasons at the moment, they’re both still really good sitcoms. Even the reality/prank/improv/sitcom hybrid Company Retreat delivers great laughs along the way. There are others that get regular chuckles but are literally nothing worth writing about (I’m looking at you, Animal Control; you’re not bad, but we both know you can be better). But when I took a look at Peacock’s preview episode of The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins, I found myself uncomfortably hopeful that there’d be a great new sitcom on TV.
After all, Peacock has burned me before like this. Killing It had me laughing all through the pilot and then not again for the entire two season run. So I waited, patiently and cautiously, and after four episodes or so, I tentatively said to someone “I think Reggie Dinkins might be really good”. And this is where I am now after having watched the first season twice. Let’s get into it.
The titular Reggie Dinkins is played by comedy legend Tracy Morgan (SNL, 30 Rock). He’s been a little hit and miss as a headliner, but there’s a reason he’s still a household name. Over many years of doing comedy, he’s really mastered his comedic timing. If you ask me, he’s one of the funniest and most endearingly off the wall former SNL cast members. Reggie is a former New York Jets player who has earned all the plaudits through his career, including several MVP awards. He accomplished just about everything you can accomplish in the NFL, but he has never received even one vote for the Hall of Fame, which is his life’s greatest ambition. Why? Like Pete Rose, he was caught up in a sports betting scandal (from a time when you couldn’t do sports betting on your phone from your bathroom), but I won’t spoil just exactly it was that he was betting on. So he’s been banned for life. But he wants in. He hires Arthur Tobin, a documentary filmmaker, to make a movie about him that Reggie hopes will change the public’s opinion. Tobin, played by Daniel Radcliffe (Miracle Workers, Now You See Me 2), quietly failed his biggest break. After winning an Oscar for one of his documentaries, he was hired on to the biggest project of his life and washed out. So a disgraced footballer and an embarrassed filmmaker team up to redeem each other, in a way.
Morgan and Radcliffe may be the backbone and heart of this show, but there isn’t a single person in the supporting cast that doesn’t shine. Reggie’s ex-wife and current manager Monica Reese-Dinkins, played by Erika Alexander (Living Single, Get Out), is the one with her head on her shoulders. Reggie played ball, Monica made it a career and keeps him in a mansion years after he was banned. Bobby Moynihan (SNL, Hoppers) plays Rusty Boyd, former Jets kicker and Reggie’s best friend who lives in his basement and manages his socials, among other things. Rusty is the kind of character who could easily be overused, but he’s so lovably goofy and good-natured that the amount that we get him leaves us wanting more rather than growing weary. Reggie and Monica’s son Carmello is played by relative newcomer Jalyn Hall (Space Jam: A New Legacy, All American) and he injects just the right amount of youthful cynicism and self-awareness to the family unit. The final member of the family is Brina, played by Precious Way (Days of Our Lives, Heist 88), Reggie’s young fiancée, who is an aspiring singer, rapper, and content creator. Even recurrings like Ronny Chieng, Craig Robinson, Heidi Gardner, and Megan Thee Stallion are perfectly cast.
Brina is one of the most refreshing surprises in a show that’s full of them. She easily could have been stereotyped as a ditzy gold-digger whose function in the show is to stoke conflict between her and Monica or Reggie and Monica, but how her character is handled is one of the most adept parts of this show’s writing. Instead of pitting Monica and Brina against each other, they’re incredibly supportive of each other (with some bumps in the road, of course) and instead of being after Reggie’s money, she has genuine affection for him and is fully capable of standing on her own two feet. She’s smart and savvy and really quite funny. Rusty cracks me up in every frame; there are sometimes characters that just get peppered into a show or movie that hit every time. Tariq in Abbott Elementary, Barry Zuckerkorn in Arrested Development, and now Rusty in Reggie Dinkins. And Tracy Morgan, just wow. I don’t know how much of it is the sharpness of the writing or his delivery, but the marriage of the two is excellent. The writing is deceptively intelligent, weaving great setups and punchlines that all make sense. The show knows the subtle difference between an unexpected punchline to a joke and a nonsensical non-sequitur that masquerades as a punchline. Look, I warned you that I was a comedy snob at the top, I’m not apologizing now.
Daniel Radcliffe is a revelation as documentarian Arthur Tobin. I did not know that Radcliffe was this funny. I watched the first season of Miracle Workers and while it was pleasant enough (and featured the best explanation of what cows are in all of recorded history), I bounced out at the second season. But Tobin delivers just as many laughs Reggie does; talk about miracle work, standing on the same ground as Tracy Morgan and holding your own. I really need to see his performance in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story now.
Talking about comedy is always difficult because me trying to explain to you why I think this show is so funny would be boring for me and for you, and it would ruin any gag that I’m trying to explain when you go to watch this show after reading this. But I laugh more at this show than any other right now, including Going Dutch, which I would have called the funniest sitcom on TV this season before I saw Reggie Dinkins. I laugh more at just about any cold open of Reggie Dinkins than I have at full seasons of Animal Control and I like Animal Control. It’s pleasant enough. But this show is just really, really funny. It’s smartly written too, which is why despite being parodic in some ways (Reggie’s biggest rival on and off the field is Craig Robinson’s Jerry Basmati), it never feels locked down into predictable patterns. This may not have the layered narrative jokes that something like Arrested Development had in its heyday, but it’s so sharp. There are cutaway jokes, but they never last longer than a few seconds and never overstay their welcome. And there are so many little moments that cut deep if you notice them, but you can easily miss them if you’re not paying attention. When Reggie finds out that a local business has taken his portrait off the wall, the remaining pictures include the likes of Diddy, Kevin Spacey, Matt Lauer, and Harvey Weinstein; a cutting commentary on what American society considers a dealbreaker, but it’s a blink-and-you-miss-it kind of moment.
Like many other ensemble comedies that I’ve loved over the years, like Parks & Rec, Community, The Good Place, and Brooklyn 99, it’s an incredibly positive and welcoming show that proves over and over again that comedy is alive and well and can be absolutely riotous without resorting to easy jokes and punching down. I cannot wait for more of this. Normally, even when I really love a piece of media, I will be honest about its flaws. I will find something to criticize because nothing is perfect and I don’t want to be blinded by enthusiasm to the point of becoming a fanboy who irrationally defends (or these days, irrationally criticizes) something just because I love it. Right? It’s the 2 Fast 2 Furious thing that I keep bringing up. I really enjoy that movie and I have such a soft spot for it. But I’m not going to pretend it’s Sinners. But trying to find something I don’t like about Reggie Dinkins has been an exercise in futility because I just can’t. I can’t promise that you’ll like this show as much as I do, but it absolutely has its hooks in me. It has that particular resonance, similar to One Piece or Truth Seekers, that just finds a little place in my brain and sets up shop. From the good-natured and supportive characters to the quick, pithy, agile writing, it feels like this show has been made for me. But maybe it’s been made for you too.
Reggie Dinkins hasn’t been renewed for a second season yet, so in a way, this post is kind of a plea from me. As any fan of Firefly or Terriers or Lodge 49 or The Sarah Connor Chronicles or No Tomorrow or A.P. Bio (yes, I was a fan of all of them) knows, falling for a show and then having it cancelled too soon is not fun. But maybe after this, you’ll hop on Peacock and watch it. And then tell your friends about it (and my blog, feel free to share this with anyone) and then they go watch it and tell their coworkers and then before we know it, The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins gets six seasons and a movie. And if it stays this good, then it will deserve it. It’s the kind of show that’s for anyone who is looking for a wholesome, heartfelt redemption tale that’s filled with laughs. It feels like the kind of thing we need right about now. I’m going to try and give it a week before I watch it a third time.
